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Power Restored in NYC after Major Outage; Tropical Storm Barry Causing Widespread Flooding in Louisiana; U.K. Ambassador Said Trump Left Iran Deal to Spite Obama; Fearful Immigrants Skipping Work, Hiding Out ahead of Raids; Pro-Democracy Protesters Gather at Mainland China Border; Macron Showcasing European Defense for Bastille Day; Halep Beats Williams to Clinch First Wimbledon Crown. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired July 14, 2019 - 04:00   ET

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


[04:00:00]

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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A partial blackout of Manhattan plunges theaters into darkness, brings subways to a halt and causes the lights to flicker on Times Square billboards.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Also this hour, the worst is yet to come. That is the warning from the Louisiana governor as tropical storm Barry pushes farther into the state.

HOWELL (voice-over): And later, more leaked cables from the now former U.K. ambassador to the United States. These are just as damaging but this time deal with the U.S. decision to abandon the Iran nuclear deal. More on that for you.

ALLEN (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world and in New York where you have lights and electricity and all of that.

HOWELL (voice-over): And hopefully your TV is on. I'm George Howell from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. NEWSROOM starts right now.

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HOWELL: 4:00 am on the U.S. East Coast. The lights are back on in New York. This after a blackout that left parts of the biggest and busiest city in the United States to plunge into darkness. It knocked out power for hours in parts of Manhattan's most popular tourist districts, including Times Square and Broadway.

ALLEN: The Con Ed utility company says, at the peak of the blackout -- isn't that a creepy shot -- around 73,000 customers had no power. That includes Madison Square Garden, where Jennifer Lopez was just starting her concert. Watch.

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ALLEN (voice-over): That had to be weird for concertgoers and Broadway theater attendees, tourists and residents. It was a dramatic night that could have been worse. Here's how it unfolded.

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BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK MAYOR AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are getting the preliminary reports what it appears to be is a transmission problem, Con Ed in New York City is working to address it now. We hope to have news soon on when power will be restored.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was on the 6th floor and we lost power very quickly and my understanding is there's a wire underneath our building, 101 West End, that caused the transformer to explode. Timing was around 7 o'clock, give or take. That explosion caused the blackout up and down the West End.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no power.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no lights.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're here in midtown Manhattan about 3 or 4 blocks south. You'll end up in Times Square but check this out, another two or three blocks north, you would essentially run into Central Park.

You're looking down Seventh Avenue and West 51st Street it's incredible when you see how dark it is. We're standing on the perimeter line of the affected line and the non-affected area. A gift shop here is lit up but the gift shop across the street is in the dark.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: You can see the police officers directing traffic on Central Park South. This is Central Park South where there is no power. Famed hotels like the Plaza Hotel, the Essex House, those buildings still without power.

JOHN MCAVOY, CONEDISON CEO: We divide the electric systems into networks that are roughly equivalent to neighborhoods and we lost six of the networks on our electric system. I'm happy to report as of a few minutes ago all six networks and all 73,000 customers have been restored.

ANDREW CUOMO, GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: We have to make sure that the system is designed in a way that this does not happen. When you're talking about a blackout or potential blackout or significant area of the city having a blackout, you are really dealing with potential chaos and public safety threats and the system has to be better than that, period.

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ALLEN: Well, the lights have been out in parts of Louisiana as well because heavy rain from tropical storm Barry is swamping parts of the state of Louisiana. Low-lying neighborhoods outside of New Orleans have been especially hardhit. More than 120,000 homes and businesses have lost power. HOWELL: And the levee system, some levees are already struggle to handle the volume of water, more 1.5 feet of rain. That's about 50 centimeters of rain could fall over the next few days alone.

The state capital of Baton Rouge is especially vulnerable from flooding from the Mississippi River. It's still recovering from a major flood a few years ago.

ALLEN: It's understandable that --

[04:05:00]

ALLEN: -- people there are nervously watching the river which has been at or near flood stage for many months. We get more from Randi Kaye in Baton Rouge.

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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The situation here in Baton Rouge is deteriorating. The winds are kicking up, gusting. We're here on the banks of the Mississippi River. We're just outside of the Bell casino and we have seen small whitecaps in the river that's already high due to recent flooding.

And you can see the trees are blowing pretty strongly and also dipping into the water and some of the water here is coming up on the edge of the steps, much closer to us.

But this is a real concern. The main concern here in Baton Rouge isn't so much the wind, even though it is strong, it's the water because, in 2016, just a few years ago, they had a pretty major depression that hung around and sat over this area and dropped about a foot and a half of rainwater.

And those people are still struggling to get through that. I spoke to one woman that's been living in a FEMA trailer for three years. Another woman that just got back into her home and has now evacuated because of this storm.

Right now, we know that the National Guard is here. They have high water vehicles because they are expecting so much rain and flooding here in Baton Rouge. They're hoping to get to folks that may be trapped in their homes.

They also had the public works teams out all day today, checking the drainage systems to make sure that this water has somewhere to go. The problem is that the Gulf is pushing the wind and the water up this way. And this water coming down from the rain doesn't really have anywhere to go.

So they're very concerned about surging and flooding in this area. One last thing, they do have the shelters open. They are urging people to stay home and shelter in place. If they do leave they're allowed to bring their pets with them to the shelters here because they don't want them to stay at home if it is dangerous just because of their animals. Some conditions to be concerned about in Baton Rouge. The latest from

here is it is windy and rainy and the worst really could be yet to come as the rain and the storm hits this area -- Randi Kaye, CNN, in Baton Rouge.

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ALLEN: Let's check in with another part of the state now. Guy McInnis is president of St. Bernard Parish just outside of New Orleans.

Thank you for talking with us.

How are you holding up?

How is your county holding up?

Is there flooding there?

GUY MCINNIS, ST. BERNARD PARISH PRESIDENT: Good morning, Natalie. Yes, we are at St. Bernard Parish here, the southernmost eastern part of Louisiana. We're holding up fine. The storm is basically past us. But it was very contentious here in the beginning.

It's really unprecedented where the levels of the river were predicted to be flood stage at 20 feet with the storm at the mouth of the river, which would push back the river, was very contentious.

And the information that we needed to get to our citizens so that they could make sure that their families were safe was very important and the governor worked with the Corps and Congressman Scalise was even involved and making sure the Corps gave us the information so we could get it to our citizens.

ALLEN: Yes.

Did you see much flooding?

And do you have power there?

MCINNIS: We have power. At one point in time we had about 3,000 or 4,000 of our residents in St. Bernard Parish that was without power. But I can tell you, Natalie, we are blessed here in southeast Louisiana, we didn't get the brunt of this storm.

It just gives us a heads up going into hurricane season. We did have storm surge on the outlying areas of our levee system. We saw about 5 foot of storm surge. Our fishing community, you know, they're used to that kind of surge from a storm like this.

But we were very fortunately in this one, Natalie. We were hit from three areas, right? So you have a high river, the Gulf was surging and this rain that we were worrying about. You guys have shown pictures of New Orleans flooding from a few days before.

So we were ready for all of that and we were blessed but, more importantly, we were prepared.

ALLEN: Yes. So you're a vulnerable parish there so I guess you feel very fortunate that you guys are going to be OK.

[04:10:00]

ALLEN: We really appreciate you talking with us, Mr. McInnis. I'm sure it's been a long night. Thanks so much and take care.

MCINNIS: God bless.

HOWELL: Let's get a sense of where this storm is headed next.

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HOWELL: The classified cables of a former ambassador have leaked again. Next what the official said about the U.S. president and his decision to leave the Iran deal.

ALLEN: Also ahead here, it's Bastille Day in France. We take you to Paris for the pomp and pageantry.

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[04:15:00]

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ALLEN: Welcome back.

There is a new bombshell from the leaked cables of Britain's former ambassador to the United States.

HOWELL: Sir Kim Darroch reportedly accused the U.S. president Donald Trump of ditching the Iran nuclear deal to spite the former president, Barack Obama. This is according to a new report from the "Daily Mail."

Darroch allegedly called Trump's decision an act of "diplomatic vandalism." Let's talk with Hadas Gold about the implications of the allegation itself. It suggests Mr. Trump made this critical decision out of personal spite for his predecessor.

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That comes from a new set of leaked cables published in "The Mail" on Sunday. I'll show you the front page today. Quite explosive. You can see they're saying Trump axed the Iran deal to spite Obama and according to "The Mail," they say this is part of a two-page summary that came after Boris Johnson was visiting the White House to try to convince the Americans to stay in the Iran deal.

This summary shows that the now former ambassador to the United States believed that Trump pulled out of the deal just based off of personality and that he accused the White House of having no plan B the day after this Iran deal happens.

And we're sort of seeing the results of that now with the tensions currently in Iran. The foreign office in a statement said not only do they, of course, want to find out who leaked the cables but that it's always been clear that the U.K. and U.S. differ when it comes to the Iran nuclear deal.

So they're trying to tamp down how explosive these leaked cables may be because that's always been their policy. But trying to convince the Americans publicly to stay in the Iran deal, the leaks are not nearly as explosive as the cables leaked last weekend that showed a lot more colorful language, you could say, that he used to describe President Trump.

And obviously within the course of a few days, Darroch had to resign after President Trump's comments about him, saying he wouldn't deal with him and then, of course, the prime minister candidate, Boris Johnson, that's seen as the front-runner, not really putting his full support and say he should stay and as a result he felt he had to resign.

HOWELL: There's also been the threat from law enforcement in the U.K. that this could be a criminal matter. Both contenders for prime minister have defended the press in publishing the diplomatic telegrams as a matter of public interest.

The broader question is what impact will these leaks have on the special relationship between the United States and U.K.?

GOLD: Well, in terms of the police investigation into this, they were -- and I think --

[04:20:00]

GOLD: -- rightly battered by both the press and the two candidates for prime minister for trying to warn publishers off of publishing the leaks, saying they could be subject to prosecution.

Now the police walked that statement back yesterday afternoon, saying they respect freedom of the press and, you're right, you noted the two candidates for prime minister both came out and said they fully defend the media's right to publish this.

But there's a hunt on now for the leaker because the police are saying that leaking these documents violates the Official Seekers Act. But in terms of what it could do to the special relationship, we heard comments from President Trump saying, oh, actually, I heard him say some nice things about me. It's too bad. He's a nice guy.

I don't think this will completely ruin the special relationship.

But the big question here is what is next?

Not only how does this affect the race for prime minister but who will appoint the next ambassador to the United States and what kind of appointment will it be?

Ambassadors from the U.K. are usually non-political appointees. These are career civil servants. It's not like in the United States, where we see political appointees. There's a big question about how these recent leaks and this row between the U.S. and U.K. is going to affect ambassadors from the United Kingdom going forward.

HOWELL: And Number 10 looking into this for sure. Hadas Gold, live for us in London, thank you.

ALLEN: Let's dig deeper now. James Boys is a professor of international political studies. He joins us from London.

Always good to see you, James, thanks for coming on.

JAMES BOYS, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: Thanks, Natalie.

ALLEN: More fallout from the leaked cables and now we learn from the former ambassador, saying Donald Trump only ended the Iran deal to make his predecessor look bad.

How bad does that look for President Trump?

BOYS: Well, it's just another example of people suggesting, of course, that Donald Trump's entire political strategy is based upon undoing the work of Barack Obama. It's been quipped widely that if Barack Obama had cured cancer somehow Donald Trump would bring that back.

What we're seeing here in the details is interesting because what it reveals is the strength of the relationship with the United States. The idea that our foreign secretary could get very high profile meetings with John Bolton, national security adviser and the vice president and with the secretary of state in an attempt to try to persuade the administration of the error of its ways.

It's quite revealing, as is the fact that there was apparently clear daylight between some of the gentlemen and the president and no apparent rationale for why this decision was being made to walk away from the Iran deal except some personal animus and some campaign pledges made during 2016.

ALLEN: That's a good point. I want to play video of President Trump announcing in May of 2018 that the U.S. would withdraw. Here it is.

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TRUMP: Not only does the deal fail to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions but it also fails to address the regime's development of ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear war heads. Finally, the deal does nothing to constrain Iran's destabilizing activities including it's support for terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The question is where he got that information. Who agreed with the president a year ago?

We know this, secretary of state Mike Pompeo at the time said Iran was complying.

BOYS: That's right. These are revealing because that statement by the president was made very shortly after foreign secretary Johnson left Washington, having failed to persuade the administration to stay within the deal.

When you consider that John Bolton had recently joined the White House, many people believe that was the telling point here, that he was long known to be a hawk and it helped tilt the balance in favor of that.

The problem is there's no plan B. And it's easy to walk away from a deal and Trump has proven that. But what we have yet to see so far from this president is the art of the deal.

Where are the new deals coming from?

Yes, we can walk away from something but where is the next plan?

What is going to come next?

That's what we have failed to see so far from the administration.

ALLEN: Was this a miscalculation by Trump? Iran shows no signs of capitulating and he's also tried to twist the arms of North Korea, hasn't worked and China on trade, hasn't worked.

[04:25:00]

BOYS: Again, we can look around and see also what is happening in the United States with NAFTA and trying to get new deals between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It's all well and good to say the deals are in place are imperfect.

But most deals in international relationships are imperfect. There's a degree of give and take that's always required. I think the naivete on behalf of this administration with regard to how it is that international relations are done and deals are struck and this idea of compromise, which is a dirty word to some but it's an essential element of international relations to get any agreements done and that is a learning curve this administration needs to get on pretty quickly.

ALLEN: Considering what is going on right now with Iran, the tensions and instability that we're all experiencing with the situation.

Always appreciate your insights, James Boys, thank you.

BOYS: Thank you, Natalie.

HOWELL: Just hours from now immigration raids across the United States. Many people at this point living in fear. We'll speak to an immigration attorney about how families are coping with what's to come.

ALLEN: Also here, France kicking off Bastille Day celebrations with a grand military parade. We'll take you to Paris with the latest.

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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers in the U.S. and around world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Atlanta.

HOWELL: I'm George Howell with the headlines this hour.

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[04:30:00]

HOWELL: Back here in the U.S., major cities are bracing for raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

They'll take place in nine cities, the ones you see here and are set to get underway in the coming hours. Official say the focus will be on undocumented immigrants who already have court orders to be deported.

Well, a mother in Chicago turned to a local church to seek sanctuary when she was ordered to leave the country and leave her family behind two years ago.

HOWELL: Now she worries that she could get caught up in the coming raids. Our Rosa Flores has the story for you.

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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Francisca Lino has lived in Chicago for some 20 years. She's the mom of four U.S. citizens who she raised in the out outskirts of town, but for the past two years, Lino has lived inside a church, away from her family and hoping to not be deported.

Lino who is undocumented said she gets in a panic thinking about getting pulled away and stashed in overcrowded detention facilities she's seen on the news. She took sanctuary in this church, a place federal agents avoid raiding.

(on camera): Do you have a plan if there is a raid here in the church?

FRANCISCA LINO, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT: No. FLORES (voice-over): But now, she's worried that it could all come to

an end this weekend, when planned ICE raids in cities across the country, including Chicago, are set to begin. For more than a decade, a time span covering administrations of both parties, Lino checked in with immigration officials twice a year and there was never any issue, until Donald Trump took office. CNN was there in 2017 the morning of her first check-in during the Trump era.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It brings me a lot of fear.

FLORES: It was an emotional affair for her entire family. First an immigration agent told her she could stay for another year.

LINO (through translator): I feel very happy because I was given another year.

FLORES: And then --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, cameras away from the building.

FLORES: -- her joy turned to heart break when she was asked to return to the federal building in four months with her bags packed and a one- way ticket out of the country. Her daughter became physically ill.

(on camera) : You were having a panic attack upstairs?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I couldn't breathe. I was choked up. I couldn't talk.

FLORES: Lino says that's what hurts her the most, about being hunkered down the last couple of years. It is not being able to simply hug her daughters out side of this church, especially when they needed their mom and that is something she may never do again on U.S. soil come this weekend -- Rosa Flores, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: To talk more about this now we have Pamela Peynado Stewart with us now. Pamela is an attorney with an immigration law group.

I appreciate your time talking about this very important issue. The president has said this is mainly about criminals. He has said this is about people that courts have ruled should not be in the United States. The mayor of Atlanta spoke about this. Her feelings around what's happening. Let's listen to that. We can talk about it in a moment.

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KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS, MAYOR OF ATLANTA: We have a very vibrant immigrant community in our city and the notion that these raids will somehow assist us is absolutely not true.

We have not asked for the assistance of the federal government. The president has not spoken with me as a mayor nor anyone affiliated with the city to see if this will assist us with any crime issues that we are having. And it's creating chaos and anxiety in our families within our communities.

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So that's Atlanta's mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, saying what many other mayors have said, that they have been kept in the dark about what is to happen in their cities --

[04:35:00]

HOWELL: -- in a matter of hours now.

PAMELA PEYNADO STEWART, IMMIGRATION LAWYER: It's true and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has been a champion for immigration and immigrant rights and the president and the administration, they're simply not being honest.

There have been a lot of individuals that have been targeted by this operation already because it started on Friday. Friday morning, we got a call from a single mother, who said that four ICE officers went to her home for the sole purpose of arresting her. She had no prior crimes. She did not know she had an outstanding order of removal because a lot of these individuals are ordered deported or removed in absentia.

That means that they were never present at the hearing because they did not receive any notice or because they did not know; maybe they changed addresses. But these ICE officers seemed to have a change of heart once they got there. They were supposed to arrest her and her 2-year old and 10-year old.

Once they got there they decided not to make the arrest and asked her to come back to report for supervision. She is obviously very shaken up. She is going to comply with everything they've asked for. They're not just targeting criminals here. They're targeting single mothers, fathers and children, 2-year olds as well.

HOWELL: The mayor said this. You posted something about this similarly on your social media but that immigrants should know their rights. Explain.

STEWART: Absolutely. The Supreme Court hundreds of years ago determined that immigrants have the right of due process. It's a basic right and we have rights. We have rights not to answer the door. We have rights to remain silent because everything that the immigrant says can be used against them to establish the deportation.

They have a right to speak to an attorney. They have a right to not sign anything and they have a right to have their case heard. For example, if they did not receive a hearing notice, they have a right to file a motion to reopen and have their cases heard before an immigration court so they can present their case.

So they have due process and also they're human beings. They should be treated humanely with dignity and respect and not like animals.

HOWELL: This has implications not only for immigrants but also for American citizens, who may be supporting, who may be providing shelter or assistance. What are you hearing from people in these communities who, at this

point, are uncertain, may be in fear?

STEWART: Great point. I have many American businesses that are telling me, first of all, they're going bankrupt. They can't maintain their businesses because they don't have the workers necessary to continue on.

Also U.S. citizens are scared. They say is my citizenship going to be taken away? This has caused a big panic. Everyone is full of anxiety and it's a big ordeal and we want everyone to remain calm and be proactive about it, to speak to an immigration attorney to see if something can be done about their immigration case.

We've gone to school with folks that are undocumented. We work with them. They're our coworkers. They go to our church. This is going to be a huge impact and also to these U.S. citizen children.

Can you imagine the trauma, the psychological damage for generations to come to see their mother and father abruptly being taken away in such a harsh manner?

HOWELL: Pamela Stewart, we appreciate your time and certainly you're making the point that people should know their rights as we see what happens.

STEWART: Thank you.

ALLEN: Protesters are gathering in Hong Kong for yet another day of marches. They're demonstrating in the Sha Tin district, as part of an effort to spread their pro democracy message across several towns outside of the city's main island.

HOWELL: For weeks, thousands of people have called on Hong Kong's government to completely kill an extradition bill that's been viewed as a power grab by Beijing.

ALLEN: Matt Rivers is in Hong Kong for us.

Saturday's protests started peacefully but didn't end peacefully.

What is it like there today?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Much larger crowds here by a significant number. Easily tens of thousands, if not well over 100,000 people at this point in today's march.

It's been 100 percent peaceful so far. We're about two-thirds of the way through the planned route and we have been standing in this location for a better part of the hour now and the crowds you're seeing below represent what we have been seeing for the last hour. The people keep coming and you can follow the path all the way around.

[04:40:00]

RIVERS: There's a couple different options. Organizers have laid out for protesters to end up at a public transportation station or make their way to government offices here.

But this is the kind of protest we have gotten used to seeing really over the last six weeks or so. This is working class largely, this protest made up of working class folks. There's elderly people, children at this protest and there's young people here as opposed to yesterday which is a significantly smaller protest with mainly young students.

This is a very cross sectional look at Hong Kong society. People coming out in opposition to this extradition bill.

And the momentum, George and Natalie, is remarkable. Weekend after weekend, getting this amount of people out there. They're at a different district than the protest we saw last month when centered around the Hong Kong government buildings in central Hong Kong.

This is out in another district and that's part of the plans here, is to bring these protests to as many different districts in Hong Kong as possible, to spread their message as far as possible.

And it's worth noting this is an area where lots of mainland Chinese are known to come and buy stuff at shopping malls around here and that's not lost on these protesters, hoping to spread their message to the mainland.

ALLEN: Saturday brought confrontations as authorities clamp down. We hope this will be a peaceful one and we know that you'll be covering it for us.

HOWELL: Still ahead on NEWSROOM, France is showcasing European defense capabilities for Bastille Day. We take you live to the French capital for the national holiday that is important there. Stay with us.

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[04:45:00]

ALLEN: Bastille Day celebration, you're looking at it right there. German Chancellor Angela Merkel among those attendants.

HOWELL: The French president Emmanuel Macron is presiding over the festivities. This year's event is meant to showcase Europe's defense capabilities. Joining us now on the phone is Jim Bittermann from the French capital.

Jim, if you can walk us through a sense of what is expected to come on this day.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: A fly-past is going on right now. We've got planes that are flying over here that basically represent not only the French air forces but also of the navy forces and coastal patrol.

And we're looking at jets which are used for Atlantic patrolling. This is the start of what is the traditional 14th of July Bastille Day parade. It will involve (INAUDIBLE) aircraft in the formations now and later on there will be about 40 helicopters.

And we're going to see in the space over the next hour and a half, we're going to see about 5,000 marching troops and 250 (INAUDIBLE) motorized troops and all sorts of things coming down the avenue. It's a big parade that Donald Trump loved so much a few years ago that he decided to recreate it in Washington a few days ago.

HOWELL: And this question, if you can hear me OK, the focus is on European defense. We will hear from the French president.

What would you expect him to suggest are the biggest threats to security?

BITTERMANN: Well, he already sent the message out about the need for European cooperation. I think in French terms, the Europeans have gotten together and maintained their own posture in terms of Russia, for example.

They're quite concerned what has taken place in Georgia, in Ukraine and other places where Russia has been aggressive. As far as the French are concerned, there's the question of Iran. France has a different take on Iran than the United States does.

So there's a number of things where Macron believes Europe should strike its own posture with regard to world affairs and part of that posturing is the military might that goes behind it.

So this parade is about European cooperation and it's also -- there's been a couple of other things as well. One of the things is he wants to remind people that 100 years ago on the 14th of July, 1919, the veterans had just returned home from the war. And there were walking wounded all over the place.

That's one of the things he's emphasizing, too, is the treatment of veterans and the treatment of the wounded.

HOWELL: Jim Bittermann on the phone, live in Paris. You're looking at live images from the French capital, a show of French military might, strength on this Bastille Day as that nation celebrates.

ALLEN: All right. Coming up here, history made, history denied. No matter who you were rooting for, the women's final at Wimbledon will be talked about for years to come. We think you know why. We'll have a live report to talk about more from Wimbledon next.

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ALLEN: Serena Williams has dominated women's tennis for so long that seeing her lose is always a shock. And for her to lose at Wimbledon in straight sets, well, that's practically unheard of.

HOWELL: Unheard of. But if anyone could do it, it was Simona Halep. She was nearly flawless as she crushed her opponent 6-2, 6-2. Afterward she called it the best match of her life.

ALLEN: I think it was, wasn't it?

CNN's Christina Macfarlane joins us from Wimbledon.

The men's final gets underway in a few hours. We'll talk about that in a moment. But let's talk more about Simona Halep robbing Serena of that win but her play was otherworldly, wasn't it?

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's a good word for it. This is not what we expected from Simona Halep. She had a reputation as being a little bit inconsistent. A little bit of a choker. She said she used to get so nervous that she was sick in the locker room before the big games.

But my goodness, she was a lion out on Centre Court yesterday. She said it was the best game she has ever seen. I think it's one of the best performances we have ever seen from a woman finalist at this level.

She hit just three unforced errors against Serena Williams, which is a record for the women's final and didn't even let Serena get into the game in the first place.

Serena didn't appear to be herself out there on court yesterday. We thought the magnitude of this moment might overwhelm her. She was going for a record-equaling 24th Grand Slam title yesterday and she missed out on the chance to win her third straight -- on the third straight final to make that 24 mark.

We wonder what this will do to Serena Williams psychologically. She has to pick herself back up and go again in six weeks' time at the U.S. Open. Yesterday she admitted after the game that she was like a deer in the headlights.

ALLEN: That had to hurt.

Now to the two male titans of tennis that play today, Djokovic versus Federer.

What is expected from this one?

MACFARLANE: Well, if 56 minutes was a little bit short for you yesterday, we can expect a bit more of an epic battle today. This is the 16th time in a Grand Slam final that Novak Djokovic has played Roger Federer. And as ever when any of the big three meet at this level, there is history on the line.

For Roger Federer, he is looking to extend his record of 21, with 21 Grand Slam titles and Djokovic is looking for sweet 16 to add to his collection. But I have to say, this is more than just a match today because both of these players --

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MACFARLANE: -- are now gunning to be the GOAT, the Greatest of All Time.

And while Federer currently leads the pack on 20 Grand Slams, a win today for Novak would put him within four of that total and when you consider that Roger Federer is five years older than Djokovic, the win takes on a greater urgency for him.

And if he can do it today, he'll be the oldest Grand Slam champion of all time. A lot to play for in Centre Court later.

ALLEN: Right. He's been freaking himself out a little bit talking about his age. We'll be watching, Christina, thank you so much.

HOWELL: It's definitely going to be one to watch for sure.

The big weekend in sport continues with the British Grand Prix. The U.K.'s Lewis Hamilton is seeking a record-breaking sixth win at the Silverstone Circuit in England.

ALLEN: He was edged out in pole position in Saturday's qualifying race by a few fractions of a second by Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas of Finland.

Sunday's also a huge day for cricket. England and New Zealand face off at the World Cup final and both teams are looking for their first title ever.

HOWELL: The English are hosting the match in London and are considered the favorites. They're coming off a strong semifinal performance against Australia, the defending champs. But New Zealand is not to be underestimated. They stunned India last week and were the World Cup runners-up in 2015.

We'll take you now live back to the city of Paris. Bastille Day celebrations there. The French president Emmanuel Macron is presiding over a military parade showcasing European defense.

ALLEN: You're looking at live video here. The annual event marking the storming of the Bastille fortress during the French Revolution.

Thank you for watching this hour. There's much more ahead. "NEW DAY" is next for viewers here in the United States.

HOWELL: Thanks for being with us. We'll continue after the break.

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