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Women's Entrepreneurship Event; G20 Summit; U.S. Bombers Fly over Korean Peninsula; The Battle for Raqqa; Pence on NASA. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired July 8, 2017 - 04:00   ET

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


[04:00:00]

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JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: -- actually develop and succeed and create that success, not just for them and their family but, in most cases, their entire community and, in many cases, their region. These are the kinds of things that the world needs to focus on --

(CROSSTALK)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcoming now our viewers here in the United States and viewers around the world to this event already in progress in Hamburg, Germany. Again, this is what the German chancellor Angela Merkel, the U.S. President Trump, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau as well, this event. attending a women's entrepreneurship event that is taking place. Let's listen in right now to Justin Trudeau.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: -- policy that will ensure our that country's contribution to international development efforts has a strong central focus on women and girls. It will prioritize the investments, partnerships and advocacy efforts that have been the greatest potential to close gender gaps, eliminate barriers to gender equality and help achieve the sustainable development goals.

We know that helping women around the world is not just the right thing to do, it's also a very smart thing to do. And the people collected here indicate that, with the weight of contributions we are making but also this tremendous commitment.

I would be remiss not to talk about the fact that even as we are helping individuals, women and girls in the developing world, there is still much to do at home.

And that's why initiatives like the U.S.-Canada with women business leaders and entrepreneurs initiative launched by President Trump along with help from Ivanka Trump back in the spring, early spring, has already begun to make sure that we are helping and recognizing that developing and developed countries need to focus on women's success if we are going to create the opportunities and the success we all need.

Merci beaucoup.

(APPLAUSE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Justin, thank you very much.

We have a great neighbor in Canada and Justin is doing a spectacular job in Canada. Everybody loves him and they love him for all reasons.

So, congratulations on the job you're doing.

And I want to thank also Chancellor Merkel for what she's done here. It's been really incredible the way things have been handled -- and nothing is easy -- but so professionally and without much interruption, despite quite a few people. And they seem to follow your G20s around. But you have been amazing and you have done a fantastic job.

And thank you very much, Chancellor. Incredible.

I truly am glad and very proud to be here today to announce the historic initiative that will help transform millions of lives -- millions and millions. A lot of great, great women out there with tremendous entrepreneurial spirit and talent. And it will provide new hope to these women from countless communities all across the world. Women in both developing and developed countries represent tremendous promise for economic growth and prosperity.

When more women participate in the workforce -- which, by the way, will be a lot more competition for people like me, prior to becoming a politician. That's a lot of competition, talented competition. But the world economy will grow and millions and millions of people will be lifted out of poverty. Millions and millions of people, jobs.

The critical investments we're announcing today will help advance the economic empowerment of women around the world. As I said in Poland on Thursday -- and Poland was so terrific to me and such great people -- empowering women is a core value that binds us together.

I'm very proud of my daughter, Ivanka -- always have been, from day one -- I had to tell you that, from day one. She's always been great. (Applause.) A champion. She's a champion. If she weren't my daughter, it would be so much easier for her. (Laughter.) Might be the only bad thing she has going, if you want to know the truth. But I'm very proud of Ivanka who has been a forceful advocate for landmark women entrepreneurs. And she worked very hard for the women entrepreneurs finance initiative.

So I want to thank you, Ivanka, for all of the great work you do in so many ways, in addition to great work you've done over the last few --

[04:05:00]

TRUMP: -- weeks and months working so hard to help everybody. You're helping the Chancellor, but you're helping women all over the world. And I want to thank you. Thank you very much. I also want to thank World Bank President, my friend -- ah, Kim. (Laughter.) Great guy. Really great guy. I might have even appointed him, but I didn't. He'd be a great appointment. And the founding donor countries for their generous support. We've had tremendous support from so many countries.

Chancellor Merkel and Ivanka, this is a vision that really has now become a reality, a very strong and funded reality. Thank you for all your efforts and your dedication to this very critical issue. And I love it because so many jobs, even beyond women -- the women will be creating tremendous initiatives and businesses and that means jobs for people.

We applaud everyone involved in this wonderful and meaningful project. And President Kim told me just recently that this is one of the most significant fundraising efforts for women entrepreneurs that has ever happened in history. And I think there's really nothing even close. So that's a really great achievement.

And I'm pleased to announce today that our administration will also make a substantial contribution. And around the world, women face numerous barriers running their own businesses, including access to capital and, maybe almost as importantly, access to mentors.

The facility will help remove these barriers and open up doors of opportunity so women may live and work to their full potential. And I know what that potential is -- it's unlimited.

By investing in women around the world, we've investing in families, we're investing in prosperity and we're investing in peace.

With a $50 million commitment, the United States will continue to lead the world stage in developing policies to empower women financially in our modern economy.

So I just want to congratulate everybody. This has been a really difficult one. But once it got going, it was about women and it just took off beyond what anybody thought.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank everybody here.

And, Chancellor, thank you very much. Your leadership is absolutely incredible and very inspiring.

Thank you very much, everybody.

HOWELL: The U.S. president Donald Trump there at this event, that is headlined as well by Ivanka Trump, to promote women's economic empowerment as an integral part of the G20 process. The goal is to reduce the gender employment gap by 25 percent by 2025.

It's called the 25 by '25, again, this goal of this event to basically provide money, loans, technical assistance, guidance, mentorship, opportunities to women in developing countries and around the world.

ALLEN: Yes, the United States just pledging $50 million there. You heard President Trump give a nod to Angela Merkel, who's also in the room and part of this initiative.

So many countries giving millions to help women achieve economic equality in all areas of the world. A very positive event here, with something that they hope to take very, very far with helping empower women.

Let's bring in Nic Robertson now. He is in Hamburg. He's been listening to this event also talking about what else is on tap today.

It was nice to see Ms. Merkel and Donald Trump there sharing the lectern and wishing each other well especially Mr. Trump toward Angela Merkel because, before this event, we just weren't sure how those two were going to get along -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, we think back, Angela Merkel here, she says that these events that happen at the G20 don't just happen over a couple days. There is a lot of work over a long period of time that goes into it.

We know Angela Merkel really went out of her way earlier this year to find a way to sort of get Donald Trump on page, on this message. He talked there that this was a hard thing at the beginning to get going.

And Angela Merkel invited his daughter, Ivanka Trump, to an important women's forum. She sat next to Christine Lagarde, the leader of the International Monetary Fund. It was a very significant invite for Angela Merkel to do to bring Ivanka Trump here.

And it was to discuss women's issues; it was, if you will, to get the ball rolling on this. And it has provided a significant result for Angela Merkel. Her calculation was that for --

[04:10:00]

ROBERTSON: -- Ivanka Trump, she can draw at least some support from President Trump, bring them closer together, show that there is progress being made, substantial progress.

We heard Christine Lagarde shortly before Angela Merkel came out, talking about how this entrepreneurship support for women is hugely important in the developing world and in emerging markets because it has shown statistically that this can actually help the role of women, help, as President Trump said there, to bring peace and stability as well.

And one of the other speakers talked about the value of the money that's being contributed, $50 million by the United States; other anchor funds include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates.

And one of the speakers said, for about $1,000, you can educate a woman to take a entrepreneurship role. So they have 300,000 women they would like to do that with. So this money is important. They need to build in it. They need to put more money on it.

But one of the key things -- and this was again amplified by Christine Lagarde and President Kim at the World Bank is that, through the digital environment, there is a way for mentorship.

And they see the digital environment as a huge empowering factor for women, not just the money but the backup, through being able to go online; women will be able to access mentors, Christine Lagarde and President Kim telling everyone there in the room that they will be on tap for that, that their expertise and help will be needed.

So this is what they are talking about here. It has been a big lift for Angela Merkel. It has been from something she thought strategically about, about how to get President Trump in on board and she's done that through with the help of Ivanka Trump. And there President Trump very fulsome in his praise there of his daughter.

But this is the sort of thing that Angela Merkel wanted to do, to bring President Trump sort of center stage with the sort of world financial leaders here, give him a stake in this, give him a role in it, give him something where he can show that he's taking the lead. And this is the kind of leadership that Angela Merkel has been trying to build around the G20.

ALLEN: As you mentioned Ivanka Trump. This is the role that she wanted to play, help her father do more things that would benefit women for sure and she's right there on the stage during that event.

Also want to talk about Mr. Trump's meeting with Theresa May of the U.K. Let's play a clip from that meeting, then we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'd like to thank Prime Minister May for being with us. We've had tremendous talks. There is no country that could possibly be closer than our countries for a long time.

And I just want to say thank you very much.

We are working on a trade deal, which will be a very, very big deal, a very powerful deal, great for both countries. And I think we will have that done very, very quickly.

We have all of our great people. We have Wilbur Ross with us. We have all of the great people. Rex and I had a tremendous meeting yesterday with President Putin. And we've had really great meetings with a lot of people, having a (INAUDIBLE).

Prime Minister May and I have developed a very special relationship and I think trade will be a very big factor between our two countries.

So I want to thank you very much.

QUESTION: Mr. President, did the Russians lie about your meeting yesterday?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I will be going (INAUDIBLE).

(INAUDIBLE) going?

Thank you. No more (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: All right, there you have it, Donald Trump saying a lot of nice things about Theresa May. And she's been in a tough spot of late -- Nic.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. And you hear so many shouted questions at the end. And this has become quite the format with President Trump. It was very noticeable yesterday.

He did mention this wonderful meeting that he had with Vladimir Putin and U.S. secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. But of course there was no provided on-camera follow-up to it, no opportunity on camera for journalists to ask questions.

So this has become quite the format now. Rex Tillerson did give statements and answer questions but it was just on audiotape. So in these environments, you hear so many shouted questions on the pressing issues of, you know, did President Putin really -- did you really accept President Putin's narrative that there was no meddling in the U.S. election?

He didn't answer that. But he was very clear on the British issue. And this was a very important meeting for the British prime minister, Theresa May. She's embattled politically back home. She has pushed the narrative that, as Britain leaves through the European Union through Brexit, that Britain can alone by itself do hugely important trade deals that will benefit Britain in the future.

[04:15:00]

ROBERTSON: And you heard President Trump there, echoing that, saying, yes, we can do trade deals with Britain, we can do them very quickly with the caveat on the quickly there is Britain is not able and entitled to go about making trade deals of this nature until it is completely out of the European Union, which is expected to be about two years from now.

But that was the message that Theresa May will be able to take back home to London and feel good about. She is very embattled politically back home just having done very poorly in elections that she called -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Nic Robertson for us there in Hamburg, Germany, of course there's much more ahead also today. We'll be talking more about that throughout these couple of hours. Nic, thank you.

HOWELL: Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, we continue to follow the events of the G20 summit. Fire and looting, protesters near the G20 turned violent. How police are handling that situation. Stay with us.

ALLEN: And megameeting: Trump and Putin meet face-to-face, as we've been talking about. This summit, is this a new beginning for relations between the U.S. and Russia? We'll go live to Moscow for more on that. Stay with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Atlanta.

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HOWELL: We get a sense on the streets there in Hamburg, Germany; protests near the G20 summit turned violent on Friday. Anti- capitalist demonstrators tried to disrupt the talks of world leaders. And they were met by that wall of police officers.

ALLEN: Some protesters threw rocks and bottles as police fired water cannons. Police say 213 officers have been injured since Thursday, trying to keep the peace, and more than 100 people have been arrested.

HOWELL: Fair to say a busy time there in Hamburg. Demonstrators also set fire to the streets and looted shops. That is when special forces intervened with tear gas and then water cannon.

Our Fred Pleitgen was in the middle of it all. Here he is.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Clashes continued well into the night on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Of course the protestors here say they want to disrupt the summit and some of them even saying they want to get inside the secure perimeter.

As you can see right now what's going on is that the police are firing water cannon trucks at people who have set barricades on fire. That's something that we've been seeing throughout the evening and certainly which is something that can continue well into the night.

The clashes here are very, very heavy. They sort of pinpoint actions of protestors against the police. But then during the evening, what happened is that things escalated.

Many people were arrested and the police are also saying that dozens of their own officers were injured in the clashes that took place, not just on Friday, of course, on Thursday as well -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Hamburg.

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HOWELL: Fred, thank you for the report.

So protests in the streets at the same time there was that much- anticipated meeting at the G20, face-to-face between the U.S. president, Donald Trump, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

ALLEN: And there was certainly a lot to discuss: Syria, Ukraine, Russia's alleged meddling in last year's U.S. presidential election. But as CNN's Michelle Kosinski reports, Russian and U.S. officials have somewhat different versions of how that meeting went.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: President Putin and I have been discussing various things and I think it's going very well.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The handshakes were public; the meeting, private and briefing afterward, no cameras allowed. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson detailing how he says the first Trump-Putin face- to-face meeting played out.

REX TILLERSON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The president opened the meeting with President Putin by raising the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. They had a very robust and lengthy exchange on the subject. President Putin denied such involvement.

KOSINSKI: Tillerson says Trump pressed Putin more than once on cyber- meddling, but then moved on to avoid it being merely an argument. The Russian foreign minister had a different version of events.

SERGEI LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): President Trump said he heard Putin's very clear statements that this is not true and that the Russian government did not interfere in the elections and that he accepts these statements.

KOSINSKI: The White House responded saying there was no acceptance of the Russian view. Really, only Trump-Putin, their two top diplomats and translators know exactly what happened.

TOM WRIGHT, AUTHOR, "ALL MEASURES SHORT OF WAR": Was it brought up where he said some people in my country are exaggerating or pushing this narrative and, you know, we need to bring this to an end, or was it I know for sure, despite what I have said to the press, that you were involved and this has to stop?

Did he say that there will be consequence?

So, all of that detail is missing. We may never find out.

KOSINSKI: On Thursday in Poland, President Trump would not say for certain if Russia was responsible.

TRUMP: Could have been a lot of people interfered.

KOSINSKI: When Tillerson was asked by reporters, though, whether Trump was unequivocal in his belief that Russia did meddle, Tillerson didn't answer the question. He called the meeting constructive, a good start.

TILLERSON: The two leaders, I would say, connected very quickly. There was a very clear positive chemistry between the two. I think, again and I think the positive thing I observed -- and I have had many, many meetings with President Putin before -- is there was not a lot of relitigating of the past.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I'm delighted to be able to meet you in personally, Mr. President.

KOSINSKI: Though the initial greetings for the cameras were somewhat stiff, Tillerson told reporters there was so much to talk about, it was difficult to stop the two hour, 15-minute meeting, that after an hour, the first lady came into the room asking if they wanted to wrap up, but the discussion went on.

Syria being the focus, they were able to announce today an agreement between Russia and the United States on a cease-fire in Southwest Syria starting Sunday. And on the cyber issue, an agreement --

[04:25:00]

KOSINSKI (voice-over): -- to discuss a framework and commitments to not interfere, though clearly there remains a big gap in approach here.

WRIGHT: The real question is, how do you deter him from acting in that way in the future?

What are the punishments and the costs that President Trump would impose on Russia to ensure that they do not repeat that action in 2018 and 2020?

And he did not do that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Michelle Kosinski, thanks for the report.

Let's bring in Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor-in-chief of the journal, "Russia in Global Affairs," live in Moscow this hour with us.

It's good to have you with us. So here's the thing: there were no cameras present during this meeting. We will never know exactly what was said in the meeting.

We do know that both sides claim that it was a positive encounter. We also know there were conflicting statements from either side, on the issue of Russia meddling in the U.S. election. We will get to those details in a moment.

But on the whole, how do you read the optics of this meeting.

FYODOR LUKYANOV, "RUSSIA IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS": First of all, serious diplomacy is being conducted behind closed doors without cameras. So I don't see any problem with that.

Secondly, I think the meeting was much better than anybody could expect and anticipate because even those results announced show that it was a substantial conversation.

It does not mean that agreements or rather those basic discussions about particular issues will be implemented in the future. Unfortunately, the track record is not very encouraging. But at least we see that Trump and Putin can discuss real things, not just exchange some propaganda shoutings. And I think this is extremely positive outcome.

HOWELL: Indeed, two powerful nations talking about some difficult issues, one of them that was brought up, the issue of Russian meddling. His Russian counterpart agrees that happened but claims the U.S. accepted Russia's denial of involvement, that this conversation did happen.

A direct contradiction, though, comes from a senior administration official here in the United States telling CNN that Mr. Trump did not accept President Putin's claim of non-interference in the election.

What do you make of this difference here?

LUKYANOV: First of all, I don't see any serious contradiction, because you just quoted Minister Lavrov, who said that Mr. Trump we heard strong statement by President Putin; heard does not mean accepted, actually.

He heard, of course; he is able to hear. But, in general, I think this extremely strange discussion.

What American side expects or American press, American public expects from this debate in public?

Of course, Trump asked questions and of course Putin denied.

What else can he do?

I think another result of this meeting announced to create a working group on cyber security, this is a body where those issues should be discussed, in a very professional way without a propaganda around this, without public statements but how to avoid such things in the future.

This is a technical thing, first of all, and the less bucology (ph), the less political noise around this, I think this is the better.

HOWELL: The two did make progress on Syria.

However, listen to this statement from the secretary of state, specifically the last few lines of what Rex Tillerson had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REX TILLERSON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The president pressed President Putin on more than one occasion regarding Russian involvement. President Putin denied such involvement, as I think he has in the past. The two leaders agreed, though, that this is a substantial hindrance in the ability of us to move the Russian-U.S. relationship forward and agreed to exchange further work regarding commitments of non- interference in the affairs of the United States and our democratic process as well as those of other countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: So Mr. Tillerson stating publicly Russians have been involved in this, that maybe they're doing things the United States is not doing right; maybe one has got it right, the other doesn't. But here's the question.

Does this represent an opening for a resurgent Russia making an impact on the world stage, regardless of the United States?

[04:30:00] LUKYANOV: Well, it's, of course, Russia, Russian role in world affairs is now pretty significant, at least in particular conflicts like Syria.

At the same time, I read results of this meeting as a beginning of really serious conversations, serious attempts, to find ways how to stabilize serious situations, serious entities (ph).

And the fact that we can say that Russia and the U.S., together with other nations, which were not present but so to speak invisibly elephants in the room, they start to think about the cost war Syria, how to stabilize, ensure, more or less permanent cease-fire there.

And this is -- this is a matter of very hard diplomacy, very difficult bargaining. But this is a step forward. It's much better than situation than we had, say, a year ago, when Obama administration, Lavrov and Kerry tried to facilitate a peace process which, unfortunately, failed multiple times. This part very hard work.

HOWELL: Fyodor Lukyanov, thank you so much for your insight today.

ALLEN: And we'll be talking with CNN's Ivan Watson. He is in Moscow as well about the region to the meeting.

Also ahead here coming up, as North Korea keeps celebrating a successful missile launch, other regional powers are showing off their own military might.

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HOWELL: 4:34 am on the U.S. East Coast. Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell.

[04:35:00]

ALLEN: And I'm Natalie Allen. Our stories this hour;

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ALLEN: Well, the United States is flexing its military might with a clear message to Pyongyang after its launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday. Two U.S. bombers flew over the Korean Peninsula in a 10-hour mission on Friday.

HOWELL: They were joined by Japanese, South Korean and other U.S. fighter jets. The U.S. Air Force calls North Korea's actions "a threat to American allies" and warn they're ready to unleash the full lethal capacity of their airpower, if needed.

ALLEN: South Korea is also stepping up its military drills.

HOWELL: Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has this report for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: South Korea flexing its own military muscle, conducting a naval live-fire military drill to show the world and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un its own military might. For its part, North Korea is still celebrating the launch from the 4th of July.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The great success of the intercontinental ballistic missile launch is a demonstration of our mighty power.

STARR (voice-over): U.S. intelligence is urgently assessing what it knows about the North Korean ICBM test and how soon it will be able to strike U.S. soil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are still analyzing the latest test at this time.

STARR (voice-over): A key question: did the missile reenter the Earth's atmosphere intact?

That would be a necessary step for a North Korean ICBM to hit a target. Then there's the issue of placing a nuclear warhead on top of the missile.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R): They are trying to miniaturize this warhead to put it on top of this ICBM delivery system. So I think it's a very serious threat.

STARR (voice-over): A threat that, for now, the U.S. is confronting peacefully.

GEN. JAMES MATTIS, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: This is a diplomatically led international effort to stop a worldwide threat that they are bringing to bear.

STARR (voice-over): But what does that look like? Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced the Trump administration's goal is to roll back North Korea's nuclear and missile program.

REX TILLERSON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Stopping where they are today is not acceptable to us.

STARR: And a key diplomatic question: would it help to sit down and talk to Kim Jong-un directly?

A fascinating question to which nobody knows the answer -- Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: North Korea will be the big topic in the coming hours at the G20 summit. The U.S. president, Donald Trump, holds his last meeting of the day with Chinese president Xi Jinping.

ALLEN: And the last time they met, Mr. Trump expected President Xi to help control North Korea. Instead, Pyongyang has been ramping up its military programs, even as we mentioned, firing an intercontinental ballistic missile.

HOWELL: Let's talk more about this with Andrew Stevens. He is live in Beijing following this story for us.

Andrew, it's good to have you this hour. No doubt this will be an important meeting, the Trump administration leaning on China to use its influence but the president expressing frustration on Twitter, people have seen that, though recently holding out hope that China will do more.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: You are right, George. This has been a roller coaster relationship since Donald Trump became the president. It started off reasonably strongly when they first met back in April in Mar-a-lago, both had very nice things to say about each other.

But since then, the relationship has soured. And a part of that deal is because the U.S. and Donald Trump in particular doesn't think China has done enough to restrain North Korea. And obviously with the launch of that ICBM, they would be right.

So Donald Trump wants to see a more aggressive China, tackling the --

[04:40:00]

STEVENS: -- North Korea issue. He's expressed his frustration or let his frustration be known through deeds as well as words.

I mean, last week, we had three days where three separate actions by the U.S. did anger China: arms sales to Taiwan, that China thinks is actually its own state, a renegade state but part of China. They had that.

We've also had two others as well. So there has been a real push by the administration to say that China does need to change their attitudes towards North Korea.

The question is, what can China do and what is China prepared to do to push back on North Korea?

There is no love lost between Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping. But the last thing China wants to see is they don't want to see regime change and they don't want to see the economy, society there, basically collapse. They don't want chaos on their borders.

So it's a very, very difficult equation. These two are in the middle of souring a relationship. So it really is going to be so, so key.

What happens when they meet?

They are the world's biggest economies; they have the military superpowers and, at the moment, they're at odds.

HOWELL: So given the situation as it stands now between this relationship, what are the chances that significant agreements can be made with regard to how to handle the North Korean provocations?

STEVENS: Well, we know that Donald Trump is transaction-based. And it's been suggested that the U.S. would go easier on trade with China and cut better deals with trade, with China on trade.

Remember, Donald Trump was branding China a currency manipulator; it was raping the U.S. economy. That was during the campaign trail.

So Donald Trump had made it quite clear he was going to crack down on China but he can use that also as a carrot, saying we can pull back if, China, if you do something, if you do actually confront North Korea more aggressively.

Now that, it's being said here in Beijing, that China does have some wiggle room. It could perhaps crack down on Chinese banks, which are said to be laundering North Korean money, earning hard currency there.

But it's almost a situation where, if they don't reach a deal, what does it mean?

And there is a possibility of they could diverge massively: you could get a trade war; you could have North Korea emboldened by two key players, actually, separating.

So you know, it's the opportunity cost of not getting a deal, which is equally worrying -- George.

HOWELL: The optics of this meeting just as important as what we saw between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. All eyes will be watching. Andrew Stevens, live for us in Beijing, thanks for the reporting today.

ALLEN: And next year a CNN exclusive.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Inside the old city walls of Raqqa, the capital of ISIS' self-declared caliphate of the territory in which they will make their final stand in Syria and really the Middle East.

ALLEN (voice-over): CNN's Nick Paton Walsh takes us inside the epicenter of the fight against ISIS: Raqqa, Syria. That's when we come back.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to NEWSROOM.

As we mentioned earlier, Friday's meeting between the U.S. president and Russia's president produced some movement on Syria's civil war.

ALLEN: The U.S., Russia and Jordan reached a deal they are establishing a so-called deescalation zone in three regions of Southwest Syria. The cease-fire is set to take effect this coming Sunday at noon local time. Under the deal, the U.S. and Russia will ensure compliance, provide humanitarian access and ensure security in that zone.

HOWELL: For now, let's take you to the heart of this battle against ISIS in Syria. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Raqqa, the city that ISIS views as its self-proclaimed capital.

ALLEN: Days ago, Syrian Democratic Forces punched through the wall encircling Raqqa. And Nick became the first Western journalist to get exclusive access.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are now inside the old city walls of Raqqa, the capital of ISIS' self-declared caliphate in the territory, from which they will make their final stand in Syria and really the Middle East.

That wall, a key milestone for coalition forces and the Syrian Kurds and Arabs who now control fully 200 or 300 meters inside of the old city. Down that way, 200 meters, are ISIS' positions.

The forces here don't move around much in the daylight because of the risk of ISIS snipers, less so in these streets. But it's at night where the majority of the movement forward is made.

We've seen U.S. forces here, not far from these positions. Anxious not to be filmed or even noticed, frankly. But you understand it's them calling in the airstrikes and the artillery that's allowing these forces to move forth, frankly, so quickly. I've been surprised how little of the city ISIS are, apparently, in right now, an area possibly one and a half to three miles in terms of size. So increasingly small terrain that they hold.

But as we saw in Mosul in Iraq, civilians, apparently, held in their midst, unable to flee because of the ISIS snipers. A real impediment for these Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters. But still the progress here marking, potentially, the last time that ISIS can say they hold a city in Syria.

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HOWELL: Nick Paton Walsh there with that exclusive report from Raqqa, Syria.

The United Nations Conference has adopted a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons with overwhelming support of 122 countries. But none of the nations that had actually had nuclear weapons took part in the negotiations and did not vote on the measure.

ALLEN: The treaty would prohibit the development, testing, production and stockpiling of all types of nuclear weapons. It is the first multilateral nuclear treaty in more than 20 years. It would go into effect after 50 countries ratify it.

ALLEN: We want to tell you about one of the largest icebergs ever recorded. It could soon break free from Antarctica. Coming up, we'll show you why it's a threat. Stay with us.

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ALLEN: A giant iceberg is about to break free from the east coast of Antarctica and that is not a good thing.

HOWELL: Our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, is here to tell us about it.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Gargantuan iceberg, the size of Delaware. Right now there is a 300-foot wide, 70-mile rift that is starting to separate this Delaware-sized piece of ice --

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ALLEN: It's the Larsen --

VAN DAM: -- Larsen Sea ice shelf that's on the east coast of Antarctica.

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ALLEN: -- watching that closely.

VAN DAM: And it's progressed significantly. To give you an aerial perspective of what this area looks like, any moment now, we are expecting this gigantic iceberg to break free from the ice shelf.

Currently it's an ice shelf, but it will be a common iceberg once it officially breaks free, and we are seeing that things changing very quickly because in early June, it was 8 miles that separated the ice shelf from the water now. We only have about three miles of ice holding together this piece of ice that's, again, expected to break apart at any moment now.

Let's take you to this area, the bottom part of the world, Antarctica. And on the east coast of Antarctica, this is the Larsen Ice Shelf. And this particular area, here's an aerial photograph of this widening ice rift that is taking place.

Just to give you a perspective of how large it is, 2,300 square miles, which is seven times that of New York City; if you are an international viewer, it's about 6,000 square kilometers. That's how large this iceberg will be if it breaks off.

And if you were to melt that iceberg, it would rival the volume of Lake Michigan in the United States.

Here's other aerial photographs of this 70-mile long rift, 300-foot wide breaking apart --

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VAN DAM: -- as we speak. In fact, we have satellite images to prove just that. This has been several years in the making, by the way. We saw in November of 2010, we started to see the crack elongate. Then we go back into May of 2017, it was still several kilometers away from actually breaking off.

But now the latest satellite imagery shows us that we have about only 3 miles or 5 kilometers of separation of ice holding this together. Here's a really interesting time-lapse to show the widening gap of the ice shelf, starting to break apart.

And it is only a matter of time. We are literally holding on by a thread, as seen by this image here of the actual rift that is taking place. And this is particularly dangerous, Natalie and George, because this is a popular shipping area for any kind of vessel.

So if we have an iceberg the size of Delaware floating around, you can imagine what kind of problems it will create.

ALLEN: It's coming.

VAN DAM: It is, slowly but surely.

HOWELL: Derek, thank you. To infinity and beyond or at least Mars. On Thursday, the Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

ALLEN: And speaking with workers there, he reaffirmed the Trump administration's commitment to space exploration and discovery. He vowed the U.S. will return to the moon and go even further.

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MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And here, from this bridge to space, our nation will return to the moon and we will put American boots on the face of Mars.

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HOWELL: Mr. Pence left his mark on the NASA facility and the Internet noticed that. He laid his hand on part of the Orion spacecraft, right under the sign that says -- well, you can see it there.

"Critical space flight hardware, do not touch."

ALLEN: And Mr. Pence apologized for touching the Orion and he jokingly blamed it all on Florida senator Marco Rubio. You know how the blame game goes.

He said, "Sorry, NASA, Marco Rubio dared me to do it."

Rubio played along, tweeting, "In fairness, I warned V.P. that you break it, you own it."

We have another hour ahead, our top stories in just a minute. Thanks for staying with us. I'm Natalie Allen.

HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. The news continues after the break.

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