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CNN NEWSROOM

Mexico Not Paying for the Wall; First Meeting with World Leader; Deadly Inferno; Leaving or Terminated; Crime in the Safest Country. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired January 27, 2017 - 03:00   ET

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


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[03:00:00] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: Paying for the wall. The White House suggests a new 20 percent tariff on Mexico could pay for a border wall. But that cost could ultimately be paid by American consumers.

A special relationship. The British prime minister will meet the President of the United States, Donald Trump, in his first face to face meeting with a head of state as president.

And later, a deadly inferno. Chile is fighting the greatest forest disaster in that country's history, and it could indeed get worse.

Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN Newsroom starts right now.

Good day to you. Tensions are building between the United States and Mexico. The nation's president repeatedly warned that he would not pay for Donald Trump's wall between their countries. And now he has canceled next week's meeting with the new U.S. president after a tweet telling him to stay home if he won't fund the wall.

Mexico is one of the United States' most important trading partners. The country's foreign minister says there is no way Mexico is paying. Listen.

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LUIS VIDEGARAY, MEXICAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We think we cannot accept the concept of a neighbor paying for your wall, for your own wall. That's something -- that's something that does not happen in communities between citizens. It's something that would be totally unacceptable between nations. This is something that we would not do. We will never do. And because this is about -- this is about our dignity and our pride.

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HOWELL: In the meantime, back home, the president's approval ratings are at 36 percent. This, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Some of those disapproving of President Donald Trump, they were out in force right here in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Protesters marched while Donald Trump attended a republican retreat there. Our Jim Acosta has more now from Philadelphia.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Just as President Trump stepped off of his maiden voyage as commander in chief on Air Force One, he landed in his first diplomatic controversy.

For a change, all eyes weren't on his Twitter feed but on the tweets coming from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who announced in blunt Trump fashion that he has informed the White House he will not be attending a meeting scheduled next week with the new American president. A protest of President Trump's plan for a massive new wall on the border.

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