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Heated GOP Bill; Tragedy in the Sea; Burned into Ashes; Surprise Raid; ISIS Spread Terrorism in SE Asia. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 26, 2017 - 03:00   ET

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


(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Casting doubt. Some Republican Senators are calling for more time to debate the party's controversial bill to replace Obamacare.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: In Pakistan, more than 150 people are now confirmed dead this after a fuel tanker exploded.

CHURCH: And an exclusive interview with a man who fought for ISIS- linked militants in the Philippines.

HOWELL: Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm George Howell.

CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

HOWELL: Good day to you. Fair to say it's a crucial week for healthcare in the United States. On the line, insurance coverage for millions of Americans.

The U.S. President is hoping to make good on a campaign promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, dubbed as Obamacare. Republican leaders are aiming to hold a vote on the new healthcare legislation this week, but the Senate bill, in its current form, does not appear to have enough votes to pass.

CHURCH: So President Trump is working the phones, he's trying to convince reluctant Republican Senators to change their minds. Listen to how the Trump administration is defending the Senate plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM PRICE, SECRETARY OF HUMAN AND HEALTH SERVICES: The plan that we have would not allow individuals to fall through the cracks. We would not pull the rug out from anybody. We would not have individuals lose coverage that they want for themselves and for their family. We want to make certain that healthcare is available to all Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: As early as Monday the Congressional Budget Office is expected to give its analysis of how many people will lose coverage under the new plan. Our Athena Jones has more now.

ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, it's shaping up to be another monumental week in the Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, determined to hold a vote on the Senate's version of the repeal bill this week.

The problem is that, at least right now, there are enough Republican Senators who express opposition to this bill, to effectively kill it. Several others have expressed concerns about the bill. Conservatives fear that it is not go far enough to undo Obamacare.

Meanwhile, more moderate Senators feel that it might leave the needy, the most needy Americans behind. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, is particularly concerned about the cuts to Medicaid proposed in this bill, but the White House is arguing that the changes to that program should not be viewed as cuts.

Watch what Senator Collins and White House counsel Kellyanne Conway had to say about this on ABC's this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: It's certainly going to be very difficult. For my part, I'm very concerned about the cost of insurance for older people with serious, chronic illnesses and the impact of the Medicaid cuts on our state governments, the most vulnerable people in our society, and healthcare providers such as our rural hospitals and nursing home, most of whom are very dependent on the Medicaid program.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: These are not cuts to Medicaid, George. It slows the rate for the future and then allows governors more flexibility with Medicaid dollars because they are closest to the people in need.

Medicaid imperative its founding was meant to help the poor, the sick, the needy, the disabled, children, some elderly, women, particularly pregnant women. We are trying to get Medicaid back to his original mooring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So there you heard Conway arguing that stopping the expansion of Medicaid which was under Obamacare and then putting a cap the amount of money states will get for the program in the future is not the same thing as cutting it. Of course Senator Collins and other moderate GOP Senators and governors disagree.

I should also mention that the Congressional Budget Office, which scored an earlier version of the bill, the House version, which had similar changes to Medicaid, found that it would amount to more than $800 billion in cuts.

Now, we do expect we could get the CBO score of this latest bill version of the bill as soon as tomorrow, as soon as Monday. And that will go a long way to letting Senators know what the cost of the bill will be, what it's impact will be on the deficit, and of course how it will affect the American public, how many people stand to potentially lose insurance coverage.

President Trump himself has been hitting the phones. He's spoken with Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, to try to win them, to get this bill across the finish line. But Senate whip John Cornyn has acknowledged that it's going to be close. So there's a lot to watch out for this week. Back to you.

[03:05:01] CHURCH: Many thanks to Athena Jones there.

Meantime, President Trump is trying to shift the focus on the Russia investigation to his predecessor. The Washington Post detailed the Obama administration's struggle to respond to Russia's interference in the presidential election.

HOWELL: You'll remember, though, Mr. Trump seemed indifferent to the allegations, both throughout his campaign and after his election. But now the president says this.

Quote, "since the Obama administration was told way before the 2016 election that the Russians were meddling, why no action? Focus on them, not t, exclamation point." Exclamation point, says the president.

And the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee agrees that more should have been done. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: The American people needed to know, and I didn't think it was enough to tell them after the election, but rather given the seriousness of this, I think the administration needed to call out Russia earlier and needed to act to deter and punish Russia earlier and I think that was a very serious mistake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Inderjeet Parmar is a professor of international politics at City University of London and he joins us now from London. Many thanks, sir.

So let's start with the Russia investigation and Mr. Trump is, as we saw, trying to shift the blame and focus to his predecessor, Barack Obama. Is that likely to work for Mr. Trump? Will he get some traction with this?

INDERJEET PARMAR, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, CITY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Well, to some extent, it's a legitimate question. If while in office President Obama was aware of this interference, then the onus does fall on that -- on that administration to try to do its very best.

The key issue is, what was the response when Republican leaders were approached with this kind of information, and what was the basis upon which that strategy that Obama apparently adopted, to counter the interference, what was the strategy adopted, what was the evidence on which it was based?

So I don't think it's an illegitimate thing to say but it is kind of a deflection strategy. But I think there are other sort of issues which arise from the whole issue about Russian collusion and the Russian probe overall, which I hope we can go into in a moment.

CHURCH: Well, yes, I did want to go on to this other political battle that the president's facing, is the Senate health care bill, right, which looks like it's in trouble right now.

PARMAR: Yes.

CHURCH: Some Republicans are asking for more time to debate the changes. While GOP leaders push for a vote before the July 4th recess. After all this time, why the hurry? And if the vote moves too fast, could it kill the bill perhaps?

PARMAR: Yes. Well, the entire agenda, in certain respects, one is to do with health care, the fact that they don't like the particular bill which was passed. The other is really a game to secure the political base, which President Trump works very hard to try to maintain.

And I think the hurry is effectively to try to damage the one, which is the existing healthcare law, and to try to secure the other. And I do believe that this could be the undoing of this administration.

Because up to now, there has been very little tangible damage to a large core of his voting base on anything that President Trump has actually done. So when you look at the Muslim travel ban and the issues about the Mexican wall and so on, none of those tangibly affect his core base in terms of their pockets.

This healthcare bill is very likely to affect millions of his supporters, his voters, and so on. And I think there's a desire to try to deflect attention from that by putting it onto the healthcare act that Obama passed.

But I think there are some, if you like, some nods towards the fact that the Obamacare bill -- law was not as bad as it was made out for a long time. Some of the provisions appear to be maintained.

CHURCH: Interesting. I mean, there's strong words you're saying that this healthcare bill could be the undoing of the Trump administration. Of course we know the president himself apparently called the Senate healthcare bill "mean" and said he wanted to see a bill with "heart."

If that is how the president feels about it, why is he pushing so hard for this vote on this particular bill in its current form.

PARMAR: Well, the key issue is that there's going to be a massive cut in Medicaid going forward. And despite the denials that you had on your tape earlier on. The fact is, it kicks in around 2021, as I understand it. So I think there's an attempt to make a very, very large change, put

it into the future for when it really does begin to kick in, maintain a couple of the provisions of the Obamacare, which is to do with the under 26 age group, who can stay on their parents' policies, as well as anybody with pre-existing conditions.

[03:10:00] But I think going forward after 2021, this is going to hit a very large number of people.

The CBO report today is likely to show something along those kind of lines. I think this is a political maneuver in order to delay the impact of this law until after the next presidential election but say that now I'm nicely doing what I said I would do. I would undo the whole Obama kind of administration's attitude towards the state, towards health care, towards foreign policy, and so on.

And I think that is playing to that core base which he wants to secure, and up to now, actually, he's been very successful. But once it kicks in, I think a lot of his supporters will be severely impacted, and I think then that could be a big problem.

CHURCH: We'll be watching to see what happens. It is the issue of the week. Inderjeet Parmar, joining us there from London where it's just after 8 in the morning. Many thanks for your analysis and perspective. We appreciate it.

HOWELL: And out looking that CBO report, that will be telling for the future of this legislation for Trump care. While Senators consider the healthcare bill, millions of American families are worried about losing coverage for sick children.

Ethan is one of them. He was born with a rare genetic disorder, a condition where some organs form on the wrong side of the body. His mother Alison Chandra tweeted her son's latest hospital bill, and that went viral.

CHURCH: Yes. She wrote this. "It seems fitting that with the Trump care debate raging I got this bill in the mail today from Ethan's most recent open heart surgery." She paid just $500 after the rest was covered by insurance. But she says, without insurance, they would have owed about $231,000 for about two weeks in hospital. Incredible numbers.

HOWELL: Here's the thing. So the Senate bill could allow insurers to cover fewer services for people with pre-existing conditions like Alison's son who is now 3 years old. She's begging lawmakers to consider the fate of children like Ethan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISON CHANDRA, MOTHER OF CHILD WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITION: I don't think anyone can look a 2-year-old child in the face and say, I think that you're not worth it. But what they're doing with these bills, what they're doing with a lifetime cap is saying, you have, you've used up enough resources. I'm sorry that you were born sick and your mother chose life, and you were born sick. But now that life is not worth saving anymore. You can't be, you call

yourself pro life if you're not willing to be part of a system that protects the most vulnerable, protects live from birth to death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And that was Alison Chandra speaking to CNN's "NEW DAY" a little earlier. One of the most talked about provisions in the Senate health bill, the defunding of Planned Parenthood for one year. That could be a sticking point for at least two Senators, Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska. They say they will introduce an amendment to take that out.

HOWELL: Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen looks at how the funding cut could impact one mother in the U.S. State of California.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daddy's home.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Reporter: After suffering infertility and three miscarriages, Ariana and Kevin Gonzales were thrilled when Ariana became pregnant with daughter Bailey. But they were worried too.

ARIANA GONZALEZ, MOTHER: We needed to make sure that this pregnancy was going to stick and was going to be healthy. And in order to do that, off to Mexico we went.

COHEN: That's right. Off to Mexico. That's because the Gonzalez live in El Centro, California, in a county federally designated as a medically underserved area. Ariana has health insurance who her job as a high school teacher, but they're simply aren't enough doctors to go around. And so she was going to have to wait six weeks to see her obstetrician.

That's why Ariana was relieved when a Planned Parenthood clinic opened in her town filling the void. But now she's worried all over again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ayes for 217, and nays for 213.

COHEN: Because the American Health Care Act passed recently by the House of Representatives defunds Planned Parenthood, the new Senate proposal would do the same, that could force her clinic to close, the clinic where she gets birth control and gynecological care. And if it close she's be right back where she started.

COHEN: If your clinic closes down, you would leave your country to go get care?

GONZALEZ: Yes.

COHEN: To go their care.

GONZALEZ: Yes. And I know people might be thinking, that's a little bit drastic, and it is.

COHEN: She doesn't want to leave her country to see a doctor and face this long line at the border, but right here over the border in Mexico, there are plenty of doctors ready and waiting to see Americans.

Republicans say Ariana shouldn't worry, she'll have ready access to care in the United States. Because while the health care bill takes money away from Planned Parenthood, it provides $422 million to beef up federal health centers like this one in her town, that don't provide abortions.

[03:15:02] REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: For every Planned Parenthood, there are 20 federal community health centers. They're vastly bigger in network, there are so many more of them, and they provide these kinds of services without all the controversy surrounding this issue.

COHEN: But many experts say community health clinics can't fill the void left by Planned Parenthood closures, that they don't have the capacity.

So now Ariana has a message for Senators before they follow the house and vote to defund Planned Parenthood.

GONZALEZ: If their doors are shut, you'll be driving your own constituents to an entirely different country in search of healthcare. And that's not America.

COHEN: She says she hopes and prays that Senators won't send her away from her own country to see a doctor.

GONZALEZ: I think it's shameful and I think that they should be embarrassed.

COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, El Centro, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

Later Monday, President Trump will meet with the prime minister of India for the first time and the talks could be strained over several issues. The president wants to reduce America's trade deficit and currently there's a $24 billion trade imbalance with India.

CHURCH: Mr. Trump has also been critical of the popular H-1 B work visa. About 70 percent of those go to tech workers from India. And now that the U.S. has withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement, India is looking to take a leadership role on global warming issues.

We'll take a short break, but still to come, a tourist boat goes under and six people are dead with more than 30 still missing. What officials are learning about that incident. We're back in a moment.

All right. We'll take a short break here, but still to come, a tourist boat goes under and six people are dead with more than 30 still missing. What officials are learning about that incident?

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WORLD SPORTS)

CHURCH: In northwest, Colombia, at least six people have died after a tourist boat sank in a reservoir. More than 30 others are said to be missing. The boat was carrying around 170 people near the popular tourist town of Guatape.

HOWELL: It tilted from the side before the lower deck started taking on water. One survivor said there were no life vests on board.

Journalist Rafael Poveda has more details about what happened.

RAFAEL POVEDA, JOURNALIST: Colombian authorities fear the death toll could rise since at least 28 people have been reported missing and the first two floors of the vessel packed with passengers were the first to sink.

According to witnesses the boat was carrying at least 150 tourists sank in about 10 minutes. There were several boats that were on the water reservoir got quickly to the scene to help in the rescue. Water based are beautiful, manmade lake that filled with tourists on long weekends like this one since Monday.

Today is the Sacred Heart of Jesus holiday. Several passengers of the El Almirante or the Admiral boat, the name f the boat, have stated that they were not given life vests when they got into the vessel.

A few hours after the accident, President Juan Manuel Santos arrived in Guatape to personally assess the situation. Some people who witnessed the tragedy from the nearby shore say that the boat appeared to be overloaded.

But President Santos said it was sailing well below capacity. Authorities do not know exactly how many passengers were in the vessel because they didn't have a passengers list.

HOWELL: So, we're also following the aftermath of Saturday's deadly landslide in China. Journalists and rescue workers have been evacuated from the scene there. State media report there's another risk of another landslide at the site, again, that's where 90 people, more than 90 people are still missing.

CHURCH: And the disaster struck a village in Sichuan province Saturday burrying dozens of homes and killing at least 10 people. Authorities say 80,000 earthquake and recent rainfall led to that tragedy.

Well, extreme heat and high winds are fueling large fires in both southern Spain and the Western United State. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now with the details from the international weather center. And fires have been a problem in both of these areas, haven't they?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We have, yes. You know, we've seen extreme heat in both the areas that you explain there, western U.S. and also southern areas of Spain in particular.

I want to show you this. Because this is out of the Donana National Park in southern Spain, this is an area well known to a lot of people when it comes to just its beautiful landscape. We're talking about an area these 50,000 hectares of land that covers a region where birds migrate out of Africa into Europe and of course when you look at this particular region, the wetlands, the woods in this particular area, a lot of biodiversity in this region as well.

The extreme heat has been there. We have a few storms just outside of this region. And unfortunately any wet weather that's come down that's come down has been generally just north of the area of concern, which is while in the southern portion there of Spain, just southwest of Sevilla.

And that's where the winds in the next couple of days we think will actually shift and come a little more off a marine environment. So we'll get a cooler temps at least in store for the next couple of days. And the showers again generally scattered in nature as you work your way towards the southern portion of Spain over the next several days.

But when you take a look at the perspective of how much rainfall you want, if anything were to fall, you still need a significant amount to make a difference in these sort of scenarios. In fact, about a half an inch is what it takes to stop a wildfire from spreading which is about say 10 to 15 millimeters.

And you got to work way up to two inches if you want to extinguish any sort of significant flames. And that's upward of 50 millimeters of rainfall which unfortunately none of this is in the forecast. The best we can do is cooler temperatures that at least alleviate the concern that firefighters there have to try to exert some energy to try to put a dent in some of these fires.

But you notice the temps go from the 30s, which is about 90 Fahrenheit dropping down into the 20s, which is generally about say the middle 70s Fahrenheit.

We want to show you the thermal signature of all this because there's a lot of fires going on across much of Europe and the concentration of which right there in southern areas of Spain.

[03:24:56] But as you travel all the way out towards the western United States in particular, at least 18 large fires in this six areas encompassing this region as well. Extreme heat still the story there. We know temps across the southwest soared into the 120s Fahrenheit there, George and Rosemary.

So, this tend we think will at least some cooler weather also expected here later in the week that will help the firefighters across this area as well. CHURCH: All right.

HOWELL: Pedram, thank you.

CHURCH: Thank you.

JAVAHERI: Thanks for having me.

HOWELL: In Pakistan, the prime minister of that nation is visiting the site of a deadly oil tanker explosion Monday.

CHURCH: Yes, at least 153 people were killed and dozens more injured after the tanker truck veered off the road and then exploded as villagers gathered to collect the fuel.

CNN's Lynda Kinkade has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What should be a time of celebration turned into a tragedy in eastern Pakistan. It happened just a day before the country's Eid Fitr festival, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

A driver of a fuel tanker lost control of his truck. It veered off the road and began leaking fuel. Forty-five minutes later, it exploded, killing and injuring hundreds of people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been told a lot of villagers got onto their motorbikes and despite security officials trying to prevent them from going forward, they went in with their cans with their containers and tried to collect as much oil as they could to take back to their homes. It was then, when they were actually quite close to the container itself, that the explosion took place.

KINKADE: Officials say police had tried to clear people away from the crash site before the tanker exploded, but dozens remained nearby. Many of the bodies, burnt beyond recognition. Nearby vehicles, incinerated. For survivors, many suffering from burns to 70 percent of their body, access to adequate medical care is crucial. Near impossible to find, with no burn center in Bahawalpur.

AMJAD KHATTAK, PAKISTAN ARMY (through translator): Pakistan aviation helicopters have arrived. All those who are critically injured are being shifted from Bahawalpur to Multan and Karyan (Ph) burn centers.

KINKADE: A state of emergency has been declared in the city and the provincial government has promised an inquiry into the cause of this tragedy.

Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Now still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISIS fighters battling street to street. Not in the Middle East, but for the very first time in Southeast Asia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And we will tell you how ISIS may have gained a foothold in the Philippines in just a moment. Stay with us.

[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: A warm welcome back to our viewers in the United States, and of course all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

HOWELL: And I'm George Howell with the headlines we're following for you this hour.

CHURCH: At least six people have died after a tourist boat sank in a reservoir in Colombia. More than 30 people are said to be missing. One survivor said there were no life vests on board. The boat was carrying around 170 people near the popular tourist town of Guatape.

HOWELL: The leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party said she's hoping to finalize a deal with the British Prime Minister Theresa May. A Downing Street spokesperson told CNN that Arlene Foster will meet with May later today as May lost her majority, as you remember in parliament after calling a snap election earlier this month. She's trying to win the support of the DUP's 10 lawmakers.

CHURCH: All 60 apartment buildings tested in the U.K. since the Grenfell tower fire have failed fire safety checks. At least 4,000 people have been evacuated from tower blocks deemed unsafe. Authorities say those refusing to go must leave. Six hundred buildings are being tested across the country for potentially dangerous siding.

HOWELL: Let's cross over live to the United Kingdom. Our Ian Lee is live in London in one of those buildings that are evacuated.

Ian, the list of high-rise buildings that failed the safety checks, it seems to be growing and growing and the outrage growing as well. As look, people are being forced to leave their homes.

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. So far they have tested at least 60 buildings and there's been a 100 percent failure rate. They have 600 total to check that have this dangerous cladding.

I'm in Camden Council, where there's five of these buildings, one of them right behind me. Four of which have been evacuated. One of them, they say that a fire marshal can watch it 24 hours a day and they're satisfied with that but not all residents are happy to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BELINDA BROWN, CHALCOTS ESTATE RESIDENT: I don't want to leave my flat because it's a big upheaval for all the tenants in there, and also, I think it's a total knee-jerk reaction. It's an overreaction on behalf of the council. Because we've been in those flats since the refurbishment since 2009, and now suddenly, overnight, we're unsafe. We've had the same cladding for all those years, so how come suddenly, now we all have to be booted out at great cost, a great inconvenience to all of us?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The real issue here, is they do not want to have a repeat of the Grenfell fire that killed at least 79 people. So the government, taking these precautions to make sure everyone's safe. And that these buildings are fit for people to go back to.

HOWELL: CNN international correspondent Ian Lee live in London. Ian, thank you for the reporting.

ISIS is losing territory in Iraq and Syria, but militants linked to the group are making a name for themselves in the Philippines. They have spent the last month battling troops in a deadly assault on a major city.

CNN's Ivan Watson joins us now from Hong Kong. So Ivan, how did ISIS gain a foothold in the Philippines, and how is the country's President Rodrigo Duterte planning to fight the militants?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they simply surprised the security agencies and the government by mounting a lightning assault on May 23rd. And the fighting has raged to try to dislodge ISIS militants from the city of Marawi for more than a month since, except for a brief respite on Sunday when the military announced a ceasefire for eight hours for the Muslim Eid Fitr holiday.

[03:34:56] And with this attack, this brazen and audacious attack, the ISIS militants in the Philippines have really declared themselves to the Philippines and the broader world, that they're clearly trying to establish a foothold in Southeast Asia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: ISIS fighters battling street to street not in the Middle East, but for the very first time in Southeast Asia. On May 23rd, these extremists launched a lightning assault in the city of Marawi in the Philippines. They captured the city and government weapons, burned a church and murdered prisoners.

For a month, the Philippines military has struggled and failed to recapture Marawi, even though they bomb it daily from the sky. The government has also declared martial law here, setting up checkpoints across the Island of Mindanao.

The security forces are on the hunt. They're looking for dozens of suspected ISIS militants. And they're also searching for prisoners who escaped from a jail that ISIS broke open during the first days of their attack. The capture of Marawi, a deadly coming-out party for ISIS in this part of the world. SIDNEY JONES, TERRORISM ANALYST, INSTITUTE FOR POLICY ANALYSIS OF

CONFLICT: Marawi has changed the picture of extremism in Southeast Asia. We need to be more worried that people with combat experience and leadership skills will be developing close to home, not in Syria and Iraq.

WATSON: ISIS in the Philippines is a coalition of many Islamist insurgent groups that have long plagued this country. But they've united for the very first time under the leadership of this man, Ismilan Hapilon.

Tell me about him. What kind of a man is Hapilon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hapilon is a very bold fighter.

WATSON: This man, we'll call him Abujihad (Ph), is a former Islamist militant. Before renouncing violence and joining witness protection, he spent years in the jungle, fighting alongside the man who now leads ISIS in the Philippines.

Do you think he enjoys killing people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. When I spoke to him many years ago, he always think that killing non-Muslims satisfies Allah, makes Allah happy. And I was shocked.

WATSON: In the month-long battle in Marawi, ISIS have killed scores of Philippine soldiers and wounded hundreds more. The fighting has also triggered a humanitarian crisis. More than 330,000 people have fled their homes and hundreds of civilians are still believed to be trapped in the conflict zone.

Amid this suffering and destruction, ISIS have accomplished one clear goal. Announcing their deadly presence in this part of the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: One of the big questions, Rosemary, is the fate of an unspecified number of civilian hostages that the security forces say are in the hands of the militants. There have been fresh efforts to mediate, to negotiate some kind of release over the weekend, over the Eid Fitr holiday.

That's one of the extreme complicating factors for the Philippines military as it battles to try to regain control over this city on the Island of Mindanao. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Yes, it is a big concern, indeed. Ivan Watson joining us with a live report from Hong Kong, many thanks to you.

HOWELL: Auto parts company Takata is filing for bankruptcy. The Japan-based firm never recovered from a deadly airbag scandal, its airbag inflators were found to shoot shrapnel into drivers and passengers and were blamed for 11 deaths in the United States.

For more on this story let's bring in CNN international correspondent Will Ripley live in Tokyo this hour. Will, so first of all, Takata was slow to even address the issue. So now given these legal concerns that are happening in the United States and victims who had no forewarning, what does bankruptcy look like for this company?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What Takata is doing, they're selling most business operations to their rival in the United States based in Detroit for just over $1.5 billion. The fine that Takata owes the United States government $1 billion for wire fraud, which was because they were deliberately manipulating information about their air bags for years, even after they started exploding and people started dying, the number one priority is to pay that fine to the U.S.

And then all of the legal, the lawsuits that this company is facing, they are obviously lining up for their share as well. But it's hard to imagine any scenario in which many of the people seeking damages from Takata will be reimbursed.

Honda is suing the company, BMW, Toyota. What this -- what this deal does though, is it allows Takata to continue its operations. Its 60,000 or so employees around the world will keep working at least the majority of them will make making those replacement airbag inflators which are in very high demand.

[03:40:09] Upwards of a 100 million or even maybe even more units needed to be replaced. Only about a third of them have been replaced so far.

HOWELL: All right. Will, so Takata being bought here by a rival here in the United States, in suburban Detroit in fact. But under this arrangement, what is the plan for future recalls?

RIPLEY: Well, they just continue to -- continue to replace as many replacement units as they can, to manufacture as many of these units as they can. And as for future recalls, obviously, if regulators in other countries determine that more vehicles on the road are at risk, then they will recall those vehicles and they'll have to be repaired and somebody will have to pay for it.

Keep in mind, this is the largest automotive recall in the history of the United States. It's one of the worst auto safety scandals ever. And the fact remains, that there are tens of millions of people on the roads right now, just in the United States, in addition to many other countries around the world, with these airbags, these defective airbag inflators in their cars and under the right circumstances, they could shoot shrapnel at people if they get in an accident.

So it's a real dangerous situation and it's going to take many years before all of these cars get safe airbags and install.

HOWELL: It is dangerous situation and a big situation with this company.

Our international correspondent, Will Ripley live in Tokyo. Will, thank you. CHURCH: A raid in Los Angeles targeting the MS-13 gang, reveals one

of its occupations -- human trafficking. The gang's connection to this crime when we come back.

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[03:45:02] HOWELL: The CNN Freedom Project, committed to shining a spotlight on the horrors of modern day slavery and helping to bring an end to it. This week, it's exposing how multinational gangs and drug traffickers are involved in human trafficking.

CHURCH: CNN was there when officers carried out a raid targeting the MS-13 gang in Los Angeles.

Kyung Lah tells us about their unexpected discovery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hours before dawn, heavily armed ATF special agents load onto an armored truck, leaving in a vehicle of war, heading to take down one of America's most violent street gangs.

CNN was the only television network on this May raid, the largest in Los Angeles history, targeting the core leadership of the violent MS- 13 street gang. About 40 locations are all going to be hit at the same time, 4 a.m. local time. The target tonight, a dozen high ranking gang members.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police!

LAH: The target, a store front, a suspected hub for MS-13. The notorious gang known for this brutal initiation of its members. Once in, gang members savagely beat victims with bats and murder with machetes.

Mexican drug cartels hire MS-13 members as their muscle. This is what ATF agents anticipate on the other side of the door. But once inside, agents find something else, men and women locked in a room in deplorable unsanitary conditions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a locked room where several individuals were located. We believe that they may been -- may have been victims of human trafficking.

LAH: Human trafficking, parts of this transnational gang connected to El Salvador. Agents say MS-13 routinely preys on undocumented immigrants, sometimes forcing young women into prostitution.

Eric Harden is the ATF special agent in charge in Los Angeles.

ERIC HARDEN, SPECIAL AGENT, ATF LOS ANGELES: I find all gangs here to be brutal and savage in one way or another with the human trafficking and how they victimize and dominate females. That's all violent and very brutal. LAH: Law enforcement took the victims in, trying to figure out how they ended up here, an unexpected part of a three-year investigation. The overall raid netted dozens of suspects. ATF agents call it a success.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're called the worst of the worst and, the most violent. And so arresting those people, it does make the neighborhood safer, at least for a time.

LAH: And the ongoing battle on Los Angeles streets.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And for more information and stories of people who are battling modern day slavery, you can go to cnn.com/freedomproject. It's where you'll find full coverage of the United States annual trafficking and persons report when it's released this week. It will be the first such release under the Trump administration.

HOWELL: Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, the president of the United States has been known to crash a few weddings. We'll tell you more about the president as a wedding crasher. Stay with us.

[03:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHURCH: U.S. President Donald Trump stayed in Washington this weekend to celebrate Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's wedding. But you don't have to be a cabinet official to get the president to make an appearance at your nuptials, right?

HOWELL: In fact, he would crash your wedding too if it's at a Trump property as CNN's Dana Bash reports for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: If there's one thing we know about President Trump, it's that he loves a wedding.

He's the chief wedding crasher at his properties, a perk that was once advertised in a Trump club brochure; although the club says it's since been removed. This time he's an invited guest at the wedding of his Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, who is a former Hollywood movie producer who invested in hits like "Avatar," and ironically, how to be single. His bride Louise Linton is an actress.

She also briefly took over as CEO of Mnuchin's film finance company until Democrats raised ethical objections. The president will surely approve of the bridal bling which Linton modeled for Town & Country magazine. But none of its likely to Trump Melania's giant diamond engagement ring, all 15 carats of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's show the ring. You picked it? MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: He picked it.

BASH: The Trumps of course splashed out every aspect of their wedding. Melania posed in designer gown for the cover of Vogue. And the guest list was a, who's how of the power elite including Bill and Hillary Clinton. But when it comes to making a marriage last, President Trump said it's less glitz and more grit.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What Melania is so good at -- we just have this natural relationship. It's like my mother and father who were married for 63 years. I've always heard you have to work at a good relationship. My father didn't work at a good relationship, he went home, he had dinner, he went to bed, he took it easy, he watched television. My mother did the same thing, she cooked him dinner.

BASH: This weekend though, it was about the newly married Mnuchin's and their presidential guests who loves his weddings, like his walls, big and beautiful.

Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Lots of bling there.

HOWELL: A lot of bling.

CHURCH: Blinded.

All right. Well, passengers got quite a scare on a flight from Australia to Malaysia.

This Air Asia X jet had an apparent engine issue and began shaking violently about an hour into its flight Sunday. Passengers said it felt like a washing machine and it continued just like that for two hours.

[03:55:04] HOWELL: Here's the thing. How would you feel if the pilot told you which the pilot did in this case, he told the passengers to say a prayer as he took the plane back to Australia.

And despite ride the plane landed safely thankfully. One passenger says everyone broke out into applause. The pilot shook everyone's hand on the way out.

Also, an important date in rock n roll history and the end of an era for Elvis Presley fans.

CHURCH: Yes, if you believe the king died in 1977, and not everyone does, it's the 40th anniversary of his final live stage performance.

Great voice there. And the show was at Market Square arena in Indianapolis, Indiana. Elvis died less than two months later, or so they say. If the king were alive today, guess how old he'd be.

HOWELL: How old is he?

CHURCH: Eighty two years old.

HOWELL: Wow.

(CROSSTALK)

CHURCH: Unbelievable. Incredible vocal cords there.

HOWELL: Yes. Amazing, amazing.

CHURCH: Yes. And thank you so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM. Early Start is next for our viewers here in the United States.

HOWELL: And for other viewers around the world, our colleague Hannah Vaughan Jones joins us live from London for another hour of CNN NEWSROOM.

Thank you for watching CNN.

CHURCH: Have a great day.

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