live from the cnn center here in atlanta, thank you for joining us. we are waitin for u.s. president donald trump and japanese prime minister shinzo abe to host a news conference from akasaka palace in tokyo. the two leaders have been meeting to discuss trade, military ties and north korea. during remarks a short time ago the president said relations between the u.s. and japan are the strongest they have ever been and that washington's relationship with north korea has come a long way. >> a lot of things are happening. a lot of very positive things

are happening on trade. i personally think that lots of good things will come with north korea. i feel that. i may be right. i may be wrong. we have come a long way. there's been no rocket testing. there's been no nuclear testing. there's been very little activity from that standpoint. so i think we have come a long way with north korea. we'll see what happens. >> even though we do know there have been recent missile tests. the latest one earlier this month. and mr. trump's national security adviser john bolton says those recent tests breached u.n. security council resolutions. shinzo abe's government agreed with that statement. still he is echoing sentiments about the strong relationship between those two countries. >> i am determined to demonstrate both at home and abroad that there is a very strong bond of japan-u.s.

alliance in the new era. >> earlier the president made history as the first world leader to meet with japan's new emperor. you're watching the pictures there. first lady melania trump accompanied him a few hours ago during the welcome ceremony at the palace that was filled with plenty of pomp and pageantry. take a look. ♪ >> cnn's senior white house correspondent pamela brown joins us on the phone. ivan watson is also live with us. we're expecting trump and abe to speak this hour. as soon as they do we'll be carrying those comments live. before their meeting the u.s. president mentioned north korea and touted his accomplishments so far. you wanted to give us perspective on that. >> well, yeah, he is repeating

the fact that he's committed to a diplomatic track with north korea. since his summits with kim jong un. there's contradictions between not only president trump's position and japan but president trump's position and the public statements just saturday of his national security adviser john bolton is when it comes to missile tests on the part of the north koreans. we just heard there's been no rocket tests, no nuclear tests. there was a long pause in intercontinental ballistic missile tests and missile launches and on may 4th of this month north korea carried out a series of tests of what north korea state media later described as long range, large caliber multiple rockets and

tactical guided weapons and then on may 9th, according to the pentagon, north korea fired two short range ballistic missiles. japan said these were in violation of united nations security counsel resolutions. john bolton on saturday said the same. president trump down played that throughout the weekend saying those launches did not bother him and he repeated that again sitting along side shinzo abe, the japanese prime minister. japan is especially sensitive to missile launches since north korea has fired multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles over it's own territory and within hours he is expected to sit down with families of those abducted by north korea. that's another major issue that japan is very concerned about and it brings up again and again

with it's very close u.s. ally. >> you were in the room where to hold a press conference.oing- we believe that will be in about 30 minutes. we'll keep an eye out for that. tell me something, trump and abe have now met or spoken more than 40 times. does that make the japanese prime minister trump's closest ally on the world stage? >> it does. he is president trump's closest friend on the world stage and both leaders touted the close relationsh relationship. they have spoken more than 40 times. he was the first foreign leader to come to america to meet with president trump after the election. the question is how much has that paid off for abe? he has put in this extraordinary time and effort cultivating the relationship with president

trump. you were discussing with ivan he down played the threats just yesterday he said it wasn't a big deal that north korea tested the short range missiles. so that was the question. it is true though that so far he has been able to stave off the auto tariffs. in fact, president trump said they wouldn't be working on any bipartisan trade deal in july in japan. so perhaps it has been paying off but not on the larger scale. >> we're seeing japan roll out the red carpet. we're seeing this close personal relationship between the two leaders and yet on the mayor issues, on the substance, whether it's north korea or trade the two countries still

don't see eye to eye. >> the symbolism is that this is to demonstrate at home and abroad the strength of the u.s.-japanese alliance. so yes, there are points of contention here and it's clear that the trade talks are going to be an issue going forward. that the white house was not able to get a bilateral trade deal with japan ahead of the visit with president trump but despite the differences the common interests and the strength of the relationships between two countries, between two governments and between two leaders are pair mouramount at time. it relies on the u.s.

president trump will be visited a u.s. navy base here on tuesday before he leaves this country those are just examples of how closely intertwined these two countries are and it's all the more important when president trump though he has committed to his diplomacy it hasn't been going well. his personal diplomacy with the chinese leader, while there are constant and repeated statements of respect between the two leaders there's a raging trade war between these countries. but what these two leaders have shown is that whether they're sharing a japanese dinner here or playing golf together, they work together despite the

differences. >> they really, really did and i want to put out the pictures of donald trump meeting the japanese emperor and perhaps you could speak to us about the significance of being the first foreign leader to meet the new emperor. >> well, you have a new emperor. he has just ascended to the throne less than a month ago. a 59-year-old man after his father abdekated from that role and his first meeting with a foreign head of state is the american president. a number of japanese experts would say that would be the case regardless which ever american president is in the white house because the u.s. is japan's most important ally but clearly there's a great deal of symbolism here.

beautiful harmony. this is japan reaffirming it's it's closest and most important ally. a pillar of its defense policy. these are the leaders of the world's first and third largest economies. it's a demonstration that these two leaders and two governments are committed to each other. something that president trump has been complaining about since the 1980s and that's the trade surplus that japan enjoys with the u.s. the white house made a concession to president trump's friend shinzo abe. they have agreed to postpone some of the negotiations over trade until after abe gets to hold elections.

the legislative body so that if there are some concessions that japan has to make that may hurt the japanese economy which is straight leg raising slowing. we have government predictions that the economy is worsening that it may come after this political cycle is completed. i see that as a concession from president trump to his friend shinzo abe. this leader he has spoken with some 40 times since his election in 2016. >> ivan watson, pamela brown, both in tokyo, thank you very much. >> also again in tokyo, director of asian studies at temple university, japan. >> mr. trump left washington a couple of days ago. he was in stories of impeachment and fights with nancy pelosi in congress and et cetera, et cetera, the list goes on.

japan has been good for him. >> it's a common trope in american politics that presidents that find themselves under siege at home often find comfort abroad. both of these leaders have a lot invested in the other. prime minister abe has really put a lot into the idea that his personal relationship with president trump will allow japan to avoid the culminations and eruptions and trade confrontations that other american allies have seen. notably europe and mexico and canada and obviously confrontation with china and conversely abe allows trump to refute the idea that he is completely isolated on the international stage. they both have a lot at stake in making this work and we'll see howell that can hold up once they get to the substance of this $55 billion trade deficit. >> earlier i asked you how trump

was perceived in japan. i have a slightly different question. how is this visit perceived? how do japanese feel this visit is going? >> well, i this i that trump felt the love of the japanese people. he got a standing o. everybody is trying to take pictures. you could just see him basking in that. he's the least popular president ever among the japanese. but you don't get to pick and he's pulling out all of the stops to try to make their bromance bloom and hope that helps him manage an erratic partner. >> thank you for your name. i misspoke earlier. apologies for that.

what is the white house trying to get out of this visit. >> the biggest thing for my foreign travel is a tightrope because on the one hand, his brand is that he is standing up for america in a way that other presidents have not. he also wants to show he is not on the stage as they are. i don't think there is a lot of -- on the trade side they're putting those questions off until july. what he is hoping for is no daylight on north korea what is difficult because the japanese are more concerned about these intermediate range missile launches than the president has tweeted in the last few days.

>> jeffrey, i want to go back to the point that pamela brown was making earlier. this friendship between donald trump and shinzo abe raises the question what does abe get out of it? trump hasn't changed anything about his approach to north korea and his approach to trade. is abe going to have to make concessions to maintain this friendship or is he going to be able to leverage that friendship and get some of what he wants? >> i don't think the friendship is going to take him far. trump is very transactional. i think he's trying to stave off a trade war with the united states by urging japan to boost investments in battleground states and he's also really amped up the purchases of expensive military systems from the united states. so this is going to buy him breathing room. i'm going to cut him some cadillac but he also said he has

high expectations. so that's a brewing trade problem but more importantly for abe right now is trying to dampen down the trade war with china. i think that is going to cause considerable collateral damage in japan. and regarding ron's point about daylight between trump and abe on north korea we see quite a bit of that. trump said no big deal about the missile launches. it is a very big deal here. it happened right after abe said i'm very interested in meeting kim without any preconditions. quite a response. >> when he said there were no rocket launches it was just

inaccurate. i would be remiss if i didn't ask about one of the earlier tweets when he got to japan. appearing to side with kim jong un against the former vice president of the united states joe biden. >> it's interesting. it's a classic trump maneuver that you could imagine both sides wanting to come back to in 2020. on one hand he'll try to portray him as over the hill and use whatever ammunition he can in that case including the remarbleable spectacle of quoting the north korean dictator. this is the tweet that if biden is the nominee he is going to bring up. the dignity of the presidency

isolating the u.s. and the world and siding with dictators over allies. it's one of the rare trump tweets i felt would be on the inner circle of those we'll hear about again in the fall of 2020. >> do you actually think that kim jong un or anybody in north korea brought him up in conversation? >> you have to wonder, right? you do have to wonder. but like i said, i think if joe biden is the nominee, he will be as eager to talk about this tweet as donald trump is. >> all right. thank you for your insights. ton >> europe centrist parties lose some ground. the changing make up of the european parliament. stay with us. ♪

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>> overall, europe's populist surge appears to have stalled as millions of voters back pro eu parties instead. voter turnout was the highest at 50.5%. green parties had their strongest showing ever finishing second in germany. italy's lead, the anti-immigrant party was leading the italian vote after speaking with friends, salvini said the vote allows them to try to change europe and the leftest prime minister called snap elections for next month after a resounding defeat. we begin our coverage in brussels. >> voter turn out came in at 50.5% and 8% gain for 2014 and

the first time in the history of these elections that voter turnout actually increased. they have been on a steady decline since the elections first happened in 1979. voter turn out. long been seen as a symbol of voter apathy. this showing they're more enthusiastic about the elections. other major headline of the evening, the grand coalition comprised of center right, center left parties for the first time lost it's majority. now to put this in perspective, between 2014 and 2019, 74% of the legislation that made it's way through european parliament was passed because of the grand coalition. well that coalition is grand no more. now those parties are going to have to be looking at smaller

groupings for some sort of coalition to be able to pass legislation. we have seen big gains from the liberals. we have also seen gains by the euro skeptics. strong gains in some areas but overall this is very much a pro european european parliament. cnn brussels. >> and britain took part in the eu elections thanks to the brexit deadline extension. the vote was viewed as a referendum on the two main parties. conservatives and labor. the new brexit party came out on top. he said that should send a message that britain wants to leave europe now. but the country is as divided as ever. it was already supposed to have

happened by march 29th but in the absence of brexit having been delivered in the conservative lead government it was pummeled with the majority of the votes going to the newly launched brexit party. he made it clear he wanted to use the seats his party had won in brussels to try to shape the extra kags fr ext extracation from the european union. >> how confident are you that you can translate this into a party. >> how successful it will be will depend on if we leave on october 3 1st. it's this big important date. october the 31st is the same. >> one thing we also learned from these elections is that the u.k. fundamentally remains almost as divided on the subject of brexit as it was three years

ago going into the referendum. the second most important party was the liberal democrats that's campaigning for the polar opposite of the brexit party. wants to bring out brexit as soon as possible and the liberal democrats want to do all they can to try to fight it and the big losers in these elections of course was the conservative party and the other mainstream opposition which is the labor party. one party that did manage to hold it's ground, though, speaking to on going concerns about climate change was the greens who originally their party leader gained her first seat here two decades ago. cnn in south hampton. >> she's in paris with the french results. >> a disappointing evening for emanuel macron tonight. he invested so much time and energy in these european elections. it was his first electoral test

in a french political landscape transformed by his victory. in the end, le pen winning substantially. that will come as a blo to the man that presented himself only two years ago as the last against populism. the man that can continue to represent liberal values and hope for the future of the european project. tonight le pen's euro skeptic party has won the evening. a reminder of that retreat. they won't won out right as they hoped to. the populist parties europe wide but they have made substantial gains in these elections. melissa bell, cnn, paris. >> all right. we listen into the u.s. president speaking in tokyo. >> >> i can tell you that it's

very much on my mind and i can tell you for certain that it is the prime minister's primary goal. there isn't a meeting that we have that he doesn't bring it up. you have a great prime minister that loves this country and loves you and we'll be working together to bring your relatives, your daughters, your sons, your mothers home. and we'll work on that together. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> you have been listening to u.s. president donald trump. he's speaking in tokyo where it's mid afternoon. his host is prime minister shinzo abe. they're meeting with families of people that have been abducted by north korea. now this has been a priority for the host nation japan during this u.s. state visit which was to bring president trump to meet these families. this is an issue that's been with respect to north korea. >> in some cases i have been hearing them for a second time. this is the last time we were here we did this and it was an honor to do it and meet these incredible people. you may just briefly say a word to the media about your mother

and maybe about your daughter? just a little sampling of what we're talking about. but i can see why your great prime minister feels so strongly about it. please. [ speaking foreign language ] spent some time to meet with the family members of abductees

and listen to them. >> mr. president and madam first lady, thank you for spending time with the family members of those that have been abducted by north korea. i am particularly thankful for your kind gesture that you showed by listening very carefully through their own stories of their family members. [ speaking foreign language ] >> president trump did raise the abduction issue when he had the second summit with kim jong un in hanoi. on that occasion he also

conveyed my perspectives on the relationship between japan and north korea and i'd like to tell the family members here that president trump has been consistently taking into account the genuine feelings shared by the family members of mr. president, the vote is on foreign policy and foreign policy agenda from north korea. >> i'm convinced that president trump is making every effort. i'd like to have some members

talk. [ speaking japanese ] >> mr. president, first lady, thank you very much for taking your time and also thank you very much for very carefully listening to the stories that i shared with you about my own mother. my mother has been separated from her family members for the past 41 years old and i hope the abduction issue to realize the return of my mother to japan as

soon as possible. [ speaking japanese ]

>> thank you very much mr. president and madam first lady, if i may reiterate my deep, deep gratitude for your support. i'd like to underscore that the fact that you are spending time for the second time with the family members of the abductees show how serious you are for resolving the abductions issue and also mr. president, did face the abductions issue when you saw chairman kim jong un and since then we started to see some tangible or concrete progress for the resolution of this issue for the first time in the history. so in that sense we have the greatest trust in you, mr. president. and also in our prime minister abe. we are advocating for not only the return of the abductees but also we would like to see peace

and if we are to see the resolution of the abduction issue we will see peace in north korea and also we will see that people in north korea will be liberated from starvation or other sufferings they have been experiencing until now. so let us work together toward peace and i'll share with you my commitment and on this occasion i'd like to ask for your continuous support.

>> it's early afternoon in tokyo where we have been seeing live pictures of u.s. president donald trump and his host, japanese prime minister shinzo abe as they met with family members of japanese nationals abducted by north korea. i want to bring in senior international correspondent ivan watson that's going to shed light on this. pamela brown is also covering the president's trip and she will be talking to us in just a second. she is standing by. i want to recap for people that are joining us right now that this is an event that is where the president seasoned prime minister have been meeting. they have been getting down to business talking about trade and the military and north korea but this stands apart. this stands apart.

t as i understand it, the japanese, it was a priority for them to include this in this four day state visit. explain to me how, where -- explain to me the significance of this meeting for the japanese side. >> this is the second time he met with families of the japanese abducted by north korea. he said it was an honor to conduct this meeting but this abductee issue is clearly one of the thorny problems between north korea and the outside world that is in addition to north korea's arsenal of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. it's that according to the united nations human rights counsel and it's report in 2014,

north korea kidnapped hundreds of japanese, south koreans and other foreign nationals after the conclusion of the korean war in 1953. it was one of the -- one of several very problematic behavior patterns and activities on the part of the north koreans and the japanese bring this up with their close u.s. ally again and again because they want their people back. japan says officially that 17 of its citizens were abducte. a lot of this was taking place in the 60s and 70s and the 80s and that only 5 were returned. we heard from some of those people. president trump heard from some of the people and the fact that the white house is taking the time to listen to them also indicates that the white house is listening to what are the domestic political priorities of shinzo abe, the japanese prime minister and if at any point

president trump is able to reach some kind of diplomatic solution with pyeongyang, tokyo is making it clear that it wants the abductee issue to be somewhere in that potential scenario. >> let's bring in pamela brown. pam, i would imagine that this particular issue is something that would resinate with donald trump given that he has advocated and secured the release of the remains of u.s. soldiers that died in korea. this is something that he can relate to. >> that's absolutely right and he said that not long agatha this issue has bp very much on his mind he actually promised to bring home the abducted citizens from north korea.

>> all right. we're having problem with the audio there. jeffrey, i want to come to you with the same question as i was asking pamela. this is an issue that was on donald trump's radar. >> absolutely. this is a signature policy for prime minister abe. this is the issue that catapu catapulted him into power and it's a matter of his personal commitment and he's convinced trump to go to bat for japan but for abe it's also critical for him to try to have a dialogue directly with kim and he has offered to meet him unconditionally. so resolving the fate of the missing abductees is critically important for abe but the rest

of the world is more worried about the nuclear weapons program and how to dismantle that. >> could this issue be rolled into a grander bargain on north korea nuclear missiles progra and if that is resolved you can add an addendum on the abductees? >> yeah, possibly. that probably makes sense to address these issues separately by saying one thing can't happen unless the other happens, that's probably not going to workout very well. so it's very important to pursue the issue but i don't think it should be used in ways to marginalize the importance of the nuclear weapons program. so i think the key issue here is to make sure that abe and trump are on the same page regarding north korea. there seems to have been doubt

stirred by the tweet that trump issued earlier on in his visit and now it appears maybe they're getting closer but when trump down played the importance of the missile launch that did not go down well with tokyo because here it is a big deal. stand by. let me go back to ivan watson. we're keeping an eye on the podiums where donald trump and shinzo abe are going to be giving a press conference we believe in a short amount of time. what do we expect from that press conference? >> we have already gotten a bit of a precursor where president trump and the japanese prime minister said they would be discussing in their bilateral talks trade, north korea, and other matters effecting the

world. one subject that popped up with in a reporter's question was iran and the fact that japan had quite cordial ties with tehran and that president trump was open to that fact and was endorsing the possibility of talking to tehran and maybe even raising that scenario of a road leaving to tehran through tokyo and through shinzo abe. we may hear some more about trade talks though president trump has made it clear that more substantial discussions and any real concrete announcements would wait until possibly as late as august to allow elections in july to allow the political cycle to close here. clearly as a favor to the

japanese prime minister and one last point on the abductee issue, the trump administration has made it clear when it's touting what it says are it's accomplishments with north korea, it argues that north korea has suspended nuclear tests that it has suspended launches of missiles that that's not entirely true. and that it got american abductees returned home. that's one of the things that the trump administration applauded itself for. we have to recall that one of those people was otto warmbier that was returned in a vegetative state and subsequently died. that's been a difficult thing for the trump administration and tragedy to deal with when pushing forward with diplomacy with pyongyang.

>> i also want to thank jeffrey kingston standing by. we're told now it's about 20 minutes before the press conference between donald trump and shinzo abe. we'll be right back. uh-oh, looks like someone's still nervous about buying a new house. is it that obvious? yes it is. you know, maybe you'd worry less if you got geico to help with your homeowners insurance. i didn't know geico could helps with homeowners insurance. yep, they've been doing it for years. what are you doing? big steve?

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yet another tornado in oklahoma has brought devastation and death to america's midwest. cnn's omar jiminez is there with the jaw dropping images. >> reporter: many people here in this oklahoma community still dealing with the aftermath of a deadly tornado that ripped through in a matter of sin mutt -- minutes. a mobile park here, the tornado was so strong, it lifted up

trailers and slammed them back on the ground. at least two people killed there. and the other set of images that are just harrowing come from a hotel. really, there's no other word to describe it other than decimated. as you seize those images, there are people that survived that, who were inside that hotel when the tornado came through. we spoke to one of them who said he went to bad like any other the night before, and a little later in the evening, he woke up when his windows were rattling. they later shad doettered and he under the bed. if he said if it weren't for the dead, he would have been crushed. he was able to crawl out of the rubble and into the pitch black darkness to wait for emergency responders. now, we have more details about this tornado over the course of sunday. the national weather service saying this was classified as an

ef-3 tornado, five being the most severe. it was on the ground for just a matter of four minutes, and you see how much destruction it brought through. this just didn't happen in a vacuum. it comes on the tail end of a week where we have seen tornadoes and high flood waters and plenty of high water rescues, including here in the el reno mayor saying they cond about 46 high water rescues, and here we are days later on the scene of a deadly tornado. >> stay with us. we'll be right back. anyone can go fast. the question is... is fast enough? ♪ or, do you want speed and style? power and attraction? exhilaration and distinction? ♪ introducing performance, born of refinement. ♪

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all right. before we leave you this hour, we're going to take another look at the live piblg chctures out tokyo. president trump has been on a four-day state viz it to japan. we are expecting him to hold a press conference with his host, japanese prime minister shinzo abe. the highlights of the trip so far have been undoubtedly meeting the new japanese emperor. president trump was the first foreign leader to do so. he also worked on his friendship with the japanese leader. they went for a round of golf, shared several meals. they have now seen each other or spoken to each other upwards of

40 times, making shinzo abe possibly president trump's closest ally on the world stage. now, the two countries have reaffirmed the strength of their alliance. however, on the substantive issues, north korea, trade, there is still a lot of daylight between the two leaders. president trump had staked out his position very clearly on both of those issues in the really opening moments of this visit. we're going to find out pretty soon in a press conference that cnn will carry live, whether there has been any agreement that they came to. president trump saying that they were going to meet on the issues on military cooperation, on trade, and on north korea. we will be bringing that press conference live to you as and when it happens here on cnn. thank you so much for joining us this hour. another hour of news is up next with rosemary church and george

howell. you're in great hands. have a good day.

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you're looking at live pictures right now. we're waiting for ining for a n conference between president trump and prime minister shinzo abe as the u.s. and japanese leaders try to find common ground over north korea and trade issues. plus, in europe, a mixed message. voters there bring in some nationalist parties to power. but also back liberal and green parties in parliamentary elections. we look at the destruction in oklahoma as tornadoes ripped through towns devastating entire communities. hello and welcome to our viewers, joining us