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Arab League To Discuss Jerusalem Unrest In Special Session Monday; In Afghanistan, 30 Killed, Dozens Wounded In Blasts Near Girls' School; Pieces Of Chinese Rocket Land In Indian Ocean; Experts Critical Of Indian Government's Complacency; L.A. Restaurant Owners Struggling To Find Workers; Chinese Government Workers Monitor Xinjiang Uyghur Homes; Dracula's Castle Becomes Vaccination Center. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired May 09, 2021 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Rubber bullets and stun grenades. Dozens of people are injured after a second night of violent clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians.

Plus, after days of nervous anticipation, a crash landing and a sigh of relief. China says their rocket debris has landed in the Indian Ocean.

Also, with a total count for coronavirus cases passing 22 million, states across India are now preparing for a lockdown.

Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Robyn Curnow.

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We begin with a second straight night of clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians as tensions boil over in Jerusalem. The Palestinian Red Crescent says nearly 100 Palestinians were injured by stun grenades and rubber bullets fired by police on Saturday.

Police say they were trying to disperse crowds of people who were throwing stones and fireworks. Well, Jerusalem has seen weeks of unrest over the possible eviction of Palestinian families from their homes. I want to go straight now to Jerusalem. Hadas Gold joins me live.

Hadas, hi.

What's the situation right now?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Robyn, I'm standing in front of Damascus gate. This is one of the main entrances into Jerusalem, the one most important for Muslims as they enter the Old City of Jerusalem. This was the scene of some of those clashes we saw last night across

several locations around East Jerusalem, including in Sheikh Jarrah, which is that neighborhood where you mentioned those Palestinian families are facing possible eviction. That has really contributed to a lot of the tension we're seeing in the city.

But as you noted, there have been weeks now of just boiling tension in the city. It really came to a head on Friday night, when we saw more than 200 Palestinians injured at clashes at the Al Aqsa compound, also known as the Temple Mount.

On that night also police say that 17 of their officers were injured. Last night was a little calmer and there was a concern that last night would be potentially worse because it was the Laylat al-Qadr holiday, the holiest night of Ramadan.

We did still see quite a bit of action last night and we're seeing increased reactions and condemnation from around the world. The U.S. State Department has expressed concern. We're seeing more and more members of Congress also expressing concerns, especially around those families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood that are facing a possible eviction.

And there is increasing concern that actually tomorrow would be -- is going to be another potential flashpoint because tomorrow is what's known as Jerusalem Day. It's a day that Israel marks when it got control of the Western Wall.

It is also a day that we sometimes see marches of Jewish marchers going through Jerusalem, waving flags. There's concern they may try to march through the Muslim parts of the Old City of Jerusalem, stoking even further the tensions.

Tomorrow is also the day that we may see a decision from the Israeli supreme court on those evictions in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. As a lot of the newspapers have been calling it, they're saying Jerusalem is sort of on the edge of explosion. We've seen weeks of tensions now. There's concern it's only going to get worse.

Also concerns of how the action in Jerusalem will be seen by Hamas in Gaza. We saw one rocket fired from Gaza. And there's increasing concern, as we've seen in previous weeks, the tension could spread further south into Gaza.

That would cause some reaction from Hamas there and they will just make the situation here even worse -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Hadas Gold in Jerusalem. Thank you very much for keeping us posted on what's happening right now.

So Afghan officials now say more than 50 people were killed in explosions near a girls' high school on Saturday. More than 100 people were wounded. Authorities say the blasts were caused by a car bomb and two improvised explosive devices.

The Taliban has denied involvement but the attack raises concerns about Afghanistan's -- about Afghanistan when troops leave from the U.S. So Nick Paton Walsh has more on that. Nick.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: This attack occurring in the west of Kabul outside Sayed Ul-Shuhada school, it appears from accounts on the scene that many of the victims were in fact school girls, leaving at the end of the school day. Aftermath pictures showing a vehicle heavily damaged.

It was probably the source of the explosion. And pictures of people picking through the school bags and schoolbooks of the victims. Dozens injured, dozens having lost their lives.

[02:05:00]

WALSH (voice-over): The blast having occurred on the holiest day of the Muslim month of Ramadan and in an area of Kabul predominately occupied by the Shia minority, often been targeted in the past by extremists and there could be two possible reasons why this particular target was chosen.

Firstly, many extremists find the idea of girls going to school to be abhorrent. It's not tolerated in many parts of Afghanistan, where the Afghan government does not have reach and insurgents have control and also, too, the Shia minority are considered a target by many extreme groups, specifically the branch of ISIS that functions in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Taliban insurgency clearly said that they were not involved in this attack. But their one tweet does not necessarily speak for many different branches of the insurgency. Some increasingly hardline extremists.

This attack does speak to the growing security vacuum that many feel will get worse as the U.S. continue their withdrawal from Afghanistan. It started May 1st, it's already underway and it will be done by September 11th, if not significantly before.

That leaves the Afghan government facing pressure from the insurgency on many different fronts. Kabul will likely be secure for the months ahead but is, of course, vulnerable to attacks like this. Devastating attacks over the past year have been sadly common in other parts of Afghanistan as well.

But they may be receiving greater attention from the outside international community. Shocking, frankly, scenes that what the U.S. charge d'affaires to Afghanistan, Ross Wilson, called the future of Afghanistan, in what he referred to as this unforgivable attack. Really horrifying scenes of exactly what kind of extremism could be inside Afghanistan and at the insecurity of the months ahead -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CURNOW: Michael Kugelman is the deputy director of the Asia Program and joins me now from Washington, D.C., He's also the South Asia senior associate at the Wilson Center.

Thank you very much for joining us. This attack is devastating, particularly because of the target, which seems to be a girls' school.

MICHAEL KUGELMAN, SOUTH ASIA SENIOR ASSOCIATE, WILSON CENTER: Absolutely. And the unfortunate thing is this is not the first time that a girls' school has been targeted in Afghanistan. It's happened so many times before. And also the community that was targeted. The Hazara Shia community in Afghanistan has been targeted in a number of attacks in the past as well.

So unfortunately, as horrific as this attack was, it really was not very surprising just because both the people targeted and the facility, the school that was targeted, these are targets that have been hit a number of times before in Afghanistan.

CURNOW: What is this attack signaling?

KUGELMAN: I think it signals the security situation in Afghanistan, which has been deteriorating for a number of years now, as the insurgency intensifies and as terror groups in the country become stronger, you know, this is going to -- only going to become worse.

As bad as it's been, now U.S. forces are on their way out of the country. And even with U.S. boots on the ground in recent years, there have been record level -- a record number of civilian fatalities in Afghanistan.

And yet with U.S. troops on their way out, that means that Afghan security forces will not be getting the training, the advising and the various types of assistance, including counterterrorism assistance, that U.S. forces have provided.

So this suggests that a country that is already suffering from significant levels of destabilization, terrorism, violence, it could very well get worse in the absence of a peace process, that is right now very, very fragile.

CURNOW: As you say, this attack is taking place with U.S. boots on the ground. It's another round of violence after 10 -- two decades.

Despite all of these efforts, would the Biden administration argue that this attack, while tragic and unsurprising, is another reminder there will always be a reason to stay in Afghanistan and that leaving, really, is a case of now or never perhaps?

KUGELMAN: Yes, I think the Biden administration has made very clear that the reason that he's decided to leave Afghanistan is not the fact you have all this instability in the country but it's more so that, according to the Biden administration, the threat of international terrorism -- and particularly terrorism that could reach and affect U.S. targets and interests beyond Afghanistan -- is not sufficiently strong to warrant U.S. troops staying in the country. It really sounds heartless to say.

[02:10:00]

KUGELMAN: But from the perspective of cold, hard interests as perceived by the Biden administration, the simple fact of instability and the horrific attacks that we see playing out in Afghanistan every day, that in and of itself is not enough to keep U.S. troops in the country.

And, obviously, that's no consolation to the Afghan people, who have been suffering from these attacks for so long and have been really immersed in a war for more than 40 years. It's no consolation to them.

But the Biden administration, I think, has made up its mind. It is leaving. It will have all its troops out by September. And it's going to be focusing on other priorities.

CURNOW: So what next, then?

KUGELMAN: Well, the U.S. withdrawal is now underway. It's begun in recent days. It's supposed to be done. It's supposed to be completed by September. And the Biden administration has indicated that it will figure out a way to maintain a counterterrorism capacity in Afghanistan, even without boots on the ground in Afghanistan.

That's going to be very difficult to do in the sense that the administration will need to find countries, preferably countries close to Afghanistan, that will be willing to host U.S. troops that would be in a position to maintain a U.S. counterterrorism capacity in Afghanistan.

But that will be very difficult. Countries like Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, there are a lot of complications and challenges for the U.S. in trying to work out arrangements with these countries to base troops there.

So I think it's going to be very difficult for the U.S. to be able to maintain any type of counterterrorism capacity, once all of its troops have left the country.

CURNOW: Michael Kugelman, thank you very much for joining us and giving us your expertise. Thank you.

KUGELMAN: Thank you.

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CURNOW: Now the voyage of that out-of-control Chinese rocket is over. We're hearing that pieces of it have landed in just the past few hours just west of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. Now that's according to Chinese officials.

U.S. Space Command has confirmed parts of the rocket reentered over the Arabian Peninsula but hasn't confirmed the impact site. Here's a look as it flew over parts of Saudi Arabia. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW (voice-over): A mere dot in the sky here. But the Long March 5B rocket was roughly the height of a 10-story building and weighed 22 tons.

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CURNOW: Now China's national space agency says most of the devices it carried were destroyed during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. We are waiting, as I said, final confirmation on the landing. But so far no reports of damage or casualties. Let's go straight to Will Ripley. Will Ripley joins me from Hong Kong.

And you've been monitoring the trajectory of this for, I don't know, the last few hours, the last week I think, Will.

What do you make of these last moments and what we know?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So we know, Robyn, from the time that we first started talking about this on the air mid-week, that it was most likely to come down over water.

But the fact that it possibly came down so close to the Maldives just southwest of Sri Lanka, of India, the fact that it passed over at a relatively low altitude other populated areas and the fact we didn't know frankly until a couple of hours beforehand where it might likely go down, the uncertainty is really unacceptable.

According to more advanced Western space agencies including NASA -- in fact, NASA administrator senator Bill Nelson put out a statement saying that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris.

Now it's not to say other countries in the earlier decades of their space programs didn't have similar incidents. Back in 1979, Skylab, the American space station, fell out of orbit and made an uncontrolled reentry, scattering debris over Western Australia.

In fact, Michael Holmes, our CNN intrepid anchor and correspondent, might have been about 5 years old, he says, covering that in one of his first reporting assignments. This is something that has happened before. There have never been any of serious injury as a result of this.

But this is the largest piece of space debris to fall in an uncontrolled manner in this way in a long time.

And according to those who look at China, which is trying to accelerate its space program -- they have 10 more launches planned to build their space station; this was just the first module of their space station -- some of those launches involved the same Long March 5b rocket.

There are growing calls now for more responsibility on the part of China, saying that this was simply reckless to design a rocket so big that can make an uncontrolled re-entry and really just wagering that the odds would go in their favor, that it would fall into the ocean, which covers 70 percent of the Earth.

But what if it hadn't, Robyn?

What if it had hit an area with people or, God forbid, a densely populated area?

We could be calling for something much different right now than calls for responsibility.

CURNOW: Thanks for that. Live there in Hong Kong, Will Ripley.

Stay with us. A little bit later on this hour, I'll speak with an aerospace space engineer about the heat China is taking about the uncontrolled re-entry.

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CURNOW: There's certainly a lot to talk about, as Will said.

Now India's COVID crisis is breaking global records every day. And now Delhi's chief minister warns the vaccine supply in the capital district is almost gone. The latest developments are just ahead on that.

Plus, a troubling problem for a California restaurant. Why they say they can't expand services despite coronavirus restrictions being lifted.

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CURNOW: For the fourth straight day India is reporting more than 400,000 new COVID cases. That rate of infection is unheard of. These latest figures I want to show you have pushed the total number of cases past 22 million since the start of the pandemic. And for the second day in a row the daily death toll is now past 4,000 people.

Numerous states across India are about to impose strict new lockdowns, curfews or other restrictions as the crisis deepens. Yet the central government has resisted calls for a nationwide lockdown. And then in hardhit Delhi, the chief minister is actually begging for more vaccines. He says the available supply will run out in less than a week.

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CURNOW: Paula Hancocks is monitoring the situation from Seoul.

Paula, hi. It certainly seems like every day gets more and more horrifying in terms of the infections and deaths in India. PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does, Robyn. And at this point,

with numbers not appearing to be pattering (ph) or evening out, it's really uncertain at this point when the peak is going to be reached.

We did see something fairly unusual as well in that the medical journal, "The Lancet," has criticized prime minister Modi's government for the way that it has handled this outbreak.

They say that there has been complacency. They say that early success that we saw in India in dealing with the pandemic has been squandered. It's not unprecedented for a medical journal like this to criticize a government's handling of a pandemic but it's certainly unusual.

And it was particularly strong in its criticism, saying that sometimes the government seemed far more concerned with silencing critics on Twitter than actually trying to get a handle on the outbreak, saying that the way they have handled it is simply inexcusable.

There was also quite a worrying projection within "The Lancet," saying that they may see 1 million deaths by August. Now we're at a quarter of that at this point, less than a quarter. So clearly that is a worrying projection.

If that is the case, "The Lancet" said, then prime minister Modi and his government would be responsible for presiding over a self- inflicted national catastrophe.

Now in keeping with criticism of the Modi government and taking some of the responsibilities away from them, we have also seen the supreme court ruling that there should be a task force set up to try to organize the distribution of oxygen.

This has been one of the main concerns of hospitals in Delhi and in other states around India, the lack of oxygen for patients that need it. And what they say is they will have a task force of government officials, of academics, of senior health officials and they will decide exactly where the need is greatest and make sure that they are able to distribute the oxygen to where it's needed.

We have seen, in recent days and weeks, in fact, there has been a tremendous amount of support from the international community, a lot of oxygen cylinders coming in. Oxygen-generating plant components from Germany being flown in as well.

And so what this task force will try to do is to give a more overall picture of exactly where it is needed and crucially to make sure it's distributed -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Thanks for that update there. Paula Hancocks.

So people who have been vaccinated may worry that they won't be protected against the new variant showing up in India and elsewhere. But one of U.S. President Joe Biden's top advisers says on COVID that he's optimistic the current vaccines will keep everyone safe. Here's what he told CNN a little bit earlier.

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ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR ADVISER, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: It looks like we're going to get very good levels of protection from our current vaccines. I think we'll see that confirmed over the coming week.

But Americans should expect that, if they're not vaccinated, they're going to be more exposed. If they are vaccinated, I think they can look at these variants and there's going to be very good levels of protection so far.

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CURNOW: That's some good news.

In the U.S. a troubling sign, though, that the demand for vaccinations is falling after reaching a peak. I want you to take a look at this.

The seven-day average of daily doses just dropped below 2 million for the first time since early March. Declining demand could hinder President Biden's goal for 70 percent of adults to receive at least one dose by July the 4th. That figure currently stands at about 58 percent.

Now despite dips in vaccination rates, daily infections keep on decreasing. California plans to fully reopen next month and restaurants are already allowed to expand capacity in Los Angeles. But they're facing a problem they didn't see coming, as Paul Vercammen now reports. Paul.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Restaurant owners throughout Southern California are telling us they need to rehire or hire more employees. Here at AOC, a Los Angeles landmark, they can't even open up one of their dining rooms because they do not have enough workers.

And the owner here wants to open up some other restaurants. So in all, they need more than 100 workers.

CAROLINE STYNE, LOS ANGELES RESTAURATEUR: I think in total we need to hire about 250 people. And I know that we're not alone in this. Other restaurateurs are having this issue. A lot of job sectors are seeing this. But ours is being hit particularly bad.

VERCAMMEN: And this restaurant, AOC, L.A. icon, pretty good-paying jobs, I know you had a manager that was getting paid $75,000 a year. But the pandemic hit. And tell us what happened to that manager as a consequence of not having a job.

STYNE: Oh, yes. It's so expensive to live here in L.A. that she and her husband and their 1-year-old son, they decided to move to Bend, Oregon, where they could afford to live, with this uncertainty about their financial future.

[02:25:00] STYNE: And they have family there. And this is a story that we have across the board, with so many employees who have left. They've just left the state. It's too expensive. And without a job and without prospects, they just had to take off.

VERCAMMEN: Now while some restaurant owners in Southern California have been very critical of Governor Newsom and all of his social distancing and lockdown policies, Styne is not. She says California would not be where it is now in terms of its low positivity rate if it wasn't for a serious lockdown.

She just says now they need to look forward, try to get people back to work. If they can put the restaurant workers back on the job, then that, in turn, will spark the rest of the economy -- reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen, now back to you.

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CURNOW: Thanks, Paul, for that.

So coming up on CNN, parts of an uncontrolled Chinese rocket crashed back to Earth just a few hours ago. Why some say it's time for China to get real about safety in space before it's too late.

Plus, just when New York City is ready to get back to business as usual, a shooting in the tourist hot spot, Times Square. What we know after the break about that.

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CURNOW: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Robyn Curnow. It is 29 minutes past the hour.

So the voyage of that out-of-control Chinese rocket is over. Chinese officials say pieces of it landed a little while ago just west of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. And while U.S. Space Command confirms part of the rocket re-entered the atmosphere over the Arabian Peninsula, it has not yet confirmed the impact site.

[02:30:00]

CURNOW: The rocket, though, was visible; see it here as a dot in the sky over Saudi Arabia. But the Long March 5b rocket was roughly the height of a 10-story building and weighed 22 tons. China's national space agency says most of the devices it carried were destroyed during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

We are awaiting, as I said, final confirmation on the landing. But so far no reports of damage or casualties.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CURNOW: Moriba Jah is an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin and joins me now.

Great to have you on the show. Thanks for coming, sir.

So how irresponsible has this whole process been?

No matter where it landed, what does this tell you about the Chinese space program and its relationship with space, Earth, the planets?

MORIBA JAH, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AUSTIN: Yes. Look, I mean, I think the main issue that exists is that the rocket did not do a deorbiting burn, which would have forced it to come into the atmosphere at a much steeper angle, forcing it to burn up as much as possible. Leaving it up to Mother Nature to take care of it is probably not what we want to continue to do.

CURNOW: But this is part of the strategic planning of the Chinese space program.

So are we -- can we expect more of this as the space program develops?

JAH: I believe that, unless there's enough pressure from the global community when it comes to space sustainability and space safety, then this will become business as usual for sure.

CURNOW: And how bad do you think it could get?

JAH: Well, there is an increased activity of space launches and, in fact, just two weeks ago, we saw a Falcon 9 upper stage actually land and not too far from Seattle. And even though it had the propulsion to do a deorbit burn, that failed because, statistically, things don't work all the time.

So I think we're going to see a lot more of these warnings being issued out, which is bad news.

CURNOW: So this is not then, in your opinion, just about China's space program.

Is it about, as you call it, space sustainability in terms of our relationship with what's going on in terms of the space race?

JAH: Exactly. I mean, pretty much any given nation state is free to launch as many things as it wants when it wants. And outer space is a finite resource, at least near-Earth space. And so with an exponential rise in launches from countries -- United States, China, others -- to follow, these things will just become more prevalent.

CURNOW: What can be done, then?

JAH: I think we need to have a candid conversation that this is not the way we want to do business in space. Clearly we're not going to stop launching satellites because the technology that space affords does have lots of benefits for humanity. But just doing these things without planning and coordination, without

some way to holistically manage this resource, I think, makes no sense.

CURNOW: Whose responsibility is it to have this conversation?

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CURNOW: Because is it legislating from the U.N.?

Is it about bilateral treaties?

How do you actually then try and move this conversation forward?

Is it about naming and shaming?

What is it?

JAH: Right. Well, so it doesn't come from asking people, "pretty please with sugar on top." So I know that. I've tried that and it's not, you know, it's not been working. Certainly the United Nations, the Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space does a lot of good work in trying to put together guidelines that could lead to long-term sustainability.

But these are not legally binding in and of themselves. So I think really what has to happen is that each country that signs up to these guidelines needs to make that space law within their own country and enforce these things and show they're enforcing these space laws and, at the same time, be able to again come to, I guess, a global table to plan, coordinate jointly and engage in these sorts of practices that could lead to enhanced sustainability and safety of space as a resource.

[02:35:00]

CURNOW: And then do you think it likely that at some point in the future one of these dead-heavy pieces of large machinery that's orbiting can cause damage here on Earth?

JAH: Absolutely. I think there's certainly a possibility. It's not zero. And the fact it's not zero is already a problem. The likelihood of any given object falling on a populated area, that might be low.

But when you -- statistically, when you have more of these things being launched more frequently, that has an impact as an aggregated, you know, sense. And so we are putting ourselves in harm's way the more frequently we launch these objects.

And the more these rockets aren't forced to, you know, burn up in the atmosphere, to come in at a steep angle when they re-enter, so we're going to just see more of these warnings, unfortunately. And, yes, there's a high possibility that there could be casualties at some point.

CURNOW: Moriba Jah, thank you very much for joining us. JAH: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: And for more information on space, environmentalism and sustainability, you can check out Professor Jah's work on eyesonthesky.org.

A major U.S. pipeline company says it was the target of a ransomware cyberattack. Federal agents are working with Colonial Pipeline to investigate the security breach. Details remain scarce. The company says it learned of the attack on Friday, causing it to pause operations.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident on Saturday. Colonial Pipeline transports nearly half of all fuel consumed on the U.S. East Coast. A White House official says they're working to determine whether supply might become an issue.

And New York's Times Square is one of the most famous tourist spots in the world. Well, now the New York Police Department is looking for a suspect in a shooting there on Saturday.

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CURNOW (voice-over): It posted this video to its official Twitter feed, asking anyone with information of his identity to contact them. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro has the details.

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EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police say a dispute ended in gunfire in Times Square early Saturday evening, leaving three innocent bystanders hit, including a 4-year-old girl who was shot in the leg.

Surveillance video shows the moment when busy crowds, walking around in broad daylight, were stopped by the gunfire. At a press conference, the commissioner of the New York City Police Department said all the victims are in stable condition.

But he expressed extreme frustration at what he said are local policies that are leading to more shootings. The police are doing their job, he said, asking the politicians to do theirs.

DERMOT SHEA, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: How many more kids do we need to be shot before we realize that bad policies have consequences and we need action and we need policies regarding laws to have consequences?

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: This shooting comes at a very important moment for New York. Times Square is the heart of this city, trying to reopen itself to tourists. Broadway theaters all around this area just started selling tickets again last week. Officials are hoping to bring tourists back to the city.

And incidents like this shooting, in the tourist heart of the city, could make that a tough sell -- Evan McMorris-Santoro, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Nicola Sturgeon's party has come out on top in Scotland's parliamentary elections even though the Scottish National Party is one seat short of an outright majority. It picked up an extra one compared to 2016. And together with the Scottish Greens it is now a pro- independence majority.

Nicola Sturgeon is promising another independence referendum and is warning the British prime minister not to stand in the way.

And Sadiq Khan has been re-elected as mayor of London. The Labour incumbent defeated his closest rival by more than 200,000 votes after second preferences were taken into account.

And just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM --

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, a stranger sleeping at your home.

Do you -- how can we feel safe about that?

CURNOW (voice-over): Why China is forcing some families to host government officials inside their homes.

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CURNOW: Imagine being told you had to host a government official every month who would sleep and eat in your home. Well, that is part of a Chinese government policy that ramped up in the country's Xinjiang region in 2016.

Just as the authorities were allegedly detaining up to 2 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities into internment camps. The Chinese government insists these government home stays were popular. But Ivan Watson speaks to several Uyghurs, who say the unwanted guests meant they had to live in constant fear. Here's his report.

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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Playing with children, sharing meals, teaching Communist Party thought. These are some of the activities of the more than 1 million people sent by the Chinese government to live with the families of mostly Muslim ethnic minorities in China's Xinjiang region.

A very public policy, Beijing says, is aimed at promoting ethnic unity and battling religious extremism by forcing families to host government officials in their homes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We aren't happy with this.

WATSON: An ethnic Uyghur, living in Sweden, says that her parents in Xinjiang have played host to Chinese officials.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, a stranger, sleeping at your home. How can we feel safe about that?

WATSON (voice-over): The policy has been promoted by state media and careful portrayals show outsiders, enthusiastically welcomed into the homes of ethnic Uyghurs. Strangers, sent by the government to teach their hosts how to wear makeup and even, how to wash their hands.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I brought the concept of modern life into their home, so that they can live a better and more civilized life.

WATSON: Did you have any choice whether or not to keep these people in your home?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): No, we had no choice.

WATSON: This woman is an ethnic Uyghur from Xinjiang, living in the U.S. She said she was forced to host four Chinese officials in her home for 10 days every month. If she resisted, she said she risked being sent to an internment camp.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We had to pretend we were happy. If we did not, then the government would view that as us being against their policies.

WATSON (voice-over): Ryan Thum (ph), an expert in Uyghur history, says the home state program has a sinister motive.

RYAN THUM (PH), UYGHUR HISTORY EXPERT: It's a combined indoctrination and monitoring project.

WATSON: This is a 2018 memo, produced by the government in Kashgar prefecture. For officials, sent to live with families. It instructs them how to find problems.

[02:45:00]

WATSON: Spotting red flags that the authorities say could be signs of religious extremism.

Telling officials to look for religious objects, hanging on the walls and "ask children questions while playing with them, because children never lie."

Thum calls this, the ultimate invasion of privacy. THUM: There is no private space they can retreat to, where they can

act in ways that they are comfortable.

WATSON (voice-over): An Australian born woman says that her in laws had no choice but to host a police officer in their house, for months, in 2018 while her husband languished in an internment camp.

WATSON: Did you ever hear how your family felt about this man living in their house?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were very scared. They just spoke about, how at night, they couldn't sleep properly, because it was just to know, there was a strange man in the other room, who is also sleeping. Pretty much, they were living in constant fear.

WATSON (voice-over): The Chinese government's rosy portrayal of its home stay program, challenged by Uyghurs in exile, who claim, the hosts are actually hostages -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Thanks to Ivan for that piece.

Still ahead on CNN, Dracula's famous castle in Transylvania is trying to lure in tourists. Don't worry, there are no scary vampires. But some blood might be spilled when nurses there jab you with the COVID vaccine. The details next.

And plus, the price plummets during Elon Musk's appearance on a late- night television show. What's driving the sell-off.

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[02:50:00]

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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow.

Throughout the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims around the world have been encouraged to take precautions and alter the way they observe certain traditions during the pandemic.

Some countries have even issued a number of restrictions to help curb the spread of the virus. But not everyone seems to be following the guidance, as Michael Holmes now reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was the scene in the Pakistani city of Lahore this week, as thousands of Shia Muslims took part in an annual religious procession. Many people, not wearing masks and gathering close together, despite the risk of contracting COVID-19. Quite different from what the city looked like more than a week ago,

when the country's military was seen patrolling the streets, enforcing COVID restrictions. It's part of the balance between tradition and caution, in some of South Asia's Muslim majority countries.

Sometimes, the balance tipping towards tradition, like these people shopping, ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of Ramadan in a few days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Half of the people don't even understand COVID-19, nor do they consider it a pandemic. If they considered it, we wouldn't be going through this situation.

HOLMES (voice-over): Crowded Hindu religious festivals are one factor behind neighboring India's massive second COVID wave. And the fear is that the same could happen with the end of Ramadan, in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

So Pakistan issued a number of restrictions, such as banning intercity travel and shutting down all but essential markets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If we don't act on these instructions, you have the example of India right in front of you. What happened there can happen to us. Please, stay home and stay safe.

HOLMES (voice-over): There are long lines of people, waiting to get the vaccine in Karachi in Pakistan, many there, worried the crisis in India could be repeated here. Both Bangladesh and Pakistan, so far, have avoided a massive surge in cases, such as seen in India.

Bangladesh is also seeing a steady decline over the past few weeks. A doctor in the health ministry telling CNN, that is due to a lockdown in effect since early April. There is concern now, some shopping malls have opened up again.

The lockdown has been a challenge for many, during Ramadan. In the capital, a group of volunteers was seen, out feeding the meal that Muslims eat after sundown to break their Ramadan fast. They have managed to feed around 1,000 people per day, many of whom lost their jobs during the pandemic and cannot afford food.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I am fasting, I pull my rickshaw in the sun but I make very little earnings and I'm supported by Iftar. So I come here for free food and park my rickshaw by the road.

HOLMES (voice-over): Across South Asia, so many reasons to get COVID under control --Michael Holmes, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: We've seen vaccination sites set up in a lot of unusual places, haven't we?

Sports stadiums, fairgrounds, even cathedrals. But those all pale in comparison to the one Kim Brunhuber shows us in Eastern Europe. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dracula's castle in Romania, in folklore the lair of the famous ruler that inspired Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel. But in modern times and in daylight, it's not such a scary place unless you're afraid of needles.

Part of this renowned tourist attraction in Transylvania is now being used as a COVID-19 vaccination center, luring people to this fortress in the Carpathian Mountains. No, not with hypnotic stares but with billboards and offers of free shots of the Pfizer vaccine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was already planning to come to the castle and I just decided was a two for one special. I could go and see the castle for free and at the same time get vaccinated. It was a dream come true.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The only fangs in sight are the stickers on the scrubs of the doctors and nurses administering the shots. And to take your mind off a possible sore arm, castle staff are offering free entry to the castle's medieval torture exhibit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It was a way of showing those who come to get vaccinated how jabs used to be done 500 to 600 years ago in Europe.

[02:55:00]

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): A way to boost tourism, which slumped during the pandemic, and the chance to show visitors the only real villain here is the virus -- Kim Brunhuber, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: After much fanfare and publicity, tech billionaire Elon Musk opened his performance on American late-night TV show "Saturday Night Live" by joking about the crypto currency dogecoin with his mother. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYE MUSK, ELON MUSK'S MOTHER: Well, break a leg tonight. I love you very much.

ELON MUSK, TECH BILLIONAIRE: I love you too, Mom.

(APPLAUSE)

M. MUSK: And I'm excited for my Mother's Day gift. I just hope it's not dogecoin.

E. MUSK: It is.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Musk is a prominent supporter of dogecoin. And amid this has helped pump up its value in the leadup to the show but then its value dropped sharply after Musk joked about it on "Saturday Night Live." It's unclear what in particular drove the sell-off, if you know what it is in the first place.

Now the former president and first lady in the U.S. have announced that their beloved dog, Bo, has died after a battle with cancer. Bo became part, you'll remember -- this gorgeous face, part of the Obama family shortly after they moved into the White House. The former president promised his daughters a dog in return for time spent on the campaign trail.

Well, on Saturday the Obamas shared touching social media posts about their four-legged friend. The former first lady saying she will always be grateful they got to spend so much time together at the end.

I'm Robyn Curnow. You can follow me on Twitter and on Instagram @RobynCurnowCNN. Thanks for joining me. I will be back, though, with more in just a moment.