Trump Returns to Controversy over Kushner; White House Addresses Sanctions on Russia; Flight Disruptions Continue at Heathrow and Gatwick
ROBYN KRIEL, CNN HOST (voice-over): Problems for the president. New allegations Mr. Trump's son-in-law discussed creating a secret channel with the Russians. Fresh off his first foreign trip, we look at how the American commander in chief is settling back into the White House amid the growing controversy. Next, we are live in Washington and Moscow. Also, the investigation into last week's bombing in Manchester continues, the city is mourning and trying to get back to daily life. We'll take you there. Plus, taking flight. British Airways is working to clear the backlog of passengers after an I.T. problem caused them to cancel all flights from London on Saturday. A travel update for travelers is just ahead.</s>KRIEL: Hello and welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Robyn Kriel in for Becky Anderson. It's a holiday weekend in the United States but for a White House trying to dig out from stories involving the Russian investigation, this Sunday is an active work day. Fresh off his whirlwind foreign tour, President Donald Trump is expected to talk strategy with his senior advisers. He set off for a barrage of tweets a short while ago accusing the media of, quote, "fabricating lies," but he has yet to directly address the latest allegation that his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, sought to set up a secret line of communication with Russia. Our Ryan Nobles has the latest from Washington.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Donald Trump is back in Washington after his lengthy trip abroad and even though his team feels confident the trip was successful, he returns to plenty of controversy, including a number of issues that involve his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner. Kushner has yet to respond to reports that he attempted to set up a secret backchannel line of communications with the Russian government during the transition. Kushner's connections to the Kremlin through a variety of means, continue to be a specific line of inquiry by investigators looking to Russia's attempt to intervene in the U.S. elections. Now, despite these issues, a White House official says that Kushner isn't going anywhere. He does plan to keep his head down and keep focused on his wide portfolio of responsibilities in the West Wing. In the meantime, the White House is shaking things up, creating a war room designed to quickly rebut the attacks that pour as a result of this ongoing investigation. The president's children are getting involved as well. Donald Jr. and Eric Trump and his wife, Laura, spent the last few days in Washington meeting with groups including the teams at the RNC and PAC the American Priorities which supports the Trump administration. The goal of these meetings was to get all of the teams on the same page ahead of the 2018 midterm elections and the president's own re- election bid in 2020 -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Washington.</s>KRIEL: Russia's foreign ministry is dismissing the Kushner story and our Clare Sebastian joins us from Moscow with the latest. Clare, thank you. We know there are many things about this type of back channel that would be of great concern to U.S. intelligence. What's the Russian perspective?</s>CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Robyn, the idea of a back channel is not foreign here in Moscow. It's happened with previous U.S. administrations and transition teams, like the Nixon administration and with the then-Soviet Union. But the detail reported by "The Washington Post" that Jared Kushner suggested using the facilities of the Russian embassy in Washington to set up this channel would be very unusual here and would potentially even raise security concerns. And there's another element that Russia would find disturbing and that's the fact that it got out in the first place. These back channel relationships are secret and they're not supposed to leak out and that's their very nature and that's why we don't often find out until years later that they happened. And certainly, we see that reflected in the response that we got from the foreign ministry early on Saturday, calling this McCarthyism, essentially suggesting that the whole topic of Russia is simply being used by Trump's opponents to try to discredit him. And the same spokesman for the foreign ministry warning the U.S. media in the week not to spread lies about Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. So I think we may see this leak escalate about Russia as this story develops -- Robyn.</s>KRIEL: The Trump administration, before they entered the White House, campaigned for improvement of --</s>KRIEL: -- relations with Russia, even the potential lifting of sanctions. What's the likelihood of this happening now and what's the view from Russia on that possibility?</s>SEBASTIAN: You know, I think there's real concern, Robyn. On the one hand, we have the exasperation as you saw, from the prime minister's response to the Kushner story about all the Russia-related controversy and, on the other hand, real concern about where the policy of the Trump administration is going. As you say, Trump campaigned on the idea that he might be open to lifting sanctions on Russia. And then just on Friday, we get this comment from the director of his National Economic Council, Gary Cohn. Take a listen.</s>GARY COHN, NATIONAL ECONOMIC DIRECTOR: We are not lowering our sanctions on Russia. If anything, we would probably look to get tougher on Russia. So the president wants to continue to, you know, keep the sanctions in place.</s>SEBASTIAN: Sanctions are a critical issue for Putin's government and this kind of comment getting a lot more coverage here than the Jared Kushner story, for example, but it's interesting they are still holding out some hope, it seems, that this relationship will develop. Russia has avoided overtly criticizing Trump himself even as the stance of his team towards Russia appears to be hardening -- Robyn.</s>KRIEL: All right, thank you so much, Clare. Let's stay with that story of Jared Kushner. Let's get some analysis now. Lynn Sweet is Washington bureau chief of the "Chicago Sun-Times" and she joins us live from Washington, D.C. Lynn, thank you. Plenty of opinions on this Kushner story. Pundits and former Obama officials expressing themselves online, on Twitter on Sunday morning here in the U.S. Let's start with what Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security adviser of President Obama had to say. He said the State Department and Department of Defense are skeptical of Russia and tend to toughen talking points would be worth a lot to the Russians to have a channel excluding them. Lynn, you traveled with the president on foreign trips before. What does Ben Rhodes mean by this tweet?</s>LYNN SWEET, "CHICAGO SUN-TIMES": Ben Rhodes is still working for former president Barack Obama. He is working in the post-presidential office space in Washington, D.C. He travels with him. So when he says something, I take it with significance as to messaging of what the Trump administration is up against. People are not just believing, not all of them, that this is fake news and there is something to this. That's why the tweets that President Trump put out this morning expose him to danger at this point because he is facing questions about obstruction of justice. And even though he has lawyers, who probably should or will soon be telling him to not tweet, he has not been helping, I think, his own case by saying everything that's out there about his White House is fake. If there's an explanation, offer it. If Jared Kushner has something to say about this story, say it. So far, they have not.</s>KRIEL: Let's talk about what President Trump was tweeting earlier today, Lynn. He said -- we've got some of those tweets. He said, "It's very possible that those sources don't exist but are made up by fake news writers." He says, "Fake news is the enemy." Now park that, one of his other tweets congratulated the -- Greg Gianforte of Montana for his win. He said he is accused of assaulting a British- based "Guardian" reporter just a day before he won with that election and just days before that, there were jokes from the Texas governor about shooting reporters. Now Trump once again reiterating that the news is the enemy, that the fake -- that the news is fake and that these sources are made up. What's the problem with these sorts of statements, other than the obvious, coming from the president and other senior officials?</s>SWEET: We are seeing something develop in the United States and that is the journalism organizations are standing stronger and firmer, doing its job with a new, you know, with a new sense of purpose which is the job that most of us have been doing anyway. I think, in this case, President Trump is talking to his base. There are three investigations going on, one in the House, one in the Senate and one by a former FBI director, special prosecutor Mueller, right now. So this controversy is not fake. If the White House wants to ignore it or have President Trump tweet at it, he does so I suppose at his peril because what he set up today is another day of distraction about talking about fake news, which brings us right back to talking about the controversies and the Trump administration, rather than his week ahead, where he might want to deal with the showdown over raising the debt limit in Congress. His budget came out last week, while he was overseas. And by the way --</s>SWEET: -- what happened to that health care bill in the Senate after it passed the House?</s>KRIEL: Speaking of him not talking about issues, President Trump also refusing press conferences during his overseas trip and that is unusual, I believe, and then refusing questions when he landed and now he's being vocal on Twitter. When is he going to start talking to reporters? And does he need to at some point?</s>SWEET: Well, I don't think he has to. No president has to talk to reporters. It is theirs to decide. Of all of the criticisms about President Trump, I suppose, his decision not to have a press conference overseas or when he might have one here next is something you have to just say he's entitled to have his own approach and his own style. Reporters always want more access and reporters always have more questions. Clearly, in Europe, though, if you're talking about the standing of the United States' president and the ability to explain what the United States wants to do, he -- I don't see how he helped make the case stronger, what to watch for this week and what the European allies will be looking at is whether or not he pulls out of the Paris climate agreement. Certainly, there will be a clamoring for a press conference for him to explain himself on that. So everyone's entitled to their style. And I think that's where you have to just give the president his ability to communicate when and how he wants -- in this case, directly to the people on Twitter. We'll see if he can sustain this for a while. We also will see what happens with what had been regular press briefings before he went overseas and we'll see if they pick up the pace again.</s>KRIEL: We'll certainly keep an eye on that. Thank you so much, Lynn Sweet, live from Washington, D.C. Moving on, British authorities have made another arrest over Monday's bombing in Manchester, bringing the total in custody to 12 and they are searching another property. Britain's home secretary is warning that some members of the network behind last week's Manchester attack may still be at large. Amber Rudd told the BBC that no one can be sure until the investigation is complete. Britain's terrible threat level was lowered this weekend from severe to critical but Prime Minister Theresa May says the public needs to remain vigilant; 22 people were killed in last week's terror attack. CNN's Muhammad Lila is in Manchester with the latest. Muhammad, things are moving quickly in terms of the investigation and the raid. Tell us what you know.</s>MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Robyn, just a short time ago police announced that they conducted another raid in a part of the city called Old Trafford. They say they made their 14th arrest in connection with this investigation. With those 14 arrests, two have been released over the course of the last several days. So we understand 12 people remain in custody as a result of this investigation. Also, you mentioned British home secretary Amber Rudd talking about how they could potentially be more suspects out there but saying there's no way to know for sure until the investigation is complete. And one big milestone, if you will, in the investigation, police believe they have located and identified the apartment that the suspect was using. And that's very important because they believe that that apartment is where the final explosive was assembled. And we've been talking about the possible sophistication and expertise involved in putting that explosive together. Now they're going to be combing that apartment, looking for forensics clues and looking for residue of any explosive material that could help them determine just how sophisticated it was and possibly point them in the direction of other people who may have been collaborating as part of this terror network.</s>KRIEL: Muhammad, you are at a marathon and it sounds certainly as if it is very festive, definitely a change of pace and a change of scenery from the last few days, where you've been at such a somber environment. Take us through the atmosphere there and is it one of defiance and resilience?</s>LILA: Let me just set the scene, I'm right at the finish line of the Manchester run and I have to apologize because it is so loud here. You hear music, you hear people laughing, cheering and clapping. And this is a very festive mood and it's a very celebrative mood and the end result of that is this is the city of Manchester's way of saying that they won't let terror stop them from living their lives. This was an event whose status was up in the air just a few days ago because there were concerns that it would be a target of another terror attack. But the city said, no, we want to do this and hold this to show the U.K. and the world that Manchester is recovering. And of course, while I say that, there is a much heavier security presence here. There are armed officers patrolling the streets, heavily armed officers, some of them carrying semiautomatic rifles. In the U.K. that's a rare sight because police generally don't usually carry firearms. But that is the case here right now. Police are not taking any --</s>LILA: -- chances but we can report there have been no incidents today related to this marathon. So far, so good.</s>KRIEL: Thank you so much, Mohammad Lila, showing us that Manchester is recovering. That's the message. Moving on, an old symbol of Manchester is taking on new life since Monday's terror attack. People are lining up to get bee tattoos. The bee has long been a symbol of Manchester, signifying a hive of activity in a historically industrial city. Now it's being used to raise money for attack victims. The Manchester tattoo appeal was started in a show of solidarity and the idea has quickly spread beyond the U.K. Some flights remain canceled, at least two of London's busiest airports has disruption in a second day. A worldwide I.T. system power failure hit British Airways Saturday, leaving all flights grounded and thousands of people stranded. British Airways says all of its long-haul flights are operating out of Heathrow. Gatwick is nearly fully operational but there are delays. Nina dos Santos is at Heathrow Airport for us.</s>NINA DOS SANTOS, CNNMONEY EUROPE EDITOR: Robyn, life is gradually returning to normal, both at Gatwick and also at Heathrow, where planes are taking off. The majority of services of the busiest</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, a nightmare. We'd booked a lot before. We'd actually gone to Vegas. So we pre-booked concerts and pool parties and the whole shebang and we've missed it all. Basically, they told us that we can go to a hotel. They gave us sleeping bags and wash facilities. Obviously we've been able to freshen up and shower this morning, which has been fantastic, to be fair. But, yes, we slept in sleeping bags all night and that was it.</s>DOS SANTOS: So, Robyn, that brings me to the issue of compensation. While obviously British Airways, like is standard in many of these cases, probably won't be expensing passengers like that one for her concert tickets and the fact that obviously the start of their holiday has been severely impacted by this, they will be reimbursing people for what they call appropriate, adequate expenses, reasonable expenses. So accommodations for travel, food and drink. People are urged to keep the receipts for that because if they want to submit something for compensation, they will need them. And passengers who've been caught up in all of this have until November the 17th to move their ticket to another day or ask for a full refund. Remember this is a crucial bank holiday weekend also a busy time for children to be traveling with their parents because it's the</s>KRIEL: Nina dos Santos there. Still to come, an upbeat U.S. president Donald Trump is back on home turf. We'll look at the ground he covered and the feathers he ruffled on his first trip abroad. And if all that weren't enough, one major Muslim --</s>KRIEL: -- rights group is accusing Mr. Trump of provoking racism and bigotry in America. We'll ask them about that claim ahead.