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Magnitude 6.9 Earthquake Strikes Southern California; Trump Weighs Options for Citizenship Question; Sudan Celebrates Power- Sharing Agreement between Military and Opposition; Baby Archie to Be Christened in Private Ceremony. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired July 6, 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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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. We appreciate you joining us, I'm Natalie Allen.

Two large earthquakes in two days in Ridgecrest, California, it was right in the middle of both. A 7.1 quake hit the town late Friday, just one day after it experienced a 6.4. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported. But damage has been significant, including house fires, rockslides and broken gas lines.

Power was knocked out to more than 3,000 customers, many sleeping in the dark on this night in California. The California governor has activated the state's emergency operations to the highest level and appealed to Washington for federal disaster aid.

This is what it looked like from inside someone's home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The table's -- (INAUDIBLE).

Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was a bad one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, the front door came open.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's OK. Just hold on. Hold on. Oh, my God. This is bad, Brian. Oh. Oh, my God. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The entire house shaking there.

The office of California's governor says they have activated the state operations center to provide further assistance to everyone. They have also requested additional support from U.S. president Donald Trump.

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MARK GHILARDUCCI, CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR'S OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES: At the state operations center, we are fully activated at the highest level.

Earlier tonight, Governor Newsom did talk to the White House and requested a presidential emergency declaration to support our operations here in the state and provide federal assets and what we call direct federal assistance in support of all of the mutual aid assets that we are currently providing to mostly Kern County and some to San Bernardino County.

Governor Newsom activated the state operations center at its highest level tonight and provided right now a significant amount of fire and rescue mutual aid from the Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Fresno County areas, to include urban search and rescue teams, fire strike teams, firefighters, hazardous materials response units, emergency medical services, ambulance strike teams and personnel.

In fact, roughly over 100 mutual aid personnel have been dispatched in support of these various fires and the support of both Trona and the town of Ridgecrest.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Our correspondent Alex Field went through this 7.1 earthquake. She's in Ridgecrest.

We just heard the officials there talking about all of the support they're bringing to that area, certainly needed, but mainly the support people need now is helping get through the night. And many are sleeping outside. Not much that the officials can do to help them there.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly not, Natalie. You know, just thinking about that video you just played and hearing that woman say repeatedly, this is bad, I think that's how everyone in this community felt when they felt that 7.1 quake.

It was undeniably powerful. It was undeniably jarring and scary, even for people who prepare for earthquakes in this part of the country, even for people who have experienced earthquakes before. There was power to this. It was prolonged and it was frightening for all who experienced it.

Yes, I think you're exactly right, this will be a sleepless night for many. There are about 130 people who have gone to shelters to spend the evening. We heard the mayor say that she expects many people will be sleeping outside of their homes, in their yards perhaps, along the sides of the streets.

She's urging caution for all of the cars out on the roads, looking around and responding to emergencies. She wants everyone to be aware of the fact that there's so many people afraid to be back in their homes that they're choosing to be outside tonight.

For many, that may be the safest choice. We are still expecting many more aftershocks. There have been dozens tonight and hundreds and hundreds since the first quake hit. So there are reasons for people to take precautions.

As for the immediate damage caused by this quake, well, officials still have to get their hands around that when the sun comes up.

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FIELD: They're operating largely in the dark with large swaths of power out. We know the key concern tonight is gas leaks and fires and also looking for damaged structures. No reports of flattened structures but certainly they're seeing cracks in the road and they want to control any fires that come up overnight.

Really, it's going to take daylight to see what exactly the damage is here -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Right. And we know the Red Cross is there helping out, helping people with water. But you know, with these power outages, Alex, it makes you think this is a very, very hot state temperature wise. So the people that don't have a place to go are having to also deal with the temperatures.

FIELD: Yes, it is extremely hot. We were out here all day today. You know, during the height of the day, it's almost unbearable, particularly for somebody who isn't entirely accustomed to it. If you're older and if you have any health concerns and you're not going to have air conditioning or a fan, that's going to be incredibly difficult.

And I'm certain you have officials encouraging people to get to shelters or places that do get the electricity and power back. You certainly don't want injuries or medical emergencies happening after the fact, as a repercussion of this. So yes, that will be a big focus, that you rightly point out, in the next day or so.

ALLEN: And Ridgecrest is a town of, what, just shy of 30 million people and it's in the middle of the desert. And I guess there's not many places around this rural area where you can go to escape.

FIELD: This is very interesting. A 6.4 earthquake, which we had on Thursday, is a big earthquake. And really what we were hearing a lot today, as officials were surveying damage, was that a quake that powerful could have caused more damage, certainly, in an area that is more densely populated. And there was just this overwhelming feeling there was some damage,

while there were cracks in the road, largely, the area had fared pretty well. But the other thing that came to light, Natalie, is the fact that, of course, people here are always preparing for the big one.

We were hearing within the last 24 hours from local officials who say they constantly work on the emergency plans that are in place for these types of situations but Thursday's quake showed how that plan works.

And certainly, this latest one, the 7.1, will be another test of that plan. And it will probably be another day or so to hear how officials are weighing in on how prepared they are for the future.

Something that helps is the fact that the emergency declaration had already gone into effect as a result of the previous quake. That helps to get resources to the people even now.

ALLEN: We appreciate your reporting. We know you went through the quake and it's quite terrifying. You're hanging with us, Alex. Thank you so much for helping us understand what people have experienced.

Scientists say Friday's 7.1 quake happened on the same fault as Thursday's 6.4 quake but now the recent series is making that miles- long fault even longer.

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DR. LUCY JONES, SEISMOLOGIST: The epicenter of the 7.1 is at the northwest end of the fault that moved in the 6.4. Now the 5.4 aftershock this morning extended that fault, what we saw from the main shock, from the 6.4, the 5.4 extended it a bit to the northwest.

And the 7.1 seems to have extended it even farther to the northwest. So the fault is growing. We ruptured a piece in the first earthquake. We ruptured a bit more in the 5. 4 this morning and we're rupturing more now.

A magnitude 7 usually has aftershocks that last for years.

ROBERT DE GROOT(?), USGS: Yes, so the expectation is that we're going to have aftershocks tonight. It will continue on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Meteorologist Karen Maginnis has been helping us understand the magnitude of this.

That right there, what they just said, cannot be welcome news to the people of Ridgecrest, not weeks, not months but years.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Years. This is not unheard of it, we see major quakes along that Ring of Fire across the Pacific Rim. We know that those aftershocks last for years. But in this particular instance, it's very unwelcome news. I want to point out a couple things if we can zoom in. This is where

that seismic activity has been --

[05:10:00]

MAGINNIS: -- for the last two-plus days. They are intercepting faults. This is the Little Lake fault. And she described activity that's materialized towards China Lake.

And then there's the intersecting fault which is the Airport Lake fault. You can see kind how it has clustered around Ridgecrest. The 7.1, that's the main shock. The 6.4, that was a foreshock. This is the underlying structure of the land mass and it's telling us it's going to pull apart.

And when the 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurred, people in Los Angeles said that lasted for 30 seconds. Well, it probably felt like it lasted for 30 seconds because all of that energy. And this one, by the way, is eight times as much energy associated with the earthquake. But it takes a while for that energy to kind of calm down.

So it surely did feel like shaking for that long. Well, the 7.1 magnitude, that, literally was 20 to 25 seconds long. So way longer than the foreshock 6.4 that occurred on July Fourth.

Here is the map. All of these are faults. This is a very seismic region. And the fact that we haven't seen an earthquake take place here for 20 years of this magnitude is significant. It is abnormally quiet. And now, we're starting to see things get ramped up across this region.

Typically, we would have seen over 20 years earthquakes of this magnitude. For smaller earthquakes, maybe a little more, every five years or so. This doesn't have anything to do with the San Andreas fault. That's a huge tectonic plate. These are tiny faults along the region, tiny faults with big impacts that ripple out to the L.A. basin.

By the way, they've checked the infrastructure, they say it's fine. They say the airport is continuing to operate. But also Las Vegas and Bakersfield has had damage. We've had reports of shaking take place in Mexico.

So here in the desert, this is very isolated but the impacts have been huge, Natalie. So, we could say, well, this is out in the desert. Well, this is what happened. Finally, the ground has opened up. Back to you.

ALLEN: Right. And that highway right there, 178, finally, I think is passable, not that section. Karen, thank you so much.

Friday's earthquake caused damage across much of Southern California, as Karen just said. We'll have more about it, right after this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you going?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. I got it all on video, dude. Oh, my God.

ALLEN (voice-over): A backyard swimming pool in Ridgecrest, California, as the 7.1 earthquake rolled through late Friday. That shows you how it rolled right there. The community was already on edge after a 6.4 quake hit the same area the day before. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported, we're happy to say. But quake experts warn strong aftershocks are likely.

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ALLEN: The mayor of Ridgecrest is asking citizens to be patient as the city is dealing with the aftermath following the earthquake. She said some residents are sleeping outside for safety.

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MAYOR PEGGY BREEDEN, RIDGECREST: Thank you all for coming. I would like to say a few words to our own citizens. Many of them have experienced something that is very traumatic, somewhat unknown to most of them and many of them are sleeping outside tonight.

I know that it is a difficult situation but they're fearful to be in their homes and we are offering any services as noted earlier. We have places for people to shelter here but many are choosing to just be with their neighbors, both in their sidewalks and in their driveways and some of them are in the streets.

We're asking everyone to drive safely, be careful. Look, watch for these people and understand that we are doing the very best we can. It is not an impossible task to take care of all this. But it is going to be a longer task than we thought the other day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Seismologists we've been hearing from have warned, more aftershocks are likely to occur. And that has prompted the Ridgecrest police chief to issue a warning to all of those living in the area.

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JED MCLAUGHLIN, RIDGECREST POLICE CHIEF: When the stores are open and things like that. Make sure that you're stocking up just in case that we have something bigger than we had today.

And it's, you know, stuff starts crumbling and these stores can't get back open, we need to make sure that -- and if we can't get to you right away, you have to be able to take care of yourself for a period of time.

So I know that we all preach that we need to be prepared and I know it's difficult. We always say we will. But now is the time. So prepare yourself, especially for the next, I would say, week, two weeks. This isn't going to stop in the near future as we know.

The aftershocks, they haven't slowed down since the 7.1. There for a period of time, it seemed like it just kept -- there was a constant vibration. So be prepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Well, when disaster strikes, stores often close. But our Paul Vercammen found one store open, a liquor store. Here's what it looked like after the quake.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here inside this convenience and liquor store here in Ridgecrest to get a sense of what happened inside some of these buildings. Just stuff knocked down everywhere, bottles off the shelves, broken here.

The owner, Anton, says in the two days that they've been rocked by this quake inside this store, he believes that they've had more than $100,000 worth of damage.

And you can clearly see strong, knocking things off shelf, boards down, shattered glass and bottles everywhere. It's going to be a long time cleaning up. But to the credit of the people in the store, they've stayed open. We've seen a steady stream of people coming in here to grab whatever it is they need, including vital things such as water -- reporting from Ridgecrest, I'm Paul Vercammen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Of course, in tragedies, people often always look out for one another. Employees at an Albertson's supermarket were doing just that right after the earthquake.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody OK?

Did you get hurt?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is everybody OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you get hurt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to see if anybody is hurt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody hurt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The air is really thick, dusty. This is a bad one. This must be the one that -- that's got to be at least 7.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Well, that's the scene in one store. Now we have the scene in a hotel. Earlier, my colleague, Cyril Vanier, spoke with Pinkal Panchal and Niket Aggarwal. They own a Super 8 motel in Ridgecrest and they described the moment they started to feel shaking.

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PINKAL PANCHAL, SUPER 8 MOTEL: I was checking a customer in and I was at the front desk. And we had this little shake at 8:05, so we stepped out. We went back in. And right after that, what we saw was massive. It was the first time I experienced something.

I felt like the whole building was going to collapse. We just ran out on the road. I could hear those sounds of earthquake, the rattling, shaking. The whole building was shaking to a point where I thought the whole roof was going to fall down.

And yes, it was bad. It was really bad from what we experienced yesterday. I just started crying. I just felt whether we are going to survive this or not. And then every moment I was feeling, that's it, stop. And we rushed to the Super 8 sign. We felt we and a couple other guests, we held each other tight and we were praying for the shakes to stop.

NIKET AGGARWAL, SUPER 8 MOTEL: I had gone to get the groceries. And I was in the parking lot and I felt it. So I just got out of the car. Just closed my car and my car was jumping, you know, up and down, like front and back.

And it was -- I felt like I was going to hit the car in front of the -- in front of my car. And it was crazy. I've never seen something like this in my life. It was scary.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: So that's how bad the roads were?

The roads were shaking so much that you couldn't control your car?

AGGARWAL: No, I was out of the car. The car was moving and I had to -- I was not able to keep my balance on the ground, you know.

PANCHAL: It was really bad. I kind of rush to the road and I was scared that the cars might hit me. So I just went to the property next door. We were unable to walk. It was so shaky, we weren't able to maintain our balance.

VANIER: Did you look for a place to hide or was there no place available?

PANCHAL: Right outside the office is the main road and the cars were just moving. So it wasn't safe for me to go with the customer on the car -- on the road, so we were just -- I was just holding her. She was an old lady. So I just held her tight. We were supporting each other.

We walked to the Super 8 sign. We felt that was something with which we could hold onto. Because there was nothing over us that would collapse down. So that's where we felt was the safest place at the moment because right across that was the road and that was not safe for us. All the guests were out in the parking lot.

VANIER: And tell me more about the guests.

How were they reacting?

PANCHAL: Everyone was panicked. Fortunately, we have the USGS team staying with us at our location so they did warn us that we were going to get some shocks later on. And that's the reason -- we were all concerned. We had requested all of our guests to be alert.

And everyone just rushed out of their rooms. We have a few accessibility guests and they were on the wheelchairs. So basically the 8:05 shock that we experienced at that time, all the guests were already out and we requested them to stay out for a bit and even the -- we have teams from the UCLA and USC staying here, who are actually reporting the earthquake. So they were here right there.

And they just -- they were really helpful. They kept everyone calm and we all were out here. So they were scared.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Hotel owners describing what they went through. Now some residents describe being shaken awake from their beds to a terrifying scene.

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[05:25:00]

AGGARWAL: It was like real shaky. Before anything -- you could actually hear something on the outside -- like the houses and stuff but everything was real shaky. It was like, once it actually hit, everything was falling over. Everything was shaking. It felt like something out of a movie, honestly.

First, I grabbed my son, he's little. Grabbed my son and grabbed my girlfriend and just tried to huddle up. Tried to find something where it wouldn't fall on us.

PANCHAL: It's very scary. He's 7 months old. I think he kind of realizes, he's a baby. I felt like he was scared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you feel?

PANCHAL: I felt like -- it was scary. It's a scary situation. Nothing really happens here in this town. Stuff like this, it's just scary. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Well, here's an example of all of the different types of people and all different situations that were impacted. The earthquake also stopped the fun at Knott's Berry Farm, a famous California amusement park.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it's an earthquake.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my goodness.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

ALLEN (voice-over): This is video from Crystal Cox, who said she and her family were in line for that, there you see, in the distance, the tallest ride in the park when the quake struck. She said the rides started to sway and you can only hope that people weren't on the ride at the time.

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ALLEN: I would have had a heart attack.

Our coverage of the quake continues next. We'll be live from the town that has been hit hardest.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, we appreciate you joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.

Southern California went 20 years without a major earthquake. Now it's had two in two days. Late Friday, a 7.1 quake rocked the high desert north of Los Angeles, near the town of Ridgecrest. That's the same place hit by a 6.4 tremor the day before.

Damage is significant, including gas leaks and house fires caused by those gas leaks. No deaths, though, have been reported and no serious injuries. More than 3,000 customers are without power across the quake zone. To deal with the crisis, California's governor has activated the state's emergency operations.

Alex Field joins us once again from Ridgecrest.

You know, a lot of people in California shrug small tremors off, because they deal with them all the time but this was not something anyone there, including you, shrugged off.

FIELD: Absolutely, they had that 6.4 quake on Thursday. They were expecting hundreds of aftershocks to follow. The aftershocks are still coming. We just felt one here just a moment ago.

But what many people did not anticipate was that they would actually feel something larger and more powerful than what they felt on Thursday. But that is exactly what happened. That 7.1 felt throughout this community, sparking not only fear and anxiety but creating some damage.

Officials still trying to understand exactly how much damage. There are no reported fatalities at this point and there are also no reports of flattened buildings at this point. But crews will be out to survey what kind of structural damage there is.

Early on in the immediate aftermath of that quake, we could smell natural gas. There was concern throughout the area about gas leaks. We also saw a large fire in the area that we were in. That was one, at least two, perhaps more than that. That's been a major focus of officials tonight.

As for people who endured another earthquake, many of them in their homes, we're hearing a lot of them are simply afraid to go back into their homes. They are in a lot of cases without power and many people are just choosing to sleep outside where they feel it's safer with more and more aftershocks expected to continue in the coming days and months -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Yes, those aftershocks for years. It's interesting that people in Las Vegas felt this, in Nevada and in Los Angeles felt it. That just goes to show what the people of Ridgecrest dealt with, because it was right there and such a small town to go through something like this as well doesn't seem right.

FIELD: Absolutely. I mean, it truly felt violent for somebody who experienced it. You know, you hear this described all the time. You hear people talk about the rattling and the noise and the comparison to a train.

But to really feel that violent shaking, it's pretty terrifying. And we really don't know the extent of injuries, how many people are injured but, again, not hearing about fatalities at this point.

One thing we know that has been really critical in terms of the response to this is the fact that an emergency declaration had already been issued as a result of Thursday's quake. That had helped to marshal resources into the area and continue to help with the flow of people for services who need them, Natalie.

They certainly won't feel alone now that the state is coming to the rescue to help people out. Alex Field, thank you again.

Los Angeles TV stations KCAL/KCBS were in the middle of a newscast when the earthquake struck Friday evening. The news anchors calmly explained what was going on and then headed for safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are experiencing quite a bit of shaking. If you'll give us a brief moment here, we're making sure that nothing is going to come down in the studio here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it is going for quite a bit, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It continues to --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a very strong earthquake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- strong here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 8:21 here on the air, we're experiencing very strong shaking. I think we need to get under the desk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, we're going to go to break. We'll be right back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Two large earthquakes in two days. Felt all the way to Los Angeles. We'll have more on the 7.1 quake in Southern California next. Please stay with us.

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[05:35:00]

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ALLEN: Updating our top story for you. Breaking news from Southern California. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake has struck one day after a 6.4 hit the same area. And it's been followed by dozens of aftershocks that we're told could last for years.

The quake struck in the Mojave Desert near the town of Ridgecrest; that's about 240 kilometers, 150 miles north of L.A. Damage is significant. And there have been injuries but no deaths reported.

All right. Other news we're following now. U.S. president Donald Trump believes he still has a way of adding a controversial question to the 2020 census.

That question, are you a U.S. citizen?

Critics say it may intimidate immigrants into not responding and make the population count inaccurate, especially in Democratic districts.

Every 10 years, each household is expected to fill out the questionnaire. The results are used to determine representation in Congress and allocation of federal funds. CNN's Abby Phillip has Mr. Trump's reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump signaling he may use an executive order to force a citizenship question onto the 2020 census.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have four or five ways we can do it. It is one of the ways that we're thinking about doing it.

PHILLIP: Having lost in the Supreme Court and as the forms are being printed without the question, Trump seems undaunted.

TRUMP: So we could start the printing now and maybe do an addendum after we get a positive decision.

PHILLIP: Arguing history is on his side.

TRUMP: If you look at the history of our country, it has almost always been asked. You need it for Congress, for districting.

PHILLIP: But both claims are false. The question has not been asked since 1950. And districts are drawn based on the total number of people, not citizens, in a particular area.

Sources tell CNN that Trump is frustrated with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for caving and announcing publicly that the administration --

[05:40:00]

PHILLIP (voice-over): -- was abandoning the effort. But asked if Ross' job is safe, Trump said:

TRUMP: Yes. Sure. Wilbur is a good man.

PHILLIP: And with the positive jobs report out today, Trump again using the strong economy to attack another official he appointed, the Federal Reserve chairman.

TRUMP: We don't have a Fed that knows what they're doing.

PHILLIP: Meantime, as Democratic lawmakers and watchdog groups describe deplorable, dirty and overcrowded conditions at border detention facilities, Trump says he doesn't see a problem. TRUMP: I have seen some of the places and they are run beautifully. They're clean. They're good.

PHILLIP: The president seemingly more concerned with his 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

TRUMP: You look at what Joe Biden has done with China, Biden didn't know what the hell he was doing. Biden doesn't know about that.

PHILLIP: And at a hearing today, Justice Department lawyers told a judge that they are looking at ways to include the citizenship question in the census, but they made no mention of a potential executive order.

In fact, they said no decision had yet been made about how to proceed -- Abby Phillip, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Iran is threatening retaliation after the United Kingdom seized one of its oil tankers off the coast of Gibraltar. A source tells CNN the U.K. detained the Grace 1 because it believed the vessel had weapons bound for Syria.

Iran calls the seizure piracy and warns it could detain a British tanker if theirs isn't released. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has more about this.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The Iranian authorities demanding the immediate release of the super tanker Grace 1, they are calling the detention by the authorities in Gibraltar as an act of piracy, they are saying that Britain and Gibraltar had no right to implement either their own sanctions or E.U. sanctions in what the Iranians describe as an extraterritorial manner.

Nevertheless, the supreme court in Gibraltar has ruled that the authorities there can detain the vessel for an additional 14 days over and above the original 72 hours that it has under international law.

Meanwhile the crew of the vessel are being questioned not as criminals but as witnesses as to where the vessel was going and what it was doing. It is known that it took 2.5 months to get from the Persian Gulf around the Horn of Africa all the way around the African coast to get to Gibraltar and that at times it switched off its tracking system. That's deemed as suspicious.

And when it set on its journey, it was registered to Panama but in late May the Panamanian authorities deregistered it because they were concerned that the vessel had links to financing terrorism.

We've also learned that the Spanish acting foreign minister and the Iranian authorities are both accusing Gibraltar and Britain for acting at the request of the United States. Now the authorities in Gibraltar deny that; they are saying this was not a political decision, that they were not acting at the request of another country.

But the tensions continue to rise. A former Revolutionary Guard Corps commander in Iran says that a British vessel should be snatched and held by the Iranian authorities until the Grace 1 is released. So tensions on this continue to rise -- Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: In Venezuela, a major national holiday, independence day, has been marked by political division. On one side president, Nicolas Maduro, who oversaw a military parade and called for dialogue.

On the other, national assembly president Juan Guaido, who led a new round of anti-government protests.

Those protests fueled by a damming U.N. report that blames the government for thousands of extrajudicial killings but the government and its supporters dismissed the findings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Here we live in freedom. We are for peace and for dialogue, beloved the revolution as ordered by Commander Chavez, Fidel Castro and now Nicolas Maduro.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Everyone respects human rights (INAUDIBLE) in fact, all those who have been working against the revolution in other places will be serving 30, 40, 50 years of jail. And here they go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The United States are invasive. To say the United States, it means invasion, it means violence, it means war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Meantime, the U.N. human rights chief announced that the Maduro government released 22 detainees. They include a high-profile judge and a journalist.

After months of pro-democracy rallies in Sudan, which have been deadly, citizens are finally --

[05:45:00]

ALLEN: -- celebrating. The military and the opposition reached a power-sharing agreement. Thousands took to the streets, chanting and waving flags because they believe their revolution has won.

After weeks of stalled talks, the military council and the country's pro-democracy movement have now agreed to form a rotating joint council that will rule for at least three years before transitioning to a civilian government. All of this, of course, after the dictator was ousted back in the spring.

Well, just a few hours from now, the newest British royal will be christened in a private ceremony at Windsor Castle. This comes exactly two months after baby Archie was born to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. But the news media isn't invited. That means the public isn't. CNN's Max Foster has more about it.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So far we've had limited sightings of baby Archie. So royal fans are holding out for a clear shot of his face this weekend.

EMILY NASH, ROYAL EDITOR, "HELLO! MAGAZINE": We have had a few little glimpses of him, but everyone wants to see how he's developing, how he's growing and it's such a happy occasion.

FOSTER: The couple have organized a small, private ceremony at a chapel inside Windsor Castle. No media allowed, though they will have a personal photographer there and will release pictures after the event.

This lack of media access has sparked criticism among some British newspapers and politicians, calling out the couple for refusing to allow public access to the christening when $3 million of taxpayer money is being used to renovate their private family home.

LUKE POLLARD, LABOUR PARTY MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: But when you're still taking millions of pounds worth of public money, money that could be spent on schools and hospitals, to upgrade and refurbish what is, you know, luxury palaces, you've got to ask yourself, what are the public getting in return?

FOSTER: But there's been a counter backlash from the army of Meghan and Harry fans on social media, known as the Sussex Squad.

GOLDBURN P. MAYNARD JR., SUSSEX SQUAD ALLY: I don't see any kind of contradiction between there being taxpayer funding or public funding and the royals asking for some privacy.

FOSTER: Professor Goldburn Maynard, who describes himself as an ally of the Sussex Squad, claims Meghan faces unfair scrutiny because of her background.

MAYNARD: The default when it comes to Meghan, because she is a foreigner and she's not royal from this society, et cetera, is that when she does something, she's doing something that's wrong.

FOSTER: While it may be angering some, the Sussexes seem to have decided to keep Archie's life as private as possible -- Max Foster, CNN, Windsor, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Next here, Southern California may be used to earthquakes but in Las Vegas it took the players and fans at this basketball game by surprise.

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[05:50:00]

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ALLEN: Ridgecrest, California, now has a special notoriety, two major earthquakes in two days. A large 7.1 hit the town late Friday, just one day after a 6.4 tremor shook the area. And it's been followed by countless aftershocks.

Authorities are waiting until after day break to continue to assess the damage. But so far, thankfully, no deaths or serious injuries have been reported.

The quake was felt about 140 miles east of the epicenter in Las Vegas, Nevada. Earlier my colleague, Cyril Vanier, spoke with NBA TV Jared Greenberg, who was announcing a Summer League game at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JARED GREENBERG, NBA TV ANNOUNCER: About 16 hours before the earthquake struck, I was awake in my hotel room on this trip in Las Vegas and felt at about 4:10 local time, the swaying feeling. And I never had experienced that before. Once it happened in the first quarter of our game, it was the Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs, we felt at the broadcast location we had at midcourt just the swaying, as if someone was taking our platform and moving us left to right.

And it flashed me back to 16 hours earlier in the day, when the first time I experienced my first-ever earthquake. What was interesting about it, the way it is set up is from the NBA Summer League, it's on the campus of UNLV and we have two simultaneous games going on in two adjoining gyms.

They're separated by about 50 yards. And our gym that we were in for the Orlando- San Antonio game is considerably smaller. It holds less than 3,000 people. And there were a lot less than that, because the headliner of the entire week was taking place across the hall, which seats around 18,000 fans. And they were sold out tonight.

So that venue right away canceled their game. Meanwhile, during our game, the players and referees on the court, who were running up and down, expressed to me during the next time out that they didn't even feel it. But clearly up to our broadcast location and the fans, everyone was feeling it.

We had some of the light fixtures shaking a bit. But I tell you, it was a very wild thrill feeling to have this for the first time in my life twice in a 16-hour span.

VANIER: Jared, we're looking at the pictures right now of the Pelicans game and it's pretty clear, people are leaving the stands. Especially in the back rows, people are getting up and they're leaving. And that was right around the time when the game was just flat out interrupted.

GREENBERG: Right. And what you're looking at is the Thomas and Mack Center, which is just separated by a hallway from where I was at the Cox Pavilion. That arena right here seats between 17,000-18,000 fans.

Tonight it was at capacity because Zion Williamson, a much anticipated pro debut of the number 1 pick of the draft, was playing tonight against RJ Barrett and the New York Knicks.

Where we were just down the hall, the Thomas and Mack Center, again, a much more intimate feel with less than 3,000 fans. Because so many people were in there, there was way shy of capacity of 3,000 fans with us.

(CROSSTALK)

VANIER: Was your game interrupted?

Did your game -- was it suspended?

[05:55:00]

GREENBERG: What happened was, ours happened at the end of the first quarter. They continued play because players and referees and coaches didn't recognize it was happening. Just the spectators and media recognized it.

They continued playing through half-time. They evaluated the court, recognized there was a small issue with the court. Both teams agreed it wasn't a safety issue. They took all precautions, they continued playing the third quarter but by the end of the third quarter, the NBA deemed that it would be out of precautionary best for everyone to call the game and just cancel it after the third quarter.

VANIER: And what was the reaction of the people -- and I know you said it was a lot more subdued in your gym. I understand that.

What was -- did you leave the arena at any point during this process?

GREENBERG: I didn't. And just to, again, paint the picture here, what you're looking at, the reason why I believe fans in the bigger venue, the Thomas and Mack Center were -- had much more of a reaction, was because the big scoreboard that's suspended above midcourt was visibly shaking.

And my television crew that we were working with kept on taking live shots of that. And we were shocked; it felt as if we were almost in two different cities, having two totally different reactions because that arena was seeing this monstrous scoreboard and videoboard visibly shaking.

And in our arena, we don't have a videoboard or scoreboard that is suspended over midcourt. So we didn't have that type. We had some light fixtures that our camera crew was catching that were shaking. But that paled in comparison to what you're seeing here in the Thomas and Mack Center, where clearly there were a lot more effects felt from the earthquake.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Natalie Allen. For our viewers in the U.S., "NEW DAY" is next. For everyone else around the world, stay with us for "INSIDE AFRICA."

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