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Doctor Says Pandemic Is "Spiraling out of Control"; American Travelers May Be Barred from Visiting Europe; Trump Holds Event in Arizona Despite Record COVID-19 Cases; Inside a Mass COVID-19 Testing Site in Beijing; Israeli Army to Step Up Preparations in West Bank ahead of Possible Annexation; Rayshard Brooks Laid to Rest; European Union Considers Barring U.S. Travelers; Brazilian Judge Orders Bolsonaro To Use Face Mask; Russia Marks 75th Anniversary Of Victory Day. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired June 24, 2020 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers from all around the world. I'm Anna Coren, live in Hong Kong.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, the European Union considering banning travelers from countries with high numbers of coronavirus cases, including the United States.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We are now seeing a disturbing surge of infections that looks like it is a combination but one of the things is an increase in community spread.
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COREN (voice-over): Health experts in charge of the White House response to the pandemic say the next few weeks will be critical.
And a Victory Day parade amid a pandemic. Russia's rescheduled anniversary celebration gets underway soon.
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COREN: Scientists are delivering a stark warning that their efforts must be stepped up to contain the coronavirus as it races around the globe. Top U.S. health officials told lawmakers the next two weeks are critical to stop the surge of infections in half the country.
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DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: We have all done the best that we can do to tackle this virus. And the reality is it has brought the nation to its knees. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Twenty-five states have reported rising rates of new cases in the last week. For a second week, Texas, Arizona and Nevada set records in their outbreaks.
The European Union is taking notice, as it prepares to open the bloc to visitors next month. The E.U. is considering barring U.S. travelers from entering. Cyril Vanier joins us now from Paris.
That is certainly a stinging blow to America's standing in the world and a repudiation of President Trump's handling of the virus. But this is not about people's feelings; rather saving lives and protecting people.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're right, Anna, and I would remind our viewers that the European leaders had their feelings hurt back in March when Donald Trump barred European travelers from entering into the U.S.
But the world's in a different place now. It's about saving lives, preventing the resurgence of an outbreak. Europe has been through the worst of it. There have been tens of thousands of deaths since the last time we looked at this question of travel. And Europe now feels it has curved the outbreak here in France.
Health authorities say the pandemic is under control. So as European countries by and large ease restrictions on everyday life and look at reopening Europe to the rest of the world, they're also asking this question, how do we do this safely?
That means, which travelers do we allow in?
French president Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation 10 days ago and said, you will be able to travel outside of Europe but only to places where the pandemic is under control.
I think by any objective standard, the virus is not under control in the United States. That's why European institutions at the highest level are considering putting the United States on a list of unsafe countries starting July 1st.
COREN: Along with Russia and Brazil.
How much of Europe will be reopening or is expected to reopen?
What sort of quarantine measures or testing facilities will be in place for tourists?
VANIER: It won't be a totally unified picture, because Europe cannot impose upon individual countries what they should do with their borders. Every head of state will have that freedom of choice.
However, Europe had bungled the first stage of the response when it largely closed borders within countries. Travel within Europe is a pillar of the European Union. So they now are trying to do this in a more concerted fashion. We won't know what that looks like until July 1st. We expect announcements early next week.
But it's likely that Europe as a whole is going to reopen its borders to the rest of the world starting July 1st, as we discussed, with some countries being on the unsafe list. Some travelers won't be allowed in.
As for testing and quarantine measures, that is something that, for the moment, is up to individual countries. We know some countries have already begun to do so. They are testing travelers. If they have symptoms, they ask travelers to observe a 2-week quarantine period.
That's currently the case between England and France. If I were to travel to London today, I would be asked to observe a 2-week quarantine period.
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VANIER: So there are some individual measures. But by and large, what you will see starting July 1st is Europe reopening its borders to the rest of the world -- Anna.
COREN: Cyril Vanier, joining from Paris. Great to see you, many thanks.
With the U.S. infection rate rising, President Trump has floated the idea of slowing down testing to keep the numbers down. But the country's top expert on infectious disease says the U.S. should be doing more tests to fight what he calls a disturbing surge of infections. Nick Watt has more.
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FAUCI: If you look at how we have been hit, we have been hit badly.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a checkup from Dr. Anthony Fauci, praised for New York, where they are for now controlling COVID-19.
FAUCI: However, in other areas of the country, we are now seeing a disturbing surge of infections.
WATT (voice-over): Black Americans are being hit harder.
Does institutional racism play a part?
FAUCI: The answer, Congressman, is yes.
WATT (voice-over): And a vaccine?
FAUCI: I still think there is a reasonably good chance that, by the very beginning of 2021, that, if we are going to have a vaccine, we will have it by then.
WATT (voice-over): Meantime, they say, it must be masks, distancing and handwashing.
FAUCI: The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surgings that we are seeing.
WATT (voice-over): Case counts are now rising in half our states.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we move from total lockdown to a public health model of testing, tracking, isolating and quarantining, we have yet to see any state make that transition effectively.
WATT (voice-over): Here's what happened in Texas since reopening began. We knew daily case counts would go up. They've about quadrupled.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): Because the spread is so rampant right now, there's never a reason for you to have to leave your home, unless you do need to go out.
WATT (voice-over): He says even tougher actions might be needed if those numbers keep rising.
Here's Florida since reopening began: average case counts have tripled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A week ago, we had 8 patients, none on a ventilator. We are now at over 40 plus patients, 4 on ventilators. We have had to find a second COVID unit and we're looking for a third COVID unit right now.
WATT (voice-over): More than 60 percent of all infections in the U.S. are in those under 50, according to the CDC, increasing fears for schools in the fall and the return of sports.
The world's number one tennis player, Novak Djokovic, just tested positive days after hosting an up close and personal tournament, a decision another player called "boneheaded."
WATT: And bad news from here in California, they say they are seeing a record number of new cases in a single day and also a record number of people in the hospital suffering from COVID-19. And this is not the second wave. This is still the first -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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COREN: Health experts had warned against it. But the U.S. president went ahead and did it anyway. For the second time in barely 4 days, Donald Trump held an indoor rally. He addressed young conservatives at a megachurch in Phoenix, Arizona.
If he was looking for an enthusiastic crowd after a sparse showing at his Tulsa weekend rally, he got it. There were plenty of people in the audience for the president. There were barely any face masks or social distancing. The city didn't enforce its own mandatory mask order for this event.
Cases in Arizona are surging; more than 58,000 people in the state have been infected and there have been more than 1,300 deaths.
Dr. Esther Choo joins us from Portland, Oregon. She is a professor of emergency medicine.
Great to have you with, us Doctor. Let's start with that rally. Dr. Fauci in his testimony on Capitol Hill today warned people not to go in a crowd and, if you do, wear a mask. These people who attended did the exact opposite. As a health professional, you must just shake your head.
How does this defiance and behavior make you feel?
DR. ESTHER CHOO, OREGON HEALTH AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: It's painful to watch. We have said all along that we understand people cannot stay in 24/7. People need to venture out for a lot of reasons.
Sometimes they're in gatherings indoors, the worst things to do in terms of disease transmission. If you are going to do that, at least try to maintain some basic social distancing measures, wear a mask, have strict hand hygiene and separate from others. To see people doing that kind of a gathering with so little protection is really painful and very concerning.
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COREN: Dr. Fauci also confirmed there's a disturbing surge in infections with half the country seeing an uptick in cases.
Do you put this down to the early reopening of states?
CHOO: For sure. We are seeing what we expected to see. We knew that if we opened ahead of definitively seeing a decline and as we leapt right into activities that are the most high-risk activities, indoor gatherings, people close together, often without mask wearing, what we initially saw was outbreaks in places like nursing homes and group homes and correctional facilities.
Now we are seeing outbreaks from things like casinos, entertainment clubs or social gatherings. That's exactly what we were concerned of. It's predictable but unfortunate. We are seeing really concerning cases with many states seeing their sharpest rise over the past week or so.
COREN: Despite what the president said about the abundance of testing in the United States, the assistant secretary for public health admitted today that testing is insufficient and the number of contact tracers is woefully low. United States is not lacking in manpower or resources.
So what is letting your country down?
CHOO: From the very beginning, we have had inadequate testing. This was a big flub at the very outset of our management of this disease. Testing should have been first and it should have been aggressive.
We still don't have as much testing, even in the hospital, as people think we do. People think that, for clinical purposes, we have all the tests we need. Those tests are still not 100 percent available and are not quickly available. So the rapid testing we need to make decisions is still in short
supply and the testing we need for epidemiological purposes, for surveillance, for contact tracing, isolation, getting a sense of what is happening as we reopen our businesses and our social contacts, we are really behind in that arena.
And that's why we aren't able to contain as we reopen. That strategy has simply not been in place.
COREN: The European Union is considering banning U.S. citizens from entering Europe due to its failures in controlling the pandemic.
Do you think that this would be a correct decision to make, considering the situation the United States is in at the moment?
CHOO: It's increasingly obvious. The past 1.5 weeks have demonstrated a big risk to others. We simply have not gotten control of this country. I don't blame that strategy. Americans simply don't have this under control.
COREN: Can I also ask you, as an American, of Asian heritage, what are your thoughts when you heard President Trump use the term, "kung flu," for a second time?
This, time it was at his Phoenix rally, describing the coronavirus.
CHOO: Well, hearing that kind of racist term is almost an insult and name-calling I heard when I was a child. It's obviously trying to drive a wedge between Asian Americans and other Americans and really emphasize that kind of xenophobic and "other people" attitude. But every time I hear it, I just think, what is the point?
And I think it is entertaining for some people. They like to hear, people like to hear their own racist attitudes echoed from our own administration. They enjoy it. It may simply be funny to people who don't hear those racist overtones.
But also it's deflecting attention from what is real and serious here, which is what we have been talking about, our extreme failures in testing and controlling this disease in this country. So I see it as thrown out there to make us look at something besides this catastrophic public health failure.
COREN: It's farcical to think you can make light of the situation at a time where you should be bringing people together and not dividing them. Dr. Esther Choo, great to have you on the program, many thanks.
CHOO: Thank you so much, Anna.
COREN: With China's most recent coronavirus cluster outbreak, the government is ramping up testing to contain the spread. CNN's David Culver goes inside a mask testing site in Beijing that is testing thousands of people daily.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in China, you're looking at one of many mass testing sites that have been set up, particularly within Beijing. This is following the wholesale food cluster outbreak that happened more than a week ago.
They say it's now under control, but they are continuing testing in massive numbers.
And you've got here, 19 rows set up. This is for 19 different communities that fit into this one mass testing site. Once people have registered, they're taken across this little way here into these lines.
And let me show you where they end up. It's almost like getting in rides at an amusement park. Getting them line there, if you will. I'll show you. Follow me over here. And this is where the actual testing is done. It takes about 30 seconds. It got about 100 staff members that work on two-hour shifts.
And there they do the throat swab. They then take that sample and they'll put it back in the refrigerator, and then move on to the next person.
Usually it takes just a few days' time to get the results back and most people are only notified if they have a positive result.
We can see over here, this is where the staff will take off all of their PPE, all of their protective equipment, and they'll throw it away. It's kept in a safe and separate area. And the other stuff that are ready to come on shift, they get changed, suited up, and go through a sanitation procedure in a separate facility.
To then keep this going really from 9:00 in the morning until 10 o'clock at night. In three days' time that this has been operating, they've done about 20,000 tests. This was built overnight.
So, they pop up relatively quickly. They will keep it going for as long as they need to hear within Beijing, and they say as of now, they feel like they're on a good path, and keeping this most recent cluster outbreak under control. But they are saying complacency is what they are trying to avoid with all of this -- David Culver, CNN, Beijing.
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COREN: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still to come, Israel is expected to announce as early as next week that it is annexing parts of the West Bank. The United Nations weighs in. Details, coming up.
Plus, the nationwide movement to reform the police has hit a roadblock in the U.S. Senate. Details on what's causing the holdup, next.
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COREN: The U.N. Security Council is said to meet in the coming hours to discuss the impact of a possible Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank. Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he plans to introduce Israeli sovereignty over parts of the territory in July.
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COREN: This week, U.S. officials will discuss whether to give Israel the green light for annexation, which is seen by Palestinians and many other countries as illegal. Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem with the very latest.
U.N. secretary general Antonio Guterres is asking Israel to drop its annexation plans, describing them as devastating.
Will these pleas make any difference?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.N. secretary general has very little, if, any influence over what Israel decides to do. That's because Israel knows they have the backing of the United States, which means any U.N. Security Council resolution to try and stop Israel from acting or is critical of Israel or the United States with the Trump administration's plan for peace will be blocked by the U.S.
It's that cover from the United States that gives Israel the feeling that it can move forward with annexation of parts of the West Bank, if crucially, it gets the green light from the United States.
Let's put it this way. One U.S. official here said, the U.S. influence has so much power over Israel, that even if the rest of the world okayed annexation and the U.S. said no, Israel probably wouldn't go forward with it, because of the U.S.' guidance and backing.
What will be the reaction?
We have already seen the Palestinians say that if Israel moves forward with annexation it could be the end of the Palestinian Authority and that would seriously undermine the security and stability we are seeing, especially right now.
Meanwhile, Jordan could consider suspending its peace treaty or recalling its ambassador from Israel; Egypt may have to consider doing the same because of pressure from the street.
The United Arab Emirates came out strongly against annexation as well as the European Union, which could consider measures of some kind of sanctions against Israel. It's clear where the rest of the world stands and that is against annexation. The U.S. stands behind Israel and they feel that's all they need to move forward. We will learn in the next few days what the U.S. will allow.
COREN: Real concerns for regional stability.
What can you tell us about the fatal shooting of a Palestinian man at a West Bank checkpoint?
LIEBERMANN: This happened yesterday, essentially east of Jerusalem in the West Bank. Israeli police say a Palestinian driver attempted to carry out a car-ramming attack at a checkpoint, injuring a female soldier lightly.
But Palestinian officials and members of the Palestinian man's family dispute that account, saying that the 28-year old was speeding because he was on his way to his sister's wedding that day and was heading from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to pick her up, when he lost control of his car and got into an accident there.
Meanwhile, a PLO journalist who says he is a relative of the man calls this a, quote, "execution in cold blood."
It's this kind of incident that very well could ignite a region that's already on edge as the entire region looks to see what Israel does when it comes to annexation. These sorts of incidents and shootings add fuel to what is already a very much always burning fire.
COREN: Oren Liebermann from Jerusalem. Many thanks for the update.
A Kentucky police officer has now been fired three months after killing an African American woman. Breonna Taylor's death is one of several that sparked protests across the U.S. in recent weeks. The 26- year old died in March when police broke down the door to her apartment as she was sleeping and shot her eight times.
Louisville metro police department chief said the officer displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life when he wantonly fired 10 rounds. Two other officers have been placed on administrative leave. Protesters want all three to face charges.
Family and friends attended private funeral services Tuesday for Rayshard Brooks, the black man shot and killed by an Atlanta police officer more than a week ago. Brooks was remembered as a smiling and hardworking father.
His former coworkers say a racist legal system of imprisonment, probation and police violence kept him down as he tried to improve his life and take care of his family. The funeral was held at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the late civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr., served as co-pastor. King's daughter had words of sympathy for Brooks' children.
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BERNICE KING, DAUGHTER OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I know the pain of growing up without a father and the ongoing tension around his tragic loss. I am and will continue to pray for each of you. Rayshard Brooks' life matters and he should have been able to live to enjoy his family and watch his kids grow up.
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KING: And the officers should have gone home that night without blood on their hands. This is the great tragedy in our nation that must cease.
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COREN: Rayshard Brooks left behind his widow, 3 young daughters and a 13 year old stepson.
The weeks-long national push for police reform in the U.S. could fall apart in Congress in the next 24 hours as Republicans and Democrats hit a deadlock in the Senate. The Republican-controlled chamber is expected to hold a procedural vote to allow debate on the police reform bill.
It's proposed by Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate. Democrats and civil rights groups condemn the Republican bill as unacceptably weak, with Democratic leadership calling it "not salvageable."
The top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, wants bipartisan talks to craft a new bill. But Republican leaders are threatening that this is the only chance they will work together.
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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: The national conversation about policing reform, which has been ongoing for several years, was renewed by the terrible killing of George Floyd, his windpipe crushed by an officer who kept his knee on Floyd's neck, for nine minutes, nearly nine minutes.
The bill my Republican friends have drafted would not even completely ban the type of brutal tactics that led to George Floyd's death. The Republican bill does not even fully prevent the kind of tactics that sparked this whole debate in the first place.
Breonna Taylor, a first responder, was asleep in her bed in Louisville, Kentucky, when she was killed by police executing a no- knock warrant. The Republican bill does not ban no-knock warrants. It does not limit them or require police departments to provide more information before obtaining them from a court. It calls for more data -- more data? -- on the use of no-knock warrants.
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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Earlier this, month Senate Democrats were telling everyone who would listen that we would be derelict in our duty if we did not have police reform legislation on the floor of the Senate this month.
But then, as soon as the junior senator from South Carolina actually published something concrete, their tune has changed rather sharply. Suddenly, our Democratic colleagues are agonizing and debating whether or not the Senate should have this discussion at all or whether to kill any chance of reform legislation before it can even taxi onto the runway. The American people deserve better than a partisan stalemate. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: When we come back, more on the European Union's decision that could pull the welcome mat out from under U.S. travelers.
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ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren and welcome to Europe, but not so fast, travelers from the United States. With the E.U. set to reopen its borders and restart tourism, a number of diplomatic sources tell CNN the rising number of Coronavirus infections in the U.S. could mean Americans will join countries like Brazil and Russia banned from entry. A decision by the European Union would not be mandatory, only individual countries could decide to open or close a border.
Well, let's bring in CNN's John Defterios in Abu Dhabi. John this move banned us travels to Europe, would be quiet a blow? What are the implications of this potential decision?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Not to say it's quite a statement knowing the past transatlantic ties, they've been strained under this current president, President Trump, of course, and the importance by the way of tourism to the economies of Europe. Three of the top five destinations in the world are in Europe, they are France, Spain and Italy, so they would like to have the income.
But I'm not entirely surprised by this, Anna, and I'll tell you why. Because the U.S. very quickly under the Trump administration put a ban on European travelers coming into the United States during the surge of the pandemic, remember, particularly in the north of Italy, and they were quick to do so. So in a sense, this is reciprocity.
We'll get a lot more information today because the permanent representatives from the European states will meet in Brussels to kind of clarify that position. And you express a very important caveat here. The European Commission representing the European Union, of course, makes a recommendation to the States, but it's up to individual countries themselves to say, yes, you can come in, no, you cannot.
This is not limited to the United States. But of course, because it's the largest economy in the world, active travelers into Europe because of the historical roots and ties to families, it is a significant statement if it goes through. And this will start to fold out or roll out here by the end of the week, if not more information today in the afternoon from Brussels.
COREN: And John, we saw oil prices collapse back in April. But with the recovery to $40 a barrel, there is a willingness -- is there a willingness, I should say, from the U.S. and others to invest in the Middle East?
DEFTERIOS: Well, this is the surprise. And as you suggested, we had one of seven oil shocks take place in the month of April over the last six decades that transpired. If you look at the prices here brought, the international benchmark below $20 a barrel, but the US price was at zero and actually went negative for one day.
So it is surprising that there is a willingness at this stage for an international consortium to start looking into the oil and gas market to put money at play here. And this is an investment into Abu Dhabi and its National Oil Company better than $20 billion. The consortium is the U.S., Canada, European player from Italy, also Asian players, sizable sovereign investors as well into a gas pipeline network that's been developed here. It's an infrastructure play.
Here's the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, why they chose to do it now.
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SULTAN AL JABER, GROUP CEO, ADNOC This deal as you know, will deliver over $10 billion of FDI for ADNOC and the UAE. And if it wasn't for the differentiated value proposition provided by the UAE, by Abu Dhabi, and by ADNOC, to such strategic and important investors, they would not have taken such a bold decision to move ahead and to proceed with this very important transaction. And our view, it is a big achievement given of course, the current economic climate.
DEFTERIOS: You know, many of the IOC s are cutting 15 to 25 percent of their workforce. It's the opposite with ADNOC right now. You're not retrenching, you're actually building by going into oil new facilities and gas facilities at the same time.
AL JABER: We are very much focused on what we can control and that is our cost. And regardless of the situation, this focus on cost will not change regardless of the circumstance or the environment. And our strategic aim is to always be one of the lowest-cost producers in the world. And that hasn't in any way impacted our business plans as far as our strategic projects are concerned.
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DEFTERIOS: It's interesting when we talk about the low cost of oil and squeezing cost out here. The average cost for production in the UAE and in this region is about four to $8.00 a barrel. Anna, if you go to the United States, the breakeven price and the Texas basins for shale is 30, 35, 40, in some cases.
You can see the competitive advantage of why people are willing to come in today. And after the pandemic, which hit this country quite hard as well, it's a nice shot in the arm to get a deal of this scale on the table.
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COREN: As prices certainly make it much more attractive. John Defterios, good to see you. Many thanks. Well, the process of freeing England from a lockdown is underway come July 4th. The big parts of the country's hospitality and tourism industries will be allowed to throw open their doors again. Even the pubs can reopen. Anna Stewart has been checking their reaction in London.
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ANNA STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL REPORTER: The National hibernation is coming to an end. That was the announcement from U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he laid out his plan for the next stage of lifting locked down. Businesses in England including pubs, hotels, hair salons, and cinemas will be able to reopen on July 4th, the first time in over three months.
The social distancing rule has been relaxed from two meters to one. Businesses will have to implement new measures to keep their customers and staff safe according to new government guidelines.
This pub has been open for the last few weeks, takeaway pints only, and as you can see, with a very socially distance queue. Speaking to people here though, they may be happy to have a pint outside in the sunshine. Will they feel happy going inside a pub or a restaurant? Will they want to go to the cinema? Will they feel safe?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Being younger, I don't feel like I'm as much of a risk, and my company you're actually making us go back to the office from next week. So if I can go back to work, I feel like I can go to the other things that will say more fun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't want to sit next to people I'm just not sure about. And then I really miss the cinema. I really miss that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I'd be happy to go probably to the cinema, but certainly to the pub. And where we live, there's a pub nearby.
STEWART: And that is the big concern for this sector. Businesses may be able to reopen. Will they have enough customers. Over nine million people salaries are now being supported by the U.K. government's furlough scheme. As that tapers, there is a risk that some of those businesses will simply have to cut jobs, further depressing consumer spending and prolonging the U.K.'s steepest ever economic slump on record. Anna Stewart, CNN London.
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COREN: Brazil's Attorney General is pushing to reverse a judge's decision ordering the country's president to wear a face mask. COVID- 19 is racing across South America and its largest country is reporting a staggering jump in use cases nearly 40,000 over 24 hours.
And now, President Jair Bolsonaro who has repeatedly flouted safety measures is getting an earful from the judge. Our Sashta Darlington has more from Sao Paulo.
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SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL REPORTER: A Brazilian judge has ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to wear a mask in public after the Coronavirus skeptic appeared at many rallies without one. The judge said Bolsonaro would face a fine of up to about $380 a day if he refused to use one while in public in the country's capital, Brasilia.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the virus insisting the economic fallout from social isolation measures would be worse than COVID-19. His supporters have staged multiple rallies calling for an end to quarantine and he has frequently joined them without a mask, shaking hands, and embracing the crowds.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise. Brazil reported nearly 40,000 new infections on Tuesday and more than 1,300 additional deaths. Shasta Darlington, CNN, South Paulo.
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COREN: A reckoning on racism and police brutality has electrified the Senate primary race in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Voting in Louisville was briefly extended to allow a crowd of people waiting outside of polling station to cast the ballot. The half-hour extension came at the conclusion of mostly smooth primaries in Kentucky and New York. The elections were largely conducted by mail because of the pandemic.
On the national stage, former U.S. President Barack Obama helped Joe Biden raise around $11 million for his White House bid during a virtual online event. It's the largest fundraiser to date for the Biden campaign and highlights the drawing power of Obama who is popular with the Democratic base. Obama told supporters, he trusts Biden, his former vice president, to heal the country and get it back on track. He also slammed the Trump administration for "actively promoting division."
Well, President Trump is once again attacking mail-in voting. He repeated his false claims about voter fraud just hours ago at his rally in Arizona, and predicted the most corrupt election in U.S. history. CNN's Brian Todd is gathering the facts.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It seems to be President Trump's conspiracy (INAUDIBLE), his recurring claims about voter fraud in this year's election, specifically fraud with ballots that are mailed in.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you do all mail in voting ballots, you're asking for fraud. People steal them out of mailboxes, people print them, and then they sign them and they give them in and the people don't even know where they're double-counted.
TODD: In one barrage of tweets this week, Trump pounded on the idea, mail-in ballots will lead to a rigged election. Millions of mail-in ballots will be printed by foreign countries and others. It will be the scandal of our times. Trump's Attorney General had the same talking points on Fox Business.
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL, UNITED STATES: Right now, a foreign country could print up tens of thousands of counterfeit ballots and be very hard for us to detect.
TODD: But William Barr himself said he hasn't looked into it, and he's offered no evidence to back up the claim. CNN has done multiple fact checks on the theories of widespread male voter fraud and we found no evidence any of it is true. The Federal Election Commission and independent experts back us up.
MICHAEL MCDONALD, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: It's minuscule versus the number of ballots had been cast.
TODD: Experts tell us, committing mail voter fraud on a mass scale in the U.S. is exceedingly difficult. Each county in America, almost every precinct has different styles of ballots, they say. So fraudsters would have to duplicate them perfectly. And if a foreign country tried to inject counterfeit mail-in ballots, safeguards in place would nail them.
MCDONALD: The election officials themselves are printing barcodes on the ballots and the envelopes and -- to making sure that the ballots are going out to the proper voters, voters are signing those return on envelopes, so there's some signature verification that's going on on the election officials end.
TODD: About a quarter of American voters cast ballots absentee by mail in 2016. President Trump s voted by mail, as has Vice President Pence, Attorney General Barr, Ivanka Trump, Jarred Kushner and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. With Coronavirus still a major health threat, experts say the percentage of those mailing in votes could go way up this year and should to be safer. So why does the President keep harping on the conspiracy?
LAURA COATES, FORMER U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT VOTING RIGHTS ATTORNEY: I think that President Trump and A.G. Barr are fixated on voter fraud as a distraction. In the past, we've heard the President made comments that if you expand the franchise and have more people voting, that he believes it will minimize the chances for a Republican being elected.
TODD: But the President does not seem to have the backing of some top members of his own party for his conspiracy theory. CNN spoke with several Republican senators, including those in top leadership positions, none of them said they agreed with the President's comments about mail-in voting. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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COREN: Still to come, how British authorities are responding to a racist message flown above an English Premier League stadium. That's next.
[02:45:00]
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COREN: The FBI says the noose found in the garage of NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace over the weekend was not a federal crime. The FBI says the rope may have been there since as far back as October and Wallace was assigned at the garage last week. NASCAR says it was used to pool the garage door closed.
Wallace, NASCAR's only African American driver tells CNN he's still angry and he doesn't think this was just an ordinary rope.
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BUBBA WALLACE, DRIVER, NASCAR: I've been racing all my life. I've -- we've raced out of hundreds of garages that never had garage pools like that. So people that want to call it garage pool and put out old videos and photos of knots being in -- as their evidence, go ahead. But from the evidence that we have -- that I have, it's a straight up noose. The FBI has stated it was a noose over and over again. NASCAR leadership has stated that it was a noose. I can confirm that. I actually got evidence of what was hanging in my garage over my car around my picker guys to confirm that it was a noose. And I've never seen anything like it.
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COREN: The airplane ad agency that flew White Lives Matter banner over an English football stadium on Monday has been grounded. Officials say they are worried about copycat flights at other Premier League stadiums as English football embraces the Black Lives Matter Movement. Here's CNN's Phil Black with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a powerful moment of reflection and protest. All the players from two English Premier League clubs kneeled against racism, demanding a wider understanding that black lives matter. Moments later, in the sky above, a deliberate, well-planned effort to belittle that cause, a small play trailing the words White Lives Matter Burnley.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's offensive about that? Lives do matter.
BLACK: In Burnley the next day, outside the club's stadium, we find at least one other person proudly supporting that message, whatever it means.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I write the message.
BLACK: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just amazed that you need to ask that.
NEIL HART, CEO, BURNLEY FOOTBALL CLUB: I was disgusted and ashamed.
BLACK: Burnley CEO says he knows the true intent behind the words as they were dragged through the sky.
HART: To incite racial hatred, full stop. And that is unacceptable.
BLACK: And he knows who was responsible for organizing it. Fans he says, who are linked to a far-right group.
Has they cause trouble for you before?
HART: These individuals are known to the club.
BLACK: Burnley's mayor knows this town has history with the far-right. He's been fighting those groups throughout his career.
WAJID KHAN, MAYOR, BURNLEY, ENGLAND: The people that did the banner, they had their way of thinking, but that way of thinking has been defeated consistently and persistently from people out there making a positive contribution.
BLACK: The people behind the banner don't speak for anyone in this part. The players in this passionate family football match are all refugees who escaped the Syrian war and are now proud members of Burnley football club. There's a pretty consistent view here on those behind the banner. They're missing the point.
When people say, white lives matter, does that offend you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To be honest with you, it doesn't offend me. No. It disappoints me. And the reason for that is because I know how powerful the Black Lives Matter movement is, and I know what they're trying to do. All the trying to do is educate people.
BLACK: In Burnley, as around the world, people who believe in overcoming centuries of inequality are not seeking to devalue white lives, they just hope for a future where racial identity really doesn't matter. Phil Black, CNN, Burnley, Northwest England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Russia is observing the 75th anniversary of Victory Day commemorating the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945. Well, people have started arriving for a military parade through Moscow's Red Square. We were looking at live pictures of Red Square. It will be overseen by President Vladimir Putin who is set to arrive in the next few minutes. Well, the president pushed to have a lockdown restrictions lifted before the parade.
CNN's Matthew Chance is following developments from London. Matthew, we shouldn't be surprised that Putin would obviously push for this, but we can't forget that Russia is in the midst of the pandemic.
[02:50:17]
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, I mean -- and that's one of the interesting and sort of quite concerning aspects of this annual military parade that it is taking place in the midst of a big pandemic, not just globally, but in Russia, which is one of the epicenters. It's the third most affected country in the world, of course, after Brazil and the United States.
And there are still you know, stubbornly high rates of infection inside Moscow and other cities and towns across the country as well, over 1,000 a day, for instance, inside the Russian capital. And so, within that health context, this is a very concerning, potentially very dangerous event to be staging with so many people being in such close proximity.
I mean, there are 13,000 troops that will be taking place -- taking part in this parade. And obviously, there are measures being taken to protect them. But even so, couple that with the people who may well be crowding the streets despite the advice from the Moscow Mayor to stay at home and watch this on television. And it could see a flare up, at least that's the worry. It could see a flare up in the number of Coronavirus infections that happen as a result of this inside the Russian capital.
But, I mean, I think the overwhelming priority for the Kremlin is the political context. In just a week from now, there's an important constitutional vote in which the constitution will be changed as a result of a public referendum if they approve it. And that could give Vladimir Putin another two presidential terms.
He's already been in power since 2000. It could take him to 2036 if the constitutional vote is approved. He's got, you know, historically low approval ratings at the moment. And so, the Kremlin is doing everything it can to make people feel a bit better by easing the Coronavirus restrictions, by encouraging a sense of patriotism in this case by staging this military parade to try and rally people towards that vote on July the first.
COREN: Matthew Chance joining us from London, good to see you. Many thanks. Well, exams are part of life for any college students, but in the age of Coronavirus, there's a new test just to get back on campus. That's next on CNN NEWSROOM.
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COREN: Well, many universities are looking at ways to reopen for fall semester amid the Coronavirus pandemic. One American college has a unique plan aimed at getting students on campus and keeping them safe. CNN's Stephanie Elam reports.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just really exciting to be a part of this.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: U.C. San Diego student Eleanor Gruden didn't prepare for this test, but it might have the greatest impact on her education next term. She's taking part in the pilot phase of the University of California at San Diego's Return to Learn Program. The eventual goal, to test the university's population for COVID-19 on a consistent basis for eight months, beginning in September, potentially paving a path to return to some in person education in the fall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to be able to come back in the safest way possible. And one of the key features of that is to be able to monitor the presence of the virus.
ELAM: By following clearly posted directions, Gruden is collecting her own sample.
[02:55:01]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're planning on having all around campus a bunch of collection boxes, each of which would contain a stack of individually wrapped swabs with medium. Each swab would have associated with it a Q.R. code. We'll have loaded on the UCSD app a barcode reader that will attach the identity of the person using the swab. They will pop the barcode, pull the swab out of the sleeve, swab their mouth, stick the swab back into a plastic sleeve, and then drop it into a box.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was way better than I thought it was going to be.
ELAM: Every two to three hours, researchers say these boxes are taken to the Center for Advanced Laboratory Medicine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our goals are to try to provide results within a 24-hour time period.
ELAM: What is the most difficult aspect of adding on this layer of COVID-19 testing?
DAVID PRIDE, U.C. SAN DIEGO CLINICAL MOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY LAB: It's hard to get materials to do the COVID testing and it's hard to get enough people to do every single step of the process.
SHARON REED, UC SAN DIEGO CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND VIROLOGY LABS: We have a couple of months to scale up to the degree we need to.
ELAM: Does the testing replace masks?
REED: No. It's just one part of it. Until this either burns out which chances are it's not going to happen or until we're pretty much immune from a vaccine, we'll have to be extra careful.
ELAM: While the pilot program was focused on about 5,000 people who remained on campus after it shut down, at full speed, U.C. San Diego will need to regularly test its community of 65,000 students, faculty, and staff.
NATASHA MARTIN, INFECTIOUS DISEASE MODELER, U.C. SAN DIEGO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: The simulations indicate that if even 75 percent of the population were tested per month, we would still be able to detect an outbreak before there were say about 15 detectable infections on campus.
The secondary component which is really critical is what we do once we identify the outbreak. That's where we're going to rely heavily on measures such as contact tracing and isolation and quarantine and social distancing interventions.
ELAM: Test results pop up in the app, and so far, students seem game to participate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're providing us all the sense of comfort to know that like none of us were carriers. ELAM: Especially if it helps get their peers back on campus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would be amazing. Because a lot of college is what you learn in the classroom, but so much of it is also your experience.
ELAM: Stephanie Elam, CNN, La Jolla, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, thank you so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren. The news continues with Rosemary Church right after this break.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Coming up this hour, the American president ignoring the danger of the pandemic as the Coronavirus surges in parts of the country.
Hello and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church. There's a lot to cover.
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