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CNN NEWSROOM

U.S. and Iran Calculating Every Single Move; President Trump Officially Launch His 2020 Campaign; Dominic Raab is Out, Boris Johnson Still on Top; Hong Kong Chief Executive Apologized for Chaos; Trump Formally Launches Reelection Bid; Human Rights Group Calls For Investigation Into Morsy Death; Aggressive Rhetoric Heats Up Between U.S. And Iran; Desperate Migrants Head For U.S. Despite Detention Threat; A Warning On Syria; A Grim View Inside Idlib; Our Changing Climate; Polar Bear Sightings; 2019 Women's World Cup; The Art Of Not Reading. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 19, 2019 - 03:00   ET

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


[03:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Simmering tensions and little diplomacy. The feud between the U.S. and Iran doesn't seem to be going away even as Mr. Trump downplays some recent incidents as minor.

And there are only five left now. The road to 10 Downing Street is getting tougher as another candidate loses his spot and Boris Johnson makes a TV appearance.

Plus, it's gotten interesting name but Boaty McBoatface just made a major discovery about climate change on its very first voyage. We'll take a look at that.

Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN Newsroom.

There is upheaval at the Pentagon and confusion over a U.S. policy during heightened tension with Iran. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan withdrew his name from the top job on Tuesday.

A day earlier, Shanahan announced the deployment of 1,000 more troops to the Middle East, raising concerns of a military confrontation with Tehran.

The White House believes Iran is targeting oil tankers in response to U.S. sanctions. But President Trump appeared to contradict his security officials by downplaying the recent attacks in the Gulf of Oman as very minor.

So, let's bring in senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen with the view from Tehran. So, with these mixed messages, Fred, what is Tehran making of this?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, I think that the Iranians have for a very long time thought that the Americans don't really have a common strategy in dealing with Iran, that there is a certain degree of chaos in the Trump administration.

On one hand, they have repeatedly said that they don't believe, and it's something that they have said again yesterday, by the way, they don't believe that President Trump wants a war with Iran. However, they also believe that it is something that the two nations could stumble into because they think that there are other people within the Trump administration that might be pushing the president in that direction.

And certainly, if you look at the current situation in the Persian Gulf area, that it is quite a dangerous one with the U.S. putting an increase troop presence in there and the Iranians for their part also not backing down.

In fact, just yesterday the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard corps came out and said that Iran has the capability that they want to do to hit aircraft carriers at sea so they have done testing it and actually hit a target that was about two thirds of the size of an aircraft carrier, and saying that he believe this is something that has changed the balance of power.

New whether or not any of that is true it is certainly a lot of bellicose rhetoric and it certainly does fit into some of the things that we have heard from Iranian commanders over the past couple of days over the past couple of weeks really since the tensions have flared up in the Persian Gulf region.

At the same time, the Iranians reiterate again and again and again that they do not want an escalation of the situation and sort of moderate pulling all of that continue to be -- continues to be President Hassan Rouhani who of course, came out yesterday and unequivocally said that Iran does not want any sort of conflict, any sort of shooting war with any country in the world.

But the Iranians keep saying, and Rouhani said this again that he believes that they're dealing with what he calls inexperience politicians in Washington, D.C. That's of course a very light way of putting it.

But the Iranians certainly very much aware of the fact that there does not seem to be a clear line coming from the Trump administration. And also, Rosemary, quite frankly, that the U.S. and its own allies are not on the same page as to how to move forward.

We heard yesterday that Angela Merkel now seems to, at least lean closer towards believing that Iran might be behind these tanker attacks that happened last week. But at the same time, she also said that she believes that all this needs to be solved diplomatically and especially that the nuclear agreement needs to be saved, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes. And of course, it's interesting it looks like President Trump is trying to take the heat out of some of this -- or perhaps find an off ramp here by saying those attacks on the tankers are minor incidents. Is that possible? And would be -- would Tehran be reading that into what's happening here. PLEITGEN: I think, well, I think, they --again, I think that they

believe President Trump is definitely trying to prevent all this from deescalating or from escalating, I should say into some sort of shooting was. But at the same time, for the Iranians this is something that they made pretty clear over the past couple of weeks. That's not going to be enough.

The Iranians have said again and again that they feel that the policy of maximum pressure exerted by the United States the massive sanctions that the Iranians are facing, the fact that they are not allowed to or that they can't export a lot of their oil, that foreign companies can't really invest here because of that U.S. sanctions pressure, that to them that amounts to economic warfare.

[03:05:01] And as long as that is going on you are not going to see any sort of de-escalation between Iran and the United States. The Iranians have told Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of Japan when he came here with an offer from President Trump for talks which was something that was confirmed yesterday by the U.S. secretary of state that they are not going to talk despite the pressure that they are under, they're not willing to talk to President Trump as long as the United States doesn't make some sort of move to give them some sort of sanctions relief or let them at least to export some of their oil.

So as long as that is going on, President Trump might be able to de- escalate the situation for this not to descend into an all-out conflict very quickly. But the underlying conflict, the underlying problem certainly remain as long as that's going on it doesn't seem as though the situation between the United States and Iran is going to go improve, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes. Very worrying for a lot of people in the region watching this played out. Our Fred Pleitgen bringing us the very latest and reaction from Tehran just after 11.30 in the morning. Many thanks again.

Well, President Trump officially kicked off his reelection campaign Tuesday with a rally in Florida. As our Kaitlan Collins reports he delivered a speech more focused on his grievances with the media and his political rivals than his agenda for a second term.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, going into this rally the president's campaign is branded as this blockbuster launch of his reelection campaign, where the president was going to come into Florida take the limelight back from Democrats.

They've brought out live band, they had new signs here at the rally tonight and even trotted out the president's first family on stage before he got up there. But when the president did and he looked away from this teleprompter on either side of him you heard the same president that you've been hearing for the last four years.

The president was airing his grievances against the media, against the Democrats. Even against Hillary Clinton and her e-mails yet again here in Orlando in this room. And what you essentially saw from the president was less him setting his agenda for what he wants to do if he does get another term from the supporters and more of a settling of scores with the people that he feels have wronged him while he's been in Washington.

So, despite aide saying look for a new playbook coming from the president tonight, essentially what we saw was what we've seen from Trump in the past.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN, traveling with the president in Florida.

And joining us now from Colchester, England is Natasha Lindstaedt. She is a professor of government at the University of Essex. Always good to have you with us.

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: So, President Trump launched his official 2020 campaign Tuesday night with much fanfare and applause covering all his familiar and saying this about his Democratic opponents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They would strip Americans of their constitutional rights while flooding the country with illegal immigrants in the hopes it will expand their political base.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: All right, so let's start by fact shaking that statement. What he's trying to say and does this language work only with his base or could it appeal to a broader audience?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, I think that the whole campaign is about trying to play to his base. There was no uniting message. There was no vision for the future. It was really about recycling old themes that we've heard many times before, grievance politics raging against imagined injustices.

So, he's acting as if the Democrats are going to shut down the First Amendment. Strip Americans of their constitutional rights, and we know that that is completely ludicrous. But he is just playing to the base in front of the crowd of 20,000 people, he's telling them what they want to hear, and he's also stoking fears and resentment in the process because he knows that that works for them.

The other issue though, he just made a bunch of false claims about his opponents which they're going to seize upon of course. And he made a bunch of false claims about himself. He claimed that 400 miles of wall is going to be built and we know it's been on 42 miles of replacement barrier.

He claim there was no collusion when just last week he was not (Inaudible) about collusion, and claim that's the biggest and best economy in U.S. history and the biggest tax cut in U.S. history when we know that's also not true. And he also claimed that they were going to continue to drain the swamp when this has been one of the more corrupt administration or it's been noted for corruption.

So, again, it was just a series of recycling old themes, stoking up fears and trying to really sell his message to his base.

CHURCH: Yes. And some of those fears focusing on immigration. Before he left for his official launch in Florida Tuesday Mr. Trump tweeted this. "Next week, ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States. They will be removed as fast as they came in."

[03:10:02] So how committed do you think the president is to raiding and deporting millions of illegal immigrants or is this all about keeping his based energize about a topic they're angry about?

LINDSTAEDT: I think it's more about the base and trying to fire them up before this big campaign rally. This isn't really feasible. I mean, he would want to raid everybody. But that's not really practical. This thing, these types of plans take months to put in place.

And also, he really jeopardizes this agency, the Immigration and Customs Agency in doing their job if that's what he wants them to do by announcing it to everybody. I mean, they need search warrants and immigrants don't have to answer their doors. He could jeopardize their safety if that's what he is concerned about.

And it seems like the people in the administration were completely left in the dark about this. So, this clearly wasn't a plan that wasn't very well thought out. It was just a tweet made to really target his base.

CHURCH: Right. And of course, we want to take a look at a new Quinnipiac University poll that shows if an election were held right now in Florida, voters would pick Democrats over Trump and Joe Biden is at the top of that list beating the president by nine points. Is it too early though to be guided by polls like this? And do they ignore the voters who intend to vote for Trump but they are just reluctant to say so.

LINDSTAEDT: Well, of course it is too early. And you know, we've seen that polls have been off in the past, and in particular the Quinnipiac poll in the Florida governor race was actually off by five or six points.

So, there is some trepidation here in saying that polls are going to determine exactly what's going to happen in 2020 when we're still 16, 17 months away. But the poll doesn't look very good for Trump. He is not only losing to Biden and also Bernie Sanders by six points, but all the other candidates the top candidates like Warren and Buttigieg and even Beto O'Rourke as well by smaller margins of course.

And the other thing is that the poll revealed that he has a 10 percent lead against with white voters against Joe Biden. But he is down by 70 percent with African-American voters and 25 percent with Hispanic voters. And that doesn't really look great because Florida is a state that's very diverse. The last since its reveal about 54 percent are whites. He's not going

to win Florida with this type of message. And if he has types of number with African-Americans and Hispanics.

CHURCH: All right. Natasha Lindstaedt, joining us from England. Many thanks to you for your analysis. We appreciate it.

Let's take a short break here. Still to come on CNN Newsroom, the field of candidates to become Britain's next prime minister has gotten smaller. Who made the cut, and who didn't? That's next.

Also ahead, Hong Kong's top leader feels the pressure and offers an apology for the chaos created by a controversial bill. Now legislators have their say. The details to come.

[03:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: And then there were five in the race for the Tory Party leadership in the U.K., which in essence is the race for the next British prime minister.

After a second round of voting by conservative M.P.s, former Brexit minister Dominic Raab is out of the race. Former London Mayor Boris Johnson keeps his front runner status. The voting will continue until two candidates remain. Tory Party members will make the final decision by the end of July.

Well, the remaining five candidates faced off in a lively televised debate. And CNN's Erin McLaughlin reports on that from London.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brexit is arguably the most pressing political crisis this country has seen in decades. And yet, after Tuesday night's debate which was an hour-long, less than half of which was devoted to the topic. There was little to no clarity from these candidates in terms of a way forward.

Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary and the front runner in this race was repeatedly was pressed as to whether he would guarantee that the United Kingdom if he should become prime minister would leave the E.U. on October 31st. He offered no such guarantee. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. CONSERVATIVE LEADER CANDIDATE: I share --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you just give me that guarantee that it's October 31st.

JOHNSN: I share my cause. I share my cause. I will let Michael was guaranteeing to get out by the end of December. I think that October 31st is eminently feasible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, that's not a guarantee. Is that your date? (CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I ask you a question?

JOHNSON: And let me just say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I ask you a question?

JOHNSON: If we now say that we have a deadline that is not a deadline. And we allow October 31st to come and go as opposed March came and went in April came and went. I think the public will look upon us increasing mystification.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, prior to the debate, there was another round of voting with Boris Johnson garnering the most votes with 126 votes up 12 from the previous round. Maintaining that solid lead. Rory Stewart, tough, the international development secretary seen as the anti-Boris candidate gaining the most votes up 18 from last round to a total of 37.

So, still solidly trailing Boris Johnson. Now the thinking is that the M.P.s will coalesce around two candidates by the end of the week, and then from there the vote goes out to the wider Tory Party.

Erin McLaughlin, CNN, London.

CHURCH: Thom Brooks is a professor of law and government and a dean of Durham Law School and he joins me this hour from Durham in England. Good to have you with us.

THOM BROOKS, PROFESSOR & DEAN, DURHAM UNIVERSITY: Pleasure to be back.

CHURCH: So just five candidates left in this race to lead the conservative party and ultimately, of course, become Britain's next prime minister. We just saw the remaining five face-off in that televised debate. Who came out on top do you think?

BROOKS: Well, I think that the person who is at the most momentum has been the person who is trailing at the back. That's Rory Stewart. As you now just said, you hear the other presenter that Rory Stewart has been the one who's been getting the most votes from the candidate supporters who have been dropping out. He's the one who's had a lot more of the positive media attention over the last few days and weeks. And that's probably for having a very kind of aggressive reactive campaign.

Though, I think it's very unlikely he'll see himself go to the top two. On the other hand, the frontrunner Boris Johnson was notable for his lack of dynamism. He was recently subdued. He was described by one commentator early this morning as being like Humpty-Dumpty trying not to fall off the wall. And try not to get himself in any more gaps that he's done in the past. CHURCH: Yes. Of course, that's probably why he missed out on the

first debate, isn't it? So, you know, were talking about front runner Boris Johnson. He seems to have this almost in the bag. But he did struggle on the question of whether he could guarantee Britain would leave the E.U. by October 31st.

[03:20:05] How do you think he handled that part of the debate? Did it damage his chances at all do you think?

BROOKS: I think he did very badly. I mean, his big appeal for a lot of Tory activists and Tory supporters is this thought that he is somehow able to win over the country like he was able to win a relatively Labour dominated London when he became the Tory mayor there. And also, that his kind of bullish charm with somehow kind of win over E.U. that he really would deliver Brexit on time. And take all the energy and support out of Nigel Farage his new Brexit party.

I think these are both coming under increasing fire for the majority of the country. One poll said 56 percent of British voters wouldn't buy a used car from Boris Johnson. Don't ask me where they get some of these poll questions from. So, you see he's struggling to win over large parts of the U.K. of appealing outside of his Tory base.

And then not being equivocal and whether or not Britain was really going to Brexit on that day. Something that Nigel Farage his comment from the Brexit party is most definitely not mincing his words on. I think that it is very damaging because it takes a lot of the wind out of the sail as to why he is the person.

And effectively, you know, it seems to me that if he were to win and we did have a general election fairly soon that the so-called pro- Brexit vote would be split between himself and the Brexit party and Labour would almost certainly win the election. And that's everything that the Boris supporters have not wanted. Despite the fact that many of them are particularly fan of Boris Johnson.

CHURCH: Yes. I mean, Brexit it's the issue that's going to challenge everyone. It challenged Theresa May. It's going to be the problem for whoever wins this, right? And who would you expect the two finalists to be? Boris Johnson of course and who else when the final vote is taken to select the winner.

BROOKS: I suspect that the other will be Jeremy Hunt. And I suspect Jeremy Hunt will get the nod as someone who is very senior the foreign secretary right now. Boris Johnson's old job before Boris resigned that position.

I think he's -- while he was criticized as health secretary for those only Tory moderates aside, Tory center right, a very kind of popular figure there, very experienced, and I think will be seeing as the main person who could take Boris on.

The other main contender of course is Michael Gove who went to lead the vote leave campaign successful with Boris Johnson for the Brexit vote and then famously stabbed Boris in the back leading Boris not running for leader last time. But Gove I think is the divisive figure not only in the Tory Party but

nationally. And I think that he will probably not make it to the final two. But I don't think either of these two have any or will have much luck in a general election if there isn't some type of Brexit delivered. And that Brexit is seen as benefiting the country both those things are a long way off.

CHURCH: Interesting. So, do you see it as a fait accompli that Boris Johnson will be the next prime minister of Britain, not necessarily?

BROOKS: Well, I think if he makes it to the final two which right now seems pretty close to certain. He is the darling of the party members. And so, he is very popular with the grassroots. And I think that when the vote came to them that I think he would probably walk it against either of the other two candidates.

I think that his big problem is then delivering on his promises. Boris Johnson is not known for delivering on his promises. And sticking by his words. He is in a very acrimonious we've seen divorce right now. He's got a lot of different problems around his time as foreign secretary. Question marks over his accomplishments as London mayor.

I think, you know, there will be a lot to answer for, and I think even if there wasn't that I think that that pro-Brexit side most in Britain right now according to polls wants to stay in the European Union. It is still on a knife's edge. But if they were to split the vote, as it seems he would with Nigel Farage then I think then, you know, he might win the crown but he will not be having it on his head for very long.

CHURCH: It's a tough road ahead. Thom Brooks, thank you so much for your analysis. I appreciate it.

BROOKS: Pleasure.

CHURCH: Well, Hong Kong's legislature is meeting for the first time since a protest by millions against a bill that could see people extradited to China that brought the city to a halt.

[03:24:53] Some legislators held up signs that read no China extradition. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam apologized for the turmoil the bill caused and postpone the vote. But now the opposition is pushing for a no confidence vote.

And CNN's Andrew Stevens joins us now from Hong Kong. So, Andrew, talk to us about the role Hong Kong's opposition is playing right now. The protesters got to this point and they seem to have taken the baton from here.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. The opposition is united and is presenting a very forceful voice. But I should point out that this no confidence vote if it goes ahead which is a, non-binding, and b, unlikely to succeed because Carrie Lam does have the numbers in the Hong Kong parliament in the legislative council.

There are enough pro-Beijing legislators to keep her safe from that. So, a no confidence vote isn't very unlikely to succeed. Beyond that, they are -- the opposition is continuing to kick the pressure on Hong Kong's governing executive including Carrie Lam, of course, to withdraw this bill completely, not just to show but to actually get rid of it which has been the key demand of protesters of those two million that's been reported, protesters who took to the streets on Sunday.

Those protesters also wanted Carrie Lam to step down and there were several other demands made as well.

But at this stage, all we've have from the government is apologies, in fact, two apologies now from Carrie Lam, one via a written letter and one in person yesterday.

As far as trying to decrease the tension, just look behind me, Rosemary, for the past few days we've been reporting here and there has at the minimum level been a couple of hundred at least protesters here. There is no one here today. It's all happening at the legislative council.

It may well pick again on Sunday. The protesters of the previous two Sunday marches are now considering whether they should ask Hongkongers to come out for a third Sunday in a row to protest against this bill not being scrapped. And the fact that Carrie Lam hasn't step down. We don't know that yet.

And students meanwhile are planning their own protest which most likely will take place on Friday around this -- around this area around the legislative council building which is based on their own demands.

So, there is something a fragmentation going on as well. So, at the moment that the heat has come out of the street protests, and interestingly, Hong Kong's business committee seem to have been assuage enough by Carrie Lam's apology and also by the fact that she did withdraw that bill or she shelved the bill.

So, they are saying OK, we now need to move ahead not focus on what has gone before. So, the business community which was a vocal, vocal critic of Carrie and this bill in the lead up to the protest is now saying we need to move on and what's past is past.

CHURCH: All right. We shall continue to watch this story very closely. Our Andrew Stevens bringing us the very latest from Hong Kong coming up to 3.30 in the afternoon. Many thanks.

Next here on CNN Newsroom, living in limbo in a Mexican border town. Desperate migrant families fear death if they don't make it to the United States.

Plus, relentless bombings ravaged Syria as civilians struggle to find shelter. A rare look inside the embattled province where fighting is ramping up again.

We're back in just a moment.

[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everyone. I'm Rosemary

Church. I want to update you now on the main stories we've been following this hour.

Donald Trump formally kicked off his reelection campaign at a rally in Florida on Tuesday. He sounded familiar themes in his speech. He's attacks on Democrats, denouncing undocumented immigrants and calling the Mueller investigation a witch hunt. While falsely claiming it cleared him of any wrongdoing.

The son of former Egyptian president is Mohamed Morsy is accusing the government of slowly killing his father. Human rights group are calling for a full investigation into what they call the mistreatment of Mohamed Morsy while he was in jail.

U.S. President Donald Trump is contradicting his senior official by downplaying the tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman. He said the attacks that his administration blames on Iran were very minor. But just days ago, America's top diplomat said the U.S. was considering military options against Tehran. CNN global affairs analyst David Rohde joins me now. He is the executive editor for the New Yorker website good to have you with us.

DAVID ROHDE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Thank you.

CHURCH: So, in response to the Iranian command boasting about Iran's ability to strike American warships, President Trump said the U.S. is very prepared to deal with Iran, what does he mean by that? Where is this all going do you think?

ROHDE: Well, right now it's sort of tough talk with the problems at each side as sort of backing itself into a corner. If there is an incident or if there is a mistake, you know, each side would need to respond with lethal force and you know, this is a -- as the rhetoric heats up this gets increasingly dangerous.

CHURCH: Yes. And according to that same Iranian commander his country has been testing ballistic missiles at sea what does that signal to you?

ROHDE: It's a clear sign that they would, you know, try to sink American warships in the gulf. You know, that is part of the minds that had gone off on these oil tankers. It shows that Iranians, you know, think that they can threaten American ships, but they are not intimidated and that they are not going to back down to the threats from President Trump.

CHURCH: Right and of course, as were being reporting for the last couple days, 1000 additional U.S. troops and military assets are being sent to the Middle East, but the Pentagon says, this is purely for defensive purposes. Is that to take some of the heat out of this? I mean, what are the optics of that? Is it believable?

ROHDE: It's not. And again, you know, if you're the Iranians and a thousand more troops are coming up, your under, you know, pressure domestically, hard-liners are trying to appeal to hard-liners inside Iran to respond to this increased in American force. So, adding troops does not de-escalate the situation that is not really credible.

CHURCH: And the U.S. says that this is a maximum pressure campaign to bring Iran back to the negotiating table. Do you see any signs that that strategy is working at this juncture?

ROHDE: I don't. I think it's, you know, I think the hard-liners and Iran are trying to push back, but the most dangerous thing and the most confusing is, I think, the mixed messages that are coming out of the Trump White House. The president himself, you know, sort of downplays the importance of these instances in the gulf that tankers being damaged. One day and then the next day there's an increase in troop levels, there isn't really a policy debate at the Trump White House and that's what people are complaining about. There's was a really strong (inaudible) Washington Post about, you know, no meetings where, you know, the state department running t's views, the Defense Department is presenting its views, the president is isolated on this. And John Bolton is very hawkish national security adviser, sort of dominating Iran policy. So, all of this, I'm not sure that there, you know, will be a conflict, but it increases the chances for misunderstanding and an accident.

CHURCH: That is of course, the big worry here is any miscalculations, but Iran seems to take some comfort in knowing or certainly thinking that President Trump is not all the same page as John Bolton. Are they right to do that?

ROHDE: They are, but again, this is the president who doesn't like to lose face and if he is put in a corner, you know, if there is an incident or if there's any kind of I think, you know, deaths to any American service members, this president will retaliate in a militarily and you know, then the Iranians will then push back and then, you know, you would have rising in all prices and it would impact the economy worldwide. So, it's that kind of, you know, mistaken escalation that's a real danger here.

[03:35:20] CHURCH: And as you're saying at the start, both sides the United States and Iran have backed themselves into a corner. Do you see an off ramp envision here?

ROHDE: I don't. At this point, I think the president is trying to offer one. I think the president wants a new and better Iran nuclear deal. He wants to show up Barack Obama, but you don't get there by you know, brow beating the Iranians had said this many times, all politics is local. So, you can expect a foreign rival to sort of just capitulate publicly to your demands.

You know, the demands coming from President Trump. He need to create an opportunity for them to save face and while engaging negotiations and that is not happening here. It's just sort of belittlement and threats and, you know, Iranians, you know, have to stand up for themselves. Their politicians can't, you know, heckle yes to Trump's demands that hurts them at home, politically.

CHURCH: Right and of course, for the Iranians, that their problem is they are really feeling it when it comes to the sanctions and they're making threats regarding the uranium upgrades. Because they need some help. So, what's going to happen in that particular department do you think?

ROHDE: I was surprised to be honest by that threat to increase enrichment of uranium that frankly puts Europe in a difficult position if they do start that increase in enrichment, they are violating the nuclear agreement that Europe and other countries say stone forced. So, you know that is a sign of any hard liners are gaining the upper hand in Iran, but that escalations surprised me and that, you know, that's a violation in the agreement and you know, Europe should push back, if that increase in enriching uranium actual occurs.

CHURCH: All right. We will watch to see where all of this goes David Rohde, thank you as always we always appreciate your analysis on this matters.

ROHDE: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, President Donald Trump's threats to roundup undocumented immigrants in the United States comes as Mexico begins to deploy troops to its Southern Border. CNN's Michael Holmes reports it's not stopping those desperate to get to the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mexican troops control the border with Guatemala to intercept migrants as Donald Trump promises mass deportation from the U.S. And yet here in the town of Tapachula, the human faces behind the politics, entire family sleeping on the street and at the mercy of bureaucracy and politicians.

You've been here on the street for a week?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For nine days today.

HOLMES: And when is your appointment to get your papers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My appointment is on July 15th.

HOLMES: So, you have month, are you going to be on the street?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to be on the street, because, yes, I have no choice, I got no money to pay a room.

HOLMES: Elmond Bineda (ph) says, he lived, worked and paid taxes in the U.S. for four years before being deported back to Honduras, but gang extortion and violence in this homeland sees him and his wife and daughter making the trek north again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, people are threaten you, I'm going to kill you if you don't do that. So, why? I'd rather be living on the street over here, sleeping on the street and to change my situation, my life, you know.

HOLMES: The migrants we meet here want the world to know they are not numbers. That they have names and lives that are being turned upside down, but they did not want to leave their homes it was that or risk death. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I feel bad, I feel shatter

to know how a country in Honduras. I never thought that my country would never be this way. I cried because of the situation that we are living here.

HOLMES: We meet three generations of the Gonzales Trejo family from Honduras. The youngest is just five months old, all sleeping on the streets in the heat and the afternoon downpours for nearly a week. Their next immigration appointment a month away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): If we can go to the United States that would be good, but I don't know if they will give us a visa to continue or not.

HOLMES: Juan Isabel's husband was murdered by the gang when their son-in-law refused to pay those same gangs, they fired shots in the (inaudible) for living.

We left our country not because we wanted to he said, but because the situation is critical, extortion, gangs, any moment there is death, so we fled. And this was the final straw, a note on the family's front door saying, leave within 24 hours or you all die. And so here they are on a sidewalk in a Mexican town not knowing where they'll end up, but knowing they can't go back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I want help for my family. I don't want to be abandoned.

[03:40:03] HOLMES: Michael Holmes CNN, Tapachula, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: In Syria, there's been a surge and bloodshed as fighting escalates there. The U.N. says, civilians are paying a horrific price in Idlib, as they search for safety where there's isn't any.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK LOWCOCK, U.N. RELIEF CHIEF: Over the last six weeks, the conduct of hostilities has resulted in more than 230 civilian deaths including 69 women and 81 children. Hundreds more had been injured. Since 1 of May an estimated 330,000 people have been forced to flee their homes? Moving northwards towards the border with Turkey. That's almost double mister president the number of newly displaced people since my last briefing to you.

We had reports this morning of another 19 people killed yesterday by air strikes and artillery shelling. And this past weekend, civilians were killed by mortar and rocket attacks in the (inaudible) area into the south of Aleppo city. In short, were facing a humanitarian disaster unfolding before our eyes. There's no denying the facts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A rare look now inside the battleground in Idlib, the video was provided by non-governmental organizations operating in the region, like the White Helmets who pull survivors from the wreckage after attacks. Some viewers may find this report by our Nick Paton Walsh, disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This war has gone on so long, it's almost forgotten, but the rescues here of a distance building across the Olive groves in Idlib are daily. And the rubble is still fresh. Come, come, they say. All the rescuers can do in the anonymous rubble and clouds is follow the screams.

Save me, a little girl screams. Latex gloves removing rubble carefully in case it hides her wounds. But rescue here after years of blockade and bombardments spells a barring ambulance and a ride to an exhausted targeted hospital.

Territory changes hands around here as regularly as ceasefires (inaudible) between the Russians and the regime. And the mixed of Jihadist and rebels that are trying to oust, but still this is too often skyline. The U.N. has demanded it stop, but not even with the night is there a rest fight. Parents leaving so fast now that they don't even have time to bury their children.

A second miracle came earlier this weekend. Look here, hear, please sir, the boy screams, his hands too small to move the rubble. For god sake, help them, he cries. The body is motionless, but extraordinarily, he is alive. That is the exception that proves the rule of extinction here. Nearly a hundred children have died since the bombing escalated with spring. And even in the barrage, it is stalemate, meaning more rebel and tiny bodies will follow. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: Such a distressing story there and the conflict in Syria

displaced nearly 900,000 people in 2018, but that is just a small portion of the millions of people who were displaced around the world. According to the U.N. refugee agency global trends report in 2018, there was a record high of more than 70 million people forcibly displaced. Most of that was driven by persecution, conflict or violence.

Almost 26 million are refugees, two-thirds come from just five countries, Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Somalia. And this year the U.N. saw an increased in refugees from Syria and Venezuela.

Well, a groundbreaking climate change discovery made by Boaty McBoatface. What this publicly name submarine discovered. Will have that for you in just ahead.

[03:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Well, British submarine Boaty McBoatface might have a fun name but it has a serious job, measuring the ocean depths. And on its first mission, the unmanned submarine made a significant climate change discovery. Take a look. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: So let's discuss all these with Eleanor Frajke-Williams, a principal research scientist with the U.K.'s National Oceanography Center, and she joins us now from Bergan, Norway via skype. Good to have you with us.

ELEANOR FRAJKE-WILLIAMS, PRINCIPAL RESEARCH SCIENTIST, U.K.'S NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTER: Good morning, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So, on its maiden voyage, Boaty McBoatface made a discovery regarding the role strong winds play in climate change, why is that so significant?

FRAJKE-WILLIAMS: Yes. So Boaty McBoatface was studying the deep current around Antarctica, deep currents -- replenish the deep ocean with very cold, very dense water. What we found was that, in fact, there was a strong lateral mixing of the deep warm water -- deep cold water with warm water nearby and it was a very efficient process if studying the effect or warming into the world's oceans.

[03:50:05] CHURCH: So, how did this discovery help better understand climate change in layman's terms?

FRAJKE-WILLIAMS: Yes. Sorry. So, we're very interested in the sea level rise and we know that sea level rise is a growing problem and the warming of the deep ocean in particular is one of the causes of sea level rise that we can see currently happening in the world. And trying to understand the detailed processes by which that warming is expanding throughout the world's ocean is a difficult task. Because the kinds of things that are occurring in the ocean that cause this deep warming are occurring in centimeters scale. And so trying to math those centimeters scale processes in to the broader picture is what we use with Boaty McBoatface to do.

CHURCH: And so then, how does the significant discovery help the world deal with climate change or perhaps delay the impact. Does it only help us understand what's going on and nothing more than that?

FRAJKE-WILLIAMS: The main aim really was understanding the physical processes happening. If we can understand how that warming is spreading and then maybe will see that they are processes that we aren't capturing in the state of the art climate model that we are currently using. We can improve are climate projections, but it doesn't necessarily help us stop climate change.

CHURCH: Right. OK. So, what's Boaty McBoatface's next mission? And what makes this unmanned submarine so special?

FRAJKE-WILLIAMS: So there are a couple of feature options for Boaty McBoatface. One of the tasks ahead is trying to cross the arctic and under the sea ice and this can be an important place to make measurements. We have very few measurements on the Arctic, because of the sea iceberg and an unmanned submarine can go underneath the ice in a way we can do it with research vessel.

But Boaty McBoatface is a unique submarine because it was doing an unmanned mission for multiple days, weeks, or possibly even months. Making small scale measurements in the deep ocean.

CHURCH: Yes, because, of course it's been underwater since 2017, that is a long time for its maiden mission.

FRAJKE-WILLIAMS: We didn't actually leave it underwater we centered on a multi-day mission and recovered it. So that we can download the data. You can't get a large volume of data from a deep ocean without bringing it back up. The existing communication links are just too slow.

CHURCH: All right. Well, none of us here, of course, can say Boaty McBoatface enough. We really enjoy saying the name and it's quite unique isn't it? Eleanor Frajke-Williams, thank you so much for joining us and explaining a lot of these details to us.

FRAJKE-WILLIAMS: Thank you.

CHURCH: I appreciate it.

FRAJKE-WILLIAMS: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, a rare sight in Northern Siberia. A polar bear was spotted hundreds of kilometers away from its arctic habitat. The female bear seemed hungry and weak. She lay on the ground for hours, and occasionally got up to sniff around for food. Local environmentalist say, she is the first they have seen in the city in more than 40 years. State Wildlife officials will assess the bear's condition.

Well, the women's World Cup in France is living up to the hype, history was made again on Tuesday, when Brazil great Marta became the all-time scorer in World Cup history. Both in the men's and women's version of the tournament. She scored her 17th goal during a penalty shot against Italy, it help Brazil win a spot in the World Cup knockout stage.

Did you ever wonder what president Donald Trump likes to read? Some critics say he has an unusually light appetite for the written word. That story is next on CNN.

[03:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well, U.S. President Trump may not have time to read many books. But he definitely likes to recommend them. Jeanne Moos reports on the president's reading habits.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At 448 pages, the Mueller report isn't exactly a (inaudible). Thus, President Trump protests too much saying he read it.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The report said no collusion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you read the report?

TRUMP: Yes I did. And you should read it too. You should read it too.

MOOS: From the limo to the Oval. The president insisted.

TRUMP: Just read it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To me pleased, because I haven't read it.

MOOS: Seems like the president is always in a crossfire over is literary habits. This 1987 clip has resurfaced.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who are your favorite authors?

TRUMP: Well, I have a number favorite authors. I think Tom Wolf is excellent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you read Vanity the bonfires?

TRUMP: I did not.

CHURCH: The bonfire of the vanities ended up burning Trump when he contradicted himself seconds later.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the best book you've read beside Art of the deal?

TRUMP: I really like Tom Wolf last book.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bonfire the vanities?

TRUMP: Yes. The man has done a very, very good job and I really can't here with this earphone by the way.

MOOS: It reminded me of Sarah Palin, Red One tweet, when she was asked what newspaper she reads.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of them. Any of them.

MOOS: Asked for the best of all books, according to Trump.

TRUMP: And nobody loves the bible more than I do. Nothing beats the bible not even the Art of the deal.

MOOS: Just don't ask for details.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm wondering what one or two or your most favorite bible verses are.

TRUMP: I don't want to get into it because to me that's very personal.

MOOS: President Trump may not read books, but he definitely recommends them. When Judge Pirro published Liars, leakers and liberals, Trump tweeted, go get it. He called Rush Limbaugh book a must read. At least you must. When it comes to the top pick of the Trump book club.

TRUMP: The bible!

MOOS: The good book, gets a thumbs up, he can't put it down. Not the bible, the thumb. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: There you go. And thanks for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church, the news continues next week with Christina MacFarlane in London. Do stay with us and have yourselves a great day.

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