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Dozens Killed in Stampede at Religious Even in Israel; U.S. States, Local Government Lifting COVID Restrictions; South America Fighting Its Deadliest Virus Wave Yet; White House: U.S. Troops Withdrawal from Afghanistan has Begun; Arizona Republicans Holding Bizarre Election Recount. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired April 30, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
More now on the breaking news from northern Israel. Police are investigating what triggered a deadly stampede early in morning at a crowded religious festival. The death toll stands at 44. Israel's emergency services says it provided medical care to 150 injured festivalgoers. Many were hospitalized some in critical condition.
One medic described the chaotic scene as one of Israel's worst disasters. About 100,000 Orthodox Jews and others have gathered to celebrate the Lag B'Omer holiday on Mount Meron. But the scene quickly descended into chaos as many scrabbled to evacuate. Israel's Attorney General says he's opening an investigation into possible criminal negligence on the part of police officers there.
Here in the U.S. the seven-day average of new coronavirus deaths is at its lowest point since October of last year. According to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data, the seven-day average number of deaths has been going down regularly for months. Wednesday's average figure of 684 new deaths represents a drop of about 80 percent since its peak in January.
Now experts say this decrease is at least partially due to rising vaccination rates, especially among older adults. But state and local leaders in the U.S. say they're seeing a decrease in demand for vaccines and a sizable number of Americans say they don't plan to get a vaccine at all. Meanwhile, states are lifting restrictions and going ahead with plans to open up. Here is Nick Watt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK MAYOR: We are ready for stores to open, for businesses to open, offices, theaters, full strength. Our plan is to fully reopen New York City on July 1st.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One-time hot spots have cooled, now prepping for a return to normal. Here is a large chunk of why.
DE BLASIO: People have gotten vaccinated in extraordinary numbers, 6.3 million vaccinations in New York City to date.
WATT (voice-over): Los Angeles says the county might move into lowest level restrictions next week. When in Atlanta the Braves will allow fully packed stands.
BRIAN SNITKER, ATLANTA BRAVES MANAGER: It's going to be great. As you can see just opening up like we have has meant the world, I think, to everybody here.
WATT (voice-over): Nationwide the average daily new case count the lowest it's been in over six months. Tennessee declared mission accomplished.
I am not renewing any public health orders, tweeted the governor, because COVID-19 is no longer a health emergency in our state.
Jumping the gun? Tennessee has one of the lowest rates of vaccination in the land. Not quite one-third of Americans are now fully vaccinated, and the pace is slowing, dropped nearly 20 percent the past two weeks.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Go get vaccinated, America. Go and get the vaccination. They are available.
Supply, no longer the issue. It's demand. In our new poll of the not yet vaccinated, 58 percent of adults said they won't try to get a shot. Think again say the experts. Think ahead.
DR. FRANCIS COLLINS, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: One critical way to prevent long COVID is to prevent COVID itself, even for young people who consider their risk of severe COVID to be low, the long-term consequences can be quite serious.
WATT: So a simple statistic to let you know just how much things have changed here in California, middle of December we had a day with over 60,000 new cases reported. Yesterday just a little over 1,500. This state plans to fully reopen middle of June.
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[04:35:00]
BRUNHUBER: And Californians will be able to return to the happiest place on earth as much as the end of April, but only Californians. Both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are to have a phased reopening with limited capacity, but people hoping to visit from other states will have to wait a little longer. Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, reopened back in July 2020. Even though most of its parks are open, their parade and fireworks have been canceled to keep visitors socially distanced. And grab your mint juleps, the Kentucky Derby will be run on Saturday
despite COVID restrictions. The first leg of U.S. horse operation's Triple Crown at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, normally attacks 165,000 people, but this year only about 45,000 of seats will be sold. State and local guidelines will require spectators to wear masks at all times. Churchill Downs is also providing hand washing and hand sanitizing stations.
India has broken another record for the most new COVID cases in a single day. The health ministry reports more than 386,000 new infections on Friday and nearly 3,500 deaths. Families are searching franticly for oxygen and medical care for their loved ones. CNN's Clarissa Ward has more from New Delhi.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this morning we woke up and saw on Twitter this hospital saying that essentially, they were about to run out of oxygen and that 70 COVID patients in their care might die potentially if they didn't get some soon. We went to talk to them. Take a listen to what the administrator had to say.
WARD: How much longer do you have before you run out of oxygen?
ABHA SAXENA, GENERAL OPERATIONS MANAGER, SEHGAL NEO HOSPITAL: Today, we have just, I mean, it is hardly one or two hours it will last. And every day we are facing this problem of oxygen.
WARD: I can hear these people coughing. I mean, they are obviously desperate. What happens if the oxygen runs out?
SAXENA: If they don't get oxygen they can die, they might not be able to survive. That's for sure. They won't survive for long.
WARD: And are you dealing with this every day?
SAXENA: Yes, we have been dealing with this every day for the past 10 days. Every day we have to fight for the oxygen. Every day we have to keep messaging. Every day we have to have to say that we are running short of oxygen, please give us the oxygen, please give us the oxygen.
WARD: So, this is a question of life and death.
SAXENA: Yes, it is a question of life and death.
WARD: It's important to remember these are some of the lucky ones, people who end up in a private hospital like this one gives you a sense of just how dire the situation is.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: With COVID cases at alarming levels Turkey is also imposing new restrictions, many stocked up ahead of the first ever nationwide lockdown which will be in place for at least three weeks. Officials in Istanbul have now identified at least five cases of the new variant first detected in India.
All right, now to South America where several countries are fighting desperate battles against the coronavirus. Brazil is now reporting more than 400,000 people have been -- have lost their lives to COVID- 19. It's only the second country to reach that milestone after the U.S. Argentina and Colombia are also dealing with their own devastating outbreaks. We Stefano Pozzeban reports from Bogota.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEFANO POZZEBAN, JOURNALIST: Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in South America from Patagonia to the Caribbean coast, the region has been ravaged by the pandemic. On Thursday Argentina reported a record increase of 561 deaths in the last 24 hours, while intensive care units are reaching capacity.
A little bit north in Brazil not a record increasing death but the crossing of the threshold of over 400,000 people dying of COVID-19, one every 500 Brazilians have lost his life to virus because of COVID- 19 since the pandemic began.
And in Colombia also on Thursday yet another record increase in deaths with 505 victims in the last 24 hours. It's the first time that Colombia reports more than 500 victims in less than a day since the pandemic began.
And while we're seeing all across the region that vaccination campaigns are continuing and are partially picking up pace, the impact of new, more deadly and more infected variants is bringing the region to the point of collapse with deadly rates not seen in the first waves of the pandemic last year and earlier these experts are afraid that the worst may still be yet to come for many of these nations unless many more vaccines are deployed every day.
For CNN, this Stefano Pozzeban, Bogota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[04:40:00]
BRUNHUBER: And also in Colombia hundreds of demonstrators have been clashing with police. They're protesting new coronavirus restrictions and the government's proposed tax reform. Fires broke out in the streets and police fired tear gas into the crowds. An official says at least one person has died. The clashes come as the country fast approaches 75,000 COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, one of the highest death tolls in the region.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has postponed elections for the Palestinian legislative council and the presidency. The move sparked anger among Palestinians who haven't elected new leadership in 50 years. Abbas is blaming Israel for not guaranteeing Palestinians in East Jerusalem can cast ballots. Voting is a sensitive issue there, because Israel considers Jerusalem its territory while Palestinians see the Eastern portion as the capital of a future Palestinian state. After two decades of war U.S. troops are officially on their way out
of Afghanistan. We'll look at the impact of their departure on the country they leave behind next.
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BRUNHUBER: The White House has announced that the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is now formally under way. A top U.S. general says it's a complex operation that will unfold over the coming weeks. President Joe Biden has set a deadline for the draw down to be completed by September 11th.
CNN's Ben Wedeman is following the latest developments for us from Beirut, Lebanon. Ben, so take us through how this will unfold.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically there is around 2,500 U.S. troops plus 7,000 NATO troops currently in Afghanistan. It's going to obvious take some time to pull them and their equipment out.
[04:45:00]
And we understand that the Pentagon is sending an additional 650 troops to help with the process.
But really the big question is what happens afterwards because it does seem that the situation the United States has in Afghanistan is not unlike that that it had in Vietnam in the early '70s. U.S. troops pulled out of South Vietnam in January 1973 and of course just over two years after that the Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces took over Saigon the capital of South Vietnam.
And of course, the Taliban of course control now at least 50 percent of Afghanistan, the rest of the country is under the control of officially 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, but the real number of troops is perhaps much lower because of desertion and what are called ghost soldiers. In other words, soldiers who are on the books as receiving a salary, but oftentimes the officers of their units are pocketing those salaries.
The Afghan security forces according to a tally kept by "The New York Times" are currently losing 270 troops every month as a result of Taliban attacks. And as far as the Taliban go, this is a victory. This is their victory over the United States, and they've made it clear that their goal is to eventually reestablish the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan. And according to the agreement that was worked out with the United States, the only thing the Taliban are really committed to doing is not using Afghanistan as a base for attacks against the U.S. and severing ties with al-Qaeda. Beyond that, they can do what they like -- Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right, thanks so much. CNN's Ben Wedeman, appreciate it.
Well the 2020 election has long since been decided but there is another bizarre recount happening right now in Arizona. We'll show you what happened when CNN tried to get inside. Stay with us.
[04:50:00]
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BRUNHUBER: A controversial election bill will soon land on the Florida governor's desk. If signed by Governor Ron DeSanctis the bill would create new restrictions on voting by mail and ballot drop boxes. The bill is part of a Republican-led effort across the U.S. to restrict voting access after a record turnout in last November's elections. DeSanctis says previously expressed his support for past versions of the bill but hasn't responded to CNN about whether he will sign this one.
Republicans in Arizona have a different way of showing they're not happy with the way the 2020 election turned out. They're auditing more than 2 million ballots and 400 voting machines hoping to change the outcome. CNN's Kyung Lah reports from Phoenix.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The carnival has arrived at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix. This one in the parking lot is called the Crazy Times Carnival. Inside the coliseum is a different sort of spectacle, replaying the big lie in the 2020 election. This is yet another tally of the nearly 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County. But this so-called audit is unlike any other. These are ballot counters heading into a shift.
LAH: Have you ever done election counting before?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. But it's there's nothing to it. It's pretty obvious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no thanks.
LAH (voice-over): Most don't want to talk. Others?
LAH: We're just trying to do a story about the town --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't trust you.
LAH (voice-over): Openly partisan as you see displayed on some cars and in what they say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you OAN?
LAH: I'm sorry, what?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What news group are you from?
LAH: I'm from CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. No, thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People are wondering what to look out for in that audit.
LAH (voice-over): OAN or One American News Network is the small far- right wing outlet that is promoted false claims that Donald Trump won the 2020 election. OAN is also live streaming the event and its hosts have helped raise funds for this exercise.
We were initially told we could not enter the publicly owned Arizona State Fairgrounds. But when we tried again another time.
LAH: Hey, I'm Kyung Lah with CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN. OK. You guys will be on the second level.
LAH: So, we can get in?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LAH (voice-over): We follow the officers' instructions.
LAH: There is media parking.
LAH (voice-over): But then.
LAH: Hey --
LAH (voice-over): These guys showed up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not authorized to speak to the press or the media.
LAH (voice-over): Even though these uniform men look like police. They're not. They're a volunteer group call the Arizona Rangers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so, you're trespassing.
LAH (voice-over): This man talking to me is wearing a badge from Cyber Ninjas. That's the Florida based company being paid $150,000 by the GOP controlled state Senate to conduct this election review. But here's what Republican Jack Sellers, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman thinks about Cyber Ninjas.
JACK SELLERS, CHAIRMAN, MARICOPA CO. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: Everything they're doing is just so unprofessional, that it's really bothersome. I don't really feel that it benefits me, they need to get into the weeds too far on all the craziness that I see going on.
LAH (voice-over): Sellers knows the difference. He leads a Republican Majority Board of Supervisors. They already conducted two audits with bipartisan observers in public view that found no evidence of widespread election fraud. The Board of Supervisors fought the State Senate in court to keep the ballots but lost and turned over the ballots.
SELLERS: When you accept responsibility for an election, it can't be about a party. It can't be about a person. It has to be about representing all the voters. LAH (voice-over): Arizona news agencies and their lawyer fought to get a reporter into the site where the count is happening and days into the audit got in. A news camera then caught the unusual process of ballots being scanned with UV lights.
[04:55:00]
In a news conference, the hired representative for the Arizona State Senate struggle to explain why.
LAH: What are the UV lights for?
KEN BENNETT, ARIZONA SENATE LIAISON, MARICOPA COUNTY: UV lights are looking at the paper and its part of several teams that are involved in the paper evaluation.
LAH: For what, what purpose?
BENNETT: I personally don't know,
KATIE HOBBS, ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: It's really, it's a fishing expedition for stuff that we know doesn't exist.
LAH (voice-over): Arizona Secretary of State warns what's happening in Arizona may just be the next page in the playbook of the big lie.
HOBBS: They cried and cried for an audit for months, and they finally gotten it. And they're going to try to use this and get it other places too.
LAH: So, you think that what happens here will impact other places?
HOBBS: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
LAH: A judge ruled that this tally can continue for now, but expect more litigation, legal battles in the days to come. As far as this carnival, the Crazy Times Carnival, this one at least ends in ten days.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Phoenix.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: In just a few hours four astronauts from SpaceX's crew one mission will begin their return to earth. The three Americans and one Japanese crew members have been at the International Space Station for almost six months. NASA says the plan is for SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft to undock from the station later today and splash down at one of seven targeted landing zones is expected on Saturday. Now earlier this week the departing American commander handed the reins of the ISS to a different Japanese astronaut.
Well, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "EARLY START" is next.
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