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Russia, Iran, And Turkey Seek Lasting Ceasefire; Global Markets Positive Despite Trade Wars; Mexico Warns Against U.S. Militarization At Border; Russian Ambassador To U.K. Speaks On Skripal Poisoning; Online Data Scandal; Bollywood Star Sentenced To Five Years For Poaching; Reunited At Last. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired April 5, 2018 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Robyn Curnow in New York. Thanks for joining us and welcome to News Stream.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Turning the tables, Moscow tries to increase pressure on the U.K. and the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy. Troops to the border, Donald Trump

moves ahead with a pledge to deploy the National Guard. We'll tell you what Mexico has to say about all of that, and sentenced to prison,

Bollywood Actress Salman Khan gets a five year term in a decades old case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Let's start in Washington. In a wave of recent policy shifts that are giving some Donald Trump watchers whiplash, the U.S. President has

signed a memorandum to deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border until he can get his wall built.

While Mexico is warning that any militarization at the border would seriously hurt relations. Meanwhile, U.S. businesses are urging Mr. Trump

to reconsider his proposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products.

Beijing has responded of tariffs of its own. It says it would prefer to negotiate, but announce that it takes two to tango. And sources say Mr.

Trump is growing irritated with top military brass who were telling him it would be unwise to make an immediate withdrawal from Syria. For now Mr.

Trump has agreed to hold off on any U.S. troop pullout.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're continuing to make progress, we're continuing to work with our allies, and partners in

the region, but we want to focus on transitioning to local enforcement, and do that over this process to make sure that there's no reemergence of ISIS

in -- and take away some of the progress that we've made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Well Iran, Russia, and Turkey just ended a summit on all of this on Wednesday, and they have their own plans for Syria. Let's bring in Ben

Wedeman on what exactly happened in Ankara this week. Hi, Ben. I mean, what we saw though was a show of force and a message clearly sent.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we've seen is really interesting juxtaposition, Robyn, between the positions of Russia, iran,

and Turkey, which are now essentially the powers that call the shots in Syria, meeting together, discussing the future of their country and their

plans, juxtaposed against an American administration that's sending confused, and chaotic messages about whether they're going to stay in Syria

or leave Syria.

They're now 2,000 American troops in Northern Syria, there with the very narrow mission of defeating ISIS, but certainly as we saw under the Obama

administration, when they -- when that administration pulled out of Iraq, ISIS emerged.

So it does appear that you have a very confused American administration while you have three other countries, Russia, which has had relations with

Syria going back to the 1950s, Turkey, which has 822 kilometer border with Syria, Iran have been close to the Syrian regime since the 1979 Islamic

revolution.

They clearly have a long-term vision of Syria. The United States clearly does not. But certainly what we heard from the leaders of those three

countries meeting in Ankara was a determination essentially to determine the future of Syria. This is some of what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (Through a Translator): Nobody is doing much except Iran, Turkey, and Russia. We see small deliveries of

humanitarian aid from the U.N., but that's not enough.

HASSAN ROUHANI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT: Some big powers, particularly the United States, wanted terrorist organizations such as Daesh and al-Nusra to

remain in our region as their tool so they can benefit from this, but big countries like Syria and Iraq destroyed this conspiracy with the help of

friendly countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: And what's interesting in all of this, is the growingly close ties between Moscow and Ankara. The Russians and the Turks have finalized

a deal for the S-400 long system anti-missile system that Russia will be selling to Turkey. While Putin was in Turkey, they also -- he also broke

the ground for a Russian built nuclear power plant.

[08:05:03] And the two countries are also working on a pipeline to bring Russian gas to Turkey. Where the United States is in all of this is

anyone's guess. Robyn.

CURNOW: And I think you make a very big point, and a number of foreign policy experts here -- Richard Haass, I was just saying (ph) to him on CNN,

and spoke to him before I went on air, I mean, he was making exactly the same point, that the U.S. -- this administration has basically said they

are in Syria for a very narrow, short term counterterrorism mission.

In the long-term, actually -- in the short term too, they've handed over strategic decisions on Syria's future to the Russians, the Turks, and the

Iranians.

WEDEMAN: That's essentially what it is because once the United States declares victory against ISIS, they will pull out. Nobody is under the

impression that the Russians, the Iranians, and the Turks are going to go home when this is over.

So not only it has Bashar al-Assad -- essentially, he is on the brink of winning this war, his allies are as well, and the United States, certainly

President Trump can tell everyone that the United States has defeated ISIS, but there's much more to the story than just ISIS. Robyn.

CURNOW: Exactly, indications for the region at large. Ben Wedeman, always good to speak to you, thanks so much. Now let's move onto the economic

front. It has certainly been a surprisingly positive day for global markets even as the U.S. and China threaten aggressive new tariffs.

Investors are waiting and watching to see if the planned U.S. tariffs are, as the Trump administration claims, simply a negotiating tactic.

Experts in China plans to target U.S. exploit -- exports like soybeans, and cars, and that also could be an effort to push the U.S. into making some

sort of deal. So let's go straight to Asia. Andrew Stevens is standing by in Hong Kong. Hi, Andrew, tell us about the numbers.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Robyn. When we were speaking about this 24 hours ago, the Dow was down 500 points or so. Amazing to see this

sort of turn around really, and that follows through here into Asia, what markets open today are up pretty strongly.

The Nikkei, the big one of course, up 1.5 percent, and you are right. I mean, it does seem to be the soothing words from the U.S. administration,

notably Donald Trump's new top economic advisor Larry Kudlow, is saying that this was a negotiating stand by Donald Trump, by the administration,

adding that it is a proposal.

As all of this at the moment, it is a starting point for negotiations with the Chinese. On top of that, you have 60 days now before any action is

taken by the U.S. It's a consultation period.

As you mentioned, there's a lot of concern amongst business in the United States, and also among the agricultural sector, soybeans being the bid one.

But many, many farmers who voted for Donald Trump are worried about the impact of these retaliatory China tariffs would have on their own business,

and on top of all that, we've had the U.S. -- the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. meeting the acting Secretary of State, they've spoke about

negotiations. They spoke about a few things. After that meeting, the ambassador -- the Chinese Ambassador came out to say this, Robyn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you think that you can resolve this situation?

CUI TIANKAI, CHINESE AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: By working together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what about negotiations?

TIANKAI: Of course, negotiations will still be our preference, but it takes two to tango.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the U.S. has been playing tango on this one?

TIANKAI: We'll see what we will do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEVENS: Indeed it does take two to tango, and the Chinese consistent line there that they do want to negotiate, but they're not going to back down if

there is a trade war that is actually implemented.

One thing to look out for, Robyn, the Boao Forum, which is the Chinese equivalent of the Davos Forum, except that it's state-run in China. Xi

Jinping will be speaking at that on Sunday, and we may get a clue there as to whether China will implement reforms.

The U.S. is looking for the reforms. China has said in the past it will reform, but in its own good time. We may get something more of a concrete

time table from -- to the Chinese leader on Sunday. So that's something to watch out for.

CURNOW: OK. We'll speak after that. Thanks so much. Andrew Stevens there, looking at all the markets, and all that surrounding it. Thanks so

much, Andrew. Good to speak to you.

So President Trump -- U.S. President Trump has signed a memo instructing National Guard troops to be sent to the U.S. border. Mexico's Foreign

Ministry says it's being notified, and the troops won't be armed, but it warns that militarizing the border could seriously harm relations. Well,

the White House has offered a few details of the deployment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How soon do you think, whatever the number is, the deployments will begin?

KIRSTJEN NIELSEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Let me take the last part first. We do hope that the deployment begins immediately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The size and duration...

[08:10:00] NIELSEN: The size and duration, we have not -- I don't want to get ahead of the governors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's more robust than the Bush appointment.

NIELSEN: I think it will be strong. It will be as many as is needed to fill the gaps that we have today is what I can tell you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you give a cost estimate for what this will cost?

NIELSEN: I can't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is this such an urgent priority right now for the President to sign?

NIELSEN: Why today, and not yesterday, or tomorrow? Today -- today is the day. Today is the day we want to start this process. The threat is real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: So President Trump's decision follows days of public fuming about a so-called caravan of migrants making its way through Mexico. Well, Leyla

Santiago reports from the City of Puebla where many migrants have paused before continuing their journey north. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: While President Trump and even the Mexican government have said that a large group of people marching north

aim at Mexico has been dispersed or disbanded.

The organizers and the participants in south are telling us they will continue north. Here is the proof, here they are. These are some of the

participants.

They tell me they are from Central America, Guatemala, El Salvador, as wells as Honduras. Many of them coming from Honduras telling us that they

are fleeing of virus, political corruption, as wells as poverty. Trying to make their way north.

Now the majority of these people tell us that they are going to continue to the U.S.-Mexico border in an attempt to get to the U.S., and it doesn't

matter what President Trump says, or if President Trump sends the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border. They will find a way to get north.

Now, the organizers tell us that many of them will ask -- will seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, but Mexico had actually offered some people on

humanitarian grounds to have permissions to stay in this country.

Some of the participants of this march are choosing that option, and will be staying in Mexico, but the organizers of this march, they will continue

north, that the march continues despite what government officials may say. Leyla Santiago, CNN, Puebla, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Thanks to Leyla for that report there. Let me bring on, Russia's Foreign Minister says it's time for the U.K. to show its cards in the

Salisbury spy poisoning case. Sergey Lavrov is calling for investigators in Britain to present the evidence they say they have.

Meantime in London, the Times is reporting the U.K. knows exactly where the nerve agent was used in the attempted murder was produced, that attack a

month ago triggered a diplomatic earthquake if you remember.

First the U.S. and U.K. expelled dozens of Russian embassy officials. Now Russian State T.V. is showing buses carrying expelled American diplomats

leaving the embassy in Moscow.

So let's go straight to Moscow. Matthew Chance is standing by. Hi there, Matt. And I think you are carrying some new information on Yulia Skripal.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are. We're hearing -- according to state media there's been a phone call between Yulia Skripal's

cousin here.

Her name is Victoria Skripal who has had a telephone conversation apparently with Yulia, who is of course in a stable condition, and in an

improving condition apparently in a British intensive care ward.

We're not able to vouch for the veracity of the recording, but it was recorded, and it was broadcast on Russian state television in which, you

know, Yulia Skripal said that she was doing well.

There's been other development as well, particularly the one you just mentioned. The buses, the eyewitnesses say have been spotted leaving the

American embassy here in Moscow carrying perhaps all of the diplomats.

We don't know the exact number that have been expelled by Russia from the United States back to the airport where they'll be making their way back to

the United States.

That of course follows the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the United States in condemnation of the alleged Russian nerve agent attack

against the Skripals in Salisbury in England.

That has left the Russians diplomatically isolated to a very large extent, almost unprecedented extent, with what is it 29 countries now who have

expelled Russian diplomats.

There have been diplomats from those countries expelled back in a tit-for- tat response by the Russians, but the Russians are saying again, categorically, they had nothing to do with this chemical weapons attack.

Take a listen to what Sergey Lavrov had to say on the issue earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (Through a Translator): The so- called Skripal case became a pretext, an imaginary or staged one for a grand mass expulsion for Russian diplomats, not only from the U.S. and

Britain, but also from a number of other states.

And the majority of cases, their arms were in fact twisted. We haven't witnessed such a blatant mockery of international law, diplomatic ethics,

and basic decency for a long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:15:00] CHANCE: Well, there have also been other comments from senior Russian officials, notably the head of the -- the secrecy head, normally,

of the SVR, which is the Russian foreign intelligence gathering service, Sergey Naryshkina, his name is.

And yesterday he said that this Skripal poisoning was in his words, a grotesque provocation by the British, and the American intelligence

services.

And so, they are fuelling this conspiracy theories that the Russians have been putting out quite a lot, that it was in fact not a Russian attack, but

an attack carried out by the British themselves, perhaps with their American partners, Robyn.

CURNOW: And while you are talking, we've also been listening into the U.K.'s Russian Ambassador. He is actually speaking and continuing those

denials. Let's just listen in for a moment, Matthew.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDER YAKOVENKO, RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.K.: ... will be classified by the U.K. government. So the British do not believe that this

investigation will be opened. So this is not us. This is the British public.

So what we're going to have later -- so as soon as we will get the results, we are going to urge the British side to be transparent, as I said, and

present us the results.

But the major problem for us is that they didn't answer the questions, which proposed, and there are something like about 40. Some of them are

here. You will find it very interesting. All of them are published on our website.

And of course we are going to raise this question once again at the organization, on this OPCW. And today we are calling the meeting of the

U.N. Security Council where we are going to discuss all these things about the policy of some countries, and to discuss this Skripal case, poisoning

in Salisbury.

And of course it's not the end of the story, but we are coming to the -- to the other part of my remarks, is how we are -- how we are engaging U.K. in

this, all of this investigation. But before I'll do this, I would like just to make a few comments of the Secretary Johnson's tweet yesterday.

And because -- and I'm quoting him -- I mean quoting the Twitter by Boris Johnson, Porton Down identified nerve agent as military-grade Novichok, so

this is the statement. OK. But we want to check it. For the time being, one month, U.K. is refusing to give us samples.

Hope it will be checked by the OPCW, but we want these results transparent for everybody. So it's up to the United Kingdom to give consent whether it

will be allowed to everybody to know the results of that investigation or not.

Second, Boris Johnson, Russia has investigated delivering nerve agents likely for assassination, and as part of this program has produced and

stockpile small quantities of Novichoks. I like the word likely. I like the world highly likely.

Maybe it's clever, but what I want to say that -- so first of all, it's not true. This is first. And that let's say statement is not supported by any

evidence. Number three, Russia has motive for targeting Sergei Skripal.

It's not true. Absolutely not true. And we hear all the, let's say, stories, and the some kind of theories about our motivations, we don't buy

it.

Just for us, this kind of statements aren't acceptable. So this is about the Twitter. Now we are coming back to one more serious point the -- when

you read the British press, and when you hear the British statements, you can find that there is a -- let's say, it just was repeatedly said so.

[08:20:00] It was said that Russia didn't answer to this two famous questions, whether we had deliberately made poisoning, or we just lost

control of the -- of the poison so-called Novichok, so basically that was two things that was asked by Boris Johnson.

And later on it was said by Prime Minister, and that was said on the 12th of March, and since that time, every day, the British government is

repeating that they didn't get the answer for us. It's not true.

When I met Boris Johnson that was on the 12th of March, and he put all these questions in front of me, so the next day after probably maybe 12

hours, we wrote an official note from the Russian government, this is the note of the embassy, its official paper.

And I'm quoting -- for those who wants to read this note I'll be happy to share. It was said that referring to the meeting between both Foreign

Secretary Boris Johnson and ambassador (Inaudible) on the March 12th, so Russia has the honor to inform that the Russian federation was not involved

in any way in the incident that took place in Salisbury on the Fourth of 2018.

So 14 hours or maybe 12 hours later, we immediately answered. And when I hear today the statements of the British officials that we didn't answer, I

think this is something wrong, you know, with this kind of information because, you know, you can see this note. You know, I'll be happy to show

you.

You know, this is the -- and by the way, I can quote certain things, given that the Foreign Secretary put forth quite serious accusations against

Russia. That's what we were writing to him.

The embassy demands that samples of the chemical substance, to which the British investigations are referring, be provided to Russian experts for

analysis within the framework of the joint investigation.

Without that, all allegations by the British side are pointless. So and then we are making a few references to the other notes, but the first note

that we sent, that was on the 6th of March. Basically, we wrote it on the 5th, as soon as we'll get the information from the press that something

wrong happened, you know, in Salisbury.

And what we wrote -- I also, you know, make available for all of you this text. The embassy also got a request from the Russian citizen, Victoria

Skripal, asking to provide information of the health condition of her relatives.

Sergei, and Victoria Skripal, and Yulia Skripal, so basically almost the next day after this thing happened, we requested consular access, and the

full information of what happened.

Well basically, we've got something, maybe one sentence, maybe a week later, and everybody, we're waiting for the speech of Prime Minister. And

later on, you know, all the events and what happened.

So what I want to say is that everything what is -- what I'm saying is supported by the documents -- official documents which the Foreign Office

received. And I am quite surprised why we here in the statements of the British officials something which is not supported by any, in this case,

evidence.

Then let me brief you on the -- on some other things that are taking place. A month passed since the time when the two Russian citizens were poisoned

in Salisbury. The Foreign Office is not answering to our notes.

Well, we received just two notes, that Skripal is in critical condition, and this is -- basically, this is it. They're telling us that they are not

cooperating with us.

They are refusing to present any samples of this poison or whatever this agent -- this substance. We don't know in which condition Sergei and Yulia

Skripal are, and absolutely no information.

What we hear is just the leaks from the press. Every day new version, every day new story, that the poison was found in the car, then on the --

on some other place, in the house, you know.

[08:25:07] And the end, you know, the last story was what about the bucket that was brought from Moscow. But instead of presenting us any evidence or

to fulfill their international obligations, it's the Vienna Convention 1963, and the Consular Convention 1968, this is bilateral one, and we have

nothing.

So it's the question how the country fulfills the international obligations, but my personal question is why that's happening, why we don't

have access, you can just read the leaks, you don't have anything, probably the most interesting statement was made by the head of the Porton Down Lab,

which was excited the public.

And that brought us to really go famous tweet of the Foreign Office, but I'm not going to speculate on that. This is up to the Foreign Office to

explain their own people on what's happening in the U.K.

But as I said, no information about the Yulia Skripal, we don't know Sergei. This is our people. They are Russian citizens. A month past, and

of course we are waiting for the visit of the sister of Yulia Skripal, Victoria, who is waiting for the visa in Moscow -- British visa.

And we'll see, you know, what will be the outcome of that visit, but it doesn't replace our relations with the British side. I don't know of just

-- for how long we have to wait. But it looks like that this secrecy is all about this story. These are the new realities, and I'm ready to answer

your questions.

Before -- before I'll just wait for our dear friend, you know, Mrs. Garrison (ph). Before answering your question, you know, I have to

apologize, because after our previous press conference someone from Daily Mail didn't like the address, AND how you looked, and wrote something

really disgusting in his column.

Yes, I'll just -- we'll give you a copy. But since the press conference happened in my house, and we were treated so unfairly -- you know, I have

to apologize, these are the realities, and then now your question.

(LAUGHTER)

YAKOVENKO: Good for you. Good for you. We're reading everything what is published in the U.K.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible)

YAKOVENKO: Yes, we just asked about the condition of the Skripals, you know, recently just a few days ago. We're just reiterating -- you know,

just as we're saying that this is the new notes. You know, please answer the question.

But they're not answering the question, the Foreign Office is silent. But we're in contact with another Russian citizen, who is the sister of Yulia

Skripal, and she is going to come to London. She is waiting for the visa. I hope that the British government will issue this visa in time, but we

hope that the British...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Russian Ambassador to the U.K. there speaking to journalists, taking some questions. We'll continue to listen in on that. Matthew

Chance in Moscow was also listening in to that statement.

And in many ways more of the same, the Russians vehemently denying any involvement in all of this, in many ways trying to muddy and change the

narrative, they say they don't believe it. What do people in Russia say about this?

Yes, I don't know -- I don't know if that was me, or whether that was some sort of communication problems. I was trying to figure out that, but

clearly it wasn't just me. None of us could hear Matthew Chance there.

[08:30:00]

We will try and get him back in just a moment. But obviously you heard there, the ambassador to the U.K. The Russian ambassador making some very

powerful statements basically accusing the United Kingdom of trying to not be transparent on any information coming out of the poisoning of this

former Russian spy.

He certainly says that the Russian Embassy has been trying to push forward, trying to get new information. I think we also have Matthew Chance back

with us. Matthew, can you hear us? Can we hear you? Just wanted to get your sense of what played out at this press conference.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hopefully you can hear me this time. But the point I was making is that look, you're

asking me about what Russians think, and I -- well, they get the news, the majority of Russians, from state-controlled channels or newspapers. And I

think the majority of them think what they're told to think to a large extent by the Russian government.

CURNOW: Which is narrative.

CHANCE: But none of this should really detract from the reality which is narrative, detract from the central allegation that's being made by the

British. Despite the Russian rejection of these allegations, the British have come out again and said look, you know, this Novichok toxin was used

in the poisoning of Yulia and Sergei Skripal.

It is a toxin, a nerve agent that is known to have been produced in Soviet Union inside Russia. The chemical weapons, laboratory Porton Down had said

it had to be a state that was behind this because of the infrastructure needed to create Novichok.

The British government says that Russia has the intent of killing its dissidents. It made clear that it sees dissidents as legitimate targets and

it had a track record of killing or poisoning people it regards as dissidents.

Remember Alexander Litvinenko back in 2006, not to mention Victor Yushchenko, the former Ukranian president who didn't die from this but was

poisoned by an allegedly Russian source some years before that and was left with horrific disfiguration.

And so Russia does that have this track record of targeting and to some extent poisoning dissidents. And it's a combination of all those factors

that led the British to make this allegation that Russia is highly likely to have been behind this.

The Russians objected this phrase highly likely. They want absolute certainty. But of course, that's not possible to achieve in this kind of

context. They did try to push their diplomatic advantage by going to the OPCW, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, in the

Hague and saying look, we want a joint investigation into what happened.

And only six countries out of 41 countries agreed to that. The rest of the countries either abstained or said no way, this should go to the regular

channels. And so Russia is still diplomatically isolated on this issue. Robyn?

CURNOW: And they're also going to be taking it to the U.N. Security Council this afternoon. So I think these denials will certainly continue on

the diplomatic stage. Meanwhile, we understand that the investigation in the U.K. is also moving ahead its pace. Matthew Chance, always good to

speak to you there in Moscow. Thanks so much.

You're watching "News Stream." We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CURNOW: So there is more travel for Facebook. Remember the 50 million users who may have had their data accessed by Cambridge Analytica?

[08:35:04] Well, Facebook now says that number may be closer to 87 million people. You and me. Now, Australia is furious about this and starting its

own investigation into Facebook, joining the U.S. and the U.K. in pressuring the company.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify before Congress next week. He says Facebook failed to protect users.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, FACEBOOK (voice-over): We're an idealistic and optimistic company. For the first decade, we really focused on all the good

that connecting people brings. But it's clear now that we didn't do enough. We didn't focus enough on preventing abuse and thinking through how people

could use these tools to do harm as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Well, Facebook is also setting stricter rules for third party developers and that's actually impacting other apps. Tinder users who link

to Facebook say the app stopped working after the changes. And also some third party apps linked to Instagram which of course is owned by Facebook

say they're running into errors too.

Let's talk about all of this with Alex Hern. He is the technology features writer for The Guardian. Good to see you. First of all, for the

Australians, clearly this is getting global and the backlash is not limited just to the U.S.

ALEX HERN, TECHNOLOGY FEATURES WRITER, THE GUARDIAN: Yes. Facebook is a global company and one of the big problems they have is they have to abide

by regulation across the world.

They have huge conflicting (INAUDIBLE) regulations which is already hindering their attempts to promise that Europe's GDPR will roll out to

users worldwide because they say they don't know if they (INAUDIBLE) that.

You know, the worst case scenario for this company is 192 different investigations in 192 different countries.

CURNOW: And then we heard there Mark Zuckerberg kind of taking responsibility, saying he takes full responsibility, but is he and can he?

Because basically Facebook shareholders can't fire him. So maybe it's a different kind of responsibility here.

HERN: Quite. He's in a nice position.

CURNOW: He is.

HERN: He owns 16 percent of the company, but he holds 60 percent of the voting rights, six-zero. He essentially rules the company.

CURNOW: So he can give himself a slap on the wrist.

HERN: He can. And it looks like that's what he has decided to do. He said he doesn't want to fire any of the staff members because he takes

responsibility. And when he takes responsibility, he doesn't appear to be inclined to fire himself either.

CURNOW: So everybody is watching this with growing interest because Facebook is so huge and it impacts many of our viewers' lives.

Interestingly, this might have hurt Facebook's image. But in terms of market dominance, counter-intuitively, it might have helped them.

HERN: Yes. It's this interesting thing where you can see it today. Facebook's response has been to clamp down on the ways third party

developers can hook into the site. It closed ways to read events if you're a third party app. It closed ways to search for people using phone numbers

or e-mail. It shut down all of these things.

In that sense, it was an immediate response to this crisis because what happened with Cambridge Analytica was a third party developer holding

information on 87 million Facebook users of the site. But in the mid to long term, this might not actually hurt Facebook that much. It's a company

which loves the idea of building a world (ph) garden. You know, a roach motel. Once you check in, you can't check out.

And what the company has done now is set rules to all of these other companies which might want to build things on top of Facebook, if you want

to build something on us, you have to play by our rules and our rules just got a heck of a lot stricter.

It's also concerning to academics who work outside of Facebook, who want to research this company and it's effect on the world. Because they already

found it very hard to actually get a grip on what is happening on the site due to it's (INAUDIBLE) privacy controls.

Now it looks like it's only going to get harder particularly given the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal began with an academic taking

information off site.

CURNOW: OK, whether it's a world (ph) garden or roach motel, either way, Mr. Zuckerberg is going to have to answer some hard questions in Congress

in a week or so. Alex, good to speak to you. Thanks so much.

HERN: Thank you.

CURNOW: Now, one of Bollywood's biggest stars has just been sentenced to prison after he was convicted in a decade-old poaching case. Indian actor

Salman Khan was sentenced to five years for illegally killing two blackbucks in 1998. Khan pleaded not guilty and has long maintained his

innocence.

Saahil Menghani is with CNN News 18 and joins us now from outside the courtroom. So tell us what happened?

Can you hear us? Well, we're not doing well with sound, are we, this hour, we will try and reconnect that. I think there might have been a long delay.

[08:40:00] We were going via our affiliate there in India. We're going to have to move on. Apologies.

Now, a Chinese woman who went missing as a toddler has finally been reunited with her family 24 years later. Hannah Vaughan Jones tells the

story of a family that never ever gave up. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANNAH VAUGHAN JONES, CNN JOURNALIST AND PRESENTER (voice-over): An embrace between father and daughter separated for nearly a quarter of a century.

She was just three years old when she went missing in 1994. Now she's a 27- year-old mother of two.

Amid tears of joy, the family reunites in South Western China on Tuesday and begins making up for so much lost time. It's a remarkable story. Thanks

to the sheer determination of Wang Mingjing, the father who just wouldn't give up.

His daughter, Qifeng, vanished one day while he was on an errand to change money. The fruit seller and his wife left heartbroken.

WANG MINGJING, FATHER OF QIFENG (through translator): It happened over there. I came back after changing some money and our daughter just went

missing all of a sudden.

VAUGHAN JONES (voice-over): They searched for years. To expand his search, Wang worked as a driver for a ride hailing service. His dream that his

daughter might step into his car as a passenger. With no pictures of Qifeng, he posted a childhood picture of her sister in the back window and

handed out cards to every passenger.

After years of disappointment, a sudden turn of events when a young woman living on the opposite side of China saw an age progression drawing of

Qifeng as an adult that Wang posted on the internet. Qifeng had been found shortly after she went missing by a foster family who say the little girl

was crying by the side of a road.

She was brought up by the family about 100 kilometers from her father in Chengdu. An online chat led to a video call and a DNA test. And then the

long-awaited reunion amid a sea of cameras and a nationwide audience.

QIFENG MINGJING, SEPARATED FROM FAMILY FOR 24 YEARS (through translator): After this reunion, I will try to come back and be close to them as close

as I can.

VAUGHAN JONES (voice-over): A separated family finally made whole.

Hannah Vaughan Jones, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: What a wonderful, wonderful story. Thanks to Hannah for bringing it to us. Now, of course, we are monitoring that press conference that's

taking place there. That's the Russian ambassador to the U.K. He has been speaking in London in the aftermath of that Skripal poisoning which took

place a month ago.

He has been saying a number of things. The wires just crossing on his latest comments, saying that the Russian wants international presence in

what they call a so-called investigation into the Salisbury attack. And he has also said they will accept the result of tests on the nerve agent in

Salisbury, but they want to see who the experts were in conducting those tests.

We will continue to monitor that. You are watching CNN. And that's it for us. I'm Robyn Curnow in New York. "World Sport" with Alex Thomas is next.

Enjoy.

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[08:45:00] (WORLD SPORT)

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