Australia Police Defend Two Media Raids; George Pell Appeals Child Sex Abuse Conviction; Chinese and Russian Presidents Meet.
CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Australia's acting police commissioner is defending two raids in two days on the news media. Officers raided the Australian Broadcasting Corporation a day after they raided the house of a News Corp editor. Sky News reporter Charlotte Mortlock joins us now from Sydney with the details. Charlotte, it has to be said that Australia is not a country that usually witnesses raids on the media and it certainly has many people worried about the freedom of the press. How are Australian authorities justifying this?</s>CHARLOTTE MORTLOCK, SKY NEWS CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. The Australian federal police are justifying this by saying these raids stemmed, in fact, from basically the publication of classified documents, they say, that they have had separate referrals from agency heads linking the leaking of documents from the department of defense. Now as you say this is something Australians are not accustomed to. We do have a well regarded media industry and certainly this has come as quite a bit of a shock. The Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, he spoke this morning from the U.K. and said that certainly our --</s>MORTLOCK: -- national security laws could be reviewed following fallout from this. As you say, it's now reached an international level and he's really having to come out and defend and distance himself from these raids.</s>CHURCH: It is simply extraordinary, certainly as an Australian living overseas, watching what's happening there, it's hard to believe. What has been the reaction in Australia to these two raids on the news media?</s>MORTLOCK: Well, Rosemary, I think, as you say, not many people can believe it. It's a shock; not only do Australians want the media to hold the government to account but they also expect us to do that. A lot of questions have been raised about the timing of this as well. The first story was published back in 2017 and that alleged that there was misconduct by Australian elite special forces in Afghanistan. The second story was released in April last year. Now keep in mind, we only just had our federal election a few weeks ago, so a lot of people are drawing lines to that. The prime minister has said that's absolutely not the case; not only did he not have any idea that the raids were taking place, he actually said that he was not involved at all and the AFP have said themselves that they acted independently and impartially in this investigation. The Labor opposition has said, however, they think the government was the one who referred these matters to the Australian federal police. You can imagine the opposition, they are saying they want a briefing now, potentially asking for a senate inquiry.</s>CHURCH: Charlotte Mortlock, it's an extraordinary story, many thanks to you for bringing us up to date on the situation. Cardinal George Pell returned to a court in Melbourne, Australia, for a second day in the appeal of his sexual abuse conviction. He was found guilty of abusing two 13 year old boys when he was archbishop of Melbourne back in the 1990s. If the convictions are overturned, he could be freed. Anna Coren joins us now, live from Melbourne, with the very latest on this. Good to see you, Anna, part of Pell's appeal involves undermining the credibility of the victim in this case. How did the prosecution respond to that?</s>ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well, Rosemary, the Peel hearing has just wrapped up so it is now finished. We have just heard from chief justice Ferguson on the court of appeals, saying that the court will reserve its decision. No guidance as to when that decision will be handed down but it will not be today. She thanked both the prosecution and the defense for their oral and their written submissions. They will now go away, those three court of appeal judges. They will go away, review the evidence and then make a decision as to whether or not they will overturn the verdict for George Pell's crimes of child sex abuse and acquit him. So as it stands at the moment, Rosemary, George Pell will leave the supreme court in Melbourne and be taken back to prison. That is where he has been for the past three months, at the Melbourne Assessment, not far from where we are standing here in the central business district. That is where he will spend his 78th birthday. He turns 78 on Saturday. Today it was very much made up by the prosecution's legal argument. We heard from the prosecution's barrister, Christopher Boyce, saying that the witness, the sole surviving choir boy, was credible and trustworthy, which is why this jury of 12 Australians convicted George Pell of these five charges of child sex abuse. He said, quote, "The complainant was a very compelling witness. He was clearly not a liar, not a fantasist. He was a witness of truth." Now some of the key points were that he knew the layout of the sacristy, where the event took place in 1996, 1997, when that surviving choir boy was sexually abused; his friend, molested. His friend, of course, died of a heroin overdose back in 2014. So the prosecution's case was hinged solely on the evidence and the testimony of the surviving choir boy. As we heard from the defense, from Pell's legal team yesterday, they said it was impossible for Pell to have committed these crimes. Late this afternoon before the proceedings wrapped up, we heard, once again, from Pell's barrister, who gave very strong reasons as to why the legal tests had been met for overturning the verdict. We also heard from one of those appeal judges this afternoon, saying that juries, most of the time, are right but not all the time. We don't know if that's --</s>COREN: -- an indication as to where this is heading, whether or not they see that there is doubt in the convictions, whether this was unreasonable, the conviction of George Pell. But we spoke to some of the survivor groups here who have been attending these hearings, attending the trial of George Pell. And I put to them what will happen if he is acquitted and this is what they had to say.</s>ROB HOUSE, SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVOR: I think it would just be a further message that we have to keep fighting. It would be only an absolute disaster for survivors. It would bankrupt a lot of people's hopes and possibly send a few of them possibly to wanting to commit suicide out of despair. This is why the Catholic Church has operated cleverly for at least over 100 years.</s>COREN: That was activist and survivor of child sex abuse Rob House, speaking to me a little bit earlier. But it doesn't end here, Rosemary. Either Pell's team or the prosecution, if they're not happy with the decision from the court of appeals, can take this to the high court. But as it stands right now, we do not have a decision on whether or not George Pell has been acquitted.</s>CHURCH: Indeed. Of course, a lot riding on this. People watching this very closely, we will continue to follow it. Anna Coren joining us there from Melbourne, coming up to 4:30 in the afternoon there. Many thanks. Well, the presidents of China and Russia are meeting in Moscow to strengthen their economic and military relationship amid the Trump administration's ongoing trade war with Beijing. The leader's visit also includes some candid diplomacy, as our Frederik Pleitgen reports.</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Two self-proclaimed friends, Russian president Vladimir Putin and China's leader Xi Jinping, opening a panda exhibit at the Moscow Zoo. Another sign, they say, of an ever deepening relationship between Moscow and Beijing. Vladimir Putin earlier taking a not so veiled shot at a common adversary, the U.S., for exiting the INF treaty. "Our views on global affairs aligned," he said, "and the signed joint statement on strengthening global strategic stability in the modern era emphasizes the principle position of Russia and China, that it is unacceptable to destroy the existing system of agreements in the field of arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation." While Russia has long been facing sanctions from the Trump administration over meddling in the 2016 election and a range of other issues, China is now also involved in a trade war with the Trump administration. The two nations hitting each other with massive tariffs, neither side willing to back down. Meanwhile, Russia and China expanding their relations, signing some 30 agreements and contracts on the first day of Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow. The Chinese leader saying relations between Russia and China could improve even more. "We are ready to work together with Russia in order to continuously increase the effect of our countries' high-level cooperation," he said, "so that our cooperation could give our two peoples a bigger sense of achievement and so that we could promote a Russian-Chinese agenda in the international affairs." Russia and China continue to strengthen their economic ties. They're also expanding the military cooperation. Chinese troops taking part in massive drills with Russian forces last year, a clear sign to Washington that that pressure from the U.S. is driving these long-term allies even closer together -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.</s>CHURCH: All right, I want to take you live to Normandy and the beach codenamed Gold Beach. U.K. prime minister Theresa May and French president Emmanuel Macron will soon arrive there. We are waiting for their arrival to pay tribute to the British troops who captured that section of the French coastline on June 6th, 1944. Now Gold Beach was right in the center of the Normandy coastline. Of course, all of these Allied troops landed on five separate beaches simultaneously. And American troops were to the west of Omaha -- sadly, that did not end well, a lot of lives lost there -- and Utah Beaches. And Canadian forces were immediately to the east at Juno Beach. You see there Prime Minister Theresa May, the outgoing British prime minister, she is turning up there in Normandy. She is shaking hands there with the dignitaries and will stand side by side with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who will arrive very soon. And the two of them will honor those lives lost. Of course, as we were mentioning this is the beach, codenamed Gold Beach, where the British troops landed by air and by sea. And lives were lost, there were some 4,000 lives in all lost on that first day of the D-Day landings as we mark them on the 75th anniversary. And we will have much more on this, on the events that follow throughout the morning. Do stay with us. We're back in just a moment.