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Trump to Visit El Paso, Dayton after Gun Massacres; Many Americans Demanding Action on Gun Control; Obama Urges American's to Speak Out Against Racist Language; El Paso Suspect Allegedly Posted Racist Manifesto; Family Remembers Couple Killed in El Paso Massacre; Mexico Weighing Legal Action Against U.S. After El Paso Shooting; Interview with Jack Straw, former British Foreign Secretary, State of Relation Between U.K. and Iran; Indian Government to Reduce Kashmir's Autonomy; Nobel-Prize Winning Author Toni Morrison Dead at 88. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired August 06, 2019 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mr. President, it is long past time you addressed it for what it is. This is hatred, pure and simple, and it
is being fueled by rhetoric that is so divisive and it's causing, causing people to die.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: Grief, anger and renewed calls for change. Two mass shootings in the U.S. reawaken the debate over gun control and spark
talk of legal action from Mexico.
Also, Kashmir in lockdown. India moves to assert more control over the region as it places prominent politicians under house arrest.
I speak with the first British foreign secretary to visit Iran since the revolution. He says tensions with the country are an accident waiting to
happen.
We're connecting your world live from London this hour where it is 4:00 p.m. Welcome to the show. I am Becky Anderson for you.
Well as America mourns, President Donald Trump getting ready to take on the role of comforter in chief. He scheduled to visit two cities devastated by
mass shootings that took place just 13 hours apart. His trip to El Paso, Texas tomorrow already drawing criticism. And some Democrats are
explicitly asking him to stay away, believing some of his racist remarks about immigrants may have influenced the shooter.
Police say the gunman wrote a white supremacist manifesto before he killed 22 people. Meantime authorities in Dayton, Ohio say they still don't know
the motive of the gunman there who massacred nine people. But we are learning more about his extreme leftwing views and apparent obsession with
violence, including hit lists of people he wanted to rape or kill.
Americans across the country sick to death of these mass shootings. And many are now asking when is enough, enough. What will it take for
politicians to offer more than thoughts and prayers and take action to stop this epidemic. Well for starters, Congress isn't even in session right
now. And the Republican Senate leader doesn't appear inclined to cut the summer recess short.
Let's bring in our reporters. Joe Johns is at the White House. Patrick Oppmann is in the Mexican town of Juarez -- just across the border from El
Paso. Sara Sidner is in El Paso itself, and Polo Sandoval is in Dayton. And Joe, I want to start with you. As astonishing as it sounds, it seems
it is business as usual in Washington.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: On more than one level quite frankly, Becky. It has become business as usual in the United States
to mourn the dead of mass shooting victims because it happens with such regularity it seems. It's also business as usual to see the reaction of
the various politicians.
The President of the United States himself started sounding like he might want to do something a bit different just yesterday when he tweeted out
that he had some interest in gun control that would be expanded background checks. However, when he got an opportunity and went before the cameras,
he didn't say anything about it.
Now speaking today with White House counselor -- presidential counselor -- Kellyanne Conway, she told me it's still something the President is
considering and trying to work out by talking to members of Congress who have put forth various proposals.
But as far as Mitch McConnell, the lead Republican on the Senate side, he's also made it pretty clear that while he will consider bipartisan measures
to deal with this problem, he's not going to do anything that infringes on constitutional rights of Americans. Which means not infringing on
constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms, which is part of the second amendment. So as you said, Becky, business as usual, at least so
far in Washington.
ANDERSON: Yes, Joe, former President Barack Obama has a message for Americans. Get off the sidelines and stop remaining silent when you hear
racist language from the White House. He said -- and I quote you here -- we should soundly reject language coming from any of our leaders that feeds
a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments -- without mentioning President Trump. Obama also slammed leaders who quote, demonize
those who don't look like us or suggest that immigrants threaten our way of life.
[11:05:05] Pretty strong words -- Joe.
JOHNS: I would say those are pretty strong words from the former President of the United States. And it is a fact that President Trump did at least
pay some attention to that idea, denouncing racism and domestic terrorism and so on in his remarks yesterday.
Nonetheless, the problem for President Trump is all that has gone before starting with that very day he put his hat into the ring to run for
President, and the words that he used at that time. So it's difficult for the President essentially to wipe all of that away -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Sara, the El Paso massacre renewing attention on 8chan -- a public website that's become a forum for white supremacists and other
extremists. Police say the gunman posted his hate filled manifesto targeting immigrants there. What do we know about that. And certainly, we
know that the founder 8chan is speaking out, calling for the site to be permanently shut down.
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is not the first time a manifesto has been posted on 8chan that is filled with hatred towards the
other. But it is the third time in about seven months that someone has posted something and then gone has forth with a mass shooting.
Christchurch was one of them. There was a synagogue attacked in California -- in Poway, California. And now you have this situation in here El Paso.
I did want to bring this back out of politics and back to the people here who are suffering from this. We sat down with an entire family who has
lost two loved ones who were simply trying to do back to school shopping and they ended up dead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNER (voice-over): The Jamrowski family can't hold back their tears as they recount the loss they're experiencing. Misti and Paul Jamrowski's
son-in-law, Andre Anchondo and their daughter, Jordan were two of 22 people killed by a suspected terrorist at an El Paso Walmart.
MISTI JAMROWSKI, MOTHER OF EL PASO VICTIM: We pray a lot and we have a lot of family and friends but you're just broken. You go to call her, forget
that she's not there.
SIDNER: Leta and Ashly lost their sister and brother-in-law.
ASHLEY JAMROWSKI, SISTER OF EL PASO VICTIM: It is like Jordan and Andre where like my heart. It is like I lost a part of me.
SIDNER: Liz, Terry and Jessie Jamrowski lost a niece and nephew. A five- year-old Skyland lost her mother and stepfather.
SKYLAND, DAUGHTER OF EL PASO VICTIM: I love my mom and dad.
SIDNER: Her brother, two-month-old Paul Gilbert, was in his mother's arms when she crashed to the ground after being shot.
MISTI JAMROWSKI: The shooter had aimed at Jordan and Andre jumped in front of Jordan and the shooter shot Andres, and the bullets went through Andre
and hit Jordan.
SIDNER: Both were killed, leaving Paul Gilbert orphaned and injured.
PAUL JAMROWSKI, FATHER OF EL PASO VICTIM: The sad thing is that even with all of us -- it's mom and dad. You can't replace mom and dad, not in hurt.
That's just something you can't replace.
SIDNER: This is the devastating ripple effect of murder, the pain slicing across generations. After all of the hate spewed by the suspected gunman,
the Jamrowski's say they're sticking to something else to get through the hurt. Love, faith, and forgiveness. Before they have even had a chance to
bury the dead, they had a message for the killer.
MISTI JAMROWSKI: We forgive him. We honestly forgive him. We pray for him. We hope that he finds God because God teaches you to be loving.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNER: They forgive the man who took away their daughter and their son- in-law. They did mention this though, something that will stick with me forever. The five-year-old Skyland that you heard from there, she has
asked whether or not she will be next. She has expressed fear that the bad guy -- as she calls it -- is going to kill her, too. It is not just the
loss of family, it is not just the 22 people who were killed whose families are dealing with this, but this is being dealt with across this entire
community. And it really is a ripple effect that lasts for generations -- Becky.
ANDERSON: While authorities in El Paso -- thank you, Sara -- say they are investigating a racist anti-immigrant manifesto they think the gunman
posted online just before gunning down 22 people in that Walmart.
[11:10:06] Very little known about why what happened in Dayton, Ohio happened. Polo, just give us a sense of what authorities have gleaned at
this point.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, there's that tweet account believed have belonged to the gunman -- to the one who opened fire at the
bar - I'm just outside the bar that you see behind me. That account essentially suspended Sunday evening after the shooting, but that page
reportedly contained extreme leftist views, contained pro-Antifa and anti- police either tweets or retweets.
However, we also understand from investigators that they served a search warrant at the gunman's home and recovered writings, and nothing in those
writings suggested that this was either racially or politically motivated. So that's extremely important to the conversation right now. So
investigators don't necessarily believe they should go in that direction at this point.
But they are considering everything and that includes some of these statements that we've heard from previous high school classmates of the
gunman. Who came forward, telling CNN -- at least four of them -- saying that they knew that the suspect kept a kill list and a rape list over a
decade ago during years in high school. However, yesterday, as the police chief here in Dayton Ohio said, they are still reluctant to proceed and
treat this as an indication of as to a possible motive on what happened. As we heard very clearly from the police chief yesterday in his own words.
They are just not close enough to establishing a motive, Becky.
So that certainly leaves this community in Ohio wondering exactly what caused this man to snap, in spite of all of these reports we're getting
from those that knew him, that painted him as a dark and disturbed individual. But obviously, until we hear from investigators exactly why he
opened fire on this street, killing nine people, including his sister, people just don't have an answer to the question -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Many of the victims certainly in El Paso of course were Mexican. The government there considering the El Paso shooting an act of terrorism.
Patrick, what are you hearing in Mexico City?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well there's a lot of anger. And I am on the border in Juarez, just a few miles from where this shooting took
place, but really a world away. Just to set the scene, Becky, Juarez is the epicenter of the drug trade in Mexico. It's also one of the most
dangerous cities in this country. About 1,200 homicides last year. Across the border, El Paso is one of the U.S.'s safest cities, a little over 20
homicides last year. And that has all changed just in the last few days.
Mexicans you talk to say that El Paso has been a refuge for them. There are many kids who go to school across the border every day because it's so
much safer there or has been. And they feel that not only does the tragedy change how they see the United States, they feel and the Mexican government
feels very clearly that Mexicans, immigrants are now being targeted by people like this alleged suspect. That he went after Mexicans for racist
purposes. And that's why Mexico is saying they may request his extradition here. That he be tried here as a terrorist. Very unlikely that would take
place.
But clearly Mexico says they've had enough. That the way the immigrants are being treated, the way that Mexicans are demonized by President Trump
and others has got to stop. And that the ease with which Americans can buy guns to use in these kinds of massacres also has to change.
Again, unlikely what pressure the Mexican government can bring to bear but many people here say they have family on both sides of the border, say that
their communities are profoundly shaken. And that the three people that died here in Juarez that it's an irreplaceable loss. We're talking about
people who were grandparents, parents, schoolteachers, just fundamental pieces of this community. And they went across the bridge like so many
people do every day to do a little shopping. Many were getting ready to go back to school and doing the school shopping there, and then all of a
sudden, they were gone.
ANDERSON: Patrick, thank you. And to you, Joe, Sara and Polo, we're very grateful.
While the Vice President Joe Biden now, he says he will reduce the number of assault weapons on the street if he is elected. The 2020 Presidential
hopeful is among the candidates condemning President Trump's divisive rhetoric. He sat down for exclusive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper
to talk about leadership and guns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: BIDEN: It matters. What a president says matters. Like I said, our kids are listening, but the public is going to listen too. They
understand if you mean it. They understand what has to be done.
[11:15:00]The vast majority of the American people think that there needs to be rational gun policy.
And rational gun policy means, number one, you have to be able to pass a certain background check to be able to own a gun, period. Number two, we
can limit the types of weapons you can own and on circumstance which you can own them. That's constitutional responsible and allowable.
Number three, you have to be in a position where you let the people know that when you -- that you have a responsibility when you own a weapon, that
you have to care for it. You have to make sure that no one else can have access to it. You have to lock it up. You to have trigger locks. You
have to put it in gun cases. And if you don't, you can be held responsible for that.
We wouldn't say that about -- I mean, everything else we talked about the damage as people you required to make sure you take certain precautions if
something you own that has the potential to be lethal that in fact it is protected and it is kept away.
And those are just basic, basic things that the American people deal with and know that in fact are -- and then when you do have the right to
purchase a gun because you had a background check, you shouldn't be able to buy certain weapons, because they have no rational other than.
Like when I was campaigning at the assault weapons ban, I'd go through southern Delaware, a big -- a lot of gun owners in Delaware because of duck
hunting and they'd be fishing on all the tributaries on the Eastern shore there. And they'd say, "Joe, why would you take away my shotgun?" I'd
show him a picture of an assault. Do you think you need this? I said, how many deer out there, if you're going deer hunting. Do you need 30 rounds?
You shouldn't be hunting man. What are you -- no, no, no, I don't need that.
This is -- so, I mean people, when you expose them to what's going on, they understand. And there's a movement occurring in America where finally I
think going to get to the place where there's a rational position on gun ownership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Joe Biden speaking to my colleague, Anderson Cooper.
While the United States grieves victims of the appalling mass shootings in Texas and in Ohio, gun violence has become a daily tragedy in America's
third largest city. Police in Chicago say seven people were killed and more than 50 wounded this past weekend. Officers responding to 32 shooting
incidents, starting Friday night. Police say most of the violence is related to gangs and drugs.
So what happens now regarding gun violence in the United States? Well the very latest on the debate over gun control and why one powerful lawmaker is
standing in the way of change. That is all at CNN.com. You know how to find that.
You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson. We're out of London for you.
Still to come with tensions soaring between Iran and the West, we talk with a former British foreign secretary Jack Straw. He was the first major
British official to visit Tehran back in 2001, since the revolution and a conflict that has been simmering for more than 70 years threatens to blow
up again. Where and why after this.
[11:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: You're back with CONNECT THE WORLD. And if you are a regular viewer, you will know that we normally broadcast from our base in Abu Dhabi
in the Gulf. We witnessed firsthand a region seemingly on the cusp as relations with Iran grow increasingly tense.
But Iran's difficulties with the West and in particular with this country, Britain, go back a long way. Right now, Britain joining the U.S.-led
mission to escort commercial vehicles through the Strait of Hormuz. Now the Royal Navy began patrolling the waters after the U.K. and Iran seized
the vessels belonging to the other.
Going back further, the CIA has acknowledged it was helped by British intelligence in orchestrating a coup that ousted Iran's democratically
elected Prime Minister. To repeat, freely and fairly elected and taken out by Western intelligence over oil.
And if you want to go back to 1813, Britain put together the treaty in which Persia -- as it was then known -- was forced to concede many of its
territories in the caucuses to Russia, something that Iran considers humiliating to this day.
Well, the history is the subject of a super new book by former British foreign secretary, Jack Straw. Who was back in 2001 the first top U.K.
official to visit Iran since the revolution in '79. It's called -- the book -- "The English Job, Understanding Iran and Why It Distrusts Britain."
Jack Straw joining me. And we'll talk about the conceit of this book in a moment. The current standoff between the U.S. and Iran has ramifications,
of course, not just in Washington and in Tehran, but around the world, not least in European capitals, including this one in London. What do you make
of what's going on?
JACK STRAW, FORMER BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: Well, first of all, it's worth putting on the record that the responsibility, prime responsibility
for the standoff lies with President Trump. He unilaterally pulled out of this nuclear deal. Which actually made every sense to him and the United
States. Because it guaranteed is near as possible that Iran couldn't get together the things needed to make a nuclear weapon for 15 years. He's
withdrawn from this. It's quite likely to collapse. And there's nothing to put in its place. So that's a background to it.
He imposed these extraordinary tough sanctions against Iran which unquestionably are impoverishing ordinary Iranians -- not the elite but
ordinary Iranian's. And their doing something else as well which I don't think is in President Trump's interests. Which is he's shifted the balance
of power away from the elected government, President Rouhani, people like Foreign Minister Zarif and many others to the hard liners who are under
direct control of the supreme leader. Always an uneasy balance there.
And one of the great ironies of the situation is that the one group who always opposed this nuclear deal in Iran were indeed these hardliners. So
they're happy about this because they now have freedom to start the nuclear program. As for what's going to happen, it's a very dangerous standoff.
In the short term, mistakes by either side could trigger -- not a world war or anything like that but much more serious escalation.
In the longer term, there have to be negotiations. But the Iranians -- in my judgment -- quite right to say that they're not going to negotiate on
their knees and they need to know what the parameters are for the negotiation. Trump thinks he's just going to get a surrender from the
Iranian's. That's not the way they think.
ANDERSON: Donald Trump has said that this was a terrible deal, the sanctions are on, this is the extreme pressure that he believes will draw
the Iranians to the table. You say it ain't going to happen.
STRAW: I don't believe it will do. John Bolton, his national security adviser, is almost pathological about the Iranian regime, but he's called
it wrong time and time again. So just a few years ago he said in 2017 that the regime would collapse by its 40th anniversary. It's February. Well it
hasn't collapsed. And indeed President Trump has strengthened -- I just want to repeat the point -- the hardliners.
[11:25:00] I think the other thing that Bolton and Trump believed was that if they increase the pain on the streets that this would lead to popular
uprising. Now again, what has happened, and it was predictable, was that as these sanctions have been imposed, how many, the supreme leader and
Rouhani have been able to say to people, don't protest, because this is a moment of national crisis. It's what happens in any country. So it's
actually strengthened the mullahs -- in Bolton's terms -- not weakened them for the time being.
ANDERSON: Let's talk about the title of the book, "The English Job." If I'm not mistaken, pays homage to a famous Iranian TV series called "My
Uncle Napoleon." Noted for its mocking of the Brits and blaming them for events that occur in Iran. Helping coin the term -- and forgive my
pronunciation here -- caca en ingles has (ph) --basically it's the English job.
You've talked about what the U.S.'s intention might have been is to get people back onto the streets and to force the end of the regime. How much
do you think the sentiment still exists? The sentiment you talk about in this book still exists amongst Iranians today.
STRAW: Oh, to a great extent. It wasn't just in that famous novel, "My Uncle Napoleon". That was written in about early in the 1940s about this
chap who believed the Brits were about to get him. Now they weren't about to get him. But the Brits were all around in Iran. Something people
completely forget both here and in the United States.
We and the Soviet Union occupied Iran for five solid years and ran it as a fiefdom and we were picking out all sorts of people who we thought were in
inconvenient to our war effort. And "The English Job", "kear angulasa" is a ubiquitous phrase translated in Persian. And when things go wrong, they
blame the British. There isn't any question but that our pretty malign role from the early 19th century through to way beyond the Iran/Iraq war,
along with the United States from the post war period, is something which is deep in the Iranian psyche.
Now for some like the hardliners, that's in a sense manna from heaven because they use the excuse that there are outside forces always trying to
get Iran to excuse their repressive attitudes. Most Iranians I think take a more relaxed view about this and they know that we don't have either the
intention or the forces to do what we were able to do when Mosaddegh was removed in 1953. And we don't have that intention.
ANDERSON: Jack Straw, the new foreign secretary under a Boris Johnson leadership has the Iranian for all front and center of course in his entry
at present. The country as a whole, but the foreign secretary himself will also be watching to see what happens with regards to a U.S./U.K. trade deal
with the exit from the EU planned for October 31st.
Nearly a decade ago you wrote that Britain and the U.S. were close friends, but the whole idea of a special relationship, you said, with America was
conceit and fiction and should be dropped. Flash forward to 2019 and it's a new world politically and otherwise. Do you feel the same way?
STRAW: I do. I always thought because it's a phrase I've used before. This is a conceit. And it's patronizing by the Americans, understandably.
And it's a piece of nonsense for us to think it. I mean, all countries try and have special relationships with every other countries. But the United
States has a special relationship with India, with Japan, with every major European country as well as with us.
What is unusual about our relationship is that we have a very close and intense relationship on the intelligence front, and a very pretty close one
on the defense front. But it doesn't mean that we can't disagree on things, and even the post 9/11 period when we were very close with very
good reasons, to the Bush administration. There were issues on which we disagreed but we were able to handle those.
ANDERSON: Before I let you go. We have seen a weekend of carnage in the U.S. Do you believe the American President, Donald Trump, is a racist?
STRAW: I don't know what's in his heart as a racist. I certainly believe that he has fanned the fuel of racism and that seems to me to be and of
white supremacy. I see that he was talking to a mirror when he spoke about the need to stop supporting or condoning white supremacy.
[11:30:06] It is appalling. And you know, we have problems at night on the streets here, but these are absolutely as nothing compared to the problems
they have in the United States. Where anybody -- I mean you have no doubt been to a supermarket in the U.S. I have. I remember the first time I went
to one -- I had our children with us who then were very young -- I couldn't believe it. Away from -- and the sausages and the vegetables -- there are
rows and rows not just of pistols but of semi-automatic weapons. And unless and until the U.S. deals with this central issue of gun control,
this kind of almost daily massacre is going to take place.
ANDERSON: Pleasure having you on, sir.
STRAW: Thank you very much.
ANDERSON: British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, thank you, sir. Great read, that book.
STRAW: Thank you.
ANDERSON: Still to come. A flash point that seems ready to explode. India and Pakistan ramp up the rhetoric about Kashmir as India's Parliament
approves big changes. The very latest when this show, CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson, returns. Taking a short break. Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: You're watching CNN. This is CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson. Welcome back. And if you're just joining us, you are more than
welcome. Updating you on our top story this hour.
And U.S. President Donald Trump getting ready to visit the site of two mass shootings tomorrow. But Democrats in El Paso, Texas have written an open
letter, explicitly asking him to stay away. They accuse Mr. Trump of attempting to punish, demonize and terrorize immigrants and immigrant
communities. Calling El Paso ground zero of those efforts. Police say the gunman who killed 22 people there had written a racist manifest though that
called the massacre a response to the quote, Hispanic invasion of Texas.
And the other major story this hour for you.
For 70 years, we've been watching anger and violence boil up between India and Pakistan over the fate of Kashmir. And it now seems ready to erupt
again. Just a short time ago, the Indian Parliament passed a bill that changes the status of Kashmir, putting it under greater Indian government
control. Well tens of thousands of Indian troops have been deployed to the region in anticipation of unrest.
[11:35:02] Leading Kashmiri politicians have been placed under house arrest. That a communications blackout is now in effect. CNN's Sam Kylie
has been following this story for you and he joins us now live. What do we understand is going on and why -- Sam?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, just this afternoon, Imran Khan, the Pakistani Prime Minister, has made his point of
view about what' is going on very clear. Saying that -- and these are his words -- that India is trying to shift the demographic structure of Jammu
and Kashmir. And of course, Becky, that state -- a former state as its now been brought into the Indian union under Indian law, that is the only
majority state in India.
And of course, this new legislation has been driven through by Prime Minister Modi. Recently reelected with a landslide victory, leading the
Hindu Nationalist, BJP Party. So from the Pakistani perspective and indeed from in terms of international law, this is a pretty radical step.
Pakistan owns about a third -- or controls rather a third of Kashmir and much of the rest is in Indian hands. But let me set the scene for you
though with this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KILEY (voice-over): An Indian war hero returns. His release just days after he was shot down is an attempt by Pakistan to reduce tensions between
two nuclear powers. His MiG-21 came down in a dog fight with Pakistan whose own air force retaliated against Indian air strikes on alleged terror
camps inside Pakistani territory.
The humanitarian gesture from Pakistan was met with war-like rhetoric from India's Prime Minister.
NARENDRA MODI, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER: India has been facing the menace of terrorism for years. But there is a big difference now. India will no
longer be helpless in the wake of terror.
KILEY: This is an election year in India, but he's committed to retaliation for future terrorist attacks and that represents a significant
new threat, one that Pakistan at least publicly is trying to undermine with reconciliation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On day one when this government came into office by Prime Minister Imran Khan offered.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KILEY: Becky, that appears to have been a technical hitch, playing a package I did, but relevant on the downing of that Indian Air Force pilot
was handed over by Pakistan during the last border clash there. And it's these border clashes that have escalated to this point at which the Indians
have said they're effectively under the law going to annex Jammu and Kashmir. To make it full part of what was a semi-autonomous region.
This was a region that had control over almost all of its politics, with the exception of international affairs defense. Now and the BJP Party and
Mr. Modi are celebrating this. They're saying that it is coming under full Indian control.
Now that is against a number of previous United Nations resolutions and also follows, Becky, attempts to mediate in July and again repeated in
August from none other than Donald Trump who during a visit with the Pakistani Prime Minister claimed -- later denied by Mr. Modi -- that he'd
been asked to negotiate on behalf of India. The Indians and Pakistanis -- particularly Indians -- have always said that this would be bilateral
negotiation only. Now it would appear there's very little to negotiate over -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Right, you were pointing out that Donald Trump of course wading into this conflict. This was the moment from the Pakistani Prime
Minister's visit to the White House a couple weeks ago. Let's have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was with Prime Minister Modi two weeks ago and we talked about this subject and he actually said
would you like to be a mediator or arbitrator. I said where? He said Kashmir. Because this has been going on many, many years. I was surprised
at how long it's been going on.
IMRAN KHAN, PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER: 70 years.
TRUMP: I think they'd like to see it resolved and I think you'd like to see it resolved. And if I can help, I would love to be a mediator. It
shouldn't be -- I mean, it's impossible to believe two incredible countries that are very, very smart with smart leadership can't solve a problem like
that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, India says it never asked Mr. Trump to mediate. Sam, is there anything the U.S. can do to ease tensions?
KILEY: Well, they could perhaps, Pakistan is in a parlor state economically. So there may be an effort made there to help the Pakistan
economy.
[11:40:00] But there have been reports in the Pakistani media -- we are still working to double check them -- but there are certainly reports that
there's been an increase in military activity on the Pakistani side of the line of control. A number of senior politicians and military officials
saying that they should start arming the ordinary population there, and some of the more extreme elements are saying that whatever Mr. Khan, the
Prime Minister, might decide, it's now an obligation to make jihad inside the area now claimed formally by India as part of India in its entirety.
And now this, of course, is against a backdrop, Becky, as you know of many years of terrorist activity that the Indians have blamed on Pakistan and
saying that they came out of Pakistani territory. So the scene is set for further escalation between these two nuclear powers -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Yes, not to be forgotten or underestimated. Thank you, Sam. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. Sam's in Abu Dhabi where we are
normally based. We are though for the next couple weeks out of London for you.
Coming up, American author Toni Morrison has died. We look back at the life and achievements of this renowned novelist. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Just time for your Parting Shots tonight.
We remember the remarkable life of the American author, Toni Morrison, who has now sadly passed away. The decorated novelist, editor and educator,
was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize.
Morrison was best known for influential works of literature on the black experience, penning roughly a dozen novels. But the most acclaimed among
them was "Beloved." About a former slave who kills her own child to ensure it never had to endure the pain of being owned by another human being.
Well the book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988.
Some of Morrison's other renowned works include "Song of Solomon" and "Sula". In 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by
Barack Obama. The highest honor for an American civilian. Toni Morrison was 88 years old.
I am Becky Anderson. That was CONNECT THE WORLD. Thank you for watching.
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