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CNN NEWSROOM

U.S. House Overwhelmingly Passes Sanctions Bill; Trump Steps Up Attacks on Attorney General; Russia Investigation; Venezuela's Opposition Party Calls for Strike; Raging Wildfires Destroy Woodland In Southern France; Cardinal Pell Has Strongly Denied Charges; Shooting Victim Reportedly Slapped Back Of Police Car; Comedian Margaret Cho Launches New Tour; World Sports. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired July 26, 2017 - 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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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour"

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved new Russian sanctions, defying President Trump.

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) to Venezuela with a 48-hour nationwide strike, protesting the upcoming referendum on a new constitution.

SOARES (voice-over): Plus Margaret Cho will be here to talk Hollywood whitewashing and comedy in the age of Trump.

Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers right around the world. I'm Isa Soares.

VAUSE (voice-over): I'm John Vause. Good to have you with us for the third hour of NEWSROOM L.A.

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SOARES: But first the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a new sanctions bill and in doing so directly challenged President Donald Trump 's authority.

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) new sanctions on not just Russia but also North Korea as well as Iran and also limits the president's ability to ease many of the sanctions. And all of this now moves to the Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CALIF.), MEMBER, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I think all three are very important. The Iran sanctions to go after those entities that are involved in the ballistic missile program or other nefarious Iranian actions.

But as well to take steps to deal with North Korea and clamp down further on that regime and its efforts to expand its nuclear program, its intercontinental ballistic missile program. That's probably among the most direct threats facing the country.

So a very important bill in all three respects.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, the House voted hours after Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, testified before an Intelligence Committee about his contacts with the Russians during the campaign.

We're covering all angles of the sanctions bill. Our correspondents are Will Ripley in Seoul, South Korea, Matt Rivers in Beijing and Clare Sebastian in Moscow.

Will, I want to start with you, will, if I may. These sanctions may still get through the Senate but, in the meantime, North Koreans have plenty to think about. One of which are comments we've been hearing from CIA director, Mike Pompeo.

What has been the reaction from there?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, anger and threats of a retaliatory strike or pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, Isa, which is not surprising.

But CIA director Pompeo's remarks were surprising in that to have such direct language from the United States talking about regime change, Pompeo saying that the North Korean people would like to see their Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un go and the United States would like to see Kim separated from his growing nuclear arsenal.

That contradicts what the president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, said earlier this month when he reiterated that this country is not looking for regime change to the North. And even the secretary of state Rex Tillerson back in April said the same thing, that the U.S. didn't want to see the Kim Jong-un regime out, they just wanted to see the deescalation of tensions and denuclearization of the peninsula.

But North Koreans -- I was there back in April -- they don't believe that for one second. They do think that the United States is plotting to try to invade, to try to take Kim Jong-un out of power.

And that is why they justify to themselves and to their people spending an extraordinary amount of money developing these weapons of mass destruction, both nuclear warheads and missiles that could even deliver them to the United States.

And so you have this new threat for North Korea that, if the United States even thinks of trying to attack Kim Jong-un, that they're threatening to launch a missile, as they put it, right in the heart of mainland U.S.

VAUSE: All this coming of course as U.S. intelligence says that the North Koreans could have the ability within a year for a missile to reach the continental United States. With that in mind, Matt Rivers, it seems Beijing at the very least is preparing for what could be a potential conflict between the North Koreans and the United States.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are getting some new indications, based off of the official online newspaper for the People's Liberation Army.

Over the past couple days, they've published two separate reports, talking about the creation of a new border defense brigade and also talking about 24-hour video surveillance that they say has been newly installed in China's northern command.

And while that does include borders with Mongolia and Russia, analysts that we've spoken to have said, given what's going on on the Korean Peninsula right now, it's likely that the army has created these units, increased their surveillance capacity, mainly for the North Korean threat.

That's what we've been hearing from the Chinese government. It was interesting that we heard from the ministry of foreign affairs yesterday --

[02:05:00]

RIVERS: -- and a spokesman said that China is just maintaining normal security operations. And so what that lends itself to, the assumption is that maybe this the new normal for China, that its army is saying that it's creating these new defense brigades on the border.

And the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that's normal. Well, this is China reacting to a tense reality and perhaps practicing these new situations under this new normal.

SOARES: And Matt, do stay with us. I want to bring in Clare Sebastian, who's in Moscow for us.

Clare, if the bill remains (INAUDIBLE) remains intact, what can Russia do, if anything, in response to this?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Isa, it's not clear exactly what they would want to do in response. But it's certainly clear they do intend on responding to this.

A Russian lawmaker, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, has come out this morning and he said -- I'll read you that -- "any response, one the bill has passed should be asymmetrical," he said, "but painful to the Americans."

In the past when Russia has responded to U.S. sanctions or European sanctions, it hasn't always been as simple as doing the same thing that was done for them. One example, back in 2012, when the Magnitsky Act sanctions were slapped on Russia individuals over a suspected human rights abuses, Russia responded two weeks later by banning American adoptions of Russian children.

Similarity, the ban on food imports from Europe back in 2014, another asymmetrical response. So it's not exactly clear what they might do but certainly the mood here is one that they are ready to retaliate, should this bill be passed.

SOARES: But sanctions have been heartened for (ph) to Russia, too, haven't they?

SEBASTIAN: Absolutely. The concessions along with the precipitous drop in the oil price and the ruble have contributed to one of the most recessions that Russia has seen recently. A major drop in wages has led the general population to suffer. Russia is said to eat into its rainy day funds to prop up the economy and this is supposed to be the year that things turned around.

Russia's economy is starting to grow again. The IMF says about 1.5 percent this year and for an investment, it looked like it was starting to come back. So this not just economically painful, this round of new sanctions for Russia but politically humiliating for the Kremlin as well.

VAUSE: OK, Clare, thank you very much, Clare Sebastian's in Moscow, Matt Rivers in Beijing and Will Ripley, live in Seoul, thanks to all of you.

SOARES: Now.

VAUSE: President Trump continues to display his unforgiving campaign against his own attorney general. The attacks on Jeff Sessions, one of the earliest and most loyal supporters of candidate Donald Trump, seem to have opened a rift with conservatives.

SOARES: It is unprecedented for a president to publicly shame a cabinet member but Mr. Trump claims that he's doing the right thing and says he's better than nearly all his predecessors. Take a listen.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sometimes, they say, he doesn't act presidential.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I say, hey, look, great schools, smart guy. It's so easy to act presidential. But that's not going to get it done.

With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that's ever held this office. That I can tell you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Well, despite all his very public complaints about Jeff Sessions, Mr. Trump isn't saying if he will keep him on as attorney general.

SOARES: But Sara Murray now reports Republican lawmakers are stepping up to defend Sessions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump using a crucial day in his presidency to hurl insults at his attorney general. But Trump dodged questions about whether Sessions should step down at a Rose Garden news conference today.

TRUMP: I'm very disappointed with the attorney general but we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell.

MURRAY (voice-over): Trump tweeting, "Attorney general Jeff Sessions has taken a very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes. Where are emails and DNC server and intel leakers?"

Advisers say the real reason Trump is stewing is because he's still livid over Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe, that decision made back in March on the advice of other Justice Department officials.

TRUMP: He should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before taking office and I would have quite simply picked somebody else.

MURRAY (voice-over): Sessions said earlier this year that he would bow out of any investigation into Clinton.

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R): To be very clear, you intend to recuse yourself from both the Clinton e-mail investigation and any matters involving The Clinton Foundation if there --

[02:10:00]

GRASSLEY: -- are any?

JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Yes.

MURRAY (voice-over): And Trump himself said after the election, he didn't want to see the Clintons investigated.

TRUMP: I don't want to hurt them. I don't want to hurt them. They're good people.

MURRAY (voice-over): Trump's newly minted communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, made no apologies for the president's behavior today as he acknowledged that Trump probably wants Sessions to step aside.

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I have enormous amount of respect for the attorney general. But I do know the president pretty well and if there's this level of tension in the relationship that's public, you're probably right.

But I don't want to speak for the president on that, because he's a cabinet official and I sort of think that has to be between the President of the United States and the cabinet official.

MURRAY (voice-over): Sessions was once one of Trump's closest allies and the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump's presidential bid.

SESSIONS: I am pleased to endorse Donald Trump for the presidency of the United States.

MURRAY (voice-over): Now the president's public flogging of his former friend isn't sitting well with other U.S. senators. Republican senators including Rob Portman, Ted Cruz, Thom Tillis and Lindsey Graham all leapt to Sessions' defense.

In a statement, Graham called Sessions "a rock-solid conservative" and shot back at Trump's criticism, saying, "President Trump's tweet today suggesting attorney general Sessions pursue prosecution of a former political rival is highly inappropriate" -- Sara Murray, CNN, Youngstown, Ohio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The central figures in the Russia investigation will not be testifying in public, at least for now. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has dropped its subpoena to force Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to appear at a public hearing on Wednesday.

SOARES: Instead, Manafort provided documents to the committee and has agreed to be interviewed in the future. Our Manu Raju has more.

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MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Now Paul Manafort has been at the center of several investigations on Capitol Hill. And as well as a special counsel Bob Mueller's inquiry into Russian meddling, any collusion that may have existed between Trump officials and Russian officials.

Now what we do now know is that Paul Manafort behind the scenes did meet with staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday to provide information about that June 2016 meeting that he attended with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, in which Donald Trump Jr. was promised dirt on the Clinton campaign from Russians.

Manafort talking about that and also agreeing, I am told, to come back before the Senate Intelligence Committee staff and senators at a later date to talk about other issues.

Now he was also facing a subpoena threat to appear at a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But Manafort cut a deal with the leaders of that committee and no longer will have to appear in public; instead, agreeing to negotiate for a private interview before any public session.

Now this comes also as Jared Kushner, still in the spotlight after a second day of meeting with congressional investigators, this time testimony with the House Intelligence Committee, after meeting with Senate Intelligence Committee staff, the question is, will Jared Kushner come back?

Democrats on both committees say they have more questions, including the top Democrat on that committee, Mark Warner, who tells me that, absolutely, Kushner, Manafort, others need to come back for further questioning, a sign that this is not quite over just yet -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer joins us now for more on this. He's also a former CIA operative.

Bob, great to have you with us. One of the issues with this June meeting last year during the campaign, we don't know exactly what happened. We have some testimony from Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. We have the emails.

Big picture here, if the Kremlin was looking to try and recruit someone, not specifically with relation to this meeting but the big picture, it usually starts with what, like a soft pitch to gauge interest?

How do these things begin?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it starts with what we call spotting and assessing in the business. CIA does the same thing. You go to somebody, see what their needs are; they need money, they need political support. You use a proxy for that, somebody who's not a diplomat, not a proper spy.

VAUSE: What they call a cutout?

BAER: A cutout, yes, a cutout is fine.

VAUSE: That's the sort of slang term --

(CROSSTALK)

BAER: We call them an access agent. They've got access in New York, access to Trump Incorporated, the family and the rest of it. And then they go to the soft pitch, as you say. You propose something that's clearly wrong and you watch for the reaction. What you don't do is carry the documents with you.

VAUSE: Well, that's what (INAUDIBLE) because Jared Kushner's statement to Congress about the meeting last year with the Russian lawyer, who we now know is linked to the Kremlin, it read in part, "When I got there" -- this is Kushner -- "the person who has since been identified as a Russian attorney was talking about the issue of a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children.

"I had no idea why that topic was being raised and quickly determined that my time was not well spent at this meeting. Reviewing emails recently confirm my memory that the meeting a waste of my time."

So again, in general terms, if the Kremlin arranges this meeting with (INAUDIBLE) some kind of payoff --

[02:15:00] VAUSE: -- they don't (INAUDIBLE) on the first meeting, right?

(CROSSTALK)

BAER: They want to test the water. I mean, if right away they had rejected it, Donald Jr., the pitch, they could say, oh, you misunderstood us. I mean, I've done this 100 times. We do the same thing.

You come in with -- you hint at something but you definitely do not do a flat-out pitch, a cold pitch on somebody like this. You judge their reaction. And if they like it, as Donald Jr. did, as we saw in the e- mail --

(CROSSTALK)

BAER: -- I "love it," then you set up other connections later on down the line.

VAUSE: Because that gives the cutout plausible deniability.

BAER: Plausible deniability. They say, hey, you know, you misunderstood me. The translator was bad, whatever.

VAUSE: So if it's all about testing the waters to see the level of enthusiasm, if you like, the fact that Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort also turned up to this meeting, along with Donald Jr., what does that say?

If you were for the Russian operative who was there, in a meeting like this, if someone like those two senior people turned up, what does it say?

BAER: Well, Manafort they knew quite well. He was deep into Ukrainian money, pro-Russian Ukrainian money, KGB money, supporting that government. So they knew what he was about.

What they wanted to know is if the Trumps wanted to get into politics with these people and the answer was yes.

Look, from my perspective -- and admittedly I have a different perspective -- this all stinks, it really does. You've got money; you've got this woman, this lawyer is connected to the KGB. She represented the KGB. You have someone offering a covert action support. In the business, we call this espionage and we call it treasonous as well.

VAUSE: OK. Kushner also addressed the meeting he had with the CEO of the state-run Russian bank, which is under U.S. sanctions, Sergey Gorkov. This is part of Kushner's statement to Congress.

"I agreed to meet Mr. Gorkov because the ambassador" -- this is the Russian ambassador Kislyak, who's since left -- "has been so insistent, said he had a direct relationship" -- this is Gorkov -- "with the president" -- as in Putin -- "and because Mr. Gorkov was only in New York for a couple days." So if you just read that on the surface, it seems that there is, this

relationship there, at least, between Kushner and Kislyak.

Is that something, as an investigator, would be a red flag, you'd want to know what the relationship was, how it was developed over time, how close these two were?

BAER: Look, the fact that he went to the Russian ambassador and asked for a back channel -- back channels are meant to be between governments, not between private citizens --

VAUSE: And he's admitted to that in his testimony.

BAER: -- yes, but that's wrong. I mean, that's -- on the face of it, that is espionage. It really is. You don't go to a -- you and I can't go to the Russian consulate in San Francisco and say we want to set up a back channel. The FBI's listening to that. We'd both be in handcuffs.

VAUSE: And this relationship with Kislyak, Kislyak well-known senior recruiter for the Kremlin.

BAER: He's a spotter and assessor for the Kremlin. He's probably ministry of foreign affairs but he works for the KGB at the end of the day. And the fact that Kushner didn't know this really makes you wonder about his judgment --

(CROSSTALK)

BAER: -- best case scenario. Or there's always the money. Follow the money. We're going to see this in the next couple of months, the money connections come out and current ones as well.

VAUSE: OK, Bob, thanks so much. Good to speak with you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And still to come, tensions are rising in Venezuela as the opposition calls for a strike ahead of a controversial vote on Sunday that could rewrite the constitution.

VAUSE: Also ahead, (INAUDIBLE) comedian Margaret Cho, she's getting political on her next tour. She tells us how President Donald Trump conspired, we should say. Her latest standup material.

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SOARES: Now the opposition in Venezuela is increasing pressure on President Nicolas Maduro by calling for a nationwide strike on Wednesday as well as Thursday. VAUSE: They're also planning to disrupt Sunday's vote to elect a special assembly which could increase Maduro's authority and strip political power away from his opponents.

Months of protests have left close to 100 people dead in Venezuela.

SOARES: But it's not just the political turmoil; Venezuelans are also in the middle of a humanitarian crisis triggered by years of economic mismanagement.

VAUSE: We'll get details now from Paula Newton, reporting from Caracas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fear here in Venezuela is palpable, with many wondering if their country is at a tipping point.

President Nicolas Maduro has called a referendum vote for Sunday, a vote that the opposition claims will give him substantial new powers to essentially act like a dictator and erase any trace of democracy here in Venezuela.

Nicolas Maduro says he will go ahead with the vote, despite the fact that the White House could be a game-changer. President Trump saying that he's promising swift economic action if President Maduro goes ahead with the vote on Sunday.

We have to remember, in the meantime, Venezuelans are still trying to get to the very basic necessities of life every day, trying to stock up on food and medicine that has been so scarce for months and months.

In the middle of all of this, Nicolas Maduro says he doesn't care about opposition threats or White House threats. He will go through with his vote on Sunday and says, what cannot be achieved with votes, he will achieve with weapons -- Paula Newton, CNN, Caracas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Well, let's get more on the story. Joining me now is Miguel Tinker Salas. He's a professor of Latin American studies at Pomona College.

Miguel, thank you very much for joining me on the show. There's plenty of speculation as to whether President Maduro will actually halt the assembly vote this weekend.

From what you're hearing, from your contacts on the ground, how likely is that to happen?

How likely is he back down?

It's difficult for him to back down at this late stage in this process. To do so would be to lose face. We've had, on the part of the PSUV, the Socialist Party of Venezuela, an active campaign since May. So for him, at this stage, after the opposition has held its

plebiscite to back down without something very substantial, to be able to show for it, that's ending in the protest or something like that, I don't see it in the cards.

Meanwhile, we've heard from Senator Marco Rubio, who's been quoted in the "Miami Herald" for asking President Trump to sanction 10 more high-ranking individuals in the Venezuelan government.

This is what he said.

"This is only the beginning for Maduro and those empowering him to destroy democracy and abuse the Venezuelan people."

He said in a statement to "Miami Herald" (INAUDIBLE) more sanctions await should Maduro move forward with Sunday's, what he called fraudulent vote.

Of course last week, we saw President Trump also threaten Maduro with sanctions in a statement. This is what he said.

"The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles. If the Maduro regime imposes its constituent assembly on July the 30th, the United States will take strong as well as swift economic actions."

How does Maduro react to all of this?

Does he just ignore this domestic as well as international pressure, not just coming from the U.S., also from Europe?

SALAS: But the reality is that, for Maduro's followers, the actions on the part of Trump and, in this case, Rubio, reinforce Maduro's argument, that Venezuela's is under siege, that Venezuela is being attacked by an international conspiracy and sanctions at this point against individuals will be the same sort of effect that it had when President Obama took these similar actions in the past, particularly when he declared Venezuela an immediate threat to U.S. national security.

So that these kinds of sanctions, in fact, would have very little impact and --

[02:25:00]

SALAS: -- economic sanctions would be very -- would have a draconian results in Venezuela because, as you mentioned earlier, there is also a human rights crisis, happening with absence of products, medicines and food.

And if you were to do an economic sanction against Venezuela, the real losers would be the Venezuelan population. So we hope cooler heads would prevail on matters of economic sanctions. Individual sanctions we've seen in the past. And that is in fact served to reinforce Maduro's position and his argument that the country is somehow and his government somehow is under attack.

SOARES: Of course, the theory is that will exacerbate the situation, humanitarian situation on the ground.

But if all this pressure doesn't stop Maduro and he goes ahead with his plan on Sunday, what do you think this will mean for Chavismo?

Do you fear that we'll enter a more authoritarian phase?

SALAS: It might enter a more radical phase, particularly if power is transferred from, say, the traditional institutions in Venezuelan society to the communal councils, to the collectives and the state begins to dismantle itself in multiple ways, therefore ensuring that any future election would have less of an impact on the power of the social changes.

I think what you're going to see coming out of a constitutional assembly is to institutionalize the social mission programs, to institutionalize the different collectives and communes that have been established and try to transfer power to those institutions and debilitating institutions like the national assembly or others.

That's particularly in light of any future elections that Maduro himself might lose if those came to pass.

SOARES: Miguel Tinker Salas, thank you very much, fascinating insight, thank you, sir.

SALAS: Thank you.

VAUSE: And we'll take a short break. When we come back, Cardinal George Pell proclaiming his innocence as he faces multiple charges of historical sexual assault offenses. We'll go live to Melbourne for the very latest.

SOARES: Plus new details on the fate of (INAUDIBLE) of an Australian bride to be in the U.S. We'll bring you that story, too, just ahead.

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VAUSE: Welcome back everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

SOARES: And I'm Isa Soares. These are the headlines this hour.

(HEADLINES)

[02:30:05] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: It's unclear when the Senate will vote on the bill, which is also include that earning (ph) the sanction on Russia. But also Iran had North Korea.

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Wildfires are raging through hundreds of hectares of forest in Southern France. And official set crews that fought more that 60 fires in the past day in the region between Marseille as well as Nice. The fire is spreading because of strong winds and they're especially bad right now because of the droughts.

VAUSE: The Vatican treasure that's he's looking forward to having his day in court. Cardinal George Pell has appeared at a brief hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court.

SOARES: While he's faces multiple charges of the historical sexual assaults. He's lawyer says, the cardinal will plead not guilty to all charges. His next court hearing is on October sixth.

VAUSE: CNN Anna Coren joins us our live from Melbourne Court. Anna, was Cardinal Pell actually required to attend this hearing today?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes John, it's interesting he was not required to attend this preliminary routine hearing here at Melbourne Magistrates Court. But instead he arrive with all the fanfare, certainly there were dozen of journalist, cameraman, a photographers who surrounded him.

He was flanked by a police who were there to protect him, to provide him with security. He walk from his lawyers office to the steps of knowing Magistrates Court, which where we are. He walks up those stairs and in through security where he was taken to a private room before that very brief hearing.

That hearing went for all eight minutes whereas you say that next court appearance will be on the sixth of October. Now George Pell, he had his head bowed when he walked in to the court. He was quite pale, certainly didn't say anything. But as to his barrister who is tough criminal defense lawyer Robert Richter here in Melbourne.

He address the court which was quite a surprising move saying that if there is any doubt Cardinal Pell will be pleading not guilty to all those charges.

Now, those charges being multiple historical sexual abuse charges by multiple complainants, we can't go into the detail of those charges or the, or into the details of the allege victims issued to legal reasons. But, which was really a quite surprising move, some people say it is a bit grandstanding, a bit of showmanship.

But you have to remember that this 76-year-old Cardinal is as you say that the treasurer of the Vatican. He is one of Pope Francis's closes advisors. So, you had these powerful figures from the Vatican here in Melbourne walking to the Magistrates Court to address these charges.

He said after he had been charged last month that he was looking forward to defending himself, to clearing his name that he was innocent, that he finds sexual abuse abhorrent. So certainly the ball had started rolling. He's next court appearance as that we know John will be in October.

VAUSE: Yes, not just those extraordinary scenes of the police and of course the media surrounding Cardinal Pell but supporters and protesters where there to greet the Cardinal. COREN: Yes, that's right. There were several protesters here, many of those being survivors of sexual abuse. Those people that we spoke to had been abused by priest particularly in the Ballarat diocese which is of course is where Cardinal Pell is from. That where he became a priest.

He was archbishop of Melbourne and went unto the archbishop of Sydney before he then became a cardinal and obviously then later moves to the Vatican where he really has discontinued to rise amongst the ranks.

But as far as those protesters we're concern -- their main concern was for the complainants. They're hoping that those complainants will be given the care, the support and a counseling that they were acquired John over what is expected to be quite a lengthy process.

VAUSE: Anna, thank you. Anna Coren live for us from outside Melbourne Magistrates Court.

SOARES: Now we maybe learning details about what happened moments before police officer in the U.S. shot and killed an Australian woman, Justin Ruszczyk died more than a week ago after reporting a possible sexual assault near her home in Minnesota.

VAUSE: Still unclear why she was shot. But according to the police warrant obtained by Minneapolis public radio in the Minneapolis star should be (ph). Ruszczyk may slapped back of the police car before the deadly shooting.

One of the officers at the scene had already said his partner was startled (ph) by a loud noise before shooting her. The office fire the fatal shot and his partner are on administrative lead.

SOARES: And still ahead comedian Margaret Cho said she's sick of Hollywood bias against Asian-American actress.

[02:35:00] She joins on the studio to talk about that in a new stand up talk, that just ahead.

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SOARES: Now a comedian Margaret, an actress Margaret Cho has a lot of celebrate mainly, only when she recently name one of rolling stone 50 best stand up comedy of all time. But she's also said to launch her brand new tour this very fall.

And it's called "Fresh Off The Bloat" and so probably boost. It says sickest show today. She made some material on the ANC sitcom called "Fresh Off The Bloat."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know why we have to move. Why couldn't you keep on going back and forth between Orlando and D.C.?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I didn't come to America to work for your mom's brother selling furniture for the rest of my life. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're father is right. This is why we left Chinatown in D.C. This is why we left our family and friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is why we lead everything we know to come to a place where we know nothing and where the humidity is now go (ph) for my hair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And Margaret Cho joins us now. Thanks for joining us Margaret.

MARGARET CHO, STAND-UP COMEDIAN: Thank you.

SOARES: I was reading about the preparation for your shows coming up rather soon. And correct me if I'm wrong. Are there any political undertones in what you got coming out?

CHO: I think so. I think so, there has to be right now. You know, especially with the way everything is and our President is so weird. I don't understand how Donald is President. I blame NASCAR.

SOARES: You blame NASCAR.

CHO: I think its NASCAR, its energy drinks in Monster in particular. People drinking a lot of caffeine and taurine combined. Making poor decisions, I guess, I don't know.

SOARES: Have you seen -- you do comment all over the world. What works well here that doesn't work perhaps in part of Europe and Asia. What do you think as well?

CHO: You know, our world has become so small with the way that the internet is and the way that people watch everything online, how this 24 hour news cycle is like just so fast and also all eyes are on America right now because of Trump and because of what's going on.

So it's like a very -- everything is really kind of the same. We've all landed and now we're now on the same country, which is really. It's a new time until like think about media and entertainment. It's great.

SOARES: Let's put politics to one side. Besides politics what kind of topic do you talk about in your stand-up? What else do you find bring humor?

CHO: Well, this year is like a lot to do while watching and this inability for Hollywood to cast Asian stories with Asian actors. So, you know, whether that taking about Emma Stone or Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell or Tilda Swinton who I had a big altercation with than sort of out there in social media and so I guess talk about that which is a lot of fun. [02:40:04] SOARES: How much bias in that topic, how much bias? I mean you're from L.A. you know it better than I do. I'm visiting. How much bias do you think there is here in Hollywood toward Asian- American actors?

CHO: Well, I just think that there is invisibility, you know, if you're looking at movie about the Great Wall of China, called the Great Wall staring Matt Damon. That's the problem. It's in China, it's the Great Wall of China. I don't know what Matt Damon has to do with the Great Wall of China.

It just this invisibility or this cluelessness that Hollywood repeats over and over again and it's happened since the beginning of cinema all the way through until now. And so, I think things are changing, they're growing and we'll see.

SOARES: Are you starting to see change within Hollywood to that?

CHO: For sure, there is of course the very popular show "Fresh Off The Bloat" which my show is take on the name Fresh Off the Bloat. Which seems pretty meta because I had the Asian-American family TV show and then now we have that show and so now it's like this thing of referencing back. So it's cool.

But yes, there is change. There is difference. There is a lot of great of stuff happening out there. I have a new pilot to on TNT called Highland which is about a Korean American family caught up in the big marijuana boom here on Los Angles.

So it's a green rush really. And so that's a fun thing too.

SOARES: I know you talk a lot about Asian-American relations and families and, you know, how they afraid (ph) at home. Do you think that comedy works right across boarders, backgrounds? People understand that?

CHO: I think so, because in fact, I think it's like the comedy of the other or the outsider. Everybody understand what sort of being outside and not really kind of looking in and not really understanding what's going. And so that's really what a lot of the stuff that I do about my family is and what the show is.

And so, I have always been that sort of outsider mentality.

SOARES: Yes. And finally I mean, can you give us a little joke from your upcoming tour is clean, that is clean.

CHO: Yes. Well, this is has to do with my mother. I told my mother when I was 14 I wanted to be a comedian. And she said, "Oh, maybe its better if you just died." So, you know, Korean are the most savage of all the Asian. I standby that.

SOARES: There you go. Thank you very much Margaret.

CHO: Thank you.

SOARES: Best of luck for the tour.

CHO: Thanks.

SOARES: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, Los Angles police say they have busted a sophisticated animal smuggling bringing the intercepting three deadly king cobras in potato chip cans. The puzzle (ph) is about from Hong Kong but was stopped by U.S. custom and boarder agents.

Plus they found a three albino tiny soft shelled turtles inside. The suspect in L.A. allegedly mailed another packages from Los Angles back to Hong Kong containing six protect turtles. It sounds like the package (ph) Christmas gone wrong. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

SOARES: You have been watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isa Soares.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. World Sport is up next. You're watching CNN. Your world news leader.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE RILEY, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Hello, now welcome on World Sports. I'm Kate Riley at CNN Center for suppose preseason clash of the champion.

[02:45:01] And there Chelsea being pretty much both by abundance league opponents narrowly avoiding embarrassment after by immediate fire two past in the happening 12 minutes. To Singapore we go and Rafinha, put the German Giants into the lead after six minutes and then Thomas Mueller took over. Chelsea caught on the counterattack can't keep phase to get through the middle with long range strike for second of the game making 3 now.

Chelsea go on back before the break, before bringing on their big summer signing Alvaro Morata. The Spaniard was immediately in the mix has glancing had a helping Michy Batshuayi to add more late in the second half. That was all he could master by rampant in this one. The final score 3-1.

Meanwhile, Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho says, he still wants another two key players before the premier league kicks off on the 11th of August. United have already spent big this summer to land the Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku.

But the new television deal has inflated the transfer market even further.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSE MOURINHO, MANCHESTER UNITED MANAGER: I'm happy with my squad but I would like to have two more players, I never hide that, one player would be a midfield player, that gives me more options more balance to the team, to our needs.

And other one an attacking player especially that can play through the wings to give me also more attack options.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RILEY: Well, we are well past the halfway mark on the summer transfer window. But for one club in particular spending show that no sign of 18th months in the city have now got the most expensive defensive line out there while football after signing Monaco Benjamin Mendy on Monday. He is a reminder how their spending spree has evolved this summer with the reported figures as well.

Well, it all started with only non-defensive signing so far. One of Europe most sort after attacking midfielder Bernardo Silva for $56 million from Monaco. Then it move for the keeper at certain from Benfica for $45 million to come in as their new number one.

Now Tottenham and Kyle Walker was next. His fee of $61.7m at the time matching the world record fee for defender with Chelsea reportedly chasing down Real Madrid Danilo was City who was snatch him for $34.4 million.

And then finally their biggest acquisition of this chance window is Monaco's Benjamin Mendy who on Monday became the world's most expensive defender for $67.6 million. In total that combine spend of $264.7 million.

Right, so question that many American football players find very troubling is playing this game going to be bad for my health. It's also torn muscle or a busted knee that we're talking about but something much harder to spot, brain damage.

A new study was published on Tuesday revealed that in disease NFL player brain of which 111 were examined 99 percent all the marks of the chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE and neurodegenerative brain disorder. It doesn't mean that almost every football player has it.

However, almost all of the brains that were donated to scientific research did. CTE is a brain disease found in people who been exposed to repeated head trauma. The symptom can include memory loss, confusion, aggression, depression and sometimes suicidal behavior but doctors have no way of testing for it until you are already dead.

Now the NFL has responded to this new study saying in a statement, "The medical and scientific communities will benefit from this publication and the NFL will continue to work with a wide range of experts to improve the health of current and former NFL athletes."

"As noted by the authors, there are still many unanswered questions relating to the cause, incidence and prevalence of long-term effects of head trauma such as CTE. The NFL is committed to supporting scientific research into CTE and advancing progress in the prevention and treatment of head injuries." [02:49:39] Coming up on the show according to language can mean everything in sports and at the Olympic last year it signal the grudge match, would there be a rematch in Budapest. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

One of the biggest stories of the Olympic last summer was cause by the humble finger, the Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova use it to suggest that she was number one. Her American rival Lilly King though suggested her to suggest not so fast.

And because Efimova has twice fail to drug test and because hundreds of Russian had been ban from the Olympic yet mastering into one of the biggest stories of the game in Rio. The two have met again on the biggest stage, the worlds swimming championship in Budapest. This time it was Efimova waving her finger on Monday as the two swimmers work their way towards the final the hundred meter breast stroke.

It seemed that though another grudge match would be on the cards. Well, it didn't quite turn out that way but it was well worth to watch. The olympic champion King won the race and she did it in a world record time 1:04.13 seconds, Efimova would have taken silver in rio but could only manage a third play from this time around.

Now we all remember Katie Ledecky from the Olympic last year. She was the American swimmer who won the 1500 meter freestyle. But over half the length of the pool, she won the same event in Budapest on Tuesday and her winning time was more than six seconds off of her world best phase. She did set another record at the age of just 20. She's the first woman to win 12 gold medals at the world aquatic championship.

Meanwhile, the young British star Adam Peaty has been an irresistible form in the 50 meter breast stroke. He actually managed to break his own world record twice. In the same day he did it in the heats and then the semi final he became the first person to swim the distance in less than 26 seconds. The final is later on Wednesday.

And of course there's no Michael Phelps at this event. He's now enjoying his retirement racing sharks or at least pretend one, one of the last men he race at the Olympic last year was Singapore's Joseph Schooling. He quite literally score himself in favorite event the 100 meter butterfly. He'll begin that event in Budapest on Friday.

Here's Christina Macfarlane.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSEPH SCHOOLING, OLYMPIC OLD MEDALIST: My goal is always to win on my events no matter what. So that's always been my mindset when I'm on the pool, everything focus on swimming. I'm thinking about anything out before. You just thinking about going through the motion to feel for water, pulled my second in (INAUDIBLE).

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's an Olympic gold medalist and holdsthe Olympic record for the men's 100 meter butterfly. SCHOOLING: When I was around six or seven, I told my parents that I want to go to Olympics and I wanted to win. That would be my ultimate goal and might win off the gold.

[02:55:08] MACFARLANE: And in 2008 Joseph got to meet one of the sports biggest stars.

SCHOOLING: My dad host in the U.S. Olympic team and I was, in our country club and as I see him Singapore. So, I remember I was doing Chinese composition paper and my mom is like Jo, Michael is there, Michael is there. Get up.

And I was like halfway through writing drop everything went down took a picture of him which is that picture, me and my glasses and my braces looking starstruck.

MACFARLANE: A few short years later Schooling qualified for the 2012 game in London.

SCHOOLING: And I've set pretty high expectation for myself and wanted not only 16 or 17. And I don't have those golds and I was crushed.

MACFARLANE: Then, a shot of redemption came in Rio. He went in to the Olympic finals at the top seed into events and spends the ultimate race glance by swim veteran Michael Phelps in public club (ph).

SCHOOLING: On the 50 turn and the last 15 or 20 meters are kind of (INAUDIBLE) people were I was ahead and that when I was like already, you better get our hand on wall now. Felt fantastic to me. And so I was static. And won single medal and broke the record and you had the best time. What more could you ask for beside world record.

MACFARLANE: It wasn't just personal victory but when he shared with entire nation celebrating it first Olympic gold ever.

SCHOOLING: Standing on the podium hearing your national anthem play, that was quite one of the proudest moments of my life, I don't think the Olympics have ever heard module (ph) Singapore played before.

MACFARLANE: Now the expectation of grown exponentially higher than a sight of set on the FINA World Championship in Hungary.

SCHOOLING: So my ultimate goal, you know, obviously would be to defend my title in butterfly and to break gold record. And I'm excited to see what the summer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RILEY: OK, that's it from us. Stay with CNN.

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