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CNN NEWSROOM

Russia Investigation; Trump White House; Battle against ISIS; Prince Charles's Wife Camilla Turns 70 & Speaks to CNN; "Al Jazeera" News Network at Center of Qatar Diplomatic Crisis; Deadly Flash Flooding in Arizona; Breakaway Antarctic Iceberg Raising Concern. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired July 17, 2017 - 02:00   ET

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


[02:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Donald Trump's approval rating hits a new low as questions continue to mount about his campaign's dealings with Russia.

Plus:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Don't kid yourself. They saw the videos; girls, mothers, some who married into ISIS who knew what they were about but still came. Now jailed in a refugee camp, stuck in limbo as ISIS collapses, try to go home.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Nick Paton Walsh telling us the story of women looking for love, now in detention. ISIS brides in their own words as the terror group begins to fall in key areas in occupy (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (voice-over): And she's often seen in public but rarely heard. Prince Charles' wife, Camilla, speaks to CNN just ahead of her 70th birthday.

HOWELL (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): And I'm Rosemary Church. This is CNN NEWSROOM. It starts right now.

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CHURCH: U.S. President Donald Trump reaches a big milestone this week, marking six months in office.

HOWELL: But the allegations of Russian meddling in last year's election continue to overshadow his administration's. Take a look at this new "Washington Post"/ABC News poll. If you listen to this, the majority of Americans now say they believe that Russia tried to influence the race.

The president's popularity has also plummeted in that poll. He has the worst approval, in fact, of any U.S. president in about 70 years. Just three months ago 42 percent of Americans approved of the job that the president was doing. That is now at 36 percent and his disapproval rating: 58 percent.

CHURCH: Mr. Trump went on Twitter to defend himself, saying the numbers are not that bad and criticizing past polling. He also defended his son's meeting during the campaign with a Russian lawyer.

The president tweeted that Hillary Clinton can illegally get debate questions and delete 33,000 emails but his son is being scorned by the fake news media.

Well, the president's attorneys said Sunday there was nothing illegal about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with the Russian lawyer and he suggested the Secret Service vetted it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY SEKULOW, ATTORNEY FOR U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Everybody that is looking backwards and say would've, should've, could've. And Donald Trump Jr. said he would've done some things differently.

But to go back a year later and say this is what should gave happened when the meeting itself was 20 minutes in a series of meetings that took place for days and days and months, I think it's -- I don't think that's fair to Donald Trump Jr., to Jared Kushner or to Manafort for that matter because no one was in a situation of that kind of campaigning in the -- in the middle of a presidential election.

There's a lot of meetings and a lot of discussions about opposition research coming in all sides, Republican, Democrat and independent.

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You've said that no law was broken.

But do you accept what we heard from the president's pick to run the FBI, that what should've happened there, a situation where you have representatives of a foreign government offering assistance to -- in an election, that what should have happened is that the FBI should've been notified?

SEKULOW: Well, I wondered why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in. The president had Secret Service protection at that point. That raised a question with me.

HOWELL (voice-over): Well, the Secret Service pushed back on that answering, telling CNN the agency would not have screened the people at that meeting. That's because it was not protecting Mr. Trump's son at that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, President Trump's attorney defends the Russian lawyer meeting. A majority of Americans polled say it was inappropriate.

HOWELL: Now a top Republican as well as top Democratic lawmakers want answers. CNN's Boris Sanchez has this report for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're hearing reaction now from the American people for the first time since this story broke about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a pair of Russians, one a lobbyist, the other an attorney, promising negative information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.

A new poll from the ABC/"Washington Post" reveals that 63 percent of people disapprove of that meeting, saying that it is inappropriate for Donald Trump Jr. to have had that meeting in Trump Tower last June.

And this story is likely not one that is going to go away soon. You just mentioned the president's historically low approval rating. As we learn more details about this Russia investigation it is likely to continue to hamper the administration.

And we haven't heard the end of this Russia story yet Just today, two senators on both sides of the aisle were on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper, saying that they want Donald Trump Jr. before the Senate Intelligence Committee --

[02:05:00]

SANCHEZ: -- to testify under oath about what happened in that meeting and why he took it in the first place. Listen.

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SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA.), SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE: I would like to hear from all of these individuals. Whether we will be able to get the Russian nationals to come over and testify is an open question.

But those people that our committee has jurisdiction over, the Americans, I sure as heck want to talk to all of them.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-MAINE), MEMBER, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: We need to get to the bottom of this but the only way that we're going to do it is to talk not just to Donald Trump Jr., who has offered to cooperate, for which I give him credit, but to everyone who was at that meeting and who was involved in setting up that meeting.

That may be difficult in the case of the Russian nationals but we certainly ought to try.

We should also ask for all documents, not just the e-mails that have been released but all the documents that are related to any contacts that President Trump's campaign had with the Russian government or its emissaries.

SANCHEZ: As for when we might hear testimony from Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner and perhaps even some of the others in that meeting, it's not exactly clear. Both senators say that there are still many documents to gather beforehand that they can host these three individuals into the Senate Intelligence Committee.

For his part, the president is spending the rest of the weekend here in New Jersey before heading back to Washington, D.C., tonight, still with this cloud of the Russian investigation hanging over the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Joining me now to talk more about this is CNN political commentator and conservative Ben Ferguson.

Thanks so much for being with us.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be with you.

CHURCH: So I do want to start with the Secret Service, pushing back on what President Trump's lawyer said Sunday when he asked why the Secret Service allowed Donald Trump Jr. to meet with the Russian lawyer, a Russian lobbyist, and of course the top members of the Trump campaign last summer, if there was anything nefarious, he said, in that meeting, surely they would've picked it up.

But it turns out that Trump Jr. didn't have Secret Service protection at that particular time; he wasn't in their charge.

So what's your reaction to that?

FERGUSON: Well, I think the point that Jay Sekulow was trying to make was that this guy was such a -- you know or this meeting was such a bad idea then why didn't someone flag him?

For example, why did the lawyer get clearance that actually came under the Obama administration to have a visa waiver to allow them or parole waiver to actually get in this country after it was denied the first time?

And so obviously we found out from the Secret Service that the only person that was under the protection at that point in the campaign was actually Donald Trump, not his son.

But they did say that anyone that came into that meeting or into that building to meet with them did go through metal detectors, make sure they didn't have any weapons on them.

So I get the point to where we're trying to make obviously probably in hindsight maybe should check to see if the Secret Service did look at those meetings. But that whole campaign was heavily guarded.

So I don't think it was any malice or trying to misrepresent or unfair intent with that answer. CHURCH: All right. I do want to talk to you about why Donald Trump Jr.'s account of the 2016 meeting keeps changing because that's confusing isn't it?

Why not reveal everything in the one instance?

And then you don't start having these sorts of problems.

FERGUSON: Look, I've always said this. It's really hard if you've ever worked on a campaign. I've worked on presidential campaigns and there's a lot of people that I've met with that I don't remember.

When you -- after you win the nomination you're that high up in the campaign structure as he was, there's a lot of details that you forget because your days are 13 14, 15, 16, 17 hour days and you're meeting with all sorts of people that you've never ever met or heard of before or knew existed before because you're new to politics and you want a nomination.

So I do think hindsight is 2020. Donald Trump Jr. obviously now need to make sure he sits down moving forward with any future questions about any meeting, make sure that everything is as aligned, talk with people that may very well may be able to jog his memory and moving forward.

I also think that a lot of this is just look, campaigns are hectic and exhausting. There's a reason why candidates have a body man that looks at him, says you're in Erie, Pennsylvania, or you're in Paducah, Kentucky, when you get off the plane because you don't know where you are many days.

And that's just part of the fog of a campaign and the exhaustion of a campaign.

CHURCH: All right, I do want to move to the president's approval rating now and it appears that's dropped as low as 36 percent, that's according to the ABC and "Washington Post" poll, which, it has to be said, is a reliable poll, although the president said it isn't. He's trying to give it a positive spin. He's rounding up to 40 percent.

But even so, that is not a great approval rating at this juncture is it?

FERGUSON: No, it's not but I also think that there there's been so much press that's been -- this Russian issue month after month after month that I wouldn't expect anybody that's the president with --

[02:10:00]

FERGUSON: -- this type of press that they've received on an issue like this to be about 40 percent.

I'm not concerned about if and I was around the president at the White House as one of his senior advisors I wouldn't be paying a lot of attention to it right now. You got several -- over a year, even to midterm elections and you've got, what, three years basically and so you start running for reelection. So get some victories on the board, ObamaCare repeal replace would be a great place to start on this. And move forward and not worry about this too much.

I think this approval rating will be a nonissue four-five months from now.

CHURCH: So you mentioned health issue but there are problems there, aren't there?

That's been deferred now for another time. This is a problem for the Trump administration.

FERGUSON: Yet but this pause or deferment for another week has nothing to do with the bill. It has everything to do the fact that you always have a very close and tight vote. The Republicans have a very slim margin in the Senate.

Some of those Republicans, like Susan Collins are really -- flip a coin if they're going to be on your team or not when you go to any vote. So --

(CROSSTALK)

CHURCH: -- this had seven years to come up with an alternative.

FERGUSON: Seven years, I agree with you, and all of the centers of referee election (ph) ran on repealing and replacing ObamaCare. It's become a very complicated thing to undo. It's been around for a very long time. We have some disagreements on some things.

So I think after John McCain comes back -- he had this emergency surgery, a craniotomy, he's at home recovering right now, they've postponed until he comes back, I genuinely believe, based on people I've talked to on Capitol Hill that they are going to have the votes to get this thing done.

CHURCH: How can you be sure of that?

Because the numbers don't look great at this point.

FERGUSON: Well, look, everyone is going to say the numbers don't look great. They never look great when you have a slim majority that are tight. You can only lose a couple of people.

But the same was to be said on the House side as well and they got it done. I think the Republican senators realized they were sent to Washington, all of them, to repeal and replace of ObamaCare come up with something better.

If they don't it's going to be very hard for them to go back to their constituents and say hey, send me back to Washington again because I did what I said I was going to do the first time. It is going to be a tight vote, always has been -- was going to be a tight vote and I think this time they realize, after pausing the first time, that they're going to get it done and I think they will.

CHURCH: Ben Ferguson, always good to talk with you. Thanks for your perspective on this. Appreciate it.

FERGUSON: Thanks for having me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: So with clouds of the Russia investigation swirling above them, this is still a very critical week for this White House and the future of the new health care bill in the U.S. That revised Republican plan is running into a series of unexpected delays.

Republican leader Mitch McConnell has pushed back vote on the bill scheduled for this week so that Senator John McCain can recover from surgery from a blood clot. The delay will also give McConnell extra time now to find the needed votes to pass that plan.

CHURCH: And CNN has also learned the Congressional Budget Office will not release a much-anticipated score on the bill Monday. It's now unclear when the CBO score will be released.

Interviews with Republican lawmakers show just how deep the divisions are over this new bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R): This bill actually, I think, ahs gotten much better as a result of the discussions we've had amongst ourselves. And I think it's something that, once we agree to, that we can sell to the American people as a better choice than the failures of ObamaCare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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COLLINS: There are about eight to 10 Republican senators who have serious concerns about this bill. And so at the end of the day, I don't know whether it will pass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KY: We promised the voters for four elections -- they elected us to repeal ObamaCare -- and now we're going to keep most of the taxes, keep the regs, keep the subsidies and create a giant bailout superfund for the insurance companies. I just don't see it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Fifty of the 52 Republican senators would need to vote yes for any Senate health care bill to pass.

HOWELL: That's right. And Iran has sentenced an American citizen to 10 years in prison. The Dresden (ph) University graduate student was convicted of, quote, "spying" under the cover of research.

The U.S. State Department accuses Tehran of making up charges to detain Americans.

CHURCH: Now this all comes as the deadline looms for the Trump administration to recertify the Iran nuclear deal. On Monday, U.S. officials need to tell Congress whether Iran is complying with the agreement and whether the country should continue to get relief from sanctions.

HOWELL: On to Venezuela now; the opposition there is claiming victory in a symbolic and unofficial referendum on that nation's president, Nicolas Maduro.

CHURCH: Opposition leaders say about 98 percent of those who voted rejected the president's plans to rewrite the constitution. Earlier we spoke with journalist Stefano Pozzebon from Caracas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: About 7.2 million Venezuelans have voted today; 6.5 million of them roughly inside --

[02:15:00]

POZZEBON: -- Venezuela and about 700,000 Venezuelans abroad. That's a very huge turnout for the opposition, who is claiming victory in these non-binding referendum against the proposal for a constitution of President Nicolas Maduro.

What is important is that the day so far has been -- has gone quite peacefully and quite quietly. All the seats have been able to record the votes in a rather -- in a not quite (ph) way. And only in a small incident, one person was killed by clashes between the two different parties, main parties, the government and the main opposition.

But again, after more than three months of social unrest and more than 90 people who have been killed so far in Venezuela, people are still taking the streets. And today we have learned that about 7.2 million of them were able to vote, were able to express their will against this proposal for a new constitution by Nicolas Maduro.

And that's quite an outcome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: That reporting there from Stefano Pozzebon in Caracas. Thank you for that.

Government authorities also banning the former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, from ever coming back to Venezuela. Mr. Fox and other former presidents from Latin America were there, supporting that referendum. This is CNN NEWSROOM and still ahead we hear from some of the ISIS wives of Raqqa. Why they say they married members of the terror group -- ahead.

Plus:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALL: I think we can talk. It was such a taboo subject. But I think we can talk about it now. And if I can talk about it and bang the drum a bit, so can a lot of other people. So that's what I'm trying to do to help.

CHURCH (voice-over): The Duchess of Cornwall speaks exclusively with CNN. How Camilla is fighting against a messy battle (ph). That's coming your way in just a moment.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

[02:20:00]

CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM.

Iraq has claimed victory in Mosul but the war against ISIS rages on in Raqqa, Syria. It's rare to hear from ISIS fighters themselves. It's even rare to hear from the women who've joined them in the terror group's self-proclaimed capital.

Now our Nick Paton Walsh brings us their stories.

HOWELL: The women have been rounded up as ISIS sympathizers but haven't been charged with anything in what is essentially a lawless area. They've jailed and segregated at refugee camps and now wait for officials to decide their fate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): Don't kid yourself. They saw the videos, girls, mothers, some who married into ISIS, who knew what they were about, but still came. Now jailed in a refugee camp, stuck in limbo was ISIS collapses trying to go home. They want your pity and that you believe them when they say, it was all, all of it, a huge mistake.

They use women for sex?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It's very disgusting.

WALSH (voice-over): Three Indonesian sisters say they paid thousands of dollars to get here lured by the false promise of free health care and schools, but ended up living off selling their jewelry and paying thousands to get smuggled out. It just wasn't as pure caliphate as they expected. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They say they want to jihad for sake of Allah, but what they think is, what they want is only what women, they want sex. Oh, it's -- disgusting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard that if they marry, a daughter we will get thousands of dollars.

WALSH (voice-over): Single women arrivals like them kept in a commune while they look for husbands.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The men of the women inside the dorm it's very different, it's very far from Islam. Harsh men are gossiping, shout each other, backbiting and fighting between the women. And oh, I was very surprised when I see that.

WALSH (voice-over): Zaida (ph) explains the dorm is a bit like Tinder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When the woman arrives in this dormitory she makes a sort of C.V.; puts down her age, her name, how her personality is like, what she looks for in a man. and men also post their C.V.s.

WALSH: (Speaking Arabic).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Yes, it's dating. So you meet, you talk for 15-20 minutes and then it's a yes or a no. If they both agreed, then they get married. It's very quick.

WALSH (voice-over): She says she came for charity work but her husband was killed the second time they tried to flee. She's as appalled by the Paris terror attacks as she was by the coalition bombing of Raqqa and just wants to go back to France.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I love life. I love to work. I love my jeans, I love my makeup. I love my parents. The only thing I want is to go back. I'm not far from the beach. I used to go to the beach every weekend, in a bikini.

WALSH: In a bikini?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Yes, in a bikini.

WALSH (voice-over): Mai (ph) is a Syrian English teacher, whose first husband was killed by a sniper in Homs, who says she was traveling to Turkey when she was waylaid in Raqqa, where she met and married a Moroccan.

WALSH: Were you looking for a man when you went to -- at Raqqa?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

WALSH: So how come you found one?

Just like you moved into a house and, oh, my god, who's this guy next door? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think God sent him to me.

WALSH (voice-over): She says ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani knew Bilal (ph) and allowed him not to fight. He's now in jail. She is disapproving of less pure love stories.

WALSH: Did you hear other stories of women who came looking for a husband?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They look to the European men that they are here and ISIS they are strong men. You know, with guns and they can protect them. It's an idea, that's just like movies.

And many of them want -- was very shocked, because when they got married from a man, you know, three, four days, one month and they've divorced.

I know a woman, she was married six times and after three days, she go to court and ask the judge to divorce her from him.

And when --

[02:25:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- the judge ask her, "Why you want divorce?"

And that man say that she prevents him from making any, you know -- sexual, you know.

WALSH: I see.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she say, I can't accept him, I all the time thinking of my husband.

And judge ask, so why you get married from him if you won't want him?

And he say, I will send you to the prison as well, you know, cut you (ph).

And she was crying, oh, no, it's the last time, I promise.

WALSH (voice over): The husband was once arrested for smoking by the religious police and, because they won't talk to women, she had to literally enter a man's world to get him out of jail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you know what?

It was a crazy idea. I just put my husband to call this, his shoes and his, you know, that views and covered my eyes, put that black glasses. And both I lend a gown from my neighbor. I take it from him and I take my boy and let's go to the police part.

WALSH: Do you need a man voice now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, of course.

WALSH: That's how men sound, is it?

(LAUGHTER)

WALSH (voice-over): These stories decide their fate here, whether they stay in limbo or go home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that you don't believe me, you know?

I speak a language more than a month.

WALSH: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't you see that there's a trust in my eyes?

WALSH: Yes.

Your husband, what if you never see him again?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want someone to kill me because I can't kill myself. It's suicide. And I can't commit suicide. Just kill me.

WALSH: Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Ain Issa, Northern Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Nick Paton Walsh bringing us that report --

(CROSSTALK)

CHURCH: Powerful report, too.

HOWELL: Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, the Duchess of Cornwall is often seen but seldom heard. Now in a CNN exclusive, Camilla tells us how she's helping victims of domestic violence -- ahead.

CHURCH: Plus: inside Al Jazeera, why it's at the center of a diplomatic crisis between several Gulf nations an Qatar. We'll explain when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:33] HOWELL: Welcome back to the viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. It's good to have us with us. I'm George Howell.

CHURCH: I'm Rosemary Church.

We do want to update you now on the main stories we've been following this hour.

(HEADLINES)

HOWELL: Monday is a special day for the royal family. Prince Charles's wife, Camilla, is celebrating her 70th birthday.

CHURCH: This portrait of the royal couple was released in honor of the happy occasion.

Camilla's voice is rarely heard on camera. But in a CNN exclusive, the duchess spoke about our Max Foster during a busy day of public engagements.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you do, you do your back step, and you step forward with your left.

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: A few dancing tips for the guests at a tea party in Bristol in aid of those who support the elderly. Then a special guest arrives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the people from --

FOSTER: The duchess would have been retired herself if she didn't have a job for life.

(CROSSTALK)

FOSTE4R: It's important for members of the royal family, like the duchess, to be meeting the public, be relevant to their lives, but also to be seen to be relevant to their lives, which is why we, the media, are here.

Camilla is the friendliest member of the royal family, if you speak to the members of the press pack that follow her. I've never seen her take it this far, though.

She hit the dance floor with one of the photographers, Arthur Edwards, of "The Sun."

(SINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was so delighted to meet her. And I thought, what a gentle delightful woman she is, actually.

CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALL: Thank you very much for all you do. And that you very much to my dance partners.

(LAUGHTER)

I wasn't expecting it. I would have put on my dancing shoes, had I known.

FOSTER: Then we're off to a very different engagement.

CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALL: They had no idea --

FOSTER: A shelter for victims of domestic violence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just over two years now since my two sons were taken by the father with the fire and barricaded them in. All I could do was hold them as they died. And it is every parents' worst nightmare not to be there when they need you the most. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In 2002, he attacked me with a blow torch and

three-day torture of knives and broken glass.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need more refugees rather than less -

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- it is the office. It's not going to go away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And this is one our directors.

FOSTER: The shelter is run by a charity, and funds are low. The duchess speaks to staff to find out how they are coping.

I manage to grab a word with her as she made her way around.

(on camera): You've heard some incredibly powerful stories today. What are you able to bring to these sorts of conversations?

CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALL: I'm not sure what I would bring. It is what all of these very brave ladies tell me. It is seeing is believing. Hearing is believing. I think, like many other people in this country, I didn't know much about domestic abuse. In fact, I knew nothing at all. I think -- I went to visit another charity, saving lives, where again I sat around listening to some very brave ladies tell their stories. And I think everybody there was moved to tears. And I thought as I came out, I thought, you know, I just wish there was something I could do to help.

[02:35:11] FOSTER: And you were able to coordinate groups, bring publicity?

CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALL: That's what I've tried do is to bring everybody together to coordinate and to get them talking so they come up with the ideas. I think we could talk, it wasn't a subject and we can talk about it now. If i can talk about it and bang the drum a bit, so can other people. So that's what I'm trying to do to help. But, again, it seems wonderful people that do the hard work. And my goodness, me, these are an incredible lot of ladies. You heard the ladies who were talking to me, telling their stories. Well, you have to be very brave to stand up and tell -- and talk about all those terrible things that have happened to you. I can only hope that, some day, we can make it better.

FOSTER: Thank you for speaking to me.

CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALL: Thank you. Bye.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

FOSTER (voice-over): This, we think, is the longest she has ever spoken on camera. It is an issue she cares deeply about.

(on camera): We've been allowed into the convey and we are headed to the duchess's third engagement in a matter of hours.

(CROSSTALK)

FOSTER (voice-over): She's visiting a row of independent shops.

A bite of chocolate, perhaps not that easy to enjoy in front of a bank of cameras.

(LAUGHTER)

FOSTER: And a brush with public.

The visit was unannounced for security reasons and came as quite a surprise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the post office ladies were like, oh, she is coming. And she was in the charity shop. I was like, wow. Because she is amazing. She is one-of-a-kind. She's really, really good.

(LAUGHTER)

FOSTER: There's no doubt the British public has warmed to Camilla in the 12 years since she's been married to Prince Charles. Each engagement bringing her a little closer to the public and connecting her with them.

This day is not done just yet though. She is off to London for another engagement.

CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALL: Bye.

FOSTER: Max Foster, CNN, Bristol, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Royal commentator, Richard Fitzwilliams, joins us now to talk more about this.

Richard, good to talk with you as always.

As we saw in Camilla's exclusive chat there with CNN's Max Foster, she is now loved and adored by the British public. But that wasn't always the case. She took the place of the much-beloved Princess Diana. And during the course of her 12-year marriage to Prince Charles, has worked hard to gain public support. What do you think turned it around for her?

RICHARD FITZWILLIAMS, ROYAL COMMENTATOR: I think we have just seen a very insightful interview by Max and that's given viewers an idea of precisely what has turned it around. A certain amount of humor, experience, dedication, and the fact that she's got a great deal of charm. She perseveres. There are certain causes she has taken up. You mentioned the troubled background, of course, which the whole world knows about. The facts are that within 12 years, she has taken up the cause of osteoporosis, which is very close to her heart. But issues such as rape and domestic violence. These are tough issues, as she was saying. And she has managed to help people. She goes about her duties. And she does over 200 royal engagements each year. And she does it in way that seems to endear her to both journalists covering the various engagements, but also to people as a whole. It isn't just that they've grown accustom to her face. It's that they realize she's made the Prince of Wales extremely happy after dark periods of his life. And also, she is a benefit to the royal family as a whole.

CHURCH: And, Richard, the release of the new double portrait, of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, marks Camilla's 70th birthday. With that, some historians and media outlets across the global are now suggesting it might be time to consider calling her Princess of Wales. How likely is it that she would be given Princess Diana's old title? Does she even want that?

[02:39:26] FITZWILLIAMS: I suspect that she doesn't want it. Of course, as you know, next month, we commemorate 20 years since the tragic death of the Princess of Wales, as Diana's legacy is unique to her. The whole point of so much of what the Duchess of Cornwall has done has not been in any sense whatsoever to rival the Princess of Wales. Diana's legacy is her own. If she's built up, I suspect, a very, very strong bank of affection amongst the public. The facts are, today, her 70th birthday. We have seen that charming portrait by Mario Testino. He is a great flatterer, but there is a great deal to flatter.

And what is also significant is several of the analyses of the duchess, they show how at different times during the nightmare of his marriage to Diana and also at the period when she died so tragically, Camilla has been not only "nonnegotiable," which is the Prince of Wales's phrase, but her "strength in stay," to use another well-worn phrase. The facts are that she has been indispensable to him. But she made him happy. She's also got a wonderful chemistry with the prince.

She does dislike flying. She dislikes heat and so forth. Things are arranged so she is able to speak at an age when many would be winding down. She is doing the reverse. And also, she's helping a great deal of people. She wouldn't want to be called Princess of Wales. What one day she is called, when the Prince of Wales ascends the thrown, the official line is princess consort. Most believe she will be queen consort.

CHURCH: That is the key, isn't it?

Richard Fitzwilliams, always a pleasure to chat with you. Thank you so much.

HOWELL: Now from royalty to time warp. That's right. The next "Dr. Who" is a woman. Actress Jody Whitaker is making history by becoming the first female to take on the role of the time-traveling "Dr. Who," the hit British TV series. The BBC made the highly-anticipated announcement following the Wimbledon men's tennis final Sunday.

CHURCH: It was the big reveal. And former stars of the show cheered the news of a female doctor. But some people, some fans of "Dr. Who" are not happy with the choice. Whitaker says that fans shouldn't be afraid of her gender because "Dr. Who" is all about the excitement of change. So let's all give her a chance.

HOWELL: Absolutely. Absolutely.

It brought heated political debate to the Arab world and now the "Al Jazeera" network, it is at the center of some controversy itself. Coming up, how it has been put into the middle of a diplomatic crisis between several gulf nations and Qatar.

CHURCH: Plus, a major geographic event. Why the map of Antarctica suddenly needs to be redrawn. We'll explain.

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Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM.

[02:45:34] HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. The "Al Jazeera" news network is at the center of an ongoing diplomatic crisis between Qatar and its neighboring gulf nations.

CHURCH: The Saudi-led coalition is demanding Qatar shut down the network.

Our Jomana Karadsheh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

OSAMA BIN LADEN, FORMER AL QAEDA LEADER (voice-over): From airing the first interview with Osama bin Laden after 9/11 -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KARADSHEH: -- to introducing heated political debate shows to the Arab world --

(SHOUTING)

KARADSHEH: -- "Al Jazeera, Arabic" has become a polarizing force.

(SHOUTING)

KARADSHEH: At its new multimillion dollar headquarters in Doha, it might seem like business as usual. But the Qatar-funded news network is at the heart of the diplomatic crisis in the gulf with the Saudi- led bloc demanding its closure.

Yasser Abu Hilalah has been with the network for 20 years. For the past three, he has run the Arabic news channel.

YASSER ABU HILALAH, MANAGING DIRECTOR, AL JAZEERA, ARABIC: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KARADSHEH: He believes "Al Jazeera" changed the media landscape of a region once dominated by state-run TV channels.

Critics accuse "Al Jazeera, Arabic" of being a platform for hate speech and sectarian excitement.

HILALAH (through translation: One of "Al Jazeera's" qualities is that it expressed the alternative opinion. Before "Al Jazeera," it was only the opinion of governments. They do not want the other opinion, whatever that opposition is.

UNIDENTIFIED AL JAZEERA ANCHOR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KARADSHEH: It was the network's coverage of the 2011 Arab Spring that made it a thorn in the side of Arab regimes. "Al Jazeera" was seen by critics as more sympathetic to the views of the Muslim Brotherhood in places like Egypt, a political party now banned in several Arab states.

DR. LINA KHATIB, DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA PROGRAM, CHATHAM HOUSE: This is certainly a platform for Qatar's political allies. The Muslim Brotherhood is one such ally. And the Muslim Brotherhood is seen by UAE, in particular, as the country's big political enemy.

Hilalah rejects the criticism. He says they treat the Muslim Brotherhood like any other political entity in the Arab world.

HILALAH (through translation): It was believed that "Al Jazeera," because of its coverage of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Libya, by documenting what was happening and broadcasting it, that it encouraged people to revolt. Did "Al Jazeera" create the Arab Spring or did it document it? This is a question for history.

KARADSHEH: Hilalah says the demand it shut down "Al Jazeera" is, quote, "out of the question." The call to shutter the network does not distinguish between its various services, including "Al Jazeera, English," which analysts say is a different channel, more focused on global affairs.

(on camera): No one knows how this crisis will end, but many feel that demands to silence a media organization sets a dangerous precedent in a region where freedom of the press is still heavily restricted.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Doha.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: We will take a very short break here. Still to come, severe flooding in the U.S. state of Arizona has turned deadly. We will have the latest on the outlook there.

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(SPORTS REPORT)

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[02:52:43] CHURCH: To the weather now. Parts of Arizona are dealing with their strongest storm in years with severe flooding battering the region. Our Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now.

Pedram, the tragedy here, this has turned deadly.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. This area waits all year to get rain fall across the last couple months of the year, particular, say, July to September. The most rain fall is about 60 percent of the annual rainfall in Arizona. In particular, about 90 miles or so north of Phoenix, into the area around Hasting, we have the river flood significantly. As that occurred, we know of at least eight fatalities. Three people missing across this region as well. Widespread across parts of Arizona with the monsoon is in full effect. You look from the beginning of the year, on New Year's Day until last week, only about 1.5 inches of rainfall had come down in Tucson. Then in the last seven days, more than 2.5 inches of rainfall has come down. It shows you the rapid transition into the wet season. In Phoenix, in particular, we have only seen four days of rainfall really since the first of March and no wet days -- and by wet, I mean a quarter inch or more -- in about 139 days. Certainly, the monsoons are here and heavy rainfall is expected. Some will certainly be beneficial when you consider the large amount of wildfires scattered about the western U.S. The critical risk now, see across parts of, say, northern Nevada into Utah, and Montana as well. This is an area we could use rainfall. Right now, it is across the southwest, where they are getting too much, frankly, in the last couple of days -- Rosemary and George?

CHURCH: Thank you so much, Pedram.

HOWELL: Pedram, thank you.

We have been covering this in the International Weather Center, this massive iceberg that has broken away from Antarctica. It is floating at sea now and it's raising a great deal of concern around the world.

CHURCH: It is. People want to know where will it likely go? Will sea levels rise? And what exactly caused the ice to break away?

They are difficult questions to answer, as CNN's Kyung Lah reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A crack more than 120 miles long on the east side of the Antarctic peninsula, finally breaking off, creating a spectacular iceberg weighing more than a trillion metric tons, roughly the size of Delaware.

ARADHNA TRIPATI, GEOCHEMIST & PROFESSOR, UCLA: It is one of the largest icebergs in human history.

[02:55:00] LAH: UCLA Professor Aradhna Tripati has spent her career studying Antarctic ice, traveling to the very peninsula where the ice shelf, called Larsen "C," broke off.

Professor Tripati has seen two other big sections of the peninsula break off and dissolve, the first in 1995 and then another in 2002. She watched as this crack grew for years. Caught off guard that this

break happened so soon.

What this latest break means is something scientists aren't yet agreed on. Antarctica, the coldest place on earth, is a continent covered in ice. And icebergs have been breaking away from ice shelves for millions of years. But at the end of the 20th century, the peninsula was one of the fastest-warming places on the planet. That warming has slowed or reversed slightly in this century.

LAH: You learned all this from samples of ice?

TRIPATI: We learn from samples of ice and samples of rock.

This geochemist says the overall trends in the Arctic point to global warming.

TRIPATI: The fact that we've had seven out of the 12 ice shelves in Antarctica collapse in the last few decades and this one appears to be ready to go. With a breaking off with this major iceberg, that is hard to attribute it to anything else.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Thanks for being with us. I'm Rosemary Church.

HOWELL: I'm George Howell.

The news continues here on CNN right after the break.

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