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Qatar Losing Neighbors; Domino-like Attacks in Europe; Suspense-Packed Testimony; Simultaneous Attacks; British Voters Head to the Polls; Severing Ties; Warning to Human Rights Violators; Career Ruined by Leaking. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 7, 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] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Campaign crunch time. Polls open in less than 24 hours in the U.K.'s snap election. We will look at the big issues on voter's minds.

CNN exclusive on the Qatar diplomatic crisis, Russian meddling may have started all. We will explain.

Plus, the Comey testimony, we've learned the former FBI director will contradict the president's account of their conversation.

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

And we will get to those stories in just a minute, but first we have breaking news out of Iran. State-run press TV reports three people are wounded in a shooting at the country's parliament in the capital Tehran.

Earlier reports said there were multiple attackers but we are getting conflicting information right now on that. It may have been just a single gunman. We will of course bring you more information as we get it in here at CNN.

Well, to London now where police arrested a 30-year-old man early Wednesday in connection to Saturday's terror attack on London Bridge. The second major attack in this many weeks has push national security to the forefront as voters head to the polls on Thursday for a snap election.

Early projections suggest it will be far closer than originally thought. And Prime Minister Theresa May is ratcheting up her platform of strength and security in the home stretch. She told supporters Tuesday that she may change human rights laws for terror suspects to combat future threats.

Well, authorities are identifying the third London attack. Here on the right, 22-year-old Youssef Zaghba is believed to be an Italian of Moroccan descent. He was on an Italian watch list because authorities suspected he tried to travel to Syria.

And the attack ring leader here on the left may have been one of the most dangerous extremist in the United Kingdom. Twenty-seven-year-old Khuram Butt was investigated in 2015. That investigation was later downgraded because there was no evidence he was planning an attack.

Well, we are also getting personal details the lead attacker. Our Nic Robertson spoke with a former radical who knew him.

NIC ROBERTSON, INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR, CNN: A meeting of former radical, Jordan Horner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORDAN HORNER, FORMER EXTREMIST: That's the individual there.

ROBERTSON: This guy?

HORNER: This guy. Yes, that's the one.

ROBERTSON: Guy that you knew.

HORNER: Yes.

ROBERTSON: And you saw just a couple of weeks ago.

HORNER: Yes, I saw a couple of weeks ago inside the gym.

ROBERTSON: He knew Khuram Butt, the lead London attacker.

Looking at him now does it shock you?

HORNER: To be on this day from the last time he looks more of a sort of Youssef concern and I guess the way he's dressed and the way he looks. He looks more religious there than when I met him two or three weeks ago. He looks more...

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTSON: Was his beard shorter?

HORNER: Yes, he trims his beard. He was wearing western clothing so he was, here I would say I expect more extremism from him there than I did three weeks ago, and that's really...

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTSON: Really it kind of change his looks.

HORNER: Yes. His looks changed. You know, he wasn't, he didn't -- he wasn't wearing long robe so he wasn't wearing the turban, he didn't have a long beard.

ROBERTSON: Any hint from him at all that had change in some way that from the guy that you knew before.

HORNER: It was nothing and that's why still of shock to me and a shock to the people that knew him that he would do something like that. I know as well, you know, on a personal level I knew that he had the birth of his baby daughter a few weeks ago, a few months ago, so psychologically I can't understand how a man who's just, you know, had a baby is going to go in, you know, someone who just experienced and witnessed coming to the world is then going to go and take life from other people, you know.

ROBERTSON: What sort of guy was he like, what was he like?

HORNER: To be honest when I met him he was very, he was very humble and he was a quite individual. He never used to speak a lot. He was very sociable in terms of when he would speak to you he'd be very polite, you know, he would -- he would get along with a lot of people. I don't think I've ever seen him sort of disagree with anyone or argue with anyone. You know, when I saw him in the gym he was helping of a guy's out.

ROBERTSON: Any talk about going after Syria or Iraq from him?

HORNER: He never spoke to me about any of those issues, you know. And I don't think personally he'd spoke to anyone else in the gym because there are numerous training partners I had never mentioned of anything about him and that myself that will shock as well.

ROBERTSON: So a lot of people are asking the question, you know, how can a guy who's been on the radar with police and MI5 get away with an attack like this?

HORNER: Because I was involved in extremism and radicalization at one point in my life and I saw numerous individuals live a numerous life, not that MI5 have set up in this at 3,000 extremist that they need to monitor.

[03:04:59] Now, any time anyone of those can make the decision to pick a knife and run a van and cause chaos in the streets of London.

ROBERTSON: Do you think there's still people out there who could do more than...

(CROSSTALK)

HORNER: The thing is you just never know. The thing is you never know like, if he was to tell me that an individual is going to and done this, you know, without telling me the name and he was to tell me that I know that individual, to be honest with you I would have mentioned dozen other names, maybe hundreds of other names of people that I thought would have been.

ROBERTSON: From your perspective there's a possibility there's a lot more people out there who need to be stopped.

HORNER: Like I said, you know, many of individuals I would have thought had done this but they've never done nothing like that. And an individual I thought would have done it has done that to be the one who have done it. So, for me it's very difficult to understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

CHURCH: And just days after these attacks British voters are preparing to cast their votes on Thursday.

Our Nina Dos Santos joins us live from London's Abingdon Green. So, Nina, when Prime Minister Theresa May called this snap election she was enjoying a very comfortable lead. Now there's talk of a possibility of a hung parliament. What happened?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CORRESPPONDENT, CNN: Yes. Well, that lead was originally something like 18.5 points, nd now she's right down according to the latest polls to run about 3 points difference with the Labour Party. One poll for the Daily Telegraph newspaper actually put the difference that as slim as 1 point, Rosemary.

And a lot of this has to do with voter exhaustion, remember that this is country that went to the polls only two years ago and Theresa May had repeatedly said she didn't want to call a general election but then she seems to have changed her mind.

And there were many other U-turns as well throughout the course of this campaign, notably on the issue social care whether some of the elderly voters who formed the bedrock of Tory Party support would see some of their wealth particularly in their houses and the homes that they are enough to pay their mortgages from and be unlocked and that would be used posthumously to pay for their care.

So, she did make U-turns on a number of these things but the damage had already been done. And add to that the fact that a lot of the campaigning had been particularly nasty when it came having been pointed at Jeremy Corbyn she's repeatedly criticized him as being weak on issues like security and also on the economy.

Yes, those are his weak points but his supporters will say that in Theresa May's manifesto there isn't enough to combat issues like ending austerity and inequality. So all of this seems to made for a very shrinking margin in the polls.

And remember of course, she didn't take part in some of the big TV debate, she instead her number two the Home Secretary Amber Rudd, that again didn't look good. It looks as though to some of her critics she was running scared and all of this has played out in the polls, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And Nina, on Tuesday, Theresa May revealed that she may change human rights laws for terror suspects. What exactly is she planning to do, what are the specifics and could this perhaps sway voters?

DOS SANTOS: Well, we don't know the exact specifics of what she's going to propose here but as you can imagine she is again taking aim at the European human rights convention, something that she did till came out when she was home secretary for six years before stepping into the shoes of David Cameron as Prime Minister about a year or so ago after the Brexit vote. She said that she could tear up some of those key parts of those human

rights legislation that prevent she says, British authorities from deporting people who suspected of terrorist offenses. And also restricting their movements if their suspected of planning some kind of attack but they don't yet have enough evidence as to whether or not they are actually going to go ahead with those kinds of plans.

But all of this easier said than done, remember, Rosemary, a lot of the individuals who are responsible for the Manchester attacks, the Westminster attack and also this recent London Bridge attack, remember, they were British nationals. Some of them may have been abroad but it's not said and done that they necessarily have passports from those countries, so where would you deport them too?

And remember, if you want to try and deport somebody to another country it's very difficult for authorities of here because they have to prove that those people would be going back to countries where they wouldn't face torture.

So, it's very, very difficult to try and put some of these measures that she's talking about into place. Remember, she also wants to try in get technology companies on board to remove what she calls safe havens out there in the internet where extremist views are aired sometimes in the open and also some of these individuals are able to plan attacks to anonymous encrypted and to an encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp, Telegram, and so on and so forth.

And she said that she needs a complete overhaul of some of the counterterrorism legislation that she gets in to number 10 Downing Street for another term for the conservative party. The big question is, will she manage to be able to get any of those measures who on which exact ones would be relevant to the situations that we base in these three last attacks. Rosemary?

[03:10:03] CHURCH: All right. Our Nina Dos Santos with analysis there, just hours, in fact, ahead of the snap election. We'll have more on this later in the show. But Nina joining us there from London, just after 8 in the morning. Many thanks.

Well, authorities say the man who attacked a police officer with a hammer near the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris shouted "this is for Syria."

Inside the church hundreds of people took refuge as police confronted the suspect. A 40-year-old Algerian student. One officer shot the man in the chest. Investigators had opened an anti-terror enquiry into the attack. They believed the man acted alone.

Well, we are following several major stories on Russia's allege meddling in other country's affairs. First, the U.S. presidential election and Moscow's ties to the Trump campaign. Former FBI Director James Comey is expected to dispute Donald Trump' claim that Comey said he was not under investigation.

Also, heated exchanges between Mr. Trump and his Attorney General over Jeff Sessions decision to recuse himself in the Russia probe. A top administration official says Sessions told the president "if you're not happy with me I don't have to stay."

And a CNN exclusive, U.S. investigators believed fake news planted by Russia is partly to blame for a growing rift between Qatar and its neighbors. Well, nine countries have now cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. And the FBI has sent a team to Doha to look into the hacking of the country's state news agency.

Qatar's neighbors say it provides financial support for extremist groups. That's a sentiment echoed by U.S. President Donald Trump. He tweeted this. "During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that they can no longer be funding of radical ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar. Look."

Meanwhile, the Pentagon isn't ready to abandon Qatar just yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We continue to be grateful of the Qataris for their long standing support for our presence and their enduring commitment to regional security. We have no plans to change our posture in Qatar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, for more on the Qatar crisis, let's bring in CNN's Muhammad Lila in Abu Dhabi and CNN's Clare Sebastian in Moscow.

Good to see you both.

So let's start with Muhammad. Just three weeks ago, U.S. President Donald Trump indicated he was very happy with relations with Qatar. Now we're seeing a very different picture and Qatar is being isolated in the region by its neighbors. What has happened to bring it to this point?

MUHAMMAD LILA, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, some would say what happened was a $100 billion weapons deal that Saudi Arabia sieged with the United States but there's no question that Saudi Arabia has become emboldened after President Trump's visit and many, many positive things he had to say about Saudi Arabia.

We know that in terms of foreign policy Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have been very close, they've been in lockstep in terms of their positions whether it has to do with Yemen or the conflict in Syria and especially the threat that they believed is posed by Iran.

And of course, for a long time Qatar has been seen as the black sheep of the GCC, that's the Gulf Cooperation Council, a group of countries here in the Gulf that have a regional alliance.

But you saw some of those images earlier of President Trump visiting when he visited Saudi Arabia meeting with Qatar's ruler. It's very important for context to see what President Trump said when he met with Qatar's ruler. Here's a very small excerpt of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much, everybody. We have some wonderful meetings going on over the last two days. We are friends. We've been friends now for a long time, and relationship is extremely good. We have some very serious discussions right now going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LILA: And so if you look at that Donald Trump saying that the relationship between United States and Qatar was very good. Fast forward to three weeks later, Donald Trump is now tweeting basically siding with the Saudis and saying Qatar needs to be held accountable for financing terror groups.

And I think this sort of rapid isolation, if you will, of Qatar certainly would have Qatari officials off-guard because there have been disagreement in the past among Gulf countries specifically amongst the Sunni Arab monarchies but it's never resulted in such a severing of ties, not just diplomatic ties but effectively almost everything where a Qatari nationals in these countries have been told that they leave.

And you know, if you're in Qatar you can't even board an aircraft right now that's going to one of these countries because they won't let you board. That's how serious this point has gotten, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And Clare, I want to go to you now. We have of course learned that the Russian hackers were behind the fake story that triggered the rift between Qatar and its neighbors. Presumably the Russians aren't saying anything about this.

[03:15:01] CLARE SEBASTIAN, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: No. Absolutely, no, Rosemary. No official comment as yet, although there is that coverage of the story in state media citing CNN's report there.

But you know, this has been the official lines for at least the last few weeks and months that Russia does not give any credence to any reports that it has, you know, governments once said hacking or influence campaigns. Basically it's just saying that this is more evidence of anti-Russian sentiment.

The foreign minister, in fact, yesterday called it anti-Russian bacchanalia, a very colorful word there particularly from the U.S. media. But another case in point, you know, yesterday when the NSA report was leaked by the, or to the intercept initially we ask the Kremlin about this.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov telling us that he hasn't seen any information about it and that he was going to comment. We ask him if he didn't look at that report first published in the intercepts. And he said no. But you know, in the middle of this, Rosemary, you really do get the sense that they are really trying to put a littleness in a sense of, you know, disbelief and frustration perhaps even among ordinary Russians that Russian hacker seem to be blamed for many different things around the world. And I think whether or not, you know, Russia was behind this. This is a very serious allegation that's been made by, you know, these FBI investigators said in the CNN report. And I think we are going to see this that you know, a level of kind of denial mixed with -- mixed with frustrations from the authorities today as the day goes on.

CHURCH: Yes, no doubt. Clare Sebastian in Moscow. Muhammad Lila in Abu Dhabi. Thank you both for joining us with your live reports. I appreciate that.

And Qatar is strongly denying the allegation that it supports terrorist groups. The country's foreign minister spoke to CNN's Becky Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED BIN ABDULRAHMAN BIN JASSIM AL THANI, QATARI FOREIGN MINISTER: President Trump said that he's talking about combating funding of Islamist ideology. And to all of us we are combating the funding of any terrorist groups.

And actually during the conversation with unite -- with the President of United States between him and his highness, he has -- he has raise this issue that this is the funding of terrorism need to be stop by different countries.

And he told us that Iran, a lot of reports that mentioning Qatar and Saudi and other countries and we told him that those reports based on media information which is not really based on evidence and we are -- we are willing to sit down and talk.

BECKY ANDERSON, HOST, CNN: Well, let me just reiterate then the accusations against Qatar. Saudi says that it is capsized because, and I quote, "of your country's embraced of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region."

They say, "That includes the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, Islamic state and groups supported by Iran i Saudi Arabia's rest of eastern province of Qatif."

Is that true or false?

AL THANI: With all the respect but this statement is full of contradiction it's saying that we are supporting Iran and from the other hand we are supporting the extremist groups in Syria and we are supporting Muslim Brotherhood in Saudi or in Yemen and we are supporting the Houthis from the other side.

And they are in all battlefields they are adversaries. And about our support to the Saudi opposition or the sectarian moves in al-Qatif this is totally false information. And actually the cooperation between our security and intelligence agencies between Qatar and Saudi has been -- has been serving the purpose of the national security of Saudi.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: And we will hear the other side of the story from the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, that's coming up in our next half hour.

But first, the former director of the FBI is close to breaking his silence. Ahead, what James Comey will say about his conversations with President Trump? And into the lion's den, U.S.-backed forces launch a critical and dangerous offensive to take back ISIS' self-proclaimed capital.

We're with that and more.

[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back. We have an update on our breaking news out of Iran. The semiofficial Fars News Agency reports two people have been wounded in a shooting spree and bomb attack at Ayatollah Khomeini Mausoleum in southern Tehran. Now that follows a shooting attack at Iran's parliament which press TV reports that three people wounded.

Do stay with us here on CNN for the latest developments as we get more information in.

Well, as we mention, the highly anticipated testimony of former FBI Director James Comey is scheduled for Thursday. The New York Times reports the day after President Trump ask Comey to end an investigation into the former national security adviser.

Comey ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to leave him alone again with the president. While a picture emerges of Comey trying to shield the FBI from White House influence. President Trump described a more cordial scenario to NBC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We had a very nice dinner at the White House very early on.

(CROSSTALK)

LESTER HOLT, HOST, NBC NEWS: He ask for the dinner.

TRUMP: A dinner was arranged, I think he ask for the dinner and he wanted to say on as the FBI head, and I said, you know, consider we'll see what happened. But we had a very nice dinner and at that time he told me you are not under investigation, which I knew anyway.

So he said it once at dinner and then he said it twice during phone call.

HOLT: Did you call him?

TRUMP: In one case I called him. In one case he called me.

HOLT: And did you ask him are you under investigation?

TRUMP: I actually ask him, yes. I said, if it's possible would you let me know am I under investigation? He said, "you are not under investigation."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's chief political analyst, Gloria Borger spoke with Anderson Cooper about Comey's upcoming testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLORIA BORGER, CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST, CNN: Eric Lichtblau, Jake Tapper and I are learning that James Comey is going to dispute President Trump when President Trump said he was assured three times that he was not under any kind of investigation, rather our sources say that Comey is expected to tell senators that he never gave Trump such assurances.

Although one source without getting into the details of exactly what Comey will say hinted to me today that perhaps the president misunderstood or misinterpreted the exact language that Comey was using to talk about any investigations.

Because as you know, Anderson, these things can be sort of complex whether you're the target or the subject or whether it's the counterintelligence investigation or some other kind of investigation that perhaps Comey was hedging his words because he's a pretty select guy in a way that the president perhaps misunderstood.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, CNN: Right. But if the president misunderstood the president says that Comey told him these three times.

BORGER: Point blank.

COOPER: Right.

BORGER: Yes, right.

COOPER: The big question obviously is whether James Comey is going to suggest that president tried to obstruct justice.

BORGER: And he won't do that. I mean, we know that what Comey is going to do is he's going to testify as a fact witness. He is going to talk about his meetings with the president. We're not sure whether he's going to read from his memos, we know the Congress has ask for those memos and they haven't gotten them.

But he is going to recount exactly what occurred. But sources talking to us saying he is not going to be in the business of legal analysis, he's going to leave the prosecution if there is one up to the special counsel Mueller. But instead he's just going to appear and tell members of Congress what happened.

[03:24:57] Now my source said to me, look, will people walk out of that room saying, yes, the president obstruct the justice. He said maybe some will, but that's a political judgment and it's not a legal judgment and Comey is not willing to offer either one.

COOPER: So even if he believed personally it was his personal opinion was that President Trump obstruction of justice he's not going to say that, he's going to leave it up. He's just going to try to report the fact.

BORGER: Right. Right. And he's going to say, you know, there are series of meetings and one source suggested to me that in hindsight things could look very differently than they did at that time.

COOPER: All right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Gloria Borger there, talking to Anderson Cooper.

U.S.-backed forces in Syria had launched what could be the most important fight yet against ISIS. The offensive to retake Raqqah, the terror group's self-declared capital. Syrian democratic forces have the city surrounded on three sides but they anticipate a long and difficult battle in Raqqah's tight quarters.

CNN's Ivan Watson reports.

IVAN WATSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: U.S. officials they say that ISIS has used Raqqah as a staging ground for its deadly attacks on the Middle East and further overseas. Capturing Raqqah would effectively bring an end to ISIS and its brutal experiment at creating an Islamic state in the Middle East.

But to do that Syria's growing factions and their rival foreign patrons would have to stop trying to kill each other to unite against ISIS. Syrian rebels they're locked in a deadly power struggle with the Syrian government and its allies, Russia, Iran, and the Lebanese movement, Hezbollah.

The most effective enemy against ISIS on the ground are the Syrian Kurdish fighters known as the YPG. The U.S. has supported them with air strikes and weapons. But another key U.S. ally Turkey hates the Syrian Kurds and periodically bombs them.

CHURCH: CNN's Arwa Damon has been reporting from Mosul in Iraq and she has a virtual reality piece on our web site that helps to understand what life is like there now. It's an immersive 360-degree look at the devastation in the city. You can take a look at that cnn.com/vr.

Well, British voters are off to the polls on Thursday and what looked like a landslide just a month ago could be much closer than anyone thought.

Plus, growing country off of Qatar as more countries move to isolate the country over its allege support of extremist groups. Who's coming to Doha's defense, we'll take a look.

Back in a moment.

[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: And we are following breaking news out of Tehran, where attackers have struck Iran's parliament and the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini. Iranian media report a number of people have been wounded.

We want to bring in CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr, joining us on the line from just outside the parliament in Tehran. So what all do you know about this?

SHIRZAD BOZORGMEHR, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, not much really. It happened couple of hours ago and early reports said that just a lone gunman, then there's could be more than that, then came a report of the attack under mausoleum which is about 80 miles from somewhere parliament is.

It seems like it's kind of related incident but nothing has really come to it yet. Most of it is hearsay, but at the Bahari Square (Ph) where the parliament is located. And there are several, several (Inaudible) and police cars, special units surrounding the place. And I haven't myself heard any shooting but I've talked to people who said there are shooting from inside and outside parliament a little earlier.

So everything right now is not concerned. All we know is that attack have taken place in parliament in Tehran. Injuries have been reported, we don't know how many exactly. Also concerns with that there were attacks made inside the mausoleum of Khomeini south of Tehran about 80 miles.

Yesterday and what we know right now we have to wait and get confirmation, official confirmation in a little while. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right. We will wait and certainly do that. Shirzad Bozorgmehr joining us on the line there from Tehran. We'll bring you more information as it comes into us.

British voters head to the polls Thursday for a snap election. Most polls put Prime Minister Theresa May's conservative party in the lead and a heightened focus on national security could strengthen her case. Her biggest rival Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party has been gaining in recent weeks.

The polling company YouGov puts the conservatives at 42 percent, labour at 38 and the Liberal Democrats at 9 percent. It projects no outright winner, meaning a hung parliament.

And CNN political commentator Robin Oakley joins me now from London's Abingdon Green to talk more about this. So Robin, why has this suddenly becomes such a tight race so close now that it could even end in hung parliament. Extraordinary.

ROBIN OAKLEY, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN: Well, those are amazingly close polls. When this election started, Rosemary, it looked like an absolute foregone conclusion. Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party had been much criticized three causes of his own M.P.'s in parliament tried to get rid of him as leader of the party, let alone as leader of the country.

It looked as though it's going to be a victory procession for Theresa May and she went to the country very much with the pitch of strong and stable government. Give me more backing in parliament for the negotiations coming up with the European Union on Brexit which start 11 days after this election campaign finishes, Rosemary.

But it hasn't worked out like that during the campaign. The Tory campaign has been robotic. Tory and Theresa May hasn't really answered questions, she stopped to very obviously slogans.

Jeremy Corbyn has proved to be an effective campaigner and is really tuned into the British public's distaste really for many years of austerity trying to balance the budgets in this country which is seen a cutback in the wages and living standards.

And he has been able to tune into that, he's got young voters are flocking to him. The question is whether those young writers will actually turn out tomorrow and vote because older people tend to go to the polls and young people are more into either stay bed whatever their opinions, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, and that was what we saw with the Brexit vote, isn't it, and the young people very angry after the fact that maybe that will have an impact, but what are the other issues that could sway voters, what could change the outcome here.

[03:35:03] OAKLEY: Well, another key factor is what happens to the votes which went at the last general election to UKIP, United Kingdom Independence Party. The party which kicked off the hell of Brexit debate. They had 3.8 million votes at the last general election. Twelve percent of the vote.

Now in many seats this time around UKIP standing that many people feel that they have achieved their objective is not much point in the party anymore. Now where are those UKIP voters are going to go this time around. Most people now assume that the bulk of them will go to the conservative party because Theresa May has insisted Brexit means Brexit, there will be no second voters as far as she is concerned and she has promised a tough line on Europe.

So you would expect most of those former UKIP voters to go with the Tory's. The question is whether some of the traditional labour supporters who went UKIP last time around will now revert to Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party although Jeremy Corbyn is a progressive left- wing labor leader has not appealed altogether to some of the parties traditional stalwarts in the north of England, Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Robin Oakley joining us there from London. It is just after 8.30 in the morning on a Wednesday. The vote begins Thursday. Many thanks to you, Robin.

Well, a growing list of countries is now shining Qatar in a diplomatic dispute over Doha's allege support for extremist groups. Nine countries have now lined up against Qatar including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. But not everyone in the region is on board. Listen to Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (through translator): Trying to isolate Qatar which certainly carries out an efficient fight against terrorism will not contribute to resolving any problems. I hope that all sanctions against Qatar will be lifted as soon as possible because I believe that classifying Qatar as a terror suspect is a severe accusation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, the United Arab Emirates sees things differently. The country's foreign minister spoke with CNN's John Defterios in this exclusive interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANWAR MOHAMMED GARGASH, UAE FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER: The first thing is to make it clear that, you know, the various countries Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Egypt and other countries are, you know, adapt with this sort of duplicity that we've seen that has been undermining the region. And to send a strong message that this is, you know, time for cooler heads to restructure Qatar's approach on foreign policy.

JOHN DEFTERIOS, EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR, CNN: So many think that this coalition is emboldened after the visit, though, President Trump as sources tell me inside that meeting Qatar took a very hard line.

GARGASH: Well, I think the important thing the Riyadh declaration and the Riyadh conference was extremely successful in addressing the issue of extremism and terrorism in black and white. And I think you know, basically the Qatari position undermines the sort of consensus that is, that was shaped in Riyadh, is we need to make sure that there is a difference and a clear difference between running an independent foreign policy, and running and undermining foreign policy.

And I think this is something that we have to be very cognizant of.

DEFTERIOS: Let me be very candid, you see Qatar remaining as a member of the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council after this?

GARGASH: Well, I hope so. I mean, the GCC is a very successful regional group.

DEFTERIOS: So you don't agree with that. You think it's going to leave broken.

GARGASH: No. The numbers, you know, the numbers speak louder. It will all depend on how Qatar wants to address the issue. Does it want to deny that there is a problem and to try and deal with it with its various media outlets and to try and divert the issue, does it want to address the issue head on and see that you know, past policies have, have been a problem. And I have to remind you again and see that the Emir of Qatar in 2014

clearly said that whatever happens before I became emir I'm not responsible for. I am responsible for the record of Qatar after I have assumed the emirate chief of Qatar.

DEFTERIOS: And you're suggesting that it hasn't any...

(CROSSTALK)

GARGASH: I'm suggesting that it hasn't and we do need a change because it is undermining regional security and it is undermining our attempts at countering the extremist and terrorist narrative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. puts its human rights council on notice change or we might leave. The reason, that's coming up next.

[03:40:04] Plus, the accuser in the sexual offense trial of TV star Bill Cosby takes to the stand. What she says Cosby did to her. That's next.

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CHURCH: Updating our breaking news out of Iran. Now the semiofficial Fars News Agency reports two people have been wounded in a shooting spree and bomb attack at Ayatollah Khomeini's Mausoleum in southern Tehran. Now that report says a woman has been arrested there around the same time, there was also a shooting attack in Iran's parliament. Press TV reports, three people were wounded there.

And do stay with CNN for the latest as we get more information in we will of course share it with you.

Well, former U.S. President Barack Obama took a thinly veiled dig at President Donald Trump for pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord.

Our Paula Newton reports from Montreal in Canada.

PAULA NEWTON, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: At the speech here in Montreal, Barack Obama stop very close to what he has always promise to not criticized the administration in power. He did not mention Donald Trump by name, just continued to say the current administration.

What he did do though, was absolutely indicate that he believes that the climate agreement will in some way, shape or form before and progress even is what he called the current administration have fold of it. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In Paris we came together to run the most ambitious agreement in history to fight climate change. An agreement that even with the temporary absence in American leadership will still give our children a fighting chance. (APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: What's important there is that word temporary. He also said that it gave him comfort to see the protests and the people in states themselves, state like California continuing to support the principles of that climate agreement.

Having said that, this could not have been a friendlier room for Barack Obama. It would have been hard press to democrats to greet him more warmly and know that the kind of speeches you will him to do over the months to come and as much as everyone wants to hear his real thoughts on the Trump administration.

Once again, I think it was not forthcoming. He did make one illusion to Twitter feed, sometime seemingly bad news or even fake news. But again, the word Donald Trump was never uttered.

Paula Newton, CNN, Montreal.

CHURCH: The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is slamming the U.N.'s Human Rights Council over its treatment of Israel. Nikki Haley accused the body of a relentless pathological campaign and appeared to threaten U.S. withdrawal if it fails to change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: As you know the United States is looking carefully at this council and our participation in it. We see some areas for significant strengthening.

[03:45:01] It's hard to accept that this council has never considered a resolution on Venezuela and yet, it adopted five bias resolutions in March against the single country Israel.

It is essential that this council addressed its chronic anti-Israel bias if it is to have any credibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us now from Jerusalem with more on this. So Oren, how is this all being received in Israel and what specific treatment is Nikki Haley referring to here?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, she put out a few steps that she says the U.N. Human Rights Council needs to undertake for to remove what she calls its bias. One of those is removing a specific agenda item for Israel for resolutions condemning Israel. Another is open voting and to see who voted for members of the Human Rights Council. We should point out that some member countries on the council are human rights violators themselves.

But because of how the voting works they're allowed to get on. Ambassador Nikki Haley is very much the star of the Trump administration from the perspective of the Israelis and specifically because of what she said yesterday in Geneva and what she said before. She has gone after the perceived anti-Israel bias of the U.N. and she keeps doing it and that's why she has such a big star here.

Just a few weeks ago she also said that the U.S. should move the embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. We'll be watching very closely what she says here. First, because of who she is meeting with. Right now she is meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but also because what she says is of course significant.

Will she tiptoe around the issues and makes sure not to offend anyone like President Donald Trump did when he was here just a couple of weeks ago, or will she dive right in and risk of setting one of the sides here as Trump continues to try to pursue a peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians.

CHURCH: So what exactly would be the likely impact of the U.S. dropping out of the U.N. Human Rights Council?

LIEBERMANN: It's been done before. President George W. Bush pulled the U.S. from his Human Rights Council for many of the same reasons because of problems he saw in the Human Rights Council. It's largely a symbolic step, a move of protest although they could also pull funding from the Human Rights Council which could create some bigger issues.

The problem is that it removes U.S. influence. So it removes the U.S.'s ability to try to influence our vote on the Human Rights Council to not be there. So it has its pros and its cons. The big question is will it happen and will what Ambassador Haley said influence the way the Human Rights Council approaches its work. For that we'll see.

CHURCH: Watching very closely Oren Liebermann. Many thanks, joining us from Jerusalem where it is nearly 11 o'clock in the morning.

A dramatic day of testimony in the sexual offense trial of comedian and TV star Bill Cosby once known as America's dad accused Andrea Constand painted a picture of a man nothing like the character he played on television. She testified he drugged her and sexually assaulted her.

Our Jean Casarez has more.

JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: The accuser in this criminal case, Andrea Constand took the stand yesterday. We have never heard from her before, she has never spoken out because of a confidentiality agreement due to a civil suit settlement with Bill Cosby in 2006. But for the first time under oath she gave her story of what she says happened to her at the hands of Bill Cosby.

She talks about him being her mentor that she knew him for a while, she worked at Temple. He was a very big supporter and on the Board of Trustees at Temple University but at one point she decided she was going home to Canada. He invited her to her home to talk about the career change. She said

she was very upset by having to change careers but it was something she needed to do. He presented her retrieval blue pills. He told her to take them. She said "three?" "They are your friends they'll help you feel better. Down them." She said, "they are herbal?" He said "yes." She took them.

Twenty to 30 minutes later she said she started having slurred speech. Her vision was blurred. She was seen double vision at one point. White substance was foaming on the side of her mouth.

She then decided that she needed to sit down. He helped her to sofa later on her side and then at that point she said she went out. She doesn't remember anything but something jolt her awake and she doesn't know how long that was but she was being assaulted, sexually assaulted she says by Bill Cosby.

On cross-examination, the defense made a very big point to say after you were sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby as you say it until the time you called police one year later, you called Bill Cosby 72 times on the phone. They also talked about inconsistencies and differences in her story to police she would admit that yes, this didn't happen this way in my original police report, but I was very nervous, but I was wrong. That's not how it happened.

[03:50:03] Cross-examination continues on Wednesday in the criminal case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania versus Bill Cosby.

Back to you.

CHURCH: Well, sources tell CNN that ridesharing company Uber has fired 20 employees as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at the company. Uber has been dealing with allegations of systemic sexism since February. One of its former engineers published a blog post laying out detailed accounts of misconduct and insufficient measures to address them.

The company later hired lawyers to perform an independent review of the company's culture. Some of those findings were presented to employees last week but they haven't been made public at this time.

A young U.S. federal contractor is now in jail charged with leaking classified information. Ahead, what we are learning about Reality Winner and those documents.

Back in a moment.

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CHURCH: Well, we are following breaking news out of Iran where a number of people are wounded in attacks on the country's parliament and the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini. Iranian media reported a shooting spree and bomb attacks at Khomeini's shrines south of Tehran has left two people hurt. A woman has been arrested there and the second attacker is reportedly surrounded by police. Now around the same time three people were wounded in a shooting at the country's heavily fortified parliament. We're watching this very closely so do stay with us at CNN for the latest as we get more information here. We will of course share it with you.

A 25-year-old federal contractor is at the center of an investigation involving alleged Russian hacking and leaked classified documents.

Diane Gallagher reports on the online report and the woman accused of being behind it.

DIANE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: The five-page document which was posted online is allegedly a top-secret National Security Agency report that detail specific about how the government believe the GRU, Russia's military intelligence wing work to hack into election system including sending phishing e-mail to local election official in an attempt to steal their login credentials.

The e-mails included documents with viruses hidden inside that if open could help the hackers get access to files on the user's computers.

On Capitol Hill this morning the homeland security secretary as grilled on what the U.S. could do to prevent such a breach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, (D) UNITED STATES SENATOR: It's clear they were trying to get into that voter files and I do not think they were going there to try to just hang.

MARK WARNER, (D) UNITED STATES SENATOR: There is a lot of drama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Senator Mark Warner the top on the intelligence committee said today the Russian hacking attempts were broader and targeted more states than previously revealed. Telling USA Today, the attempted breaches didn't stop on Election Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCASKILL: Imagine the disruption if thousands of people showed up to vote and their names were no longer on the voter files. What would we do?

JOHN KELLY, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: I share your concern. I don't disagree with anything you said relative to the sanctity of our voting process. There is nothing more fundamental to our democracy in voting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Tonight as Congress question the details of the new reports the Justice Department is focused on the person who it said leaked it. [03:54:59] Sources tell CNN the NSA report was given to the online news site The Intercept by this 25-year-old government contractor, Reality Lee Winner, a former Air Force linguist who was previously assigned to the NSA. Winner left the Air Force in December of 2016. And this February working at Pluribus International Corporation, a Georgia company that contracts with the NSA.

Apparently frustrated by the comments she read online that there was no evidence of Russia hacking the election, last month the Justice Department said that Winner printed the confidential report and mailed to reporters. Over the weekend she was arrested at her home after allegedly admitting to taking the document.

Tonight, Winner is in this jail in Lincolnton, Georgia facing charges of removing and mailing classified materials to a news outlet. Her mother tell CNN she's an athlete who loves animals and she doesn't know her daughter to be particularly political or to admire famous leakers.

But twisted an account that appeared to belong to Winner tell a different story. She allegedly followed just 50 accounts including Edward Snowden and the hacking group, known as anonymous and tweets on the accounts express disdain for Donald Trump, including on February 11th when she allegedly responded to a tweet from the president about refugees writing, "The most dangerous entry to this country was the orange fascist we let into the White House."

Tonight, Winner's lawyer tell CNN she is quote, "not a traitor. She is a veteran."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TITUS NICHOLS, REALITY WINNER'S ATTORNEY: Now she's been pulled into this political wind storm where there is a much larger debate going on that this administration is choosing not to focus on. Instead of focusing on the question of was Russia involved in interfering with the election now focusing on whether or not or the extent of punishment for this low-level government employee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Washington.

CHURCH: OK. So we don't often do celebrity birth announcement on this show, but we had to make an exception for this one because it was just too cheeky. Here's the statement. This morning, Amal and George welcomed Ella and Alexander Clooney into their lives. Ella Alexander and Amal are all healthy, happy and doing fine. Georgia sedated and should recover in a few days.

The actor has often joked of course about being a a first-time dad at the age of 56. The twins are first children for the couple. Congratulations to you both.

Well, from CNN headquarters here in Atlanta I'm Rosemary Church. Do stay with us. Max Foster will have the very latest on our breaking news out of Iran where simultaneous have wounded at least five people at the country's parliament and a prominent mausoleum.

You're watching CNN. Have a great day.

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