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Biden Returns to Campaign Trail with Visit to Kenosha; Bodycam Video shows March Arrest of Daniel Prude; U.S. Financial Markets Fall from Record Highs; Brazil Tops 4 Million COVID-19 Cases; Fauci: Vaccine by October 'Unlikely, Not Impossible'; Report: Russia Closely Monitored Navalny's Movements; Sweden Has One of Lowest Death Rates in Europe. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired September 04, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta.

[00:01:54]

And ahead this hour, Joe Biden travels to the scene of a high-profile police shooting, hoping to draw more contrasts with his rival, Donald Trump.

Wall Street's record run comes to a crashing halt as U.S. markets suffer their worst day in months.

And could it be the surprise the world is waiting for? Health officials debating the possibility of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.

Welcome, everyone. We are now less than two months away from the U.S. presidential election, and Democrat Joe Biden is drawing a sharp contrast to Donald Trump. Biden spending Thursday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, two days after the president toured the grief-stricken city.

CNN's Arlette Saenz has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, Joe Biden back on the campaign trail in Kenosha, Wisconsin, bringing a message of healing.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I am not pessimistic. I am optimistic about the opportunity, if we seize it.

SAENZ: The trip marks Biden's first visit to Wisconsin of the 2020 race, and his first major campaign travel outside of Delaware and Pennsylvania since the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Large rallies now replaced with smaller, socially-distanced events like this community meeting in Kenosha, as the city grapples with the police shooting of Jacob Blake and some violent protests that followed.

BIDEN: I think we've reached an inflection point in American history. I honest to God believe we have an enormous opportunity, now that the -- the screen, the curtain has been pulled back on just what's going on in the country to do a lot of really positive things.

SAENZ: Biden and his wife Jill also meeting privately with Blake's family for an hour. Jacob Blake himself joining over the phone from his hospital bed.

BIDEN: He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him. How, whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up.

SAENZ: When President Trump traveled to Kenosha Tuesday, he did not meet with the Blake family, or mention Jacob Blake's name.

It's the latest contrast in a heated race for the White House, as Biden maintains a lead over Trump one week after their parties' conventions wrapped up. And as the president has pushed his law-and- order message.

BIDEN: There's a lot of folks who thought that, Well, the president has made great strides with this -- this -- his, you know, law-and- order strides here, that boy, after his convention, he really made -- he really made inroads. He hasn't. Not at all.

SAENZ: A new CNN poll found 51 percent of registered voters nationwide back Biden, while 43 percent prefer Trump. Biden's current lead fueled by support from women, people of color, and older voters, while the former vice president and Trump are nearly even among men and white voters.

[00:05:06]

The Democratic nominee also seeing some signs of hope in some of the battleground states that will decide this election, including Wisconsin. Biden ahead of the president among likely voters in the state by 8 points.

Democrats hoping not to repeat 2016, when Hillary Clinton never visited the state in the general election and lost to Trump by fewer than 23,000 votes.

(on camera): While Biden has spent part of the week talking about racial injustice and police brutality, he is also trying to keep the focus on the coronavirus pandemic and President Trump's response.

On Friday, he will deliver remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, talking about the economy and what he believes is the president's failure to get the coronavirus pandemic under control.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, Kenosha, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: President Trump denying a scathing report in "The Atlantic" that claims he disparaged dead American service members. The story cites unnamed sources who allege that the president called Americans who died in war "losers" and "suckers." Mr. Trump says it is a total lie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Everyone knows it's totally false. General Keith Kellogg, who's a highly respected man, couldn't believe when he heard it. And he knows everything about all of it. And to think that I would make statements negative to our military and our fallen heroes, when nobody's done what I've done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: CNN initially refused to report on "The Atlantic" story because of its anonymous sourcing. We're doing it now, because the president has weighed in.

CNN did reach out to the author of the article, Jeffrey Goldberg, but he declined to be interviewed on camera.

Joe Biden reacted to the article, though. He put out a statement saying, quote, "If the revelations in today's 'Atlantic' article are true, then they are yet another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the president of the United States."

Earlier on Thursday, the president held a campaign rally outside of Pittsburgh in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Hundreds of his supporters gathered, and yes, many of them were not wearing masks.

And the president was quick to take aim at Biden's visit to Wisconsin, as he pushed his law-and-order campaign strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Biden went there today. There was nobody there. There was nobody there. He was a little late. I was going to say, Hey, listen, we ended that problem.

We ended them very quickly. And now what we're doing is we're holding back funds for cities that don't know what they're doing, where they allow crime to run rampant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The president also doubled down on his suggestion for people to vote twice to ensure mail-in ballots are counted. In fact, voting twice is, of course, illegal. It is a felony.

Meanwhile, seven police officers in Rochester, New York, have been suspended over the death of a black man back in March. Now, this comes a day after the release of disturbing bodycam video showing what happened to Daniel Prude during his arrest.

CNN's Athena Jones has that video and reaction from Prude's family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down. Put your hands behind your back. Behind your back. Don't move.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was March 23, and Daniel Prude was having what his family called a mental health episode. He was visiting his brother in Rochester, New York. His brother called police for help.

Daniel Prude was running in the street, naked with a light snow falling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you Daniel?

DANIEL PRUDE, KILLED BY POLICE: Yes sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daniel Prude?

PRUDE: Please.

JONES: What you're looking at is edited police bodycam footage, given to CNN by attorneys for the Prude family.

At first, he complies with officers' requests to lay on the ground and put his hands behind his back. Later, you can see Prude is visibly agitated, arguing with police.

Minutes into the encounter, you can see Prude writhing on the pavement. Police say he claimed to have coronavirus and was allegedly spitting at officers. They decide to put what is known as a spit hood over his head.

The move appears to agitate Prude further. He continues moving around on the ground and now starts demanding officers hand over their weapon. He struggles to stand up.

PRUDE: Give me the gun. Give me the gun. Give me the handgun.

JONES: At this point, police move to restrain Prude. You can see as one officer puts his knee on Prude's back, while another holds his head down on the pavement.

PRUDE: Take this shit off my face!

JONES: For two minutes, Prude is held like this on the ground, with the spit hood on. Paramedics begin to assist. An officer notices he has vomited.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is he puking?

He's puking. That is just straight water. You see all that water that came out of his mouth?

JONES: Prude is then put into an ambulance and taken to a hospital, where he is pronounced brain dead. He was taken off life support seven days later. Prude's family is demanding murder charges for the officers involved.

[00:10:08]

JOE PRUDE, DANIEL PRUDE'S BROTHER: The man is defenseless, buck naked on the ground. He's cuffed up already. I, mean come on. How many more brothers got to die for society to understand that this needs to stop?

JONES: Lawyers for the family released the autopsy report. The Monroe County medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, caused by complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint. The autopsy report also cites excited delirium and acute PCP intoxication as causes of death.

TASHYRA PRUDE, DANIEL PRUDE'S DAUGHTER: I don't understand how anybody could say or feel like he was a threat to the police when he complied with all orders. Like, there is nothing that anybody could say to me that could convince me that he was a threat to the police officers and that it just -- I feel like this case was simply just a case of police brutality.

JONES: Athena Jones, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And joining me now from Los Angeles, political commentator Mo Kelly. He is the host of "The Mo Kelly Show."

Good to see you. I wanted to -- Let's start with Rochester, another case of, you know, officers suspended after Daniel Prude died in police custody, the way we've seen. The thing is, these incidents keep coming. Are the protests on the street making a difference? We always talk about the need for change. What change is happening?

MO KELLY, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, they are making a distance [SIC] in -- difference in terms of perception. We have allies now. When I say "we," African-Americans. You're seeing white people who are marching, and that wasn't the case two years or three years ago, or even when Colin Kaepernick put his first knee down on the football field.

So the perception is that it's not just an issue which is needed to be dealt with by just African-Americans. You have people protesting in cities like Portland and Seattle, majority non-African-American. So they are making a difference.

The question is whether they will enact some sort of legislative change on any level, which will impact Americans from coast to coast. And I'm not sure you can.

HOLMES: Yes. Let's go to Joe Biden. He was in Kenosha. He spoke with Jacob Blake, the man shot by police officers, met with Blake's family. Neither of which the president did when he went. In fact, I'm not even sure he's ever said Jacob Blake's name. What do you make in the differences in the two visits? KELLY: Well, you have the president, who is not trying to appeal to

calm. He is going there, ostensibly, for political reasons. He's meeting with law enforcement, and he's trumpeting his law-and-order message and trying to blame these situations around the country on Joe Biden. He's not trying to be a uniting force.

On the other hand, you have Joe Biden, who's trying to appeal to empathy. He's meeting with the family, and he understands loss in a way that President Trump doesn't necessarily know or is willing to show.

So there are very disparate pictures which are being painted here, and from a political strategy standpoint, it's obvious that the president knows that if they're not talking -- the media is not talking about coronavirus, COVID-19, than that is a good day for the campaign. Because that's an issue he loses on.

HOLMES: The Biden campaign did put out an ad about race. I want to listen to just part of that, and we'll talk on the other side. Let's roll that.

KELLY: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Part of the point of freedom is to be free from brutality, from injustice, from racism, in all of its manifestations.

BIDEN: We have to let people know that we not only understand their struggle, but they understand the fact they deserve to be treated with dignity. They've got to know we're listening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: You know, it's a powerful ad. It goes on for about a minute or so. I wanted to ask you, though, how important are race relations in this election with everything else going on? And how important is it that there is a clear message from Joe Biden -- Biden on precisely how he would make relations better, deal with systemic racism? You know, where are the policy specifics?

KELLY: Well, there are two things here. I don't know if America wants to deal with race relations. I believe that African-Americans want there to be an improvement in the criminal justice system and also those disparate policies which are disproportionately impacting African-Americans.

Now, to your second point, whether there's any legislation which may come out of this, I'm not expecting any, because the Democratic platform only pledges to create a national commission to analyze these things, not actually real legislation.

Now, if you were to contrast that 1963 and we're on the 57th anniversary, just passed, of the March on Washington, there were specific policies that were going to be produced for President Kennedy right after that march. There was supposed to be a show of solidarity, but then they would meet with President Kennedy and set forth what would be the Civil Rights Act and also the Voting Rights Act.

The Black Lives Matter movement is not at that point. There are no specifics, substantive policies which are for Joe Biden to follow up on.

[00:15:00]

HOLMES: Yes. That is so true. We've literally got a minute left. I wanted to ask you very quickly, though, what's your read on black voter enthusiasm?

The, you know, former GOP strategist Stuart Stevens with the Lincoln Project, he thinks black turnout is going to be massive. But there's been polling showing support for Black Lives Matter falling in the wake of some of the more destructive protests. Very quickly, what's your read on turnout?

KELLY: Look at the money: $364 million raised by the Biden-Harris campaign in the past month. That's almost double the best month by President Obama, when he was running. Or actually, Senator Obama, when he was running for his first term.

So if you follow the money, those are first-time donors, a lot of them. That's about 95 percent of the donations that the Biden-Harris campaign received in that month. So people who are donating are people who are going to voting. They're enthusiastic. They're ready. They want to support Joe Biden.

And I would have to say, that's due in large part, to the addition of Kamala Harris and so, by extension, African-Americans.

HOLMES: All right. Mo Kelly. We'll leave it there. Appreciate your time. Thanks so much. Good to see you.

KELLY: Thank you.

HOLMES: Well, it was a virtual bloodbath on Wall Street as the U.S. stock market plummeted on Thursday. The Dow and the NASDAQ, had their worst day since June after the S&P, and the NASDAQ, hit record highs on Wednesday.

Analysts suspect part of the reason could be faltering relations with China, prompting investors to move money out of high -- tech stocks.

Let's have a look at stocks in the Asia Pacific region following the lead, perhaps there. You can see the Nikkei down over one and a quarter percent. Hangseng, down by one and three-quarter percent, and Australia's S&P, a whopping 3 percent down on the day.

CNN's Alison Kosik gives us a more detailed look at the U.S. markets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALISON, KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Investors made a mad dash for the exits, looking to take some profits off the table. That's as there has been a record run in stocks over the past several weeks, despite the pandemic.

At one point, we saw the Dow down as much as 1,000 or more points. A sharp U-turn for stocks happening just as we saw the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hit fresh record highs in the previous session. It's like investors woke up and realized, stocks were overpriced.

That's as uncertainty about the U.S. economic recovery comes back into the fold. Specifically, about the labor market. There are worries that the little bit of recovery we've been seeing in the labor market may be stalling.

We'll get a better picture of how the U.S. labor market is doing when we get the August jobs reports on Friday.

There's also concern that Congress won't come to an agreement on a relief bill, a relief bill that could offer supplemental benefits for millions of Americans who are struggling to pay their bills.

The concern is, of course, if Americans can't pay their bills, that is going to impact the economy.

So we saw investors take some profits off the table on fears of a -- fears of the future, and uncertainty. And despite the losses that we saw in the market, the NASDAQ is still up a whopping 27 percent for the year. The S&P 500 is up 6 percent for the year.

Alison Kosik, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: We're going to take a quick break on the program. When we come back, Brazil hits an unwanted milestone as COVID-19 cases continue to rise. There is some good news though. We'll have that story for you.

Also, still to come, sources in the U.S. telling us about the pressure they're under to deliver both a coronavirus vaccine and treatment by election day. But at what cost? That's when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:20:53]

HOLMES: Welcome back.

Brazil's president reiterating that COVID-19 vaccines won't be mandatory when they become available. Jair Bolsonaro speaking in a Facebook live chat with supporters on Thursday.

Brazil, of course, has the second worst outbreak after the United States.

CNN's Matt Rivers with the latest on what is happening there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, here in Latin America, the

country with the worst outbreak, by far, has of course been Brazil. And that country has now topped another grim milestone.

Brazil is now reporting more than 4 million coronavirus cases for the first time since this outbreak began. And to get to this point, it really has just been a steady march.

I mean, consider, from the time that it recorded its first case, to case number one million, that took 115 days. But for that country to get from case number one million, to case number four million, well, that took only 76 days.

But there has been some good news recently out of Brazil. A CNN analysis of the data out of the month of August shows that, from August 1 to August 30, if you look at the seven-day rolling averages of both newly-confirmed cases and newly-confirmed deaths, both of those metrics have gone down during the month of August.

But still, where they're at right now, these levels are extremely high. More than 43,000 newly-confirmed cases reported by the Brazilian health ministry just yesterday. So clearly, the situation in this country is still very severe.

Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The French prime minister has revealed what he calls the biggest stimulus package in Europe, in response to the coronavirus pandemic. He says the $118 billion recovery plan is equivalent to 4 percent of France's GDP and is 4 times larger than his country's stimulus package after the 2008 financial crisis.

The plan, called restart Restart France, is -- is focusing on making the transition to a green economy.

The U.S. president, Donald Trump, has been pushing for more positive news about the coronavirus pandemic, both in public, and in private. Officials inside the Food and Drug Administration tell CNN they are feeling the pressure to announce a treatment by election day. That's on top of a race for a vaccine.

Alexandra Field shows us where all of that stands, as of now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It would be unlikely, but not impossible, to have a coronavirus vaccine as soon as the end of next month, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. Still, he insists science will lead any vaccine approval process.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The FDA has been very explicit that they are going to make a decision based on the data as it comes in. The vaccine would not be approved for the American public, unless it

was, indeed, both safe and effective. And I keep emphasizing, both safe and effective.

FIELD: Those assurances come after the CDC sent out guidance for how states should prepare to distribute millions of doses of a potential vaccine by late October. It's faster than public health officials have previously estimated.

For two weeks, the U.S. has been averaging some 40,000 new cases a day. On each of the last two days, more than 1,000 deaths.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D), NEW JERSEY: Let's be clear where we are. The virus is not done with us yet. Not by a long shot.

FIELD: In the northeast, where states have made significant and sustained progress against the virus, a number of states are now seeing increases in COVID-19 cases.

There's a new crop of hotspots in the Midwest.

Missouri is now in the so-called red zone, according to the White House task force, which is recommending the state shut down its bars and mandate masks to stop the spread.

The same recommendations were made for Iowa, which has the second highest rate of COVID cases in the nation.

Three weeks after a massive motorcycle rally, South Dakota has the country's highest case rate.

FAUCI: We're seeing now, in certain states, particularly states, for example, like Montana, the Dakotas, Michigan, Minnesota, that there is an uptick in test positivity, particularly among young people, 19 to 25. That's predictive, Jim, that if there is -- If they don't do the kinds of things we're talking about, we're going to see a surge.

FIELD: And there are even more concerns about another surge with the holiday weekend coming up. The nation saw big spikes after both Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.

DWAYNE "THE ROCK" JOHNSON, ACTOR: We have all tested positive for COVID-19.

FIELD: Celebrity Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson urging caution after he, his wife and two children caught the virus after spending time with friends.

JOHNSON: If you guys are having family and friends over to your house, you know them, you trust them, they've quarantined just like you guys, you still never know.

FIELD (on camera): And Dr. Anthony Fauci is insisting on particular vigilance this holiday weekend for Americans. He says it's important to get a running start as we head toward battling the virus this fall, with the added challenges of the fall flu season just around the corner, and also, the fact that people spend more time indoors as the weather gets colder.

In New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And viral specialist Dr. Jorge Rodriguez joins me now from Los Angeles.

Good to see you again, Doctor. The -- so the CDC has told public health officials around the U.S. to prepare to distribute a potential vaccine as soon as late October. How likely is it that a -- and let's emphasize safe, effective, well-tested vaccine could be ready be as soon as late October?

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, VIRAL SPECIALIST: Well, to answer briefly, it's going to be very, very unlikely.

You know, when a study, like a vaccine study, is started, the final metrics that need to be met have already been predetermined. You need 30,000 people so that you know that it's not just a fluke that a vaccine works on maybe the first 3 or 4.

So in order for a vaccine to even be considered effective, very early on, you need at least a 90 percent difference and improvement between the people getting the vaccine, and the people that don't.

And you know, there is this undetermined variable, which is that places where people are getting the vaccine may not be very high in COVID cases. So you need to compare the arm that gets the vaccine with the arm that doesn't.

So it's very unlikely. Is it possible? Sure, it's possible, but not very likely.

HOLMES: It's interesting. I mean, Dr. Fauci, you know, he expressed doubt on this timeline. He pretty much used your words, unlikely, but not impossible.

He also said that Americans can feel confident in the vaccine process.

Do you share that confidence, given what we're hearing about the administration's apparent pressure on both the CDC and the FDA?

RODRIGUEZ: I -- I believe that the process that has happened up to this point with the vaccines is something that I trust. If a vaccine is approved earlier than we think reasonable, that data needs to be available so that the medical and the scientific community can objectively critique it.

Listen, this pressure that we're hearing about may just be hyperbole, may just be politics, but, unfortunately, the FDA is not going along, you know, to prove us wrong. They have had to backtrack on plasma antibodies. They've had to, you know, backtrack on hydroxychloroquine. So there is a big question mark over their head.

HOLMES; Yes. There was a pharmaceutical industry briefing, I think it was yesterday. And one CEO said that vaccinations for things like measles have fallen off, quote, "in part because people are worried about the safety of vaccines in general." That was the quote.

I think, given there are already vaccine doubters before all of this, I mean, do you fear a lot of Americans have lost faith in the system? You know, the CDC and the FDA, the system that protects them. And until now, it's been widely trusted. You've got -- the public has got to trust, before they'll take.

RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. Absolutely. And listen, I'm not trying to be vulgar, but the FDA has to really get some cojones and do the right thing. Because not only are they putting the health of the public in jeopardy, they are basically, for a generation or two, they may be undermining the trust that people have on science.

You know, the same science that got us to the moon, that got us cures for Hepatitis C, that may be the ultimate, greatest danger, that can come from this.

HOLMES: There's an international cooperation on a -- on a vaccine. I think it's around now, about 80 higher income economies, confirming their intent to participate in what is being called the COVAX Facility. And more countries joining by the hour. The U.S. is not one of them. What does that say?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, what that says is that the nationalism that so many people in the United States are championing may come back to hurt us and may come back to bite us.

[00:30:05]

My -- one of my greatest concerns when the president was trying to get out of -- or is trying to get out of the World Health Organization is that we're not isolated. No matter how much we try, we are not isolated.

And we also run the danger that other countries, other organizations may come up with a vaccine that works and ours don't. And then where are we? We're with a lot of enemies or a lot of people that don't look at us in a popular light.

And again, you know, there's travel. There's tourism. There's commerce that has to happen. And for that to happen, every part of the world needs to be healthy and needs to function at its -- at its fullest. We're not alone.

HOLMES: Always good to get you on. Thanks, Dr. Jorge Rodriguez there.

We're going to take a break in the show. When we come back, Alexei Navalny has been a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin until Navalny, of course, was apparently poisoned by a nerve agent.

Now, we're learning Russian security services were closely monitoring Navalny's movements, and we do mean closely. We'll talk to one man who filmed him when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back.

The European Union is not ruling out sanctions on Russia over the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. It also urged Moscow to fully cooperate with an international investigation.

Navalny has been an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government. German scientists say he was poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok, which has been used on other Russian dissidents. A spokesperson for the E.U. says it is troubling how Russia has been silencing its critics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER STANO, SPOKESPERSON FOR EU FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Mr. Navalny is not the first one who became a victim of such cowardly and inhumane attacks, or assassination attempts. We've seen other people in Russia be killed, other opposition voices being silenced. I can remind only on a political scale (ph) Sergei Magnitsky, Boris Nemtsov.

Did we have satisfactory results from the investigation of their assassinations? Well, the track record is not very satisfactory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: CNN has also learned that Russian security services closely monitored Navalny's every step. That's according to a pro-Kremlin journalist, who told CNN he secretly filmed footage of him in hotels, in rooms, and in restaurants.

Matthew Chance has more for us from Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's no need to blame the Russian state, says the Kremlin, but for years, state surveillance of Alexei Navalny, now fighting for his life in a German clinic, appears to have been constant.

This slick documentary, broadcast in 2017, uses surveillance videos of Navalny with his family, provided by the Russian security services, one of the filmmakers told me, to suggest the anti-corruption campaigner lives in luxury.

DMITRY BELOUSOV, FORMER PRO-KREMLIN JOURNALIST: It was spy videos, videos of meetings, Navalny with other politicians. It was a Kompromat about where you got money. Its main message: "Where are you, Alexei Navalny, got -- got money?"

[00:35:02]

CHANCE: The idea, of course, was to discredit. His popular anti- corruption campaigns have made Alexei Navalny a painful thorn in the Kremlin's side. Even during his latest trip to Siberia, his colleagues tell CNN he was

constantly monitored, openly filmed in the street as he recorded his investigation.

Just days later, Navalny was writhing in agony, being stretchered off a plane forced to make an emergency landing on the way back to Moscow. German officials say he was poisoned with a nerve agent. The Kremlin insists no toxic substances were found in his body.

BELOUSOV: All kinds of his life were open to the FSB. It was a message -- We are watching you all -- from the FSB.

CHANCE (on camera): So if they're watching them all, all the time, if Alexei Navalny was poisoned, then presumably, the people watching him would have seen that happen, wouldn't they?

BELOUSOV: Exactly. They are looking -- if they are watching for every step of him, they must know who and when did it. They must know. They must know.

CHANCE: Surveillance operations, say the Kremlin, are a matter for the secret services alone, not approved by them.

But for a man watched as closely as Alexei Navalny, it's hard to imagine his poisoning could have been missed.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: In Beirut, rescue teams are back at work, digging through tons of rubble from last month's massive explosion. Now, signs of life were detected on Thursday, but officials say they feared a further collapse if they don't wait for the right equipment to come in and help there. You can see the scene.

The country's army discouraged volunteers who were trying to help dig by hand. You can see the risks there.

Now, that horrific explosion rocked the capital of Lebanon 30 days ago, now. More than 200 people killed and thousands left homeless.

Sweden took plenty of heat for its COVID-19 strategy, but now things are starting to look a lot better. We'll take a look back at whether Sweden's approach could work anywhere else or not so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back.

Media reports say the British actor Robert Pattinson has tested positive for COVID-19. And the Hollywood studio Warner Brothers says filming on his movie, "The Batman," is temporarily paused. A statement from the studio said a member of the production team tested positive, did not give a name, though.

"The Batman" only started filming again three days ago after shutting down in mid-March.

Hollywood trying to get back up and running but has struggled with strict safety rules.

Warner Brothers and CNN are both owned by Warner Media.

Sweden forged its own path in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, and it paid a heavy price compared to its neighbors. But now, it has one of the lowest death rates in Europe.

[00:40:10]

So could Sweden's strategy work anywhere else, like the U.S.?

CNN's Max Foster reports from Stockholm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This ICU unit in central Stockholm lies virtually empty, with just one coronavirus patient receiving care.

This was the scene in April at the height of the Swedish pandemic, with a unit inundated. Outside, bars, shops, and schools remained open throughout. No lockdown, but people were given official guidance on how to sanitize and when to socially distance, and they largely abided by those rules.

Masks were never mandated here, with a senior government source telling CNN that they're regarded here as largely superficial.

After an initial surge in the death rate, well above the Scandinavian average, Sweden now has one of the lowest death rates in Europe.

(on camera): Most of the casualties were elderly. Nine out of 10 were over 70 years old. And 45 percent of all deaths were in care homes. That's raised the question about the rest of society, the younger, the healthier. Did they develop some sort of resistance to the virus?

PROF. HANS GUSTAF LJUNGGREN, It's possible that we are -- or we have been building up some immunity that contributes to the present state.

FOSTER (voice-over): But when people in Stockholm were tested for immunity, only 7 percent had enough antibodies to fight the disease. But they were tested for T-cells, which also provide resistance.

LJUNGGREN: So that means that immunity in Sweden and immunity globally is probably larger than we had previously appreciated. At least that is our current thought.

FOSTER: And that's the narrative that some American conservatives are grasping onto. Why bother with lockdowns and masks when you can allow people to go

about their normal lives, catch the virus, and build immunity, whilst only shielding the elderly and vulnerable?

The Swedish government urges caution, pointing to how their safety guidelines were followed by most Swedes. But also, a universal healthcare and welfare system that provides a safety net for anyone falling ill or out of work may play a role. Lena oversaw the government response from the beginning as health minister.

LENA HALLENGREN, SWEDEN HEALTH MINISTER: We didn't have a full or a forced lockdown, but we had many changes. A large number of changes in Swedish society.

I mean, during the spring, we had distant studies for -- online studies all of secondary, for the universities and the adult schools.

We also had, I think, 30, 40 percent of people working from home. We had lots of people staying home on sick leave, because they have the slightest symptoms. You could go on the streets in the capital. You didn't meet almost anyone. We had lots of businesses with a very difficult situation because they didn't have any -- any guests or customers.

So lots of things changed. We didn't have any cultural events, sports events. So things were changed but not in a forced way. I think that was the difference.

FOSTER: The Swedish economy shrank by 8 percent in the second corner of 2020, the largest fall since records began.

But what of the bigger price? The many elderly who died, some argue are sacrificed, in the early days of the pandemic.

HALLENGREN: If you get the virus into those elder care homes, many of the -- the persons living there are having very severe symptoms, and they also die. So that's why we have this. By law, there are people forbidden to visit the elder care homes. But that -- that was not successful in all the way. But we also learned a lot of that.

FOSTER: All care home workers have since been retrained in hygiene protocols.

The government here says it's too early to know what they did right, what they did wrong, or whether herd immunity for coronavirus is even a thing.

In the meantime, they're preparing for a possible second wave this fall. It wouldn't be the first country to see a surge in the virus after apparently stamping it out.

Max foster, CNN, Stockholm, Sweden.

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HOLMES: And thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Don't go anywhere. I will be back with more news in just the top of the hour. But first, WORLD SPORT after the break.

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