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CNN NEWSROOM

North Korea Launches Multiple Projectiles; Ninety Rockets Fired from Gaza toward Israel; Thailand's King Vajiralongkorn Crowned; Trump Fails to Address Election Meddling with Putin; Cindy Warmbier Urges U.S. to Keep Pressure on North Korea; Venezuelan Senior Homes Provide Shelter for the Most Vulnerable; Venezuela's Juan Guaido Calls for Weekend Protests at Military Bases; Devastating Floods Submerge Parts of Iowa; Measles Ship Allowed to Return to Home Port. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired May 4, 2019 - 05:00   ET

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


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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Several projectiles launched into the sea. North Korea making a daring move. We'll have the latest in a live report from Seoul, South Korea.

Plus, a Boeing 737 plane skids off the runway and lands in the river. One eyewitness describes those terrifying moments to CNN.

Also ahead this hour, as India works to recover from cyclone Fani, Bangladesh gears up for the worst. Live here, CNN, welcome it our viewers here and around the world, I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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HOWELL: 5:00 am on the U.S. East Coast and we follow the breaking news out of North Korea, where several short-range projectiles have been fired. All of this happening Saturday morning on North Korea's north coast near Wonsan.

South Korea's defense ministry says those projectiles flew anywhere from 70 to 200 kilometers, then crashed at sea. Japan says the projectiles did not enter its waters. The U.S., South Korea and Japan are working together to get to the bottom of what happened here.

And also trying to understand is our Paula Hancocks, live in Seoul, South Korea.

What more do we know about the projectiles, if anything, Paula?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, George, we're being told by the joint -- the JCS here and the intelligence services that South Korea and U.S. intelligence and military are working together, trying to figure out exactly what was launched this Saturday morning.

They say that they're looking into what exactly it is. And, of course, that is significant, because that would potentially determine what kind of response we can expect from the United States.

Now all we know at this point is they are short-range projectiles. Earlier, South Korea's defense ministry had said they were missiles but that was clarified later to projectiles. So potentially, we're looking at something like rockets or something that may not irritant Washington quite so much.

We have had response from the Blue House, the South Korean presidential office, and they said they're very concerned that this actually goes against the spirit of the military agreement that Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in signed November of last year, where they effectively would halt all activities that would raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The Blue House is saying they believe this goes against that. Also saying they want North Korea to come back to the negotiating table as soon as possible. Now we haven't heard anything from North Korea at this point. They haven't acknowledged that this has happened.

There has been a flurry of phone calls, of diplomatic chats around the region. We know that U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo spoke to the Japanese and the foreign ministry. We know that Steve Biegun has spoken to his counterparts in the region. He's coming here next week to Tokyo and Seoul, clearly a lot more to talk about now, George.

HOWELL: Paula, the question, of course, why would North Korea do this now?

Is this the end of talks?

Is their frustration growing?

HANCOCKS: Well, I think the short answer, George, is that this could well be seen as a sign of North Korea's frustration, a sign that they are -- we know that Kim Jong-un is not happy about the Hanoi summit with President Trump, ending a couple months ago without any kind of an agreement. That was a surprise to North Korea. It was a humiliation to North Korea.

And when Kim Jong-un went to see the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, last month, he did say to him he believed the U.S. had acted in bad faith. He also has been quite open, saying that he thinks the U.S. needs to change its attitude. It needs to change its ways before the end of this year, otherwise he is going to choose another path.

The negotiations simply won't be a possibility. So this has widely been seen as a reminder to Washington, that this is what you could go back to, if, in fact, you don't do what we want to do.

And, of course, what North Korea wants is for sanctions to be lifted. Something that Washington said it won't do until there is more of a commitment from North Korea and actions from North Korea, that they will push towards denuclearization -- George.

HOWELL: Paula Hancocks following the story live for us in Seoul. Paula, thank you. We also have breaking news to tell you about in the Middle East. Israel's military says Gaza militants fired about 90 rockets towards Israel Saturday morning. Israeli Defense Forces --

[05:05:00]

HOWELL: -- add that its Iron Dome aerial defense system intercepted many of the incoming rockets. Its aircraft also targeted a pair of rocket launchers near the Gaza Strip. Palestinian ministry of health sais those airstrikes killed one person and injured three others.

In a U.S. state of Florida, a plane slid off the runway Friday night. This happened at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. Rescue crews say everyone on that flight thankfully got off safely.

The Boeing 737, coming from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ended up in the St. John's River; 136 passengers and 7 crew members were rescued from the wing. Passenger Cheryl Bormann tells CNN she has nothing but praise for a flight crew that handled a very scary situation. Listen.

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CHERYL BORMANN, PASSENGER: We're flying through a lightning and thunderstorm. And I was in an aisle seat. So I didn't have a view of the outside. The gentleman next to me did.

And as we went down, we had a really hard landing. And then the plane bounced and screeched and bounced some more. And it listed to the right and then it listed to the left. And then it sort of swerved and then it came to a complete -- like a crash stop.

And my head moved forward. And I hit my head on the plastic tray that is in front of you. I'm not injured, thankfully. It's just a little bump on the head. But at any rate, at that point, the flight attendants did a great job. They got everybody into life vests.

You really do learn -- I fly a lot for work. I'm thankful that I remembered the instructions. You put on your life vest and you don't inflate it until you get outside the plane.

We climbed onto the wing. We were in water. We couldn't tell where we were, whether it was a river or an ocean. There was rain coming down. There was lightning and thunder. And we stood on that wing for a significant period of time.

The rescue folks came. Eventually somebody inflated a life raft that had been on the plane and we began climbing into it. Everybody was helping everybody. The passengers were terrific.

I didn't see -- there were some injuries but it didn't look like too many serious injuries. The children were the first ones on. And then everybody else helped everybody else.

Eventually, the fire rescue folks figured out that they could help us by getting a rope -- it was actually a cable -- from a pier that was the closest thing to us and then pulling us in, with some help from people on the raft. And then we held on to the pier and helped other people on.

I spoke with some folks who were on the other wing. They tell me there was a large hole in the other wing. And I didn't see that because I was on -- as you face the front of the airplane, I was on the left side of airplane. I was on that wing. I guess on the right side of the plane, as you're facing the front of the plane, there was a large hole in the wing.

And NTSB hasn't spoken to us yet. We had some medical treatment. We are all sort of in a hangar at Naval Station Jacksonville and Border Patrol is processing us. I know they're only doing their jobs but they're asking us for I.Ds. Of course, most of us don't have any because we left it on the plane in our bags. So it's a bit of a mess.

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HOWELL: Again, thankfully, everyone got off that plane safely. America's National Transportation Safety Board tweeted that it is sending a team to Jacksonville to investigate exactly what happened here.

Now to Thailand, that nation has a new king. King Maha Vajiralongkorn has ascended to the throne once occupied by his late father. The entire coronation ceremony lasted for several hours. Right now, he's due at a temple, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. There, the king will proclaim himself the royal patron of Buddhism.

Earlier, take a look here. The moment the 66-year-old monarch was formally crowned. It was the presentation of an ornate silk umbrella that is sacred to Thai royalty. The last time this happened was 1950.

The king was then presented with royal objects of his high office, including a heavy gold crown adorned with diamonds. We get more now from CNN's Will Ripley, following the story in Bangkok.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: George --

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RIPLEY: -- here in Bangkok and across Thailand, the people are witnessing something most of them have never seen in their lifetime, the coronation of the king. The last one happened at 69 years ago in 1950. That was the coronation of the beloved king Bhumibol Adulyadej, who passed away in 2016.

Now after a period of mourning his son and successor was officially crowned today. He has ascended to the throne. What we saw in many ways is a live stream of an ancient tradition that spans back centuries. A lot of these things you could not even see in the old days because it all happened inside of the grand palace, which is what I'm standing in front of right now.

You saw the King Vajiralongkorn receive an nine-tiered umbrella, white, woven of silk and gold. This umbrella will now basically be above the king wherever he is, in the palace. And the reason for this umbrella is a symbol, a physical symbol, of the king's protection of the people, the physical protection and the spiritual protection. That is the significance of the nine-tier umbrella.

He also puts on a crown, called the great crown of victory. It is 7.3 kilos, 16 pounds. It's 26 inches tall, more than 2 feet tall. Quite a heavy crown for the king to wear. In some way, the weight is the symbol of the monarch's royal burden.

And added to that burden is the robe he wears, woven of gold thread. Quite a heavy crown and robe that he wears as he sits and receives his subjects now that he's officially ascended to the throne.

He also receives the sword of victory, the royal scepter, the royal fan and fly whisk, the royal slippers, mostly gold. The five royal regalia, as they're known, they are invaluable, precious symbols of kingship and mark the legitimacy of his reign.

What we've seen is the king using a lot these ceremonies to solidify that legitimacy. In terms of his overall public image here, he isn't known to the Thai people. He lived in Germany most of the time; he just got married this week. It's his fourth marriage to his wife, who is now the queen of Thailand.

For the Thai people who knew so much about his father and know so little of him, these ceremonies really do offer a peek behind the curtain at the palace.

HOWELL: Will Ripley, thank you.

Still ahead, President Trump discusses the Mueller report with the president of Russia. We'll tell you what else they discussed during their lengthy phone call.

Plus, the national assembly leader in Venezuela is trying something different. His latest effort to win military support to push President Maduro out of office.

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HOWELL: The U.S. economy is doing well. The latest jobs report shows that the nation's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest mark in 50 years. Despite the strong numbers, job growth was not the main talking point at the White House.

On Friday, it was the wide-ranging phone call between the U.S. president Donald Trump and the Russian president Vladimir Putin. CNN's Kaitlan Collins has this for us.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had a very good talk with President Putin, probably over an hour. KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump was in high spirits after his first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the release of the Mueller report.

TRUMP: We discussed it. He actually sort of smiled when he said something to the effect that it started off as a mountain and it ended up being a mouse. But he knew that, because he knew there was no collusion whatsoever.

COLLINS: But his good mood was quickly dashed after a reporter asked if he had told Putin to stay out of American elections, which the special counsel said happened in sweeping and systematic fashion in 2016.

TRUMP: Excuse me. I'm talking. I'm answering this question. You are very rude.

COLLINS: Asked again if he warned Putin not to attack or interfere in the next election, the president said it didn't come up.

TRUMP: We didn't discuss that. Really we didn't discuss it. We discussed five or six things.

COLLINS: It's a question his press secretary also refused to directly answer earlier in the day.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The conversation on that part was very quick, but what I can tell you is that this administration, unlike the previous one, takes election meddling seriously.

COLLINS: The phone call coming amid growing tensions between the United States and Russia over Venezuela.

Several senior administration officials have accused the Kremlin of intervening to prop up Nicolas Maduro, who the Trump administration is working to remove from power. But, today, the president downplayed Putin's involvement.

TRUMP: He is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela, other than he'd like to see something positive happen for Venezuela.

COLLINS: That statement directly contradicting what his secretary of state told Wolf three days ago.

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: He had an airplane on the tarmac. He was ready to leave this morning, as we understand it and the Russians indicated he should stay.

COLLINS: Russia has also acknowledged it has military personnel on the ground in Venezuela. Tonight, new CNN reporting reveals that, in recent days, Trump has been at odds with his senior advisers, who have been teasing military action there.

POMPEO: The president has been crystal clear and incredibly consistent. Military action is possible. If that's what's required, that's what the United States will do.

COLLINS: Sources say has instead Trump cautioned his advisers to stick to the line that all options are on the table.

TRUMP: We have lots of options and some of them are very tough options.

COLLINS: The president's skepticism after Juan Guaido's military uprising failed to gain traction this week, the botched operation raising questions about the reliability of U.S. intelligence that members of Maduro's inner circle were ready to defect.

One thing the president is feeling confident about, the economy.

QUESTION: Are you going to run on the economy?

TRUMP: Yes. Yes. I will be running on the economy, sure.

COLLINS: The U.S. economy added 26,000 jobs in April. And the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, the lowest in 50 years. The president has advised John Bolton to back off the military going to Venezuela. Bolton is executing the strategy of a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela.

As President Trump has made clear, all options are on the table -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

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HOWELL: Let's talk about this now with Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at the University of Essex, joining us from Cardiff, Wales.

Good to have you with us.

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Thanks for having me.

HOWELL: Mr. Trump clearly feeling good about the economy right now. He's also putting the Mueller probe behind him and engaging the Russian president really for the first time with a sense of victory and self-declared validation --

[05:20:00]

HOWELL: -- though critics are calling this another Helsinki moment, with President Trump siding with Putin on a range of issues.

What are your thoughts?

LINDSTAEDT: I would agree with critics saying it's another Helsinki moment. Because this was a really good opportunity for the president to question Putin about the meddling that took place in the 2016 election. That's the one thing about the Mueller report that hopefully all Americans can agree upon, that Russia meddled in these elections. And there's no telling that they're going to meddle in the 2020

elections. This is something that the Russians have been doing for some time now. Underlying Democratic elections by using social media to shape individuals' opinions and hacking into the Democratic Party's elections.

So it would be a good moment for Trump to really question him on this. Instead, he actually dismissed the reporter who asked the question, basically indicating this was completely rude of her to even ask this.

But he should have much greater suspicion about Putin. And to act like Putin wasn't involved in this is to completely misunderstand the nature of the Russian regime.

It's highly personalized, which means that Putin is in charge of every decision. There's nothing that happens behind his back and he really missed an opportunity to press Putin on this particular matter.

HOWELL: In this wide-ranging conversation, Venezuela was a point of discussion. Putin backing Nicolas Maduro, Mr. Trump backing Juan Guaido. Again, the president's comments seem to be at odds with his own staff and in line with President Putin, especially when it comes to the possibility of military intervention, President Trump taking a softer approach there.

LINDSTAEDT: Well, I think that's because Trump is really keen on maintaining a good personal relationship with Putin. This is someone he really respects. And he feels that it's important for the U.S. to have a good relationship with Russia.

He keeps talking about this isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing to have a good relationship with them.

What he needs to understand is particularly in the Latin American region, Russia and the U.S. have been at odds with one another. The policies that the Russians advocate, particularly in the case of Venezuela, is completely at odds with what the U.S. wants.

Russia wants to maintain Maduro until power. And there were rumors which have not been substantiated that he had even convinced Maduro to keep the country and stay strong.

This is something that the Russians have done with other authoritarian regimes. This is completely against what the U.S. wants, to support a democracy, eventually evolving in Venezuela. It has been a country that's long been democratic. And with the rise of Chavez, the U.S. has had a difficult relationship with Venezuela.

So here again he missed an opportunity to challenge Russia on its actions with Venezuela and push Russia and Nicolas Maduro, who has been in charge in Venezuela, one of the biggest economies in Venezuelan history, is really the right leader for the country.

HOWELL: All right. At the top of the show, I'm sure you might have heard. We reported on these projectiles that were launched from North Korea. That issue again, front and center. Before all of this, President Trump, in that call, indicated his

appreciation for Russia's engagement with North Korea.

Do you see Russia as a growing player in these negotiations?

Because, keep in mind, the last summit between Kim Jong-un and President Trump did not end very well. The summit between Kim and Putin was described as a success.

LINDSTAEDT: And that's something that Russia is hoping to achieve. They want to be a bigger player and be more involved in the denuclearization of North Korea. That is actually something that is in its interest, because they do want stability on the Korean Peninsula.

What they don't want is regime change. They want to ensure that North Korea remains authoritarian. And this is something that the Chinese also want as well. And they feel that, in order to do so, they need to become more and more involved and improve their relationship with North Korea.

This has been something that has been improving over time. But that recent summit, which is really more about the optics and showing to the world that these two leaders are forging a strong relationship and that there's more opportunity for cooperation in the future, the recent summit showed that Russia wants to become more involved in this process.

And they undoubtedly will be more involved because they have a little bit more leverage with North Korea compared to what the U.S. does at this moment.

HOWELL: Natasha Lindstaedt with perspective. Thank you.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

HOWELL: A grieving mother is talking tough on North Korea. Why Cindy Warmbier is speaking out now about what happened to her son before he died.

Plus the economic crisis in Venezuela rages on. It's hurting the country's most vulnerable. Ahead, the troubling living conditions of Venezuela's elderly.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell with the headlines we're following for you at this hour.

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HOWELL: The mother of American Otto Warmbier is slamming North Korea as a, quote, "cancer on the Earth" and has launched an emotional appeal for more pressure to be put on Kim Jong-un and his regime. Cindy Warmbier's 22-year-old son died shortly after being brought back to the United States from that country in a coma. That's where he'd been held for 17 months. Our Brian Todd has this report.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Otto Warmbier was brought home from a North Korean labor camp --

[05:30:00]

TODD (voice-over): -- in a coma, his mother says he looked like a monster.

CINDY WARMBIER, MOTHER OF OTTO WARMBIER: The look in his eyes, which I didn't know he was blind at the time, was absolute horror. Horror. Like he'd seen the devil. And he had. He was with the devil.

TODD (voice-over): Cindy Warmbier says if she had known North Korea would demand the U.S. agree to pay $2 million for the release of her son, she would have sprung into action.

WARMBIER: If I had to, I would have raised the money and I wish they would have asked for the money from day one because it was all about hostage taking. But instead, they had a much bigger use for Otto.

TODD (voice-over): President Trump says that money was never paid, although U.S. officials did sign a bill in order to have Warmbier released. He died six days after his return in 2017.

Cindy Warmbier spoke during a panel in Washington today about North Korean kidnappings. Just a mile away, former North Korean soldiers were on Capitol Hill, detailing what they called the brutality of Kim Jong-un's regime.

Former members of Kim's vaunted million-man army, often seen in lockstep on the parade route, said, behind the scenes, those choreographed routines were a facade, hiding rampant abuse and starvation.

JO YOUNG-HWA, FORMER SOLDIER IN NORTH KOREA (through translator): I was really hungry all the time. I was starving. My height is short because of the malnutrition I experienced in the military. From the first day, we were forced to go to villages and steal food from civilians.

TODD (voice-over): Some soldiers were even more desperate. Former North Korean artillery officer Kang Ri-hyuk told us of one young soldier in his unit. During a training exercise, he says, the soldier was so hungry, he ate a frog alive.

KANG RI-HYUK, FORMER SOLDIER IN NORTH KOREA (through translator): He didn't know that this frog was poisonous. He became unconscious and he died within a couple of hours.

TODD (voice-over): These accounts come a year and a half after a young North Korean staff sergeant made this dramatic dash across his country's border with South Korea, surveillance video showing him being pursued and shot several times by his North Korean comrades. He was rescued and almost died of his wounds. In the hospital, he too was treated for severe malnutrition.

For female North Korean soldiers, mistreatment of a different kind. Choi Yu-jin is a former nurse in the people's army. She says a female colleague of hers was forced to have an affair with a superior officer. The woman became pregnant, Choi says, and almost died when she suffered a miscarriage.

CHOI YU-JIN, FORMER ARMY NURSE IN NORTH KOREA (through translator): She said, when they asked her to have an affair with him, there was no way she could refuse. She had to do it in order to get party membership, so she could have a better life. The only thing she could sacrifice was her body.

TODD (voice-over): These horrific stories come as President Trump remains determined to pursue his personal diplomacy with Kim Jong-un. Diplomacy which Otto Warmbier's mother calls a charade.

WARMBIER: How can you have diplomacy with someone that never tells the truth?

He lies, he lies, he lies all for himself.

TODD: President Trump has said Kim Jong-un told him he never knew about Otto Warmbier's condition while Warmbier was in his regime's custody. And Trump said he believes Kim.

We reached out North Korea's mission at the U.N. for their response to the accounts from those soldiers of starvation and abuse. They didn't get back to us. But Kim Jong-un has previously said publicly that his soldiers should be spared no amount of nutrition so that they could feel the, quote, "loving care of his regime" -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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HOWELL: The U.S. president is urging his top advisers to approach the crisis in Venezuela with more caution and he's expressing frustration with those who are hinting at military intervention.

This comes after the U.S.-backed national assembly leader failed to topple the country's embattled president this week. But Juan Guaido remains determined. He's called for more protests to win military support, telling supporters they are close to victory. Listen.

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JUAN GUAIDO, INTERIM PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA (through translator): We are willing to talk to all the civil and military officials, with all, no matter where they come from, who are willing to cooperate with the cessation of usurpation, the government of transition and the free elections, because that is the mandate that I have by the constitution.

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HOWELL: In the meantime, members of the Lima Group, of mainly Latin American countries, again showed their support for Guaido. They revised a resolution calling for a return to democracy in Venezuela.

The economic crisis in Venezuela is hitting almost everyone but especially hitting the elderly hard. It's forced many of them to take refuge in senior citizen homes because many of their families can't afford to keep them to help them. Our Michael Holmes has this story.

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Dominoes in the courtyard of the Mother Teresa Senior Home in Caracas. There's not much else to do here. If life for Venezuelans is tough -- and undeniably it is -- it's even worse --

[05:35:00]

HOLMES (voice-over): -- for the elderly. This is not a good country in which to grow old.

BAUDILIO VEGA, MOTHER TERESA SENIOR HOME (through translator): If we didn't have this place, how many of these people would be on the streets or dead?

Thank God, here they are alive. It's not five-star but at least they survive.

HOLMES (voice-over): Baudilio Vega and his volunteer staff do their best to feed and house nearly 80 people here, the oldest 84-year-old Carmen Cecilia. It's a heartbreaking fact that, here in Venezuela, many of the elderly are simply given up by their families, not unwanted; far from it.

But victims of the brutal choice by the family: do you feed the children or do you feed the grandparents?

VEGA (through translator): There are many people here who are sad. If their hearts are sad it's because they've given everything in their life and their families, for one reason or another, sent them here.

HOLMES (voice-over): Everything here is donated and donations are drying up. Pensions, if you get one, almost worthless in this crumbling economy at $7 a month. There's no basking in retirement golden years in Venezuela.

"I had a lot of expectations of a nice retirement because I had a good job and income," Ochoa (ph) tells me.

"What do you think about the government and what it does?" I ask him. Nada, nothing, nothing. he says. Life is spartan, austere, but it is life. Alternatives unthinkable or unavoidable. The stories here are so similar, the pain and disappointment so individual.

We meet Victoria Madriz, 74 years old. She has family in Caracas. But there was simply no room or money to support her.

VICTORIA MADRIZ, SENIOR HOME RESIDENT (through translator): There were a lot of people in the house, my brother's children and their children. It was too much.

HOLMES (voice-over): A familiar refrain: families who couldn't cope or who simply left. An estimated 3 million Venezuelans have fled their country and its wretched economy in recent years. Many didn't take their parents or grandparents. They couldn't afford to.

Baudilio Vega says he won't let these people down even if, he says, his government has. What he wants is change, help.

VEGA (voice-over): I urge Venezuela, let the humanitarian aid in. We need the food and the medicine. Instead of buying weapons, we need medicines and food.

HOLMES (voice-over): The residents of the Mother Teresa home say in the meantime they'll survive. They have to.

BRIGIDA ZULAY, SENIOR HOME RESIDENT (through translator): All of us, we have hope.

HOLMES (voice-over): -- Michael Holmes, CNN, Caracas, Venezuela.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Let's bring in Kevin Middlebrook, Kevin is a professor of Latin American politics at University College London, joining us this hour in London.

Good to have you with us.

KEVIN MIDDLEBROOK, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Good morning.

HOWELL: I just wanted to get your thoughts on that piece we just played from Michael Holmes, discussing, explaining the situation for those who are more vulnerable in that country, given the economic situation.

MIDDLEBROOK: It's a terribly difficult economic and social situation. The economy is in complete meltdown. The annual rate of inflation will be in the low millions now. They're talking about a further drop of about 25 percent in gross domestic product this year, which is a 50 percent drop over about three years; 3 million people have emigrated, essentially for economic and hardship reasons.

So it is a terrible situation for millions of people. There's a great demand for humanitarian assistance, which the Red Cross and other countries are now trying to meet but it's really an extremely dire situation.

HOWELL: For those people, you described a dire situation. Juan Guaido is counting on seeing many people, many of his supporters, to fill the streets to protest. But that didn't materialize as he wanted.

Instead, we saw many images of Nicolas Maduro, surrounded by hundreds who support him in the military.

Where does that leave the opposition leader in what is clearly a tug- of-war for leverage?

MIDDLEBROOK: Well, this is a very fluid and highly divided situation. One of the problems that Guaido faces is precisely because the economic situation is so terrible, his calls for a general strike, in which businesses shut down, et cetera, is really a very difficult decision for people to make.

They're afraid, if they close their business, the government will take them over as a political act and that they will wind up all the worse for it. And, of course, the other dimension to this is the military calculus made by the armed forces, whether they continue to back Maduro or defect toward Guaido.

This past week has seen some very dramatic developments in that regard. As for now, as for the last three months, the senior military command seems to be behind Maduro.

I must say, in part, one of the reasons they seem to continue to back Maduro is precisely that the Trump administration continues to talk about the use of military force, which would unify the Venezuelan armed forces.

[05:40:00]

HOWELL: It is interesting to point out Mr. Trump's position on the possibility of military intervention, Mr. Trump saying that options are on the table.

Where does that put the United States, given that Russia is also active, involved in what's happening in Venezuela?

MIDDLEBROOK: Well, Russia is no position logistically to block some form of U.S. military action. It might be able to take some anti-U.S. response elsewhere in the world. I suppose Putin could even tell Trump there will never be a Trump Tower hotel in Moscow if the U.S. uses military force in Venezuela or something like that.

But clearly, I think the problem for the U.S. would be mainly on the Latin American and Venezuelan sides. Many Latin American countries, not all but many Latin American countries have backed this effort originally in the name of defending democracy in Latin America.

But when the Trump administration talks about the Monroe Doctrine, the use of military force, undercutting the trek of tyranny in socialist countries in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, it makes Latin American countries much more uneasy about this. And I think it would be almost impossible for any of them to endorse some form of military action.

HOWELL: Kevin Middlebrook giving us some perspective on what's happening in Venezuela. Kevin, thank you.

MIDDLEBROOK: My pleasure.

HOWELL: Tropical depression Fani is weakening as it moves across Bangladesh but it could still bring heavy rains and mudslides. We're tracking the story -- ahead.

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HOWELL: The remnants of tropical depression Fani are moving over Bangladesh right now. On Friday, that storm made landfall on India's east coast as a cyclone, the strongest cyclone to hit the country in 20 years. Police say that seven people were killed from falling trees or collapsed buildings.

Even though the storm has weakened, it has potential to cause a lot of damage in Bangladesh. Officials have warned 2 million people to get out of the storm's path.

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HOWELL: Now to tell you about what is happening in the U.S. state of Iowa. Devastating flooding has hit parts of that state. Large parts of its third biggest city are underwater. As you see here in Davenport, Iowa, this after the Mississippi River reached record levels near that city. Our Ryan Young is there and has this report.

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RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're here in Davenport, Iowa, where the impact has been quite tremendous. In fact, as you look around, that's River Drive right there and the water has really crushed the banks.

You can see the cars that are submerged. This has had a lot of impact on the businesses throughout the area. They've been underwater for more than 30 days at this point in some parts of the area. And this is really having an impact on them trying to get businesses back open, trying to get streets open.

And they're worried about what can happen next because, on Thursday, there could be more rain. In fact, they're thinking between Sunday and Thursday next week, you could be talking about anywhere from 2 to 3 more inches of rain.

Steven (ph), as you guide this boat, have you ever seen anything like this in the area? STEVEN (PH), BOAT GUIDE: In '93, that's when me and my family moved here from Florida and it was this bad. We actually lived on the river in Muscatine and we were out of our house for almost a month.

YOUNG: He is actually telling me, the business that he works at had the generator on for more than 24 hours. So you can understand this impact as the river's just right there, people using kayaks to get around. It will be a tough few hours as emergency management continues to try to help businesses along the area. They say right now they have enough sandbags -- Ryan Young, CNN, Davenport, Iowa.

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HOWELL: After spending days in quarantine, a ship with confirmed cases of measles --

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HOWELL: -- will be allowed to return home. Up next, the challenges that still await the rest of the passengers and crew.

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HOWELL: A cruise ship carrying a person with a confirmed case of measles is on its way back to its home port. But it's not all smooth sailing yet. Natasha Chen looks into what happened to the next 300 other people on board.

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NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Freewinds cruise ship, owned by the Church of Scientology, is returning to its home port at Curacao after being quarantined for three days in St. Lucia. A female crew member tested positive for measles.

And now the Curacao government will not let any of the 300 people off the ship until they determine who is susceptible to the disease.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's not going to be easy, who carries around their immunization records, right?

CHEN (voice-over): While quarantined, the ship's doctor requested 100 doses of the measles vaccine Thursday, which St. Lucia's health ministry said they provided for free.

This Scientologist says she was on the Freewinds the week before this particular trip.

GENERAL HAFEEZAH, SCIENTOLOGIST: The Freewinds does not play around with the people who board the ship. They are very serious about security.

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HAFEEZAH: Very serious about health. Very serious about high integrity. And so for me, it's the safest ship in the ocean.

CHEN (voice-over): The Church of Scientology didn't respond to CNN's request for comment. It says on its website the ship is a religious retreat at the pinnacle of the Scientologist's spiritual journey. The church has no official stance on vaccinations.

But Professor Steven Kent (ph), an expert on Scientology, says there is a church philosophy that high-ranking Scientologists can fend off illness.

STEVEN KENT, SCIENTOLOGY EXPERT: The issue about the Freewinds is it is filled with high-ranking Scientologists. So consequently, a high- ranking Scientologist very well could imagine that the Freewinds would be one of the last places on Earth that a person would get sick.

CHEN (voice-over): Yet now people must remain on board until cleared by health officials -- Natasha Chen, CNN.

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HOWELL: It's being called one of the most epic postseason victories in the NBA playoffs and it hasn't even been done since 1953. Going into four overtimes, game three of the NBA Western Conference semifinals became a daring escape for many of the players who clocked in 45-plus minutes of playing time.

But Rodney Hood's last three-minute -- three-pointer, I should say, gave the Portland Trailblazers just the breather that they needed in a gutsy 150-147 win over the Denver Nuggets. The two teams face off again on Sunday, when the Denver Nuggets gain home court advantage.

That wraps this hour of NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell. News continues right after the break.

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