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Ignoring Allegations; Making Excuses for an Offense; Debate Between Two Candidates; Keeping Away Gadgets; Another Provocation from DPRK; Fighting Abuse; Casualties Rising. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired May 30, 2017 - 03:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00] MAX FOSTER, HOST, CNN: The Russia investigation focuses attention on Donald Trump's son-in-law. The White House sticks by Jared Kushner, but others are alarmed by what he allegedly wanted from the Russians.

British leaders make their case on the big issues. We'll see if they're hitting the right note for voters.

And police arrest Tiger Woods on suspicion of driving under the influence. He's now offering an explanation and an apology.

Hello and welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Max Foster. This is CNN Newsroom.

A week after the Manchester terror attack, crowds gathered for a vigil in the city center on Monday night, honoring the 22 people killed. Dozens more were wounded when Salman Abedi blew himself up after a concert by pop star Ariana Grande.

Investigators are trying to track down Abedi's network and answer a key question, did he build the bomb himself. They're also asking anyone to come forward if they saw him with this suitcase. Police say it's different from the bag Abedi carried during the bombing.

Muhammad Lila joins us now live now from Manchester. So are they getting to the bottom of this network?

MUHAMMAD LILA, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, police really hope that they are getting to this network. And they're hoping this information this new lead that they put out late last night will help jog people's memories and help them identify Salman Abedi's last movements before he carried out the attack.

Now it's interesting, Max, because police believe that he used explosives in his backpack to carry out the attack. But they say that in the days and hours leading up to the attack, he was seen in Manchester, including here in Manchester City Center, carrying that blue suitcase. They call it a distinctive suitcase, and that's why they've put those images out there.

They say he was seen wheeling it around. And you know, sometimes you might not recognize a face where you're in a crowd of hundreds of people. But certainly some people might recognize that face when it's attached or paired with that suitcase. So they're hoping that suitcase will jog memories.

But interestingly enough, they believe that suitcase is still out there somewhere. And they're telling people that if they see that suitcase they should not approach the suitcase, but instead they should call police.

Now they also say that they have no reason to believe that there's any dangerous in the suitcase, but the fact that they're putting this warning out there is an indication that they really need to find out suitcase to find out exactly what was inside.

FOSTER: We see people moving around behind you. Life getting back to normal?

LILA: Slowly, yes. You know, it's taken about a week or so. But you know, the Great Manchester marathon took place over the weekend. The large turnout a chance for the city to celebrate and move past some of that mourning.

Today we know that the Victoria train station is going to be re- opening. And that's important because the train station is connected to the arena where the attack took place. And we know that with traffic and you know, the long weekend and the holiday yesterday a lot of people were off, there was a lot more crowds here at the memorial.

Today effectively, it's going to be back to work as normal for a lot of people. And a chance for the city really to put this tragedy behind them and move forward.

FOSTER: OK, Muhammad, thank you.

The investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia allege charge otherwise doesn't seem to be bothering Jared Kushner. A White House official said the president's son-in-law is focused on his work and unpaced by recent scrutiny. The FBI is looking into what role Kushner played with respect to the cushions during the campaign and the transition.

CNN's Diane Gallagher reports.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Scrutiny and speculation swirling around President Donald Trump's innermost circle and perhaps the president's most trusted adviser, Jared Kushner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have a feeling that Jared is going to did a great job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: A source tells CNN, Trump's son-in-law discussed creating back-channel communications with the Kremlin during a December meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The Washington Post reports that in intercepted conversations, Kislyak

told Moscow he was surprised that Kushner wanted to set up an off-the- record communication system that use Russian diplomatic facilities as a way to bypass U.S. surveillance.

Now the system was never set up. But as an explanation the source tells CNN that Kushner wanted the secure line so he and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn could discuss military options in Syria among other topics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER UNITED STATES NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR: My dashboard warning light was clearly on and I think that was the case with all of us in the intelligence community, very concerned about the nature of these approaches to the Russians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Now the spotlight on Kushner comes as the man now in charge of the Russia investigation, Robert Mueller makes his first public speech since being named special counsel. At his granddaughter's graduation, Mueller didn't discuss the investigation, but did defend the reputation of the FBI.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT MUELLER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE FBI: The FBI's motto is fidelity, bravely and integrity. And for the men and women of the FBI uncompromising integrity, both personal and institutional is the core value.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:05:03] GALLAGHER: The administration isn't denying the Kushner reports.

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JOHN KELLY, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Any channel back or otherwise with a country like Russia is a good thing.

GALLAGHER: Instead, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly spent Sunday morning playing down the severity of the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: There's a lot of different ways to communicate, back channel, you know, publicly, with other countries. I don't see any big issue here relative to -- relative to Jared.

JOHN MCCAIN, (R) UNITED STATES SENATOR: I don't think it's standard procedure prior to the inauguration of a President of the United States by someone who is not in an appointed position.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Now the meeting with Kislyak was initially not disclosed on Kushner's security clearance form before being amended the next day.

But on Friday, Reuters citing seven current and former U.S. officials reported he had several previously undisclosed contacts with Kislyak, including two phone calls between April and November of last year. His lawyer told CNN in response that Mr. Kushner participated in thousands of calls in this period. He has no recollection of the calls as described." But democrats are calling for a second look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM SCHIFF, (D) UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: I do think there ought to be a review of his security clearance, to find out whether he was truthful, whether he was candid. If not, then there's no way he can maintain that kind of a clearance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: The president waved off questions, but in a statement told the New York Times in part, "Jared is doing a great job for the country, I have total confidence in him.

Now legally, the fact that Kushner was a private citizen doesn't really matter here. His role in the transition is what the FBI is going to be taking into consideration. He was acting on behalf of the incoming government and already benefitting from an interim clearance while all of this is said to have been taking place and that's really where the problem would be, if there is one here.

Diane Gallagher, CNN, Washington.

FOSTER: The Russian President, Vladimir Putin denies his country was behind cyber attacks against the campaign of the Frenche President Emanuel Macron. The two met at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris on Monday, Mr. Macron said Russian media peddled propaganda and lies during the French campaign. Mr. Putin, though, didn't respond to that directly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): As for the imaginary intrusion by Russia into elections anywhere, we did not discuss this, and Mr. President did not show any interest in talking about it. As for me, I think there is nothing to talk about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's senior international correspondent Ivan Watson is following developments and he joins us now from Moscow. A lot of people in France saying the president was actually quite forth right on this matter, but it doesn't seem to be the case from the Russian perspective. IVAN WATSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Yes, I mean,

this was a fascinating encounter where these two leaders kind of took each other's measure. With the Macron campaign during the election openly accusing Russia of meddling in the French election and siding with the right-wing candidate, Marine Le Pen in that hotly contested election, Macron clearly didn't bring up this issue during their meeting. He didn't address it during the press conference.

But it left Vladimir Putin having to defend Russia and insisting that there was no meddling whatsoever.

Macron, however, did come out and really blast two Russian news outlets, R.T. and Sputnik international, accusing them of basically propaganda and outright lies. And what was fascinating was that the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, did not respond to those integrations at all. He just kind of looked a little uncomfortable there.

And that left R.T., that television network and web portal, its editor-in-chief coming out, threatening to sue members of the Macron campaign and to accuse the French president of not having any evidence to back his accusations.

But clearly here, Vladimir Putin was having to meet with the new French leader just weeks after his and election and deal with the fact that Russia has been painted as a partisan player in French politics. Max?

FOSTER: So even if they're right about Russia today, for example, lots of people view that as a state-run media organization, right? So is Putin right to distance himself from that like other presidents would from their own media organizations?

WATSON: Well, you know, the Kremlin spokesman went afterwards and said that the Kremlin doesn't agree with the accusations that President Macron made. But this was, again, a very interesting encounter. And the two leaders had shown that despite kind of the disagreement and the allegations of meddling in the French election, that they were still going to try to find areas where they could move forward.

[03:10:03] And they highlighted three centuries of close Russian and French cultural ties, while also stressing that there remain major differences on major issues. With Macron saying basically that France would retaliate if chemical weapons were used again in Syria, and of course in the past, it's the Russian ally, the Assad regime in Syria, that has been accused of using chemical weapons.

Also stressing that there are differences when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, with the French president saying that he hope for a de-escalation. And if there was an escalation that there could be more sanctions.

The Russian leader saying that sanctions are bad, they're not good for the world economy. So there's still major, major differences between Paris and Moscow. And despite that, the two leaders showed that they could stand side by side and talk business on other issues, such as trying to combat against the threat of terror. Max?

FOSTER: OK, Ivan in Moscow. Thank you.

Former Panamanian Manuel Noriega has died after complications from brain surgery. The 83-year-old ruled the Central American country during the 1980s until he was arrested by the U.S. military in 1989. Noriega spent nearly 20 years in a U.S. prison for drug trafficking and money laundering. He was later extradited to France and then to Panama. We'll have much more on General Noriega later this hour.

Up next, the battle for 10 Downing Street with the U.K. election just days away. The two main contenders face some questions on live TV.

And golfer Tiger Woods is offering an apology and explanation after being arrested. Details next.

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FOSTER: Calls are getting tighter as party leaders return to the frontline to the U.K. election campaign. With just over a week to go until the voters head to the ballot box, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn appeared on British television Monday night.

There were questions separately on key policies first by a studio audience and then by the journalist Jeremy Paxman. The event was broadcast live for Sky News and Channel 4. Corbyn made his case to voters about labor's support for trade policies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY CORBYN, LABOUR PARTY LEADER: Let's build a sensible good, tariff-free trade relationship with Europe. Every car that's made in Britain or made mostly cars that made Germany, the parts come from both sides of the channel. You could say the same with aircraft, you could say the same with an awful lot of other manufacturing industry.

That's going to carry on and it will have to carry on. Otherwise, we'll destroy our own manufacturing industry. But I'll tell you what we won't do. We won't threaten Europe with turning this country into a sort of corporate tax haven with low tax, low wages and low investment. We want high wage, high investment, growing economy, with good relations with our neighbors and indeed of course with the rest of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the conservative rival, Theresa May was asked about false claims that Britain was sending close to half a million dollars to the E.U. before last summer's Brexit vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[03:15:07] THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think what's important now is that we ensure that we get the best possible deal from Brexit. It is about ensuring that in future, we won't be sending vast sums of money to the European Union every year, as we do as members of the E.U. and we will be able to look at what -- as funding comes back, at how we use that funding.

But it is important that we get the best possible deal because it underpins so much else of what we want to do. And we can only get that deal if we have a plan to go in there and really stand up for Britain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Nina Dos Santos joins me now from London. You watched the whole thing unfold. Who do you think won?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CORRESPPONDENT, CNN: Well, actually it seems as though it was a bit of a draw here, Max, and that's also the consensus among the political analysts as well. If anything, Jeremy Corbyn did slightly better than Theresa May because he appeared a lot more comfortable when he was being grilled both by the studio audience and by another man Jeremy, Jeremy Paxman, the interviewee as well.

Did we learn here a huge amount new from either of these two characters? Not really. Probably a little bit more from Jeremy Corbyn, because he's a political unknown. He's had some other controversial views and all sorts of things from the IRA to the nuclear deterrent in this country.

So it was interesting to get a little bit more of his views. He came across as somebody who had very strongly held beliefs and was quite comfortable when he articulated them.

FOSTER: And he was challenged on some of the more controversial views he's held over the years.

DOS SANTOS: That's right. Yes, in particular by member of the audience about the IRA, in particular when he decided to hold a one minute silence for what he said was victims of all the troubles that Northern Ireland had been incurring over the years.

But he also was asked whether he has said in the past that Osama Bin Laden shouldn't have been shot by U.S. forces when he was caught in northern Pakistan so many years ago. He said, yes, I stand by that statement, because I believe that Osama Bin Laden should have been caught, brought to justice publicly and tried for the crimes that he had done.

And when it came to the sort of pacifist stance if you like, and denuclearizing the U.K., he was unapologetic about that as well. He said, that look, wherever you are in the world, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, he again would advocate going through the U.N. process to try and ease things through a method of dialogue rather than war mongering.

That was again one of the messages that he had. And despite the fact that it came in the wake of the Manchester terror attack, he said I wouldn't be soft on terrorism, but I would be advocating peace rather than war in many of these cases.

FOSTER: We've had that pause in the campaign because of Manchester, but just before Manchester, Theresa May was in real trouble, wasn't she, with one of her policies and a U-turn on one of those policies. And it's affecting older voters, who are the ones that show up in the elections.

DOS SANTOS: Yes, that's right. There were some older voter voters among the audience that one of them, in particular asked her point bank, look, I'm particularly nervous about this issue of you saying that you may well take money from my house after I'm dead, to pay for my social care if I had care at home or care in an elderly person's home.

Is there a cap on this, why should I vote for you? She was asked again by Jeremy Paxman what the cap would be when eventually it seems though they have introduced a U-turn and said there may well be a cap on taking money out of people's personal wealth to pay for their care after death, and she wouldn't be drawn on the issue.

So it is a very sensitive issue, particularly considering there's a lot of the core a tory voters are elderly people, the people who are sort of sometimes rather comfortable, in particular because they paid off their mortgages and that was raised repeatedly.

She was also heckled on things like school funding as well, Max. And the reason why she's sort of on the back foot here, is that going into this debate, he's not enjoying the same comfortable lead as she had been a couple of weeks ago. She was enjoying a 20-point lead over the Labour Party and that is shrunk dramatically over the last a week and a half.

And although there haven't been any polls since this particular interview took place, you can bet that she's probably feeling the difference, that she might not get the same majority that she went into when was expecting when she went into calling an early election.

I should point out, though, Brexit came up, as you noticed there in your introduction quite early on. What did we learn that we already knew, where we heard it reinforced here is that they have very different views of these candidates on how to deal with Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn saying that look, Brexit is going to happen, but we want a deal with the E.U. She said, well, we don't want a deal at any cost because it might be a bad deal.

FOSTER: Yes. So, a very clear choice for voters and we'll be following it very closely next week as the vote comes in.

Sri Lanka says it expects the death toll to rise from the country's worst flooding in nearly 14 years, more than 180 people are dead. Crews are racing to rescue stranded flood victims and more rain is expected. Cyclone Mora just made landfall in Bangladesh.

[03:19:58] Now rescuers have been hampered by mudslides and rising water. Authorities say at least 112 people are missing. India and the World Food Program are sending aid. P

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now from International Weather Center with more on the cyclone and where it goes next, Pedram. PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know, good seeing you,

Max. This storm system actually made landfall in the last several hours, equivalent to a category one say hurricane or a typhoon. In this region of course it's called a tropical cyclone. But Mora made landfall right there in the northern tip of the Bay of Bengal and we know down towards the south where Sri Lanka floods were in place there, completely independent.

A separate storm system there that is associated with the monsoons, this particular one and impacting parts of Bangladesh is completely an entity by itself.

I want to show to show you this when you talk about the deadliest tropical cyclones on our planet, 7 of the top 10 most deadliest cyclones have occurred either between Bangladesh or parts of Myanmar.

So incredible and really sobering statistic when you think about this particular location it's vulnerabilities and also how susceptible that coastal community is, where 700 kilometers of coastal areas are exposed to these storms that typically work the way across this region.

In fact, another 700 there and this particular one, being the number of rivers and tributaries that dot this region of Bangladesh. You put the waterways together, that spans over 24,000 kilometers of waterways.

So you know, it's an area that not only it gets such tremendous tropical cyclones that commend but also a lot of rainfall associated with that, that can cause major issues. That is the main concern right now, moving forward.

We think the storm will weaken inside the next couple of hours. A very mountainous region as you move away from the coastal community and really not a wind concerned with this. Generally speaking, it should just blustery at very best.

But it's the heavy rainfall just east of Dhaka, work your way around Chittagong where we know four million people call that area home. It could be seen of upwards of a quarter meter of rainfall going into the next couple of days. Those will be similar numbers to the amount of water that came down in Sri Lanka and again, in a two days span last week, caused all the devastation we're seeing right now.

So Max, we're going to follow this here as far as what is left with the storm system and a think a lot of rainfall really what people are watching out for in that region right now.

FOSTER: Pedram, thank you very much, indeed for that.

Golfer Tiger Woods apologizing for his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence. In a statement, Woods said, "I want the public to know that alcohol was not involved. Was happened was an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications. I didn't realize the mix of medications had affected me so strongly."

Woods was arrested earlier on Monday in Jupiter, Florida where he has a home. He was booked into jail and released a few hours later.

Mark Hayes joins us now, he's a media manager with Golf Australia. What do you make of all this then? Obviously it's getting huge amounts of attention. How does it play into Tiger's narrative, as it were?

MARK HAYES, MEDIA MANAGER, GOLF AUSTRALIA: Yes, it's another sad day in an otherwise stellar playing career of Tiger Woods. It's a sad way for him to be, I guess, viewed by the world these days. It's no longer about golf, it's about injuries and other off-course activities. And that's going to affect his long -- the way he's held in the long-term.

FOSTER: How does it affect what happens in terms of his career? How does it technically affect his playing?

HAYES: Probably doesn't technically affect anything. He, as you say, he's come out and said that it wasn't anything to do with alcohol, and he's actually had a really serious back surgery very recently. Just last week he came out and said his back fusion had been a great success.

And that he was on doctor's orders to lay low and keep still and very straight and not do any twisting. Presumably, if we can believe him here, that medication is being applied. But it's funny that it's being applied in the middle of the night while he's driving a car. So that's the big issue here.

It doesn't affect his game, per se. But the way he's perceived around the world has taken another blow after a pretty tumultuous seven or eight years.

FOSTER: When were we expecting to see him next out playing?

HAYES: Well, he didn't outline a specific date for his return. Only that he said he was unequivocal that he wanted to play professional golf again and win. It was assumed by all of Sungreen in the golf industry that that meant an end to his 2016-2017 campaign and that he'd try back probably around Christmas time or maybe early next year.

He of course has his own tournament in the Bahamas in early December. That might have been a considerable date for that to happen. But I don't think this necessarily affects that, how he's perceived in the long run, and what his legacy will be. He's copped the damage here, it's up ultimately to his back, as whether he'll ever return to being a competitive golfing at the PGA Tour level.

FOSTER: It does suggest, doesn't it, if he's got these back problems and he's got this mix of medication, it's probably much more serious than people realize?

HAYES: Absolutely. And we have to take him at face value on the fact that he's using prescribed medications and not being under the influence of alcohol.

[03:24:58] So they are pretty serious, it's a very serious operation he's had. He's had three previous back injuries or surgeries, I should say. They haven't been of a serious nature and not quite as -- didn't violate his back as much.

But the fusions are very serious surgery and he's this time taken the doctor's advice just to, you know, a need to lay low for a few months to actually make this thing stick and work and hopefully get back to being an athlete again.

Time will tell. I mean, there's no way of knowing whether back surgery will work. It's a very, it's obviously a key part of any human's body and Tiger is no different. If he can get there intact morally and in the world of marketing, that's another question.

FOSTER: When he's got in trouble before, there's been huge concern, hasn't there, in the golf industry, about how it affects the whole of the golf industry, because he's such a huge figure within it. Have they, has the industry moved on from that, you know, if he comes out of the spotlight as it were, the industry won't be affected as it would have been in the past?

HAYES: Great question, Max. I think, you know, we can look at that and say, you know, the impact of Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus is felt long after they had retired. I think we'll always look and say, you know, Tiger Woods will be beneficial for the game in a marketing capacity regardless of whether he's playing or not.

Hopefully, that stands to be true over the long haul here. In the short-term, in the medium term as well, I think the PGA Tour has actually moved past him, it's been a long time since he's been competitive at this level. He was 28 number one last in last 2013. So it's been nearly four years since he was at that elite level of world golf. Whether he gets back there physically is a whole different story.

But I think there's a depth of talent we haven't seen at the top level of the sport now. And such an interest across not only the U.S., but also Europe and Asia and of course here in the Oceana region that it spans the globe now with the players that we have.

Do we need Tiger, whether like Tiger involved? Absolutely. Do we need him involved? Probably not anymore. It would be a nice thing to have as the cherry on top of the cake.

FOSTER: OK. Mark Hayes of Golf Australia, thank you very much indeed.

HAYES: OK.

FOSTER: Now for plenty of travelers, it's a necessity, but soon you might not be able to take your laptop with you on board a plane.

And North Korea claims it has a new type of ballistic missile, and it says more rockets are on the way.

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FOSTER: Welcome back, I'm Max Foster. Let's update you on our top stories then this hour. [03:29:54] British police are asking anyone to come forward who may have seen Manchester bomber Salman Abedi with this suitcase. They say it's different from the bag he carried during the bombing.

Meanwhile, crowds gathered for a vigil in Manchester City center on Monday, remembering the 22 lives lost just one week ago.

Crews are racing to rescue flood victims stranded in Sri Lanka as the death toll rises above 160. More rain is expected and the Red Cross says more people will likely die in the disaster.

The country is in the grip of its worst flooding in 14 years. India and other countries are sending aid.

ISIS is claiming responsibility for a deadly car bombing in central Baghdad. At least 10 people killed and 40 wounded in the blast in a busy square. It happened early on Tuesday, local time. And we're now learning of another car bombing in Baghdad, this one near the general retirement department. At least seven people were killed and 30 wounded from that blast.

British Airways expects to run a full flight schedule at London's two busiest airports on Tuesday. A computer meltdown halted B.A.'s operations at Heathrow and Gatwick over the weekend and has affected at least 75,000 passengers worldwide.

The airline blames a power surge for the failure. The CEO said, 'At the moment we do not have a complete picture of what happened. Our focus has been on putting things right for the customers affected. When that process is complete, we will hold an exhaustive investigation into the causes of this incident and do whatever is necessary to ensure it cannot recur."

Now the U.S. is considering a dramatic expansion of a ban on laptops and other electronic devices on board the airplane. Right now the carry-on ban affects flights into the states from 10 airports in the Middle East and Arica.

Rene Marsh has details on what's behind the possible change.

RENE MARSH, AVIATION CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Sophisticated threats towards commercial aviation is fueling new proposed restrictions on what electronics passengers can take into the cabin of aircraft.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says terror groups are obsessed with blowing up commercial passenger planes, preferably, a U.S. carrier bound for the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to ban laptops from the cabin on all international flights, both into and out of the U.S.?

KELLY: I might.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MARSH: Kelly first told CNN on Friday why he thinks expanding the laptop ban is necessary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of the stakeholders who you've met would say that you've hinted that this ban could even happen right here on U.S. soil. Is that true, or did they misread you?

KELLY: No, they didn't misread me. I would tell you that the threats against passenger af aviation worldwide are constant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: A U.S.-based ban would restrict electronics larger than a cell phone in the cabin. Those include iPads, e-readers and laptops. It would be the most extreme step taken to protect aviation from a terror attack since September 11th. This weekend, Kelly said chilling intelligence is pushing him to expand the band.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: There's a real threat. There's numerous threats against aviation. That's really the thing that they're obsessed with. The laptop ban is currently in place at 10 airports in eight Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

All electronics larger than a cell phone have to be in checked luggage on those flights. In the meantime, another new security measure is now in place at 10 U.S. airports. Electronics larger than a cell phone must be taken out of carry-on luggage to be screened separately. Kelly says that too will likely expand nationwide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY: The TSA people that are looking at those bags, can't see exactly what's in the bags so now because they're stuffed so full.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: While Kelly makes clear, more new restrictions and new screening measures are on the way, he's less clear on when those would happen.

Well, despite the dire warnings whom Secretary Kelly, deliberations on the expansion of the ban has spanned several weeks. One U.S. official tells me that the lengthy deliberation is partly due to Kelly's desire to consider the full impact of the ban.

The airline industry said it helps drive some $1.5 trillion in economic activity in the United States. So how could this ban impact that? Another source said that DHS is taking a close look at the science surrounding lithium ion batteries in the cargo hold?

Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington. FOSTER: North Korea claims to have fired a new type of ballistic

missile, one with a highly accurate warhead. Some experts doubt Pyongyang's claims of success.

We do know Kim Jong-un's regime launched a missile on Monday that fell into the ocean off Japan's coast. North Korean state media say Kim supervised the launch and he is promising to develop more ballistic rockets.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now from Seoul, South Korea. You're always looking at what's different about the launches. What do you see in this one?

[03:35:02] PAULA HANCOCKS, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, Max, what is different is according to what North Korea has said at this point which we can't independently confirm, but they do say in the KCNA state-run media that this is a new kind of ballistic missile because of the precision guidance capability of it. They say that this particular missile was able to hit within about seven meters, or 23 feet, of the intended target within the waters.

It's believed to be the one fired on Monday, although that wasn't confirmed within the right. So this is what appears to be new within this particular test.

Now we know on Monday, U.S. and South Korea's military confirming that there was a short-range missile fired, it appeared to be of the scud range and certainly that in and of itself is not of great concern.

But what North Korea is saying is that it is now far more precise and also saying it's far quicker for it to be launched. And so of course that's a concern.

Another indication from North Korea that they're not happy. We have heard from KCNA as well, slamming the U.S. and South Korea for a B-1B bomber flying over the Korean Peninsula. And the South Korean military confirming that in fact did happen on Monday, another joint drill between the U.S. and South Korea once again angering Pyongyang. Max?

FOSTER: Because they see those drills as an active preparation of war, right?

HANCOCKS: Exactly. And it's an ongoing drill that we're seeing at this point. We know that the USS Carl Vinson, this aircraft carrier is in the waters close by. We know it's been carrying out military drills, naval drills with Japan and with South Korea in recent weeks. We know another aircraft carrier is heading in this direction.

These have been named by North Korea, pointing out that they are angry that there's so much military hardware in the area, blaming the U.S. effectively for making the situation more tense, calling the U.S. The gangster-like U.S. imperialists. Pointing out that the B-1B bombers that the aircraft carriers all being in the region is what is intensifying things.

But of course, the U.S. and South Korea say it's the fact that North Korea continues incessantly with these missile launches, three in just the last three weeks. Max?

FOSTER: And South Korea and the U.S. also saying that these are an affront to China, trying to get China to do more to get involved here?

HANCOCKS: That's right. This is really the line that the U.S. President Donald Trump is consistently saying at this point. He tweeted shortly after the confirmation of that ballistic missile on Monday, saying that it's showing disrespect to China.

China, of course, the one main ally, the one trading ally of North Korea, potentially having more power over North Korea than anybody else. But we also see that China does not want to push North Korea too far because it does not want the collapse of North Korea.

It doesn't want millions of refugees coming across the border. It doesn't want potentially a unified Korean Peninsula, which is U.S.- friendly, right on its door step. So experts have consistently said that North Korea to China is the buffer zone between China and the United States.

FOSTER: OK, Paula in Seoul, thank you very much indeed.

An investigation is underway after a British zookeeper was killed in what colleagues call a freak accident. The Hamilton Zoo Park near Cambridge, England said 33-year-old Rosa King died on Monday after a tiger entered the enclosure she was in. The zoo said the tiger never escaped its enclosure and the public was never in danger.

Coming up, she moved to the U.S. to Mexico as a teenager and faced abuse as a farm worker. Now activists are fighting to protect migrants like Alejandrina in this week's Freedom Project.

[03:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: One of the world's most notorious dictators from the 1980s has died. General Manuel Noriega ruled Panama from 1983 until he was removed from power by the U.S. military in 1989. He spent nearly two decades in a U.S. prison for drug trafficking and money laundering. After more jail time in France, Noriega returned to Panama in 2011.

We get more now on Noriega's life from CNN's Rafael Romo.

RAFAEL ROMO, SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR, CNN: Manuel Noriega was the American ally who turned awkward. A figure whose ambition and antagonism cost him his American friends, his Panamanian presidency and his freedom as well.

Noriega was abandoned by his parents as a child and joined the military in search of a career. He rose through the ranks and kept rising in Panama's military junta until he took control of it. For almost two decades, that made him a major player in a small country of critical importance to the U.S., because of its location on the Panama Canal. The strategic and economic waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific.

There seems to be little doubt that Noriega served American interest and profited handsomely. One-time CIA Director George Bush gave him a personal tour of the agency. The CIA gave him more than just the tour. Enlisting him as a paid asset in campaigns against the leftist government of Nicaragua and rebels of El Salvador.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's wrong what people say that you can buy him. You can't buy him but you can sure you can rent him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Noriega claimed he got millions for helping the CIA. U.S. drug agents claim he also got millions for helping the Medellin cartel, protecting cocaine shipments and laundering cash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM CASH, FORMER SPECIAL AGENT, CIA: Of course, we later found out that Manuel made arrest, he made one arrest for us, and two for him. And one for us and five for him, meaning that he obviously didn't make a lot of arrests and profited handsomely from not making those arrests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Noriega had a different version of events. He said the U.S. wanted him to help invade Nicaragua and overthrow the leftists. He refused.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANUEL NORIEGA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF PANAMA (through translator): You are a good person, so long as you say yes. However, once you say no, then you become an evil guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Noriega's rhetoric turned angry. Panamanian soldiers clashed with U.S. troops stationed in the country. By then, that formerly friendly CIA director had been elected president and...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The goals of the United States have been to safeguard the lives of Americans, to defend democracy in Panama, to combat drug trafficking, and to protect the integrity of the Panama Canal Treaty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: It cost the lives of two dozen Americans and hundreds, or some say even thousands of Panamanians. Noriega was the first foreign head of state ever to be convicted in a U.S. court. He spent some 20 years in U.S. prisons for drug trafficking and money laundering, before extradition to France to face money laundering charges there. In late 2011, after more than a year in prison in France, Noriega was

extradited back to Panama where he was convicted in absentia of murdering two political opponents and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

While incarcerated in Panama, Noriega was hospitalized several times for numerous illnesses, including a stroke. Washington's man in Panama had enjoyed power and money and friends in high places. He died a prisoner in the country he once ruled.

Rafael Romo, CNN.

[03:45:00] FOSTER: The CNN Freedom Project is committed to ending modern day slavery. In part two of this week's series called Fair Food, we introduce you to a migrant farm worker in the U.S. She once feared going to her job, but now sees a brighter future because of what activists did to bring about change.

AMARA WALKER, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Five-thirty a.m., in Immokalee, Florida. It's a dark morning under an overcast sky. As Alejandrina Carrera begins a 40-minute walk to her sister's house, to drop off her two small children. It's too early for them to go to school, and they're too young to stay home alone.

But Alejandrina has a bus to catch. Every day, hundreds of migrant farm workers like Alejandrina come to this parking lot in the center of town, where they board old school buses that take them to the fields.

Alejandrina picks tomatoes on a farm about 30 minutes away. She likes her job now, says she's treated with respect, but it wasn't always that way. Alejandrina came to Immokalee from Mexico more than 20 years ago. She was alone. Just 14 years old, small, scared, and extremely vulnerable.

She says it didn't take long for someone to take advantage of her. It happened at one of the first farms she worked at. She says her boss promised her a better job in a warehouse, but as soon as she got in his truck, he drove to a remote part of the farm, and she knew she was in trouble.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEJANDRINA CARRERA, MIGRANT (through translator): He told me, if we don't do this the easy way, we'll do it the hard way. I was afraid and trembling. He tried to abuse me sexually, but he didn't get to because another worker heard me screaming and came to help me. The next day, the boss fired us both.

JON ESFORMES, CO-OWNER, Agricultural workers are without a doubt the most vulnerable workers in the United States and I would say across the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Jon Esformes is co-owner of Sunripe Certified Brands where Alejandrina works today. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ESFORMES: Let's talk about reality here. This is farming. This is agriculture. Agriculture has, from the very early days of man farming and needing to have work, has been full of opportunities for abuse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: His family-owned farm is one of the largest in the U.S. and was the first to join the Fair Food Program. An innovative initiative that has been held up as the most comprehensive social responsibility program in U.S. agriculture.

Today, nearly every farm in Florida has signed on. The program combines a set of high standards that includes monitoring the farms and educating the workers. Leonel Perez works for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, or CIW, a non-profit organization that developed the Fair Food Program.

Today, CIW is holding a training session with farm workers, teaching them not only what rights they have, but what to do when those rights are violated. Leonel and the other educators here have firsthand knowledge because they are all former migrant farm workers themselves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The most important thing for me is to be able to talk to other workers, because I have a shared experience. I work in the fields too. And now we can work together to end worker abuse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: The Fair Food Program works because it has market consequences. If a farm violates the code of conduct, it is suspended from the program and cannot sell to participating buyers, which includes some of the biggest fast-food restaurants and grocery stores. It all makes a big difference for those at the bottom of the supply chain, like Alejandrina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARRERA (through translator): You can work freely, you're not going to be harassed. You're not going to be insulted. You're not going to be forced to work. There's more respect now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: These days, Alejandrina wakes up in the morning happy to come to work, proud to talk to her kids about the company she works for, and that, she says, is the biggest change of all.

Amara Walker, CNN.

FOSTER: Well, coming up tomorrow, many big retailers have committed to protecting farm workers by becoming part of the Fair Food Program. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[03:50:01] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first campaign took four years to get Taco Bell on board. Second campaign took two years to get McDonald's on board. The third campaign took one year to get Burger King on board. I think subway was a very quick sort of one-month process. So you can see there was a way that it was unfolding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Those restaurants all signed an agreement with the CIW, pledging to purchase tomatoes only from farms that follow a strict code of conduct to protect worker rights.

FOSTER: Well, one fast-food chain refuses to become part of the program. Find out why tomorrow on the CNN Freedom Project.

Now, an American sports writer has been sacked over offensive remarks he made about the first Japanese driver to win the Indy 500. Takuma Sato took the checkered flag on Sunday in Indianapolis in what's known as the greatest spectacle in racing.

His win didn't sit well with Denver Post writer Terry Frei who tweeted "Nothing specifically personal, but I'm not very -- I am uncomfortable with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 during Memorial Day weekend."

Many called his comments racist and xenophobic. Frei later apologized, saying, quote, "I fouled up. I'm sorry. I made a stupid reference during an emotional weekend to one of the nation we fought in World War II. And in this case, the specific one my father fought against."

We'll be back after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: An advertisement is going viral in the Middle East, delivering a poignant message during Ramadan.

The ad featuring Emirati pop star Hussain Al Jassmi shows a suicide bomber being confronted by victims of terrorism. The Kuwaiti telecom company saying launched the ad during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The message, worship your God with love, not terror. The three-minute video has had over two million views in just the last two days.

Sri Lanka says it expects the death toll to rise in the country's worst flooding in nearly 14 years. More than 160 people are dead. Meanwhile, cyclone Mora has made landfall in Bangladesh. Let's get another update then from meteorologist Pedram Javaheri. Pedram?

JAVAHERI: Yes, Max. You know, some of the images we're seeing out of Sri Lanka right now really put it in perspective of what we're talking about the significance, the wide-reaching impacts. In fact, water levels in spots as high as 30 feet above what is considered normal. And of course, we know thousands have been displaced. But folks now are living at risk here in fear of crocodile attacks.

So you're talking about not only a lot of land being displaced, but also a lot of water moving into an area that was otherwise dry. So you look at the satellite imagery, it is rather quiet. That's excellent news, at least the last say 24 to 36 hours.

But the perspective of course is far different late last week when we had about 200-plus to almost 500 millimeter of rainfall come down in a matter of two days. That's roughly the amount you would see, say in London in an entire year we saw in two days across this region.

And again, the climatological normal position for the monsoon is exactly where it should be right there in the white hush line, that would be right around western Sri Lanka, that's where we saw some of the heaviest rainfall.

[03:54:59] Over the next several days we'll see this begin to shift a little farther towards the north. The additional heaviest rainfall now looks to fall somewhere near the State of Kerala, which would indicate the monsoons are officially here when that occurs in the next day or so.

But down towards the south, additional rainfall certainly could be problematic. But I don't really foresee it being tremendous rainfall as we saw last week. But still a good 80 to 90 percent chance we'll see storms flourish every single afternoon each of the next three days across that region of Sri Lanka.

To the north we go, that's where tropical cyclone Mora just made landfall early Tuesday morning. This particular storm strengthened to a category one equivalent disturbance. And as it move to shore we know at least four million people in the direct path of this storm system. The concern with this is the amount of water the storm is going to bring down.

Upwards of another 250 to maybe 500 millimeters, almost identical to what occurred down there towards Sri Lanka, we're going to see across this region of Bangladesh. And when you look at tropical cyclones, the way they take lives, typically, about 80 percent of the lives lost in all of these storms, Max, is associated with water-related activity, whether it be flooding or a storm surge. Very little has to do with winds.

This is a concern over this densely populated area with a lot of water in the forecast the next several days. Max.

FOSTER: OK. Pedram, thank you very much indeed for that.

Now, an Australian fisherman didn't realize he was going to need a bigger boat, and he's still trying to figure out how he survived after this great white shark jumped onto his tiny vessel. Seventy-three- year-old Terry Selwood said it happened on Saturday as he was fishing off Australia's East Coast. Rescuers say they found him covered in blood with lots of cuts on his right arm.

(BEGIN VOICE CLIP) TERRY SELWOOD, FISHERMAN: I don't think it's a big deal. The bloody thing just jumped in me boat. As he was coming down, he hit me on the arm, and knocked me off balance, of course, and I just fell down on me hands and knees and looked over to the side and there's this bloody shark.

This thing was beside me. And I looked over, and I thought, oh, a bloody shark. So I just climbed -- but he was doing a mad dance around, he was thrashing everywhere, so I got up as quick as I could, grabbed the rocket launcher up the top and I climbed up and looked down and said, I'll be buggered, there's a shark in my boat.

(END VOICE CLIP)

FOSTER: The shark didn't survive. It was handed over to authorities for an autopsy.

You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster. Back with a check of news for you after this short break. Stay with us.

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