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U.S. Places Sanctions on Iranian Metals Exports; House Committee Holds AG Barr in Contempt; China Threatens Retaliation over Trump's New Tariffs; South Africa Votes. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired May 9, 2019 - 02:00   ET

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


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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The U.S. intensifies its pressure on Iran with more sanctions while others tell Iran to hold firm and stick to the nuclear deal.

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REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): We've talked for a long time about approaching a constitutional crisis and we are now in it. We are now in a constitutional crisis.

CHURCH (voice-over): Democrats blame the president and the attorney general for causing dysfunction in government. The latest in the political fight over the Mueller report.

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CHURCH (voice-over): And another stunning comeback in the Champions League as a second half hat trick settles the all-English final.

Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world I'm Rosemary Church and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

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CHURCH: Washington's hard line against Tehran has taking another major step. With many more U.S. sanctions on Iran. The Trump administration is looking at Iranian exports of steel, iron, aluminum and copper and warning other countries not to accept any shipments.

The move came just hours after Iran said it would begin stockpiling enriched uranium and that's a calculated move that technically does not violate the 2015 nuclear agreement. Here's what Iran's foreign minister said with during his visit to Moscow.

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JAVAD ZARIF, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): The fact that they have pulled out of these agreements, there are several of them, all these are the actions and the steps that the America government has taken in the last few months.

It shows us that we are dealing with a lawbreaking government. As Mr. Lavrov said, the nuclear non-proliferation agreement is important to us and the international community.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is committed to the nuclear agreement. The decision the Islamic Republic of Iran has taken at the moment is actually to continue with our commitments to the nuclear agreement and not go against it, unlike the USA, which has pulled out of it. We have not pulled out of the agreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: European leaders say that they don't think sanctions are warranted but they are concerned with Tehran's latest move.

FLORENCE PARLY, FRENCH DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): There are no sanctions today from Europe because Iran has so far always respected the commitment that it's taken with regard to the control of the nuclear facilities in Iran. So if these commitments were not respected nationally, this question would be raised.

HEIKO MAAS, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): We do not agree with the steps Iran took today. Our message is and stays clear: our partners and ourselves stick to the nuclear deal with no cutbacks and we expect Iran to respect it to all its extent, also without cutbacks.

JEREMY HUNT, BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER: Sanctions were lifted in exchange for restrictions on Iran's nuclear program. Should Iran cease to observe its nuclear commitment, there would, of course, be consequences. For as long as Iran keeps its commitments then so, too, will the United Kingdom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And for some perspective from Tehran we are joined by "Los Angeles Times" reporter, Ramin Mostaghim.

Ramin, good to see you.

What impact are the sanctions likely to have on Iran?

RAMIN MOSTAGHIM, "L.A. TIMES": A group of people means a reduction, dramatically, prompting a change in power and jumping dollar against Iranian local currency, real. And further inflations and even gallic inflations are expected. People are anticipating more economic ordeals and even they sometimes think and worry about and suspecting about the war against Iran.

And there might be, for them, the future is not promising at all. But, let me brief you, categorize you what's going on among the politicians. Pro government in Iran, they think that that was a very timely reaction to the American pressures because according to the articles of the nuclear deal, Iran reserve the right to exercise its national sovereignty and whenever it is not serving the supreme interests of Iran, Iran has been tried to -- I mean, there have been a stipulated in the articles of the nuclear deal to exercise its sovereignty.

But, for the hardliners or they call themselves principalists (ph), it's about -- it's the reaction of President Hassan Rouhani (ph) was to too late and it's belatedly. But anyway, Iran should go for further pressure on America and reactions, retaliations. And for nationalists in Iran, we suppose we are not -- we should -- we should follow the suit of Pakistan and India --

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MOSTAGHIM: -- and have a nuclear bomb. So this is the reality among the politicians and activists. But the reality on the ground for the people, sorry group (ph), is pressure and pressure and reduction of purchasing power and also jumping of dollars against Iranian local currency.

CHURCH: All right, we shall watch and see what Iran's next move is with this. Ramin Mostaghim bringing us the latest on reaction to the sanctions. Many thanks.

All right, let's turn to U.S. politics now and a surprising development from the Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee. It has subpoenaed the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., to testify again.

A source says the idea is not going over well with Trump Jr. considering invoking his Fifth Amendment rights or not appearing at all.

Meanwhile, the House intelligence chairman Adam Schiff has issued a subpoena to the Justice Department, requesting counter intelligence and foreign intelligence from special counsel Robert Mueller's report.

Attorney general William Barr has already refused to provide a full, unredacted copy of the Mueller report and that earned him a contempt of Congress citation from the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. CNN's Manu Raju has that report.

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MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a dramatic escalation in the war between Democrats and the administration, the House Judiciary Committee today voted to hold attorney general Bill Barr in contempt of Congress.

NADLER: We did not relish doing this but we have no choice.

RAJU (voice-over): For defying the subpoena to turn over the full Mueller report and the underlying evidence.

NADLER: There can be no higher stakes then this attempt to abrogate all power to the executive branch away from Congress and, more important, away from the American people. We have talked for a long time about approaching a constitutional crisis, we are now in it. We are now in a constitutional crisis.

RAJU (voice-over): It's a move that came just hours after the president took the dramatic step of blocking the release of the records by citing executive privilege. Some think done to spark a drawn-out court fight.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): This isn't about executive privilege, it's about burying the evidence, Mr. Chairman. If it was about executive privilege, the attorney general would not have offered you to be able to view the documents and then tell you that you can't tell anyone what you saw.

I thank you for not taking the latest Trump hush offer.

RAJU (voice-over): Some Democrats said the move to defy Congress on all fronts means the House should start to take up impeachment.

REP. CEDRIC RICHMOND (D-LA): Do I think we are inching closer to it every day that the president has a blanket privilege or just saying that he's going to obstruct the congressional investigation?

Yes, for me, we are inching towards it.

RAJU: Do you think the committee should start talking about another thing, impeachment?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we have to talk about.

RAJU (voice-over): In a letter to Congress, the Justice Department argued they could not comply with Democrats' request without violating the law. It said the president has asserted executive privilege over the entirety of the subpoenaed materials, adding that committee chairman Jerry Nadler made this assertion necessary by moving ahead with the contempt vote.

House Republicans defended the White House and attacked Nadler.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are manufacturing a crisis.

RAJU (voice-over): They say Nadler acted in bad faith after refusing to view a less redacted report offered by the Justice Department, which has already publicly released the vast majority of Mueller's report.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): I think it's all about trying to destroy Bill Barr, because Democrats are nervous he is going to get to the bottom of everything. He is going to find out how and why this investigation started in the first place.

RAJU (voice-over): The fight with the White House also raises questions about whether Mueller will be prevented from testifying before the House this month.

Nadler, not as optimistic as he once was.

NADLER: We are still planning to have Mr. McGahn appear before us and Mr. Mueller appear before us. The president has made that more difficult by ordering Mueller not to appear.

RAJU: The full House will take up the matter of whether or not to hold the attorney general in contempt and, of course, the Democratic House is expected to approve that, easily. The question, is what happens next.

Expect a court fight to happen. Then the other big question, is what will happen to these investigations now that the president has asserted executive privilege?

How will that affect the House Judiciary Committee's investigation into the potential obstruction of justice?

Jerry Nadler told me it could have "a chilling effect" on what he plans to going forward and, saying, if you are in constitutional crisis, why are you resisting impeachment?

He said that impeachment may not be the best answer in this constitutional crisis -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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CHURCH: And I spoke earlier with CNN senior political analyst Rod Brownstein and I asked him --

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CHURCH: -- why the Democrats are not pushing harder to impeach Donald Trump and how the president is likely to react.

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RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: I think the president is doing that because he has been very effective throughout his career, conflating any attack on him with an attack on his voters. And I think what he hopes is that if Democrats move toward impeachment, he will be able to portray it as, in essence, them trying to tell his voters this is really not about me, it's about putting you back in your place and coastal elites and all the kind of arguments that he makes.

That, of course, is not their only option. In fact, it is not the only option that we are going to see, I think, immediately. I think what we are going to see is the Democrats moving into the courts because what's happening in the Judiciary Committee, as you know, is only one front of a multifront conflict where the administration are, in essence, rejecting the authority of Congress' oversight on a wide range of issues.

And I think all of those questions are going to be moving to the courts, in relatively short order.

CHURCH: Let's look at one of those triggers. Attorney general Bill Barr was held in contempt of Congress for not releasing the full, unredacted Mueller report. He responded by advising the president to evoke executive privilege over the whole of that report. But how valid is that move?

And did the Democrats play this well or not?

BROWNSTEIN: First, we know executive privilege is not an unlimited authority of the president. The Supreme Court ruled against Richard Nixon during Watergate, requiring him, despite his executive privilege claim, to give up the Watergate tapes. We know it is not an absolute.

Certainly in the case of an independent counsel report, that really seems like, I think to a lot of legal scholars, like a stretch. Especially when it's put in the context of what we were discussing, which is the president basically says that he will fight all of the subpoenas.

And we now have the pattern from the president's taxes with the Ways and Means Committee, the testimony on the 2020 census and adding a citizenship to security clearances at the White House, where the White House is systematically trying to stonewall congressional oversight and deny the basic authority of Congress to perform oversight.

What you may see out of Democrats on the House is more contempt citations moving forward out of various committees and potentially all get bundled together on the floor before going into the courts in one, unified package, which would be an extraordinary moment in American history that we may be heading for the next couple weeks.

CHURCH: The stonewalling seems to be a strategy.

But it's working, isn't it?

BROWNSTEIN: It works in the sense of buying time, immediately. And there's no question about that and that works in the sense of forcing Democrats to fight on this terrain. It works, in part to, the extent that it ultimately will work if the courts agree that it works and if the courts can act expeditiously.

If the president can run out the clock, that might be his goal. The largest point here is that this is a historic attack on the authority of Congress and what's striking is that Republicans in Congress, who would certainly be at the battlements on this if it was a Democratic president, are in essence aiding the executive and abetting the executive branch's attack on congressional authority.

One thing I learned in covering several decades of incorporating partisanship and polarization in Washington, is that any weapon, once it is unsheathed, doesn't go back on the shelf. And the thought that some future Democratic president is going to look at this and comply in the way they would in the past with subpoenas from a Republican Congress is ludicrous and I think historically shortsighted for Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans to be so acquiescent on what's happening.

CHURCH: It's not all Republicans, is it?

Now we are learning that the president's son, Don Jr., has been subpoenaed by the Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee. This comes despite Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell saying the country needs to move on, case closed, when it comes to the Mueller report. Clearly, not all Republicans agree with him.

What do you think they want to discuss with Don Jr.?

What do they want to hear from him?

BROWNSTEIN: You, know it's extraordinary, really. Because, they really have been, up until the subpoena, there really have been no Republican voices raising concerns about the stonewalling that we are seeing. Rand Paul even said he was more concerned about Democrats seeing the president's taxes than about the president possibly evading the law requiring him to provide the taxes.

That committee, the Intelligence Committee historically, has been something of an island of bipartisanship. It has certainly functioned better than the House Intelligence Committee, in terms of the parties working together, Richard Burr and Mark Warner. And we don't exactly know what they are looking to clear up with Donald Trump Jr.

Rather impoliticly, attack the chairman of the committee today immediately in response to this. So it does provide a second front in this. But at the margin, the vast majority of congressional Republicans so far are acquiescing in this blanket refusal that, I think, ultimately, is going to end up before the Supreme Court.

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BROWNSTEIN: And like many things in American life, it may depend on what John Roberts is feeling in particular about his court being seen totally as a partisan institution.

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CHURCH: To some sports news now and two dramatic comebacks in two days for the Champions League. Tottenham upset Ajax, who will advance to the final in Madrid next month. There to face Liverpool, who came from behind to secure their spot. CNN "WORLD SPORT's" Kate Riley recaps the action.

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KATE RILEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fans all over the world have been overdosing on the Champions League this season, the drama and the entertainment. Liverpool's big storied comeback started on Tuesday. It was hard to imagine that anything else could be as exciting.

But Tottenham manager against Ajax away from home set the 3-0 down with setting half or no less. The scorer scored a hat trick of goals, including a sensational winning season at injury time. This heartbreak for Ajax was seen desperately close to the Tottenham with the biggest result in the history of the club.

LUCAS MOURA, TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: It's impossible to explain what I'm feeling in this moment. I am very, very happy, very proud of my team today. We always believed in this moment. We always believed that it was possible and we gave everything on the pitch. I think we deserve this moment.

MAURICIO POCHETTINO, TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: Thank you, thank you, football. this type of emotion, I think, is impossible to live. And I'm so emotional now. I'm thinking of the fans. Thank you to the people that believe in us, believe in our decision in this amazing moment and I think it's fantastic. I can't describe with words all that in recent years, sports have been one of the most exciting in Europe living now.

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RILEY: In recent years, Spurs have been one of the most exciting in Europe but they have nothing to show for it. It seems though Wednesday was going to end in anticlimactic disappointment. But now Tottenham can prepare for a Champions League final against their Premier League rivals, Liverpool, in Madrid in June.

Given the season we have had, don't be surprised if there are a lot of goals and lot of plot twists. As for who's going to win, only a fool would try to predict that. Back to you.

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CHURCH: Very true. Thanks, Kate.

Just hours before critical trade talks, China says they will retaliate against the U.S. if Washington slaps higher tariffs on its imports.

Are the trade negotiations doomed or can the sides find some common ground?

We are live from Beijing to get some information on all of this.

Plus, we will go live to Johannesburg, where the first results from Wednesday's national election could come at any time.

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TRUMP: By the way, you see the tariffs?

We broke the deal. They broke the deal. So they are flying in the vice premier, a good man, but they broke the deal. They can't do that, so they will be paying, they don't make the deal. Nothing wrong with taking over $100 billion a year, $100 billion. We never did that before.

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CHURCH: President Trump at a rally in Florida, explaining why he wants to raise tariffs on $2 billion worth of Chinese goods. Beijing says it will retaliate if the U.S. follows through.

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CHURCH: World markets have been rattled by the uptick in tensions, causing stocks to go on a wild ride during this week's trading sessions. Investors will be closely watching to see what comes out of the latest round of trade talks between the two countries set to happen hours from now in Washington.

And now Steven Jiang joins us now from Beijing with more.

Steven, there's a lot riding on this and a great deal of global concern. It's impossible to know where these talks will go but what are the possible scenarios?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER, BEIJING BUREAU: That's right, Rosemary. As you said, all eyes on Washington now to see what comes out of these crucial talks. You know the negotiators don't really have a lot of time. They are starting talking on Thursday and the deadline for new tariffs from both sides now is midnight, U.S. time, Friday.

So they have a day to work out all of their differences and to bridge this increasingly wide gap. I think barring the scenario of the U.S. president picking up the phone and calling up Xi Jinping to work out new tariffs, it's very likely that we will see that escalation, that is a year-long long trade war.

The Chinese state media is already preparing the public for that scenario. In the past few days, they have been touting the strength and resilience of the Chinese economy, showering people with very impressive economic data. Starting today, Thursday, they are changing their tone, really saying things like, we are the Chinese, we are no stranger to situations where we are fighting our enemies while negotiating with them.

With some articles even evoking the memories of the Chinese-U.S. military conflicts during the Korean more. So the Chinese media is also pushing back claims by U.S. officials that it was the Chinese who walked back on previously agreed commitments and key areas of concern such as intellectual property protection, market access and enforcement mechanisms.

The Chinese are saying it was the U.S. who make unreasonable demands that would harm the core national interests of China. That's why the Chinese negotiators simply could not accept them -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Those talks just hours away, global markets, we will be watching very closely. Steven Jiang, joining us from Beijing, many thanks.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: The polls are closed in South Africa, where millions of people have cast their ballots in parliamentary and provincial elections. The vote is seen as a key text for the ruling African National Congress. The party once ruled by Nelson Mandela has ruled South Africa since the end of white minority rule in 1994. But corruption, scandals and economic problems are threatening their majority.

CNN's Elena Giokos joins us now live from Johannesburg.

Good to see you.

What are you learning about voter turnout and what might the outcome of this election be?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: At this point in time, we know that around 24 percent of the votes have already been counted. Voter turnout sitting at around 27 million people that had registered. We are waiting for the official numbers to come through, so it's still early stages of the figures that we have seen.

But as expected the African National Congress is taking the lead, the Democratic alliance official opposition relatively unchanged and this is the interesting one where we are seeing the likes of the radical left, the Economic Freedom Fighters, already in early numbers having gained ground.

This is no surprise. We knew that the ANC would lose some votes to the EFF. The question is what will the balance be at the end of counting?

And the big question is, just how much of the vote that was loyal to the ANC are going to decide not to vote or even just move to another party?

Remember, the ANC, you were talking about corruption, the mismanagement of money and basically the list goes on. Coupled with that, you have a very weak economy and the most unequal country in the world, which, of course, has made so many people in the electorate very unhappy.

They want change, the question is the ANC has been in power since 1994.

Are they going to be the party that will deliver change, despite the fact that they haven't delivered on many of their promises over the past few years?

CHURCH: Yes, of course, when you talk about some of those problems, the scandals, the corruption and --

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CHURCH: -- so much so that the younger voters felt disenfranchised didn't they, a lot of them?

There was incredible voter apathy.

Was there proof of that on the day when people were to get out and vote?

GIOKOS: That's a really good question. We were talking to many of the so-called born free, so anyone born after 1994 was born into a democracy. They, many people were saying they're not going to vote and, of course, that's exactly what we saw in the queues over yesterday.

It's an interesting one, because if you don't have the youth vote, you don't have the youth believing in any political party in the country and they don't have a voice and that basically brings into question what kind of tensions will that result in on the ground, which we have seen playing out, especially over the last few years.

Again, this really does boil down to quality of life that people have. They don't feel included in the economy and of course, wealth distribution shows that black South Africans are still the poorest in the country, that white South Africans are still making a lot more money and still hold a majority of the total wealth of South Africa.

You have systemic issues that the ANC's Cyril Ramaphosa is going to have to sort out. There is no question, here. The ANC is expected to still get a majority win.

But how many parliamentary seats will the other opposition parties get?

And of course, whether there will even be a talk of a coalition government that could create a two-thirds majority, that is the other thing that people are talking about. The ANC and ESS (ph) possibly teaming up together, to get a two-thirds majority. That means they could have the power to change the constitution.

But you are looking at two different parties that have very different policies, as well as very different ideas. So it's going to be an interesting five years.

One thing I can say is that Cyril Ramaphosa has promised to change the party, clean up the ANC, get rid of corruption. And that means you might l have to fire a lot of people within the ANC. And that can also mean that he could lose a lot of support within his party, which could be a dangerous move for him as well. So it's a fine line, Rosemary, both for Ramaphosa and South Africans are waiting for results at the same time.

CHURCH: Yes, and we will wait and see what happens there. It always breaks my heart when the younger generation don't participate in these sorts of votes. But that's for another day, we will discuss that. Eleni Giokos, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

To the United Kingdom now where there's a lot of speculation and guessing the duke and duchess of Sussex have revealed the name of their newborn son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor. And he is a cutie. The couple announced the name after introducing him to the queen on

Wednesday. A source says they picked Archie simply because while they the name. Of course Harrison is because he is the son of Harry. Love that.

Reporting the news in China comes with its own set of challenges. From the constant visa checks at odd hours. How Chinese authorities tried to shut down CNN's coverage of its controversial camps. We'll have that when we come back.

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[02:30:34] CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. I want to update you now on the main stories we've been -- U.S. President Donald Trump on -- new sanctions on Iran, this time targeting its exports of steel and other industrial metals. The move came just hours after Iran said it would begin stockpiling enriched uranium. Iran's Foreign Minister said his country is still committed to the 2015 nuclear agreement.

The House Judiciary Committee has voted to hold U.S. Attorney general William Barr in contempt of Congress. They want him to turn over the full unredacted Mueller report and all underlying evidence. Earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump asserted a claim of executive privilege over the entire report. Uber and Lyft drivers around the world went on strike Wednesday demanding increase job security and higher wages.

The protests come just two days before Uber goes public, with a debut that could raise about $10 billion for the ride-hailing company. Well, it could be the biggest human rights violation in the world. Detention camps -- parts of China where the U.S. believe millions of Muslims are being held, but just as a CNN team investigated, it was pushed back by Chinese authorities. CNN'S Matt Rivers explains.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So the CNN Beijing Bureau just spent a week reporting in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang and it's not an easy place to do journalism. So we wanted to show you a little bit of what we went through but I think more importantly tell you why that matters. Xinjiang is the province where the U.S. says China has detained up to two million people, nearly all Muslims in camps over the last few years.

Activists say Beijing has done that to try to eliminate Islam within its borders, and ex-detainees have told CNN they were tortured inside while undergoing political indoctrination. China denies that and says these camps aren't prisons but voluntary vocational training centers that are being used to not eliminated Islam only Islamic extremism. Now, Chinese government says that Xinjiang is wide open for us to freely report there, may be in theory, but in reality that's just not true.

For, example upon landing there, our welcome gift was a government tail. We've already been followed by three or four guys including one of them who I have seen follow us from the second we got out of the baggage area. That would be this man. He and at least a dozen others followed us every single our of our six-day trip, never more than 20 feet away. In the car, in the train station, in the hotel, in the room next to mine.

So, it's bit of an odd feeling to be in your hotel room at 1:00 in the morning and knowing that on the other side of this connecting door which leads to the room next door to mine there's at least three or four other guys who have been following us around over the past couple days.

It felt like intimidation tactics. They wanted us to know that we were being followed, and then of course they were worth uniformed cops that showed up at odd hours. It's almost 1:00 a.m. I know, but I was sleeping. It seems unnecessary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry to bother you.

RIVERS: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry.

RIVERS: OK. So, this is what happens when you do journalism in Xinjiang. I have lived here for nearly four years and I've watched the things have gotten tougher and tougher for foreign journalists on all types of different stories. Xinjiang is probably just the most extreme example but beyond just being followed, their worthy more obvious attempts to try and make sure that we saw nothing they didn't want us to.

For example, a highway we were on was closed for hours due to an accident nowhere to be seen. Not to mention spontaneous roadblocks that specifically target foreigners and ethnic minorities. Our IDs were checked nearly 50 times in six days and the second you book a flight or a train, the government knows about it and you can tell that because, well, government officially are waiting for you upon arrival.

They clearly knew we were coming, they met us at the airport. They're checking our visas, they're telling us they want to accompany us for our own safety but really this is just stalling tactics. They know it, we know it and yet this is the game we have to play.

[02:35:00] China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs say they don't know anything about the harassment we faced but they said Xinjiang is "open and hospitable." The constant tales, the constant harassment, the constant delays. They're more than just inconvenient. They are specific tactics China's government has employed for a long time to prevent journalists from doing their jobs.

But in the last few years, there was broad agreement in the foreign journalism communities here that it's gotten worse, nowhere more so than Xinjiang. The end result is that it's nearly impossible to freely report on the hundreds of thousands of people that are likely languishing in camps right now and that means that the rest of the world can't see what's going on there. This is one of the biggest human rights stories on earth, and as we saw firsthand China is actively trying to cover it up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: All right. Matt Rivers there. We turn to Venezuela now and a close ally of opposition leader Juan Guaido has been taken into custody by the intelligence agency. Edgar Zambrano is vice president of the National Assembly, the Maduro government accuses him of being one of the ringleaders of an attempted coup. Guaido, President of the National Assembly calls the detention a kidnapping. It happened shortly after Guaido was interviewed by CNN.

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JUAN GUAIDO, PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA (through translator): I have spoken to many officially across the ranks in the armed forces including from the regime to achieve the transition in Venezuela.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think whoever you were talking, to you were talking to in good faith, or do you think you are tricked?

GUAIDO: Yes, you. I mean, everybody else, everyone who's talking to me. I always start in good faith, yes. I always start in good faith. And we understand it that we're in a dictatorship, we're always working towards Democracy and a transition and yes, the majority is praying in good faith and many are afraid.

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CHURCH: At least 10 other Nationalist Assembly lawmakers have been stripped of their immunity, some have taken refuge in foreign embassies. We'll take a short break here. Still to come. Prepping for the parade, Russia shows off its military muscles in its annual Victory Day parade and we are live in Moscow when we come back.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. In Thailand, the official election result is in. The country's main opposition party has won the most seats in Parliament, but it fell six short of a majority, so it won't get to choose the countries next leader.

[02:40:01] That decision was made by both Houses of Parliament and the country's 250-seat Senate is chosen entirely by the military. It will almost certainly vote to keep the (INAUDIBLE) junta leader in office.

Well, any moment now, and Russia's military will be on full display in Moscow's red square for the annual Victory Day parade that commemorates the end of World War II. CNN Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance joins us now from the Russian capital. S, Matthew, what can we expect to see in this display of Russian military might?

MATHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly that, I mean, every year the Russian states stages this huge display of military might, and this year, 74 years after the end of the Second World War, Russians call it the great patriotic war, it's going to be no different with a huge display of military force. First and foremost, to commemorate the millions of people who died in Russia in the former Soviet Union, in that conflict, of course it was somewhere in the region of 26 million people that died in the Soviet Union in that conflict with Nazi Germany, in which they paid a party in the victory.

Eight millions soviet troops were involved, and this, a huge display of military might and commemoration of that. With that, we've got some figures given to us by the Russia authorities saying there are 57, 000, 452 troops that are going to be taking part in this march through red square into the central street of the Russian capital. 1,517 military vehicles of all kind of shapes and descriptions, including tanks and missile launchers, intercontinental ballistic missiles are always a showstopper, as they roll past the cheering and celebrating crowd.

And 139 aircraft, including fighting jets, bomber aircraft, helicopters they could be flying through these, admittedly quite cloudy skies here in the Russian in the capital. It's not just about commemorating past military sacrifices, it's also about Russia's current day, present day military prowess. And, you know, the Kremlin uses this event as a way of bolstering its standing, showing that it is the air, you know, if you like, to those military successes of the past.

But, also showcasing the current Russian military, which has been resurgent on the international stage for the past several years with the interventions in Ukraine, in Syria, there are military advisers in Venezuela as now, Russia is much more of a military play internationally than at any time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. And this is a, I suppose a celebration of that, as well. And a reminder to people outside of Russia, that it is still very much a significant military power, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Definitely sending a message to the world. Matthew Chance on the street there of Moscow. Many thanks. And finally, intoxicated, plastered, smashed, zoned. Whatever you want to call it -- drinking is apparently becoming a lot more popular. A new study and the medical Journal Lancet found that not only is alcohol consumption on the rise in some parts of the world, so is binge drinking.

It estimates that by the year 2030, 23 percent of adults will Binge Drink at least once a, month compared to 18 and a half percent in 1990. Researchers measured alcohol consumption in 189 countries between 1990 and 2017, and they concluded the consumption increased by nearly point 7 liters each year. The study also found that alcohol use is rising in Asia and the western pacific, but decreasing in European countries. That's an interesting trend.

Thank you so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Rosemary Church. Stay tuned now for World Sport. You're watching CNN. Have a good day.

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