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"The New York Times" Pays Tribute To COVID-19 Victims On Front Page; Beaches Brace For Huge Memorial Day Crowds As States Reopen; Brazil Epicenter Of Coronavirus In Latin America; Protests Over China's Hong Kong Security Plan; Some Nursing Homes Scrutinized For Poor Worker Conditions; Trump Golfs At His Virginia Club Amid Pandemic; Uproar In U.K. After PM's Adviser Takes Trip While Under Isolation. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired May 24, 2020 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:00]

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, from churches, bars, boardwalks, to beaches, many Americans getting out for the Memorial Day weekend.

Breaking out of Hong Kong, police firing tear gas at protesters.

In the U.K., the prime minister's right-hand man under fire. Growing calls for him to resign.

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HOLMES: With the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 now approaching 100,000, there are worrying signs the country could be headed for a surge of new infections, as millions of Americans head outside for the Memorial Day holiday. This is a time when the U.S. honors its war dead.

But "The New York Times" is using the occasion to remember victims of this pandemic. The newspaper says the names it has listed are just 1 percent of the U.S. total.

Some places of worship might resume services Sunday after President Trump demanded governors allow them to reopen. But churchgoers in California will have to wait. A U.S. Appeals court has sided with the governor in banning in-person services for now.

It is scenes like those that have health experts worried, young people crowding a popular bar district in Austin, Texas, many without face masks or social distancing. The governor of Arkansas is saying his state is seeing the negative effects of such gatherings.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With the seven-day rolling average of new cases that you see, one peak here of about 160 new cases and then the rolling average across the way that you see a second peak.

And that's the point I want to emphasize, is that it's clear and evident to me that we have one peak and then we've had a deep dip and then we're having a second peak right now.

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HOLMES: Despite the continuing health threat in the U.S., many Americans are choosing to venture out this memorial holiday. Officials doing their best to encourage everyone to be safe. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro is at the Jersey Shore but we begin in Santa Monica, California.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Santa Monica we are seeing social distancing and paying attention to the rules. You can see this bicyclist with his mask on. That is something they decided to do this weekend which is open up the bikeway. It seems to have alleviated a lot of pressure on the sand here in Santa Monica.

They did not want people to gather here in large groups, put down tents or start cookouts. They wanted social distancing. And so far, for this little corner of Santa Monica, it seems to have worked.

For this small city of 90,000, a lot of pressure. This is tourism, this is tourism at its best, where people come here from all over the world together and they have lost a lot of their tax revenue, both hotel tax and sales tax.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has been about 10 weeks since I've really had a good night's sleep or had a day off. And I'm not saying that for pity. It's just the reality of trying to run a local government in these unprecedented circumstances.

We have had recessions before but never anything that happened this suddenly or this deeply, that took that much money out of the city coffers so quickly.

So trying to figure out how to run a city on roughly 40 percent less money is a real challenge. We have tourism and restaurants providing a great deal of our city budget. And with the hotels and restaurants closed, the very few that are open, they're at 5-10 percent occupancy. That revenue is not going to come in for some time. We know it's not going to come back overnight.

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VERCAMMEN: The mayor also telling us that the city of Santa Monica has lost over $40 million in the last few months in tax revenue.

When you look over here at the famed pier, the Ferris wheel is not spinning and that means the economic engines of Santa Monica are not spinning. They're hoping in due time that we will get to a point where social distancing will allow much of this small city to reopen. For now, the beach is a little bit more open and things are calm -- reporting from Santa Monica, I'm Paul Vercammen, back to you.

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EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This weekend marked the kickoff of the beach season and towns announced plans to reopen to visitors. Here in Belmar, the number of people on the beach are dramatically limited and monitored. People are asked to wear masks.

But the plans never got a full test. The weather was rainy and the boardwalk and beaches didn't see much traffic. Locals said, though, that the crowd seemed thin, even for a rainy weekend. If that stays true, the Jersey Shore could be in for a tough summer.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's going to be a little rough, for sure. You know, I think if the weather is a little bit more cooperative where people can sit on the beach, I think it will be OK.

If it's ho-hum weather, I think we're going to struggle for sure because our season is limited to begin with. And now, you know, we're making it smaller and smaller and smaller, even though we are a year- round business. The bulk of our business is between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

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MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Locals are hoping that enough people will come to the beach and that social distancing rules will allow them to spend enough money to make all the plans required to get these beaches open worthwhile -- Evan McMorris-Santoro, CNN, Belmar, New Jersey.

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HOLMES: Mexico is reporting more than 3,300 new cases on Saturday, bringing its total cases to almost 66,000. Mexico also reporting 190 deaths on Saturday, bringing the death toll to more than 7,000.

And Brazil now has more confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide than any other country except the U.S. On Saturday the country reported more than 16,000 new cases, bringing the nationwide total to more than 347,000. By CNN's calculations, these new cases push the country's numbers ahead of Russia's.

Brazil also recorded more than 960 new coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, the total death toll over 22,000. Amid this worsening crisis, the country's supreme court releasing a video this week, in which a furious president Bolsonaro swore repeatedly during a meeting while describing his rival's policies. Nick Paton Walsh has more on that.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: The latest numbers for Brazil again making it the second most infected country on the planet and bearing the brunt of Latin America, which the WHO says is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak; 347,000 about cases reported in Brazil, according to the last count.

Just eclipsing Russia's latest numbers. Adding to that sense of concern here in Brazil and outside of Brazil, for Brazil is a recording that has been released by Brazil's supreme court as part of an ongoing investigation into the president's alleged interference in police investigations.

This very explicit two-hour long video is a leaked recording from a cabinet meeting last month. It contains a number of things which the president himself has played down as not significant and not incriminating toward him. He has always denied interference in police investigations.

The key bit, though, in reference to the coronavirus outbreak relates to comments he makes about the governors of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, both of whom have put in lockdowns and asked for face masks to be worn.

He calls them feces, manure, to use a more polite term of what he in fact says. And he is also very explicitly rude about the mayor of a town called Manaus, which is heavily infected by coronavirus, and digging large numbers of graves to cope with the outbreak there.

He's similarly offensive towards that man as well.

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WALSH: His environment minister goes on to talk about possibly how this outbreak might enable further environmental regulations to be peeled back. He has defended his comments, saying he's always been in favor of deregulation.

But while this video leaked from the supreme court, it does seem to be more about Brazil's internal political strife and it also carries a clear message to those doubting the president about what he and his inner circle appear to be telling each other about those trying to do what they can to prevent coronavirus from spreading.

The peak here in Sao Paulo, the worst affected bigger city, might be a week to two weeks away. Deep concerns here and the preparations that are being done simply have not been enough so far -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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HOLMES: We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) HOLMES: Protests have been erupting in Hong Kong over controversial new security legislation proposed by Beijing. Thousands of people demonstrating against the plan. Police in riot gear firing tear gas and pepper spray.

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HOLMES: Authorities have deployed water cannons and armored vehicles but pro-democracy activists remain in the streets. The demonstrations are unauthorized and rules currently ban gatherings of more than 80 people. Let's get the latest from the streets of Hong Kong. Anna Coren is there.

The gas mask is back on, what are you seeing?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michael, more tear gas has been fired. Police are trying to move us on from this position. As you can see, dozens and dozens of police have come up, saying, move on or we will use force.

So that generally is a sign that the tear gas will be fired. There are police up there on the overpass and they have been arresting people, people who have been making roadblocks.

But police are saying they have arrested 40 people. It's not the crowds that are charging (INAUDIBLE) -- let's go with them. These are not the crowds that many thought would turn out today in our position at this national security legislation that has angered so many people here in Hong Kong.

Beijing has made the decision that it's going to unilaterally enforce it here. They've said the Hong Kong government has had the chance to do it; they haven't enforced it. They say it's time.

Now this national security law is going to ban -- here comes the rafters (ph). It is so sporadic, Michael, so sporadic. You know what's interesting, and I have to note, none of the protesters are dressed like protesters. Everyone is dressed in their civilian clothes so the police don't know who these protesters are.

Last year, everyone was wearing black. They had a uniform almost. That is not happening this year.

Just going to move you down here a little bit more, Michael. But these protesters, they appear, create roadblocks, police try to get into position and they move on.

But I was talking about the national security legislation that is going to ban secession, subversion, treason, it's going to ban international interference, which is something that China accuses the United States of doing all the time.

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HOLMES: Anna, if this is the reaction -- as you continue your reporting there, if this is the reaction of the security forces in this situation before this legislation, post legislation, what would happen if people did demonstrate?

COREN: Basically demonstrations, Michael, would be completely illegal. That is the concern. You just have to say, freedom for Hong Kong, independent Hong Kong, we've heard those slogans time and time again, particularly today.

But people would be arrested for inciting dissent. And that's what these protests are all about. They started off over the extradition bill that was shelved because 2 million people took to the streets. It turned into something so much more, about fighting for the freedoms of Hong Kong that have been eroded by China.

But China stepping in and announcing that it's going to enforce these very controversial national security rules. The Hong Kong government tried to push this through in 2003. Half a million people took to the streets. They had not seen a demonstration of that size and the bill was shelved.

But now Beijing is saying, you've had 23 years to do this; we're going to do it for you. So pro-democracy activists are saying, this is the end of "one country, two systems," what made Hong Kong different, the freedom of speech, that will become a crime, Michael. That is the fear.

HOLMES: It's going to be interesting to see if the international community takes a strong stance on this. Anna, take care. We'll check in with you next hour. I appreciate it.

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HOLMES: North Korean state media says Kim Jong-un has directed the country to increase its nuclear deterrence. Mr. Kim reportedly signed new orders on Sunday at a military council meeting. The measures include upgrading the army's artillery. North Korea ramped up its missile testing earlier this year after denuclearization talks with the U.S. stalled last year.

The head of the Moscow health department says it might be time to ease some restrictions, this after a massive COVID-19 screening program. It found around 12.5 percent of residents may have antibodies for the virus.

The country isn't out of the woods yet. Johns Hopkins University reporting Russia has the third highest number of infections in the world, more than 335,000. It's also reporting a remarkably low number of deaths, only about 3,400 officially.

The governor of New York responding to an Associated Press report that his state sent thousands of patients recovering from coronavirus to nursing homes. Nearly 6,000 people have died from the virus in those homes. Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, says people are trying to exploit the issue for political gain.

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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): New York followed the president's agencies guidance so that depoliticizes it. What New York did was follow what the Republican administration said to do. That is not my attempt at politicizing. That's my attempt to depoliticize it. So do not criticize the state for following the president's policy.

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HOLMES: Some nursing homes in the U.S. were already struggling to provide quality care to residents through the pandemic. Government records show supply shortages, big ones, lapses in care, inadequate infection control precautions, all of that fueling the spread of COVID-19. Drew Griffin with the details.

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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 25 years, Maurice Dotson worked as a nurse's assistant at West Oaks Nursing Home in Austin, Texas, changing bedpans, diapers, sheets and just being a friend to those elderly who no longer had any friends. That ended when he died on April 17th. The cause? COVID-19.

QUENTIN BROGDON, ATTORNEY FOR DOTSON FAMILY: He wasn't given basic personal protective equipment such as a mask.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Maurice Dotson was one of 111 cases of COVID-19 at this nursing home. The state sent in Texas National Guard soldiers to disinfect West Oaks and other facilities.

Quentin Brogdon is the attorney representing Dotson's family in a lawsuit, which says the nursing home failed to properly prepare, respond and provide its employees with personal protection equipment as required.

BROGDON: He gave his life to care for the residents of West Oaks. they were his second family. He could have called in sick, he could have quit but it just wasn't in his DNA. He protected them, but he wasn't protected.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): West Oaks will not comment on the lawsuit. But in a statement, the company said, "Our operations and protocols changed profoundly with the release of the CDC guidelines."

Nursing homes and long-term care facilities, from the start of this pandemic, have been hotbeds of illness and death. One study shows 41 percent of coronavirus deaths in 36 states are connected to nursing homes. The virus spreads quickly to patients and staff, who then leave work and spread it to others.

DEBBIE BERKOWITZ, NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT LAW PROJECT: In this pandemic, if a worker is infected with COVID-19, then they can not only spread it to their coworkers, but they spread it out into the community.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): A CNN review of hundreds of complaints to federal and state governments show that workers at long-term facilities feel their own lives are at risk, writing complaints like, "Employees are not provided personal protective equipment such as masks," using "coffee filters" as masks and garbage bags as gowns. "Health care workers have died from the COVID-19 and the employer is unwilling to report it."

MARK PARKINSON, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATION: We have been begging for additional equipment in nursing homes for the last two months. And unfortunately, no one has listened. In some cases, we've had to go without it and the results have been tragic.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Mark Parkinson, president of the American Health Care Association, says in the rush to find protective gear for unprepared hospitals, nursing homes have been ignored.

PARKINSON: Unfortunately, the resources that were denied to nursing homes and were -- instead were sent to hospitals, have had really tragic results because it's impossible to stop this virus if you don't have the face mask that you need to keep it from spreading.

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BERKOWITZ: It's like government malfeasance, how little they have done. GRIFFIN (voice-over): Deborah Berkowitz is former chief of staff at

OSHA, the government agency charged with protecting workers. She says the government has failed by silently allowing nursing home deaths to multiply without acting.

BERKOWITZ: OSHA put out no specific guidance until just recently and has no mandates. And, you know, guidance is voluntary. Employers can follow it or they can ignore it.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): OSHA's guidelines on protecting nursing home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic were published only this past week, three months after the first deaths were recorded at a nursing facility in Washington, far too late to help workers like Maurice Dotson.

BROGDON: He was 51 years old. He didn't need to die.

GRIFFIN: OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, says it investigates all complaints and has been paying particular attention to protections for those health workers who have high exposure to coronavirus. That is of little comfort to the family of Maurice Dotson -- Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

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HOLMES: The U.S. president taking advantage of the Memorial Day holiday to play golf right in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic. And he is still nursing a grudge against his former attorney general. We'll have the latest from the White House when we come back.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) HOLMES: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. President Donald Trump spent Saturday doing what he wants Americans to do, go about their daily lives.

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HOLMES: For him that means playing golf at one of his properties and jumping on Twitter to settle some political scores. Jeremy Diamond reports from the White House.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump on Saturday hitting the links, heading to one of his golf courses in Virginia for the first time in more than two months.

This comes as President Trump is pushing for a return to normal, encouraging Americans to go back to their daily lives, to begin reopening their businesses. President Trump has been tweeting about a return to greatness, a transition to greatness and this is part and parcel of that.

Just like when we saw President Trump days ago, touring a manufacturing facility in the state of Michigan, refusing to wear a mask in public because, again, it would give that appearance of an ongoing crisis, an ongoing pandemic that would cut against his narrative of wanting to reopen the country.

Of course it's not just the president. We heard from the White House's coronavirus coordinator on Friday, Dr. Deborah Birx, encouraging Americans to go out and practice social distancing.

President Trump, though, was not practicing social distancing, didn't appear to be within -- more than 6 feet apart from his golf partners, as you can see in this video right now. And the president also not wearing a mask which, of course, has been his strategy and his refusal to wear a mask out in public.

Beyond that, we know that the president is lashing out, once again, at his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions. The two men have been in a feud since attorney general Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation early in President Trump's presidency.

Now the former attorney general is running for Senate in the state of Alabama, where he used to be a senator. And he's facing a runoff election against the other Republican that President Trump has endorsed.

And after President Trump told Alabamians not to trust the former attorney general, Jeff Sessions fired back and now, we're hearing, once again, from the president. Tweeting, Jeff, you had your chance and blew it. The dirty cops and others got caught by better and stronger people than you. Hopefully the slime will pay a price. You should drop out of the race and pray that the current Democratic senator from Alabama loses the race. The tweet from the president continuing that feud between his him and

his former attorney general. Remarkable to see the president not only opposing a former cabinet member in a Republican primary in a Senate race where Jeff Sessions used to hold that seat for decades and decades but, of course, that is indeed where we stand -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

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HOLMES: And joining me now, Ron Brownstein senior editor at "The Atlantic" magazine.

Let's start with the churches. The president says he'll override governors in order to have them open this weekend.

I'm curious, what's your take on the strategy in taking a stand on religious services and what's the polling on this?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: First, as you know, there's probably no way he can override governors. It's not clear what he's talking about. But the president is always comfortable going back to culture war, us against him. And his us are Americans who feel their way of life is being undermined by a changing America, white Christians, people who are white and identify as Christians, were a majority of the American population for most of our history.

About 2010, they fell below a majority. Right now 40 percent of Americans identify as Christians and are white. But they're still about two-thirds of Republicans. And if you look at evangelical white Christians, they're only about one-sixth of the country but about one- third of the Republican Party.

So as on many issues, the president here is kind of playing to the short side of the field, looking to mobilize his base, even though the polling is very clear that most Americans think it is appropriate to continue restrictions on large religious gatherings as well as other gatherings.

HOLMES: You wrote about that too in "The Atlantic." He's deepening division between red and blue states and you see that in his comments on mail-in voting, singling out the Democratic states for criticism, ignoring the fact that so many Republican-led states support mail-in voting as well.

There's no fraud, despite what he says. And Democrats, they're saying it's about voter suppression.

Do they have a point?

BROWNSTEIN: First, the president, you know, has always portrayed himself as the victim of voter fraud, even though there is bracingly little evidence of fraud in the U.S., both in in-person voting and mail-in voting.

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BROWNSTEIN: But it is bizarre for him to be launching this crusade for two reasons. The best evidence from 2016 is that as many as Democrats as Republicans voted by mail. Florida, Arizona, aiming it at older white voters while Democrats have put more emphasis on early voting, when you can vote before Election Day, which is popular in the African American community.

Another reason it's bizarre that he's launching this campaign, it's a war that he's already lost. If you look at the six states that both states agree are most likely to pick the winner in November, all of those states, already under existing law, anybody can vote by mail for any reason.

So while the president can fight around the edges, he can fight around the idea of sending people an application for a mail-in ballot, in the states who are going to decide the next president is, the legal structure is there and all he may be doing is convincing his own voters that it's an unreliable way to vote.

HOLMES: A lot of people thinking that, too, setting this up in case he loses. Going back to reopening, it's a risky game Trump is playing regarding this push for quick reopenings because if it leads to a big return for the virus, the closer we are to the election, it could be backfire big time in an electoral sense and, of course, in a human sense.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. There's obviously that risk. He has fully identified himself with the cause of opening as much as possible as quickly as possible. And there is the risk that you cite of a big second wave.

Even short of that, we're talking about 20,000 to 25,000 cases a day and 1,000 deaths a day on an ongoing basis in the U.S.

The headline in "The New York Times" tomorrow morning, all eight columns listing the names of the dead, like the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. Even without a second resurgence, by two to one, Americans say they're worried about opening too quickly than opening too slowly.

As on so many issues, he's focusing on a portion of the Republican coalition that is most eager to reopen the economy regardless of the health situation. Obviously everyone wants to reopen the economy. But at the -- but even today, again, before the worst that you cite, we're talking two to one against the position the president is taking.

HOLMES: Before we go, his opponent in all of this, let's not forget him, have been a little bit invisible over the last few months. Every time I read a poll, there's different numbers, a solid lead for Joe Biden, slender lead for Joe Biden, Donald Trump is ahead in key states.

And the importance of those swing states is going to decide the result in the Electoral College.

What do you see there for Joe Biden? BROWNSTEIN: I think Biden is ahead now, clearly. And the most consistent and I think most important point in the polls is Trump is almost always polling below 45 percent, 46 percent in 2016. Republicans won about 45 percent of the total House vote across the whole country.

I think it's likely he's going to get somewhere around 45 percent or 46 percent of the vote at the most in November. And it's going to be very hard for him to win the popular vote.

That doesn't mean that he can't squeeze out an Electoral College victory by holding those three closest swing states, Wisconsin, Arizona and Florida, by very narrow margins.

The new wrinkle is that, while Biden is not really enthusing young people, particularly nonwhite young people, he's running better among older white voters since Al Gore in 2000, which was the last Democrat to carry seniors.

Comments by many Republicans are suggesting that seniors almost had a duty to die to let the economy keep going. Biden is now leading among sources and they're a big part of the electorate in Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania, another one of our swing states.

So while Biden may not succeed at expanding the electorate in the way that Bernie Sanders might have or Barack Obama did, he may be able to expand the map by appealing more to older whites.

HOLMES: When I speak to my son's generation, he's got to excite them as well ,that young vote.

BROWNSTEIN: That's a problem.

HOLMES: Yes, interesting. I wish we had more time. I could talk all day with you. Thank you so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

HOLMES: Senior editor at "The Atlantic."

The British opposition Labour Partying calling for investigations into a report that a senior adviser to the prime minister potentially violated the nationwide lockdown not once but on two separate occasions.

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HOLMES: Dominic Cummings denies breaking the lockdown rules by traveling to Durham more than 400 kilometers from London.

Downing Street defending the travel. But his critics, they're not sure. Hadas Gold joins me now.

He's certainly not going willingly.

What pressure on Boris Johnson to cut him loose. HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's lots of pressure on Boris

Johnson and Dominic Cummings. It's not that he broke lock down but he did so when he and his wife were suffering symptoms.

They have said that he traveled the more than 250 miles so they could be closer to family in order to get help for their young child in case they both fell very ill.

For many people in the public, for some of the Conservative Party's own members, this is striking them as hypocritical. While the rest of the country is asked not to travel, a senior aide, a divisive figure in Downing Street, was essentially breaking these rules for himself and going to stay with family more than 200 miles away.

I'll pull up some of the front pages today just to show you how this is being played out. It's dominating the headlines here. Lots of questions and lots of pressure facing Dominic Cummings but Downing Street is backing him up.

HOLMES: What about the public reaction?

They've been told to abide by rules that the prime minister's adviser, who helped write those rules, felt he didn't have to abide by?

GOLD: And the adviser who resigned didn't leave the city, he went to visit a girlfriend while everybody was supposed to be on lockdown. And that adviser resigned. We've seen other government officials resign or be admonished for similar instances. It's interesting to see the reaction to Dominic Cummings.

But what's changing this morning is we are starting to see some Conservative members of Parliament coming out against Dominic Cummings because it's expending political capital at a time when the government is being criticized for their initial reaction to the pandemic.

Some of these members of Parliament saying, why are we supporting Dominic Cummings?

He needs to resign. But Downing Street saying he did nothing wrong.

HOLMES: Hadas Gold, thank you. It's good to see you.

We'll take a quick break. Israel's prime minister making history again but probably not the kind of history he would like to be making. We're going to be live in Jerusalem. Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial is about to get under way.

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HOLMES: Weeks after securing a unity government, Israel's prime minister is due in court. Benjamin Netanyahu facing charges of bribery and fraud stemming from three different cases.

The allegations include accepting gifts from overseas business men and seeking positive media coverage in return for favors. Mr. Netanyahu denying all of the charges. He's even called them an attempted coup. CNN's Oren Liebermann is live in Jerusalem.

I expect he's done everything he can to make this day not happen. And here we are.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's been more than three years since these investigations were made public back at the beginning of 2017. And then once it got to the stage of an indictment, there were further delays.

The entire judicial system was put into an emergency situation and that delayed it a few months ago. But here we are today with the trial set to begin in a few hours.

Today is largely a technical day. Netanyahu only has to say that he understands the charges against him, charges of bribery and fraud and breach of trust and that, even his lawyers can say, there's no entering of a plea, there's no witnesses, no evidence. The rest of the day will be technical, arguments about evidence, scheduling.

Even if this isn't a major day, it's an unprecedented day in the history of the State of Israel. The first time in the country that a sitting prime minister has been put on trial.

Netanyahu, who has proclaimed his innocence repeatedly over the course of the last few years, is trying to put on a show of business as usual, sitting right now in a cabinet meeting with Benny Gantz.

Netanyahu will be heading here after the cabinet meeting.

HOLMES: Tell us more about that. This must be all very uncomfortable for this new coalition unity government. Benny Gantz, what is he saying and his supporters saying?

LIEBERMANN: Over the course of the last three elections, the main promise of the Blue and White Party is that he would never serve under a prime minister who has been indicted. It's Gantz's support that allows Netanyahu to serve.

His answer when he was asked a week ago in Israel about what it's like serving now and isn't it his support that allows Netanyahu to serve was that he thinks Israel right now needs a government, not another election. And he's serving the state of Israel, not Netanyahu. If anyone benefits, so be it.

He tried to brush aside that question of who this benefits and who it supports and that, of course, is the prime minister himself.

HOLMES: All right. Thanks for that. Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, the devastating effects of the coronavirus seen through the eyes of a child. How one young artist is using her talent to help others cope.

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HOLMES: For children, the isolation and the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic can be overwhelming. One young artist is using her talents to help others. Kristie Lu Stout reports.

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ARANYA DUTT BEDI, ARTIST: This is a story about a girl named Aranya.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): For Aranya Bedi, like many children around the world, this is life now. Indoors and unsure, she tries to understand the pandemic out there.

BEDI: Outside my house there is such a big problem. It's coronavirus.

STOUT (voice-over): Aranya first learned that word in March, when India imposed a strict lockdown of its 1.3 billion citizens to prevent an outbreak.

BAHAR DUTT, ARANYA'S MOTHER: She keeps asking me, what is that?

I said, that is the coronavirus.

STOUT (voice-over): Then she saw scenes like this outside her Delhi home, migrant workers now without out income lining up for free meals at a government center.

DUTT: It really bothered me. It bothered my daughter as well.

BEDI: I felt sad for these poor persons.

STOUT (voice-over): Aranya wanted to help. So the 5-year old did which she loves, she drew.

BEDI: I made a book. It's to help the poor people fight coronavirus.

DUTT: Oh, my God, what is she doing?

STOUT (voice-over): Her parents, both professional storytellers. Mom Bahar is a journalist, and dad Vijay, CNN's own Delhi based camera man, turned these pictures into an ebook.

BEDI: See, I met a girl. Her name is Tia (ph). She always wanted to go out to the park.

[04:55:00]

STOUT (voice-over): The tale of a young girl who dreams of helping others but cannot leave home.

DUTT: Children are definitely impacted by the lockdown. They are not going out, they are not going to school, they're not meeting their friends. And I think what is perhaps also sad is that children are not always able to express themselves.

So it comes out in other ways.

STOUT (voice-over): India is home to 472 million children. The government wrote its own story to help, a superhero who explains COVID-19. And now, many children are doing their part, too. Some even opening their piggy banks to support virus relief funds.

BEDI: This coronavirus and me washing my hands.

STOUT (voice-over): Aranya's book is free though she hopes readers donate to NGOs like UNICEF. So far, it has raised over $1,000. When lockdown is over, maybe at month's end, Aranya is excited to draw with friends but afraid that the virus is still a threat. She is reluctant to go outside -- Kristie Lu Stout, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: From children doing their part to billionaire business men doing theirs, Robert Kraft auctioned off his championship ring from Super Bowl LI for charity. It sold for just over $1 million and those proceeds will go to four organizations, Feeding America, Meals on Wheels, World Central Kitchen and No Kid Hungry. Nice gesture.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'll be back with more news in just a few minutes.