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Funerals Begin in Sri Lanka as ISIS Claims Responsibility for Sunday's Attacks; Kushner Downplays Russian Interference in 2016 Election; Netanyahu to Name Golan Settlement for Trump; Riyadh Kills 37 Citizens for Terror Offenses; U.S. Threatens to Veto Resolution Helping Sex Violence Victims; Kim Jong-un, Putin to Meet in Russia; U.S. Ships in Mediterranean Send Message to Russia; Protestors Readying for Trump Visit to U.K. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired April 24, 2019 - 00:00   ET

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


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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): These are the masked faces of the men that carried out the suicide bombings in Sri Lanka where the death toll continues to climb.

Like father, like son-in-law. Jared Kushner plays down Russia's interference in the 2016 election and says the special counsel's investigation was more harmful to democracy than anything Russia did.

Playing both sides: with talks in Washington stalled, Kim Jong-un fires up his train and heads to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin for their first-ever summit.

Welcome to our viewers all around the world. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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VAUSE: Three days after the Easter Sunday attack on churches and hotels, Sri Lanka's prime minister warns several suspects are still at large. The warning comes as ISIS claims responsibility for the deadly wave of suicide bombings.

The terror group released a video showing men who they say were the suicide bombers. The one man with his face not covered is the group's leader, Zahran Hashim. Indian intelligence says an ISIS suspect told them he trained a Sri Lankan man with the same name, information they say which was given to authorities along with a warning of a possible attack.

The government now admits it failed to act on that tip and others, inaction that left more than 300 people dead. Hashim was known to Sri Lankan authorities as part of local group called the NTJ.

The Sri Lanka president ordered an immediate restructuring of the security services. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAITHRIPALA SIRISENA, SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I will completely restructure the police and security forces in the coming weeks. I expect to change the heads of defense establishments within the next 24 hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN's Nikhil Kumar is live in Colombo.

So this does seem to be a classic case of slamming the barn door closed once the horse has bolted. It's hard to imagine how even the president was not privy to these warnings that an attack on this scale was imminent.

NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: That's right, John. Given the size of this attack. Given the specificity of the warnings, given the targets, I'm outside one of them, St. Anthony's Shrine. Given all the information that the Sri Lankans had, it's astonishing that more wasn't done to stop this.

As you said, the president last night was saying he was kept out of the loop. This comes after the prime minister said that he was in the dark. So this has become a major controversy, even as this country tries to come to terms with this devastating attack.

VAUSE: There's a curfew in place and security forces have been given sweeping new police powers they haven't seen there since the civil war. But there's a fine line here for authorities.

If they push too hard are they running the risk of planning more attacks and further radicalization?

KUMAR: That's exactly right. There is a balance. One, making sure that they can catch everybody who is out there. The prime minister, you said, referred to a continuing threat. So the emphasis is very much on making sure that that's dealt with and all of those people still out there that may pose a threat are apprehended as soon as possible, making sure also as you say that this doesn't become a reason for that to happen, that the reconciliation process, underway for more than a decade, that doesn't come to an end which is why it's important for the leaders to come together.

This is a massive controversy. We can see these black and white streamers all over the place, around the shrine and across the country, even as they're trying to come to terms with the fact that terror has once against revisited Sri Lanka, people are increasingly angry.

We spoke to a former top police official who told CNN that it is extremely unusual. He said it was negligent that the government didn't act upon this information to make sure that the security forces weren't there already when people went into church on Easter Sunday.

VAUSE: Nikhil, we appreciate it, thank you. For more now, we're joined by Bruce Hoffmann, an expert in terrorism --

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VAUSE: -- and a professor at Georgetown University.

Professor Hoffman, thank you for being with us.

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BRUCE HOFFMAN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: You're welcome.

VAUSE: -- of responsibility. ISIS released a video of what they said were the suicide bombers pledging allegiance to the ISIS leader Abu Baker al-Baghdadi. In this video, the man in the middle with his face not covered is Zahran Hashim, the leader.

This is what the governor said about his ability to win over loyal followers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZATH SALLEY, GOVERNOR OF WESTERN PROVINCE, SRI LANKA: And this Zahran, he is the guy who is giving them the ideology. And we need to talk to people. I don't know what mechanism he has and how he is always getting into this is not known. But what people say is when they -- when he talks, they immediately want to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So is it his personal charisma or whatever you want to call it or is it the pro-ISIS message that he is delivering which has convinced seven young men to carry out mass murder and kill themselves in the process?

HOFFMAN: I imagine it's a combination of both. A charismatic figure can be effective in motivating and inspiring and activating individuals to martyr themselves and become terrorists in service to what he communicates and defines as a highly compelling ideology.

I think one has to understand that Sri Lanka's Muslim community has long been alienated and disenfranchised. I first visited 22 years ago and met with members of the Muslim community. Back then the elders were concerned in a secular context how the community was being radicalized. It seems that two decades later, a combination of Hashim and ISIS has succeeded in doing so.

VAUSE: I'd like you to listen to what one neighbor said about the attackers.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were very reserved. Like they don't come out to play they don't come out to chat, have a chat. (INAUDIBLE) now and then, like every night, like we (INAUDIBLE) talk about stuff like we have, like what you're doing or what's happening? That's all, that's all (ph).

So these guys, they never came out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: We also have this surveillance video, which shows one of the suicide bombers on the way to his target. He stops for a moment at one point and pats a young girl on the head. It's chilling. It's also incredulous how someone about to carry out mass murder could act in that way before he reaches his target.

How do you explain that?

HOFFMAN: Certainly the neighbor's recounting of his experience fits into a pattern that individuals were in the martyr's mindset and their handlers or controllers would be sequestering the would-be bombers, ensuring that they stayed focused on their mission and religious justification and political manifestations.

While we'd like to look at them as monsters and the acts of violence they commit are monstrous, they are human beings and they may be so focused on this mission. But as you can see on that video footage, where he is patting the head of that child, they're still human beings.

And they're believing that they're committing these acts of violence in the twisted ideology that they're imbued with, that they're making the ultimate sacrifice. They believe it's the supreme evidence of the fealty to their religious creed and political cause.

VAUSE: It's surprising that this message from ISIS is still attractive and still calling recruits, even after the caliphate has fallen. I wonder if that's been a trigger for renewed ISIS operations around the world. There was the first-time attack in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one in Kabul and one in Saudi Arabia.

It seems there's been the effort to hit targets around the world.

HOFFMAN: I think this a conscious decision that the leadership embraced as the caliphate was crumbling and ultimately falling, was to move from the center and give emphasis to activities by ISIS' official branches in more than 2 dozen networks throughout the world.

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VAUSE: Countries like Saudi Arabia have managed to foil the attacks; Kabul is a soft target in many ways.

How can Western governments and Western countries be?

It's more than a year now and security forces in the Europe and the United States have been able to prevent terrorist attacks.

HOFFMAN: That's true but we're only as good as our last success and the problem is terrorism, as we've seen in the past few days in Sri Lanka, is constantly evolving. And it has to evolve and change; otherwise, the terrorists will not be successful in carrying out their attacks.

Governments have to be confident that they're keeping pace with these threats and responding to warnings, taking it seriously, as these events in recent days have been tragically demonstrated. ISIS may have been weakened. But they have resolved to carry on this struggle and would argue fueled additionally for their desire for revenge and retaliation.

VAUSE: If the government is correct and Sunday's bombings was retaliation for the mass shootings in New Zealand by white supremacists at two mosques, that would mean they put together another well-planned, highly coordinated attack in just over a month?

That seems not plausible.

HOFFMAN: Not really. I think it's very clear that ISIS already had contact with other members of these extremist organizations. So they had the foundation and they had the logistical support network in place. They just had to provide the plan and guidance and that, in a compressed period of time, could be effective, not the least in motivating individuals to martyr themselves.

VAUSE: Professor Hoffman, we appreciate you being with us. Thank you.

HOFFMAN: You're welcome.

VAUSE: The overwhelming number of dead were Sri Lankans but visitors were also killed at the four hotels and three churches, among them two American children. Their father, Matt Linsey, spoke about his loss to CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Over 300 lives lost. One father we spoke to, an American investment banker, Matt Linsey, lost both of his teenage children that he had taken with him on a holiday that began in Vietnam and ended up in the Sri Lankan upmarket hotel of the Shangri-La that was torn apart, along with their lives, by two blasts that hit the breakfast buffet, an extraordinary loss for Matt. He found some time to speak with us.

MATT LINSEY, SRI LANKA ATTACK SURVIVOR: The bomb went off and they both were running toward me. And I'm not sure whether that's what killed them or not. We started -- and I knew there would be another bomb because there always are at these things. Another bomb went off and --

PATON: So your instinct was to get out.

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LINSEY: -- as soon as possible --

PATON: To move them with you.

LINSEY: Yes, maybe I should have just stayed and covered them with my body.

PATON: And it was the second blast near the elevator.

LINSEY: They both were unconscious. My daughter seemed to be moving. My son wasn't. A woman offered to take my daughter downstairs to the ambulance. I needed help moving my son. Someone helped me move him down the stairs. And they both ended up in the same hospital.

PATON: His voice is hoarse from yelling, from standing in the hospital, shouting for help to try and find both of his teenage children. An unimaginable, unfathomable sense of loss he is feeling and that his family obviously is feeling now.

But he was full of nothing, as you heard there, but a message of love after this event and of praise for the U.S. officials at the embassy in Colombo that helped him, that are helping now repatriate his two lost children and got him home, away from the continued threat inside of Sri Lanka. Devastating loss, one family there, I think really bringing home exactly what this murderous, senseless violence does to a basic family unit -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, U.S. presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner made his first public comment about the now closed special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Kushner, who is named in Robert Mueller's report more than 200 times, downplayed Russia's actions and instead claimed Mueller's investigation was actually more harmful to U.S. democracy than anything ordered by the Kremlin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Quite frankly, the whole thing's just a big distraction for the country.

And you look at what Russia did, buying some Facebook ads to try to sow dissent and do it -- and it's a terrible thing -- but I think the investigations and all of the speculation that's happened for the last two years has had a --

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KUSHNER: -- much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple of Facebook ads.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Michael Genovese is the president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University and he joins us from Los Angeles.

Michael, that statement is not just misleading and disingenuous and deceptive, it's an outright lie. Here's part of the Mueller report. "Facebook had identified 470 Russian Internet Research Agency or IRA control Facebook accounts that collectively made 80,000 posts between January 2015 and August 2017, reaching as many as 126 million persons.

"In January of 2018, Twitter announced it had identified more than 4,000 IRA-controlled Twitter accounts and notified proximately 1.4 million people Twitter believed may have been contacted with an IRA- controlled account.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

He also ignored the campaign orchestrated by the Kremlin to hack Democratic emails and just for the record, the name Kushner appears 263 times in the Mueller report, including the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians linking to the Kremlin, which they all lied about and it seems Kushner cannot stop lying now.

Why is that?

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: I think Jared has been and is an embarrassment to himself, to the administration and to the country. You can see why. In this statement, "a couple of Facebook ads" is what he called them.

Well, you put the statistics up there. The Russians spent over a million dollars a week. It reached over 126 million Americans with hits on Facebook. That's just Facebook alone. They were doing all kinds of other things and other platforms on social media.

So to try to diminish that and its importance is beyond absurd. It's a fantasy world. They had massive intrusion into our elections. They undermined an election and they got away with it.

And now we're trying to defend them?

Trying to say they got their hair messed up a little bit?

This was unbelievable because they succeeded in corrupting an election and now we're making excuses for them.

VAUSE: At the same time, Kushner said his Middle East peace plan will be out by early June. He spoke about his unique approach to Middle East peace. Here it is.

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KUSHNER: We tried to do it differently. Normally they start with the process and hope for the process to lead to a resolution. What we have done is the opposite. I hope it's a very comprehensive vision for what can be if people are willing to make some hard decisions.

So we started with the solution and then we'll work on a process to try to get there.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Gerard Araud, The retiring French ambassador to Washington, had this take, "When there is a negotiation between two sides, the more powerful party is imposing terms on the weaker party. That's the basis of Jared Kushner's peace plan. It will be proposal very close to what the Israelis want.

"Is it doomed to fail?

I should say 99 percent yes. But 1 percent, you never forget the 1 percent."

So it seems his approach is simply to dictate terms to the Palestinians.

GENOVESE: And the question is, is it designed to succeed?

Because what does success mean?

It means giving Israel what it wants, undermining any claims that the Palestinians had and that's not a recipe for peace. That's a recipe for engaging in further conflicts, further problems, further down the line. So it's not a serious plan.

You have to remember, this is someone who was given a job, born with a silver spoon, given a job by his father-in-law for which he was wholly unqualified. And he couldn't even get a security clearance on his own without his father-in-law intruding.

So talk about a misplaced person in a misplaced job, this is of such vital importance and we're putting this child without experience, without knowledge, into this position as the chief negotiator, when great men and women have failed in this before.

We're putting this person in here. You have to question whether the president is even serious about a true peace plan for the Middle East.

VAUSE: I'll put you down in the column of not having a great deal of confidence in this peace plan. Ahead of the release of the Kushner plan, we have a reminder of how much the Israelis love the American president. Here's Benjamin Netanyahu.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL (through translator): I am here with my family and many families here at the foot of the Golan Heights, happy with the joy of the holiday and our beautiful country.

And another joy because a few weeks ago, I brought official recognition from President Trump who recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights forever. I think we need to express our appreciation by naming a locality or a municipality in the name of Donald Trump on the Golan Heights.

I'll bring this up at a cabinet meeting soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: On the one hand, it's hard to argue that the American president, who will have an Israeli settlement named after him, is truly an honest, impartial broker here. But given that Trump is so very popular in Israel, if any U.S. president can push Netanyahu and the Israelis to make some concessions, it will be Donald Trump.

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VAUSE: How do you see it?

GENOVESE: If he wants to -- and he clearly has not wanted to. But I think this goes back to the Bush administration, George W. Bush, when Karl Rove had a strategy for peeling away Jewish American voters from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party by caving into whatever Israel wanted.

That's not what a good friend does. A good friend sometimes tells a good friend, you're making a mistake; we're not doing that. W. didn't do that and Donald Trump has gone even further. He is basically saying I'll not only give you what you want but I'll give you even more.

So rather than being a good and a real friend saying you have to make changes if you want a peace plan, the president is saying do whatever you want. We've got your back. And this love affair between Trump and Netanyahu is not going to take us any further down the road to peace.

VAUSE: There's a Palestinian saying, better a smart enemy than a dumb friend. So the Israelis, they may look to Donald Trump as his great friend but he's effectively doing them harm.

GENOVESE: That's why Jared is so useful in this position. He's just this pretty face that smiles and has no real impact because there's not a real plan on the table. If the United States could dictate a plan, it would give Israel what it wants. And Israel might say that's wonderful but it's not going to bring peace.

Peace involves all the sides coming together, finding an agreement, not one being imposed by the United States as a favor to Israel. That's not a peace plan or a plan for the future.

VAUSE: Michael, as always, it's great to see you. Thank you so much.

GENOVESE: Thank you, John.

VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, why a U.N. resolution to protect victims of sexual violence in wars and conflicts has turned into a battle over the Trump administration's stance on abortion.

Also a dissident group has admitted to killing journalist Lyra McKee during violent clashes last week in Northern Ireland.

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VAUSE: Well, the funeral for a journalist killed in Northern Ireland begins about an hour from now. Lyra McKee was shot and killed in violence in Londonderry last week. The family are trying to overcome this tragedy, just as she would have dealt with it, with understanding and kindness.

The New IRA has apologized for the death of the young journalist. In a statement to the "Irish Times," the group also accused McKee of standing too close to enemy forces.

Saudi Arabia's interior ministry --

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VAUSE: -- says the kingdom has executed 37 men for terror related crimes. The statement released to the official news agency says the death penalty was implemented on a number of criminals for adopting extremist terrorist ideologies and forming terror cells to corrupt and disrupt security as well as spreading chaos and provoking sectarian strife.

Amnesty International is one of the rights groups condemning this mass execution. It says most of the men were convicted after sham trials.

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney went to Hollywood actor George Clooney used a little star power to challenge the U.N. Security Council to support a resolution aimed at protecting victims of sexual violence in wars and conflicts. It wants to prosecute the perpetrators like ISIS.

But on Tuesday, the U.S. implemented a little diplomatic muscle to water down the resolution and remove any reference that might imply the use of abortion services for victims.

Details from CNN's Richard Roth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: It was supposed to be a Security Council meeting to recommit to protecting women who have been the victims of sexual violence in conflict around the world.

However, attempts by Germany and others to pass a new resolution were held up by the United States, among others. The Trump administration dislikes any piece of legislation that might imply approval of abortion and, thus, to get approval of the resolution, the Germans and others agreed to dropping all language that would mention reproductive health and sexual health, even deleting a prior reference to a resolution that was approved which contained those words. European countries such as France and the U.K. were displeased.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are worried that a veto, the threat of being vetoed was used by several members in order to bring into question 25 years of advances in this area. It is inexplicable that sexual and reproductive health is not acknowledged when it comes to the victims of sexual violence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We regret that the languages on services for survivors of sexual violence, recognizing the acute need for those services to include comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care, including safe termination of pregnancies, did not meet with all the council members' support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please raise their hand.

ROTH (voice-over): After the language was deleted in final negotiations, the resolution did pass 13-0, with China and Russia abstaining. Before the vote, Nobel Peace Prize winners and their advocates pressed the Security Council for more accountability when women are sexually attacked around the world in conflict.

Amal Clooney, the attorney, said very few, if any, ISIS fighters who are now in prison are being brought to justice for what they did. She raised the possibility of a regional-type tribunal to hear the cases.

AMAL CLOONEY, HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER: This is your Nuremberg moment, your chance to stand on the right side of history. You owe it to Nadia and to the thousands of women and girls who must watch ISIS members shave off their beards and go back to their normally lives while they, the victims, never can.

ROTH: So on a day when many thought there could be unity on this issue, many left feeling helpless and wondering who will carry out justice for the Yazidi women and others -- Richard Roth, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, he's on the bulletproof train and he's on his way to Vladivostok. Why Kim Jong-un is about to hold his first-ever summit with Vladimir Putin.

Is he sending a message to his dear friend, Donald Trump?

Also, a message from Moscow: U.S. sending two aircraft carriers with a VIP on board.

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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

[00:31:01] The death toll had jumped yet again in the Sri Lankan terror attacks. Now up to at least 359 people. Funerals began Tuesday as ISIS claimed responsibility. Authorities expect a local extremist group carried out the suicide blasts, and the prime minister warns some suspects are still on the run, armed with explosives.

A train packed with protestors is now in Sudan's capital to support activists demanding civilian rule. They say talks with the military transitional counsel have broken down after the uprising which toppled former dictator Omar al-Bashir. The head of that counsel met with a U.S. delegation on Tuesday. He says the military will hand power to the people and will not use force to end the protests.

Malawi has become the first nation to begin immunization of children against malaria. By the way, a pilot project by the World Health Organization with the goal of vaccinating about 360,000 African children every year. Kenya and Ghana will also start using the vaccine in the coming weeks.

With talks between Pyongyang and Washington stalled and going nowhere, North Korea's leader is heading to his first summit with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The two men will meet in Vladivostok. But the Kremlin says don't expect any joint signings or joint statements, or any agreements or anything much.

For the record, this is the first time the leaders from North Korea and Russia have met since 2011.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is following developments. She joins us live from Seoul. Paula, on the surface, this looks to be a case of Kim Jong-un deciding if he can't get what he wants from Donald Trump, he'll try his luck with Vladimir Putin. The only problem with that theory is that can Russia give Kim what the U.S. can? I guess, you know, they're sort of apples and oranges here, but there are mutual benefits to this meeting for both sides.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John. And it's interesting the fact that they've already said there were going to be no statements. There's going to be no agreement. We're not going to be signing anything. It's as though they've learned a very good lesson from Hanoi when they announced in advance there was going to be a statement, and then there wasn't. So they had to backtrack from that.

So this is really Kim Jong-un answering an invitation that Vladimir Putin gave him pretty much a year ago. So this has been long-awaited.

What we have seen up until now is the North Korean leader has been willing to push towards the U.S. angle, to work with the U.S. president, Donald Trump, to see what he could get out of it. But all the experts that I have spoken to about this say it's certainly not accidental, the timing of Kim Jong-un going to -- to meet Putin.

VAUSE: When you say it's not accidental, the timing here, because what, this is clearly a message from Kim Jong-un to the U.S., to Donald Trump?

HANCOCKS: Yes. I was hoping for a sound bite to be run there, John. The expert, James Steinberg, the former deputy U.S. secretary of state, said that -- that Kim Jong-un had gone to meet with Mr. Trump and was flummoxed by the fact that there hadn't been a deal, that he hadn't managed to secure these concessions from the U.S. president, so he's looking for alternatives. He's looking to other leaders to try and see what kind of concessions that he could get.

The problem is, though, of course, Russia can not necessarily give Kim Jong-un too much. What Kim Jong-un wants at this point is an easing of sanctions. Russia can't do that. They signed up to these heavier sanctions against North Korea. They're part of the U.S. Security Council. They signed onto those resolutions. And even though they've been quite public in saying that they believe it's time to ease those sanctions, they can't do anything without the rest of the Security Council.

Now of course experts, say there could be humanitarian deals. There could be other kind of deals: political, public support for Kim Jong- un. But when it comes to what the North Korean leader wants, which is an easing of sanctions, Russia really has its hands tied -- John.

VAUSE: It also seems, while this is happening, Donald Trump doesn't really care. I mean, in the past, if there was this sort of, you know, triangulating by a North Korean leader, you know, from leaving Washington behind and heading off to Moscow or, in this case, Vladivostok, you would see the Americans actually try to move in an alliance with the Chinese or maybe try and, you know, block that move somehow; but Washington has done nothing.

HANCOCKS: It's true. And what we're seeing here is really, Kim Jong- un, even though he's a new, young leader, different to his father and his grandfather, is really falling back on the old traditional ways of trying to gain concessions.

We saw his father and his grandfather in the past, sort of playing China and Russia off each other to see if they could maximize for an investment, to see if they could get more concessions from one or the other.

There's a suggestion that maybe what he's trying to do by going to Russia, but the fact, as you say, Washington has not officially responded to this. Certainly, all officials are saying they're going to be watching this extremely closely.

There was members of Congress coming here to Korea just last week. And when I spoke to them, they said that they welcome Kim Jong-un speaking to many leaders. The more multilateralism that can be involved, the more support for the denuclearization plan that can be accomplished is all for the better.

VAUSE: It's interesting that there's been this deafening silence, almost, from Washington. And the only thing we're hearing from the North Koreans is, you know, this criticism of the secretary of state, the U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, that happened last week, which is sort of a sign of the old times.

Paula, thank you. We appreciate you being with us.

The U.S. Navy beefing up its presence in potential hot spots with Russia. It's not just the Navy hardware being deployed to the Mediterranean which is drawing attention but also who's on board.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An exclusive look as the U.S. military sends a message of deterrence to Russia, moving two aircraft carriers to the Mediterranean and, in a rare move, bringing America's ambassador to Moscow, Jon Huntsman, on board, a clear signal to Russia.

JON HUNTSMAN, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO MOSCOW: When you have 200,000 tons of diplomacy that is cruising in the Mediterranean, this is what I call diplomacy. This is forward-deployed diplomacy. Nothing else needs to be said. You have all the confidence you need when you sit down and you try to find solutions to the problems that have divided us now for many, many years.

PLEITGEN: CNN was on board as the USS Abraham Lincoln and the John C. Stennis are going to conduct operations on a scale unseen here since 2016.

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN WADE, U.S. NAVY: Our senior leadership has mandated that our Navy become more lethal, more tactically proficient. It's very important in the era of competition that we're in.

PLEITGEN: All this in an area where Russia is trying to expand its influence, deploying more war ships and submarines with cruise missiles.

(on camera): The U.S. military is extremely concerned about Russia's increasingly strong military posture in this region. And with this deployment, America is making clear to Moscow that it (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(on camera): Even as President Trump's associates claim there was nothing wrong with his campaign seeking information stolen by Russian military intelligence in the run-up to the 2016 election, the U.S. Navy is also assuring America's allies that it won't waver on commitments to protect against Russian aggression.

A Spanish ship even sailing as part of the carrier strike group.

ADMIRAL JAMES FOGGO, U.S. NAVY: We're not going to be deterred by any potential adversary, and we're going to support our interests as Americans and also those of our allies as we stand throughout the world.

PLEITGEN: With Russia increasingly assertive in the entire Northern Atlantic and Arctic region, the U.S. Navy is putting on its own show of force for the Kremlin to clearly see.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Mediterranean Sea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Donald Trump heading back to the U.K. But unlike his last trip. this time it will be an official state visit with all the fancy stuff he's into. But protestors are planning on ruining all the fun.

Also ahead, three years after he died, Prince's memoir has been finished, set to release in the coming months. Details after the break.

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[00:40:56] VAUSE: The U.S. president is set to make his first official state visit to the U.K. in June. This is more than two years after an invitation from Britain's prime minister. Unlike the last trip he made, this time comes with almost all the flourishes and trimmings of a head of state which are usually received.

Now, Max Foster has the latest.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From a royal honor guard to a state lunch and formal evening banquet at Buckingham Palace, President Trump expecting to get quite the greeting when he arrives in the United Kingdom in June for the first official state visit to the country.

But he won't be staying at Buckingham Palace, as is traditional for heads of state. Apparently, the 775-room palace doesn't have enough space, because parts are being refurbished.

It's likely protestors will reign on Trump's parade. The giant baby Trump blimp, brought out during the president's much more casual visit last July, could make another appearance.

Once again, President Trump will meet with the queen. Last time, in breach of diplomatic protocol, he briefly walked aimlessly in front of the queen whilst inspecting the Royal Guard.

And the world will be waiting and watching to see if President Trump's relationship with British Prime Minister Theresa May continues to be extra special. We've seen the two close the last few times they've been together.

Max Foster, CNN, Buckingham Palace, London.

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VAUSE: Three years after purple tears rained down around the world, a gift for the fans of Prince.

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VAUSE: The rock star's estate made an announcement about his official memoir on Twitter. On October 29, they said, "The Beautiful Ones" will be published. And they say it's available for pre-order now.

Just weeks before his death, Prince struck a deal to write this book about his life. We're told he delivered about 50 handwritten pages before dying of a fentanyl overdose. According to the publishers, the project will include never-before-

seen photos and lyric sheets. The book is also said to contain Prince's original handwritten treatment for the 1984 film "Purple Rain," a blockbuster that established him as a global superstar.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. WORLD SPORT is up next. You're watching CNN.

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