Defiant North Korea; Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Russian counterpart; Israel closing down Al Jazeera office. Gender Gap in Google.
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST: Non-negotiable complaints speaking from North Korea on its nuclear program, a defiant rebuke (ph) to an international diplomatic push. Key meetings at the ASEAN summit seem to have come to nothing. We've got a full update from Manila in just a moment. Also, life getting back to normal. CNN has an exclusive look inside government-held Syria where peace comes at a price. Also, the nine political lives of Jacob Zuma. We are in South Africa as it's announced the president status of secret ballot, no confidence push (ph). Hello and welcome to "Connect the World." I'm Robyn Curnow in Atlanta filling in for my colleague Becky Anderson. And we begin with North Korea's refusal to back down in the face of international pressure. The country's foreign minister says new U.N. sanctions will not stop its nuclear program. In fact, he says North Korea won't even negotiate over the program or its ballistic missiles. He met with his South Korean counterpart on the sidelines of a regional security summit. Our Ivan Watson has been at that summit in Manila and he has more on the crisis.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Robyn, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, he said that his goal in coming here to Manila to this international gathering was to try to diplomatically isolate North Korea and he's had some success about that. First with a United Nation Security Council resolution unanimously backed even by China and Russia who had major differences with the U.S. of late which slapped new sanctions on the North Korean regime banning the exports of coal, iron and even seafood in an effort to try deprive North Korea of large sums of export revenue that are vital for its economy. Then you had the assembly of southeast Asian nations which put out their own statement at the start of this gathering expressing grave concern about North Korea's two intercontinental ballistic missile launches that happened just last July arguing that they were a threat to world peace. I've learned that the Philippines foreign minister, the host of this gathering personally delivered these comments to the North Korean foreign minister and read them out loud to him essentially lecturing him on North Korea's pursuit of ballistic missile technology and nuclear weapons, all of which are banned under multiple United Nation Security Council resolutions. And then you have China and its foreign minister who also conveyed a similar message to the North Koreans in a face-to-face meeting here in Manila. Well, North Korea is not responding as if it's really learned anything from this. It's responding with characteristic defiance seeking to frame this entirely as a confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington. Arguing that it must have nuclear weapons as deterrence, as self-defense against potential U.S. threats and arguing that none of the other countries that are criticizing its pursuit of nuclear weapons that they do not have the moral right to criticize the Pyongyang regime. So it doesn't seem to have earned itself any friends here at this gathering in Manila. And we do have to point out that it is Southeast Asian nations that stood up for North Korea saying, hey, we should not expel North Korea from the Asian regional forum because it's better to talk to help reduce tensions on the North Korean on the Korean Peninsula. So at the end of the day, you've got more pressure, international pressure against Pyongyang that has been lead by the U.S. and a North Korea that is more defiant than ever insisting it will continue with its nuclear weapons program, its ballistic missile test despite growing pressure against it from many different corners internationally, Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Thank you Ivan for that report. Now, it's not just North Korea. The U.S. also confronted another major feign policy challenge at that summit -- tensions of course with Russia now. Tillerson met with Russia's foreign minister. He says he told him point blank that meddling in the U.S. election created serious mistrust. Let's go straight to Moscow for a reaction. Oren Liebermann joins us now. Hi Oren.</s>OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPNDENT: Hi Robyn. Tillerson had perhaps the hard job stuck in the middle of all this between the U.S. and Russia and he acknowledge this in his statement. He said confronted Russia about election meddling but also had the tough job of trying to make these two countries get along and cooperate in certain areas. Obviously the key one of those especially at the meeting they were at was North Korea and that is where the U.S. and Russia see eye to eye. Beyond that there are a few areas but now certainly especially after President Trump's signing of the Sanctions Bill, there is more tension than cooperation. Tillerson would have tried to cut through some of that saying that the relation is the worst it's been in years if not decades. Tillerson had some harsh language when he talked about election meddling there and there the U.S. is presenting essentially a united front with some very harsh criticism of Russia. And we also saw that from Vice President Mike Pence last week. In fact it seems the only person in the Trump administration who is not openly criticizing Russia is Trump himself, who is directing most of his anger towards Congress. Remember, Trump was riding a wave of popularity since he was elected some seven months ago. His inauguration I should say seven months ago. Now it seems especially after the signing of the Sanctions Bill that popularity has come to an end.</s>LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The champagne flowed freely on inauguration night. Russia in adoration for President Donald Trump on display. Trump was giving fawning (ph) press coverage. A favor he returned.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with Russia? Wouldn't that be nice?</s>LIEBERMANN: In Trump, Russia saw someone's who's world view aligned with their own. Seven months later, the Trump/Putin bromance has come to an end and with it the Russian love for the American president -- his approval rate sliding. The leading weekly talk show saying Donald Trump shot himself in the leg, starting limping and lost a good chunk of his powers. Now, they see a weak president, a Congress suffering from what they call russophobic hysteria and an expanding Russia investigation the Kremlin calls absurd and groundless. What do you think of President Donald Trump? "I don't think things have changed with Trump in the office. Of course we expected that there will be changes for good," this woman says. "He gave us some sort of hope but think nothing has changed." " "My opinion of him has changed a bit," says this woman. "There is little hope now that our relations will get better. He behaves more like a businessman not like a president." Trump's signing of the Sanctions Bill hitting Russia's energy and finance sectors dispelled any notions of the two countries getting along any time soon, the anger playing out where else but on Twitter. Trump tweeting, our relationship with Russia is at an all-time and very dangerous low. You can thank Congress, the same people that can't even give us health care. Trump's frustration against Congress seen us submission in Russia. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tweeting, the Trump administration has shown its total weakness by handing over executive power to Congress in the most humiliating way. Trump and Putin have avoided criticizing each other directly. That hasn't saved the American president's image in Russia now portrayed as impotent and weak. A different image of Putin on holiday in Southern Siberia, seizing the moment. The president proudly bearing his own popularity.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Putin better. He's the best president of the world. I think so.</s>LIEBERMANN: In a further response to U.S. sanctions, Russia has said it would look to remove the U.S. dollar as its reserve currency. That's more of a symbolic statement because the dollar is so critical to oil and natural gas trading, which is what Russia's economy relies on. But it is a symbolic statement, another push back against the implementation or tightening of the U.S. sanctions, Robyn.</s>CURNOW: And what else could they possibly pushback on?</s>LIEBERMANN: Well Putin, and this is a few days ago now about a week ago, talked about all the other areas the U.S. and Russia get along. Key of those was space, cooperation on Syria, Russia could try to push back on any of those and cut ties on those, that would be a mellow response to U.S. sanction. Remember, at this point, they've already closed two U.S. diplomatic compounds and have told the U.S. they need to cut some 750 members of the staff here.</s>CURNOW: OK, Oren Liebermann keeping an eye on all of that there in Moscow. Thanks so much. And we'll have much more on President Trump, U.S. President Trump later o in the show. He may be out of the public eye for a couple of weeks. He's on a working vacation but he certainly has a lot to say to the public on twitter. All details ahead on that. Well, let's get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar right now. In Venezuela, a manhunt is under way for what those who took part in what the government calls a paramilitary terrorist attack. President Nicolas Maduro's office says 20 people carried out the assault on a military base in the city of Valencia. Ten are said to still be on the run. And a storm battering Japan with heavy winds and torrential rains is weakening. Noru has been downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm. It's reached central Japan early Monday after slamming the southwestern islands over the weekend. And a British woman is speaking out after she says she survived a brutal kidnapping. She says she traveled to Milan to work as a model and photo shoot only to end up in handcuffs. Police in Italy arrested the man who brought her to safety on kidnapping charges. And are we witnessing the beginning of a new alignment in the Middle East? Now the world is watching as Israel follows in the footsteps of four Arab nations and targets the Al Jazeera television network. Israel has moved to shut it down. Its communications minister announced plans to pull Al Jazeera broadcast from local cable and satellite providers after accusing it of inciting violence. But Al Jazeera denies the claim. Ian Lee joins us now from Jerusalem with more in all of this. Hi Ian.</s>IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Yes, Israel has been known for years -- it's known as a country where there's a strong free press but that is coming into question after these recent statements by the minister of communications here in Israel who said that they're going to go after Al Jazeera for what they say is the terroristic journalism and saying that this isn't about freedom of speech and that it's about incitement. And that's something we've heard from the Israeli government for quite some time saying that Al Jazeera is inciting the Palestinians to violence. They were saying that late last month where there were two weeks of clashes here in Jerusalem and saying it for quite some time. But now we're seeing the government saying that they're going to take steps to shutting down Al Jazeera by revoking their press credentials, also trying to find a way to turn off the broadcast coming into Israel and the Palestinian territories. They say they're going to start working on legislation to do that. This move has been condemned by the foreign press association here in Jerusalem saying that Al Jazeera is a member of good standing. They'll be monitoring this. Also, the committee to protect journalists has said that censoring Al Jazeera or closing its offices will not bring stability to the region but it will put Israel firmly in the camp of some of the regions worst enemies of press freedom. So, some strong condemnation there. Also Al Jazeera of course coming out against it. But the one thing that they said that really stood out was that their journalists cover the news professionally and in an objective manner in accordance with the common journalistic standards set by the relevant international organizations such as the British broadcasting code of Ofcom. So saying that basically that their broadcast is monitored by the British so if it's good enough for the British it should be good enough for the Israelis, Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Broadly though this move, I mean, in many ways people are suggesting it's some kind of realignment particularly Israel following in the footsteps of four Arab nations. What do you see? What is the conversation there where you are?</s>LEE: So you got three theories really about why Israel is doing this at this particular moment. One is it's a smoke screen. The ending of the violence late last month, the government -- the measures the government took were deeply unpopular for many Israelis. So, they say that this could be a side show. It could also be a side show to the prime minister's current legal woes. But you also have people saying that this is an alignment with especially the Arabian Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It's an open secret really that Israel has relations with these countries although they have no formal diplomatic relations. But as all these countries, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., view Iran as a growing threat, you really have to remember that old ancient expression, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So this shutting down of Al Jaseera is just seen as one step in alignment with those countries as well as countries like Egypt and Jordan, Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Thanks so much to you. Ian Lee there on the ground in Jerusalem. Thank you. Well still to come, CNN exclusive inside Syria. A firsthand look at the ceasefire bringing peace that was a major battle field. Could this town be a model for other