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Third And Final Day Of G7; Vote Could Oust Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu; Danish Star Christian Eriksen "Fine" After Collapse On Pitch; Biden To Meet With Putin; China Gas Explosion Kills 11, Injures Dozens; Police Arrest One In Austin, Texas Shooting. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 13, 2021 - 03:00   ET

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

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CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Thank you for joining us. You are watching a special edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Cyril Vanier in Falmouth, England, where world leaders are getting set for the final day of the G7 summit.

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): I'm Robyn Curnow in Atlanta.

Coming up, a new Israeli coalition could put an end to Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year grip on power. That vote in the Knesset hours away.

A Euro 2020 football star collapses on the pitch and needs to be resuscitated in front of terrified teammates, fans and viewers watching around the world.

Plus Joe Biden getting chummy with global leaders. How Boris Johnson replied to part of the club, saying this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He also famously referred to you as a physical and emotional clone of president Trump. I just wonder how you responded to that.

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VANIER: Once again, welcome. I want to take a moment to acknowledge where we are here in our little southwestern corner of England, this idyllic setting on the Cornish coast. And something like this is just about what world leaders are seeing as they're waking up for the third and final day of the G7 in Cornwall.

And a session is set to begin in just a couple of hours. It is titled Open Societies and Economies, one of the last two working sessions of this G7. After that, the sixth and final session of the summit tackles the issue of climate change. So late Saturday, the Royal Air Force Red Arrows put on an impressive

show as the Group of Seven assembled on the beach for another family photo. Unlike their earlier pictures, this one also involved the invited guests at this summit.

That includes South Africa, South Korea and Australia. The White House says President Biden has had one-on-one chats with nearly all of them and, by most accounts, he's made a good impression. Take a listen to French president Emmanuel Macron as he sat down with Mr. Biden.

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EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE: And I think it's great to have a U.S. President part of us and very willing to cooperate.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States, I've said before, we are back. The U.S. is back and we feel very, very strongly about the cohesion of NATO and, I, for one, think that the European Union is an incredibly strong and vibrant entity.

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VANIER: After leaving the U.K. Sunday evening, the president travels to Brussels for a NATO summit and to meet with European Union leaders. Wednesday he will then go to Geneva to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins us from the summit site.

Tell us where we are, where they're just about to start the last date of the summit.

What have they achieved so far and how much is left to be done on this final day of work?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, oftentimes summits like this, the final wording of the final communique will be being hammered out behind the scenes.

You know, the leaders get to sit down around the table and make their points and statements to each other and find the areas where there's coalescing and agreement or, let's say, even disagreement.

And so the broad brush strokes of the final communique are already known, more or less. But then the details get added in. And that's sort of where we're at.

Take China, for example. A White House official yesterday evening said that it wasn't quite clear the amount or type of language that would be in the final communique about China, an important issue for President Biden; although there was convergence from the leaders and concern about what to do about impact on supply chains because of China's trade practices.

The concerns about how precisely leaders and countries should respond to China's human rights violations, so the sort of fine-tuning of the language goes on. But the big-ticket issues today, building back better, a more carbon-neutral society.

The leaders will hear from another speaker today. The esteemed and well-recognized and respected British environmentalist, Sir David Attenborough, will address them on the importance of keeping global warming down to less than 1.5 degrees centigrade.

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ROBERTSON: While the leaders are listening to that, discussing among themselves how they can tie up the loose ends on that part of the agenda and the open society, how they should project democracies around the world, the importance of that will be on the table today.

The fine-tuning of the final communique, I think we'll get to see that in about five hours or so. And then we'll be able to know the depth of agreement and hence where the bigger disagreements and gaps are.

VANIER: What's at stake specifically on the climate?

Because anything that they might decide on or announce as far as fighting global warming is nonbinding. This is a nonbinding forum.

So we know there have been a lot of protests specifically targeted at this topic, right?

Fighting global warming.

What is it that they could agree on, what's really at stake today as they prepare to do their working session on that?

ROBERTSON: You know, we've heard ambitious targets put forward by the U.K.; for example, for trying to achieve, you know, a carbon-neutral U.K. In fact, the prime minister, coming down here, gave about $80 million or so to this region, Cornwall, saying they would be the first carbon-neutral region within the U.K.

I think, you know, what these leaders aim to do -- because as you say, it's nonbinding -- what they aim to do is set an example for others. When they came into this, the United States, on the issue of coronavirus, had agreed to give 500 million vaccines to poorer nations in the world.

The idea of that was that would trigger other nations to try to follow suit. So the idea here will be that, by committing themselves to a more carbon-neutral future, by making commitments that, you know, that businesses can see are concrete and actionable by the governments, that businesses will be able to find investment for greener energy projects.

So that's, you know, what they're trying to do, stimulate other countries to follow suit but stimulate financial markets to begin to invest more and more strongly and heavily in the greener economy.

VANIER: All right. Nic Robertson at the summit site, thank you very much. Two more working sessions for world leaders today, then a final communique and that's what we'll be dissecting with you. You'll be following that throughout the day. Thank you very much.

U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson talked with Clarissa Ward. She asked about his relationship with U.S. President Joe Biden. As she noted, there have been a few bumps along the way.

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WARD: He also famously referred to you as a physical and emotional clone of president Trump. I just wonder how you responded to that and whether the relationship is in a better place?

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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: The relationship is an extremely good order and I think that the premise of the U.K. and the -- has a job to do to get on with whomever is the President of the United States. That's what we do. But in this particular case, I want you to know that the relationship is extremely good.

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WARD: And was it fair to call you a clone?

JOHNSON: Look, I'm not going to -- people say all sorts of things about me. I think if I spent my time disputing this or that, we would not get a lot done. We're getting a huge lot done --

WARD: OK.

JOHNSON: -- here at the G7. It's going well. It's beautiful weather, it's fantastic to see President Biden.

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WARD: So can we just talk about next week quickly?

JOHNSON: Yes.

WARD: President Putin.

JOHNSON: Yes.

WARD: President Biden will be meeting with President Putin.

JOHNSON: Yes.

WARD: President Biden famously said that he thought President Putin is a killer.

Do you believe President Putin is a killer?

JOHNSON: I certainly think that president Putin has done things that are unconscionable in the -- fairly certain that he authorized the poisonings in Salisbury that led to the death of an innocent member of the British public, the attempted poisoning of the Skripals. You have seen what is happening to his leading opponent, Alexei Navalny, who is in prison on trumped up charges, and facing -- and is effectively being tortured.

And so I think that what Joe Biden will be doing when he goes to see Putin will be giving some pretty tough messages. And that's something that I (INAUDIBLE) approve of.

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VANIER: U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson, speaking to Clarissa Ward.

Remember the Trump blimp that greeted the former president during his visit to the U.K.?

Now President Biden has his own blimp. As you can see, this year's presidential balloon has a new twist. It shows President Biden and prime minister Boris Johnson holding hands, wearing swim trunks, their national flags.

The activist groups behind them are using the G7 and their balloons to promote a serious cause. This is what they're campaigning for, calling for world leaders to speed up vaccine donations, one; curb the climate crisis, that's two; and fight poverty.

We'll bring you continuing coverage of the G7 in just about 10 minutes.

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VANIER: I'll throw it back to Robyn Curnow in Atlanta.

We have a guest just gearing up that I think is going to be interesting in about 10 minutes or so on the economic aspects of G7. After all, they are the world's richest democracies. How they spend their money actually affects where this world goes. We'll be talking about that in about 10 minutes.

CURNOW: Excellent. We'll check in with you then, thanks so much.

Benjamin Netanyahu may not last the day as Israeli prime minister. A special session of parliament that will determine his political future is just hours away. He'll be removed from power if a confidence vote on a proposed coalition government clears the Knesset.

All it needs is a simple majority. If successful, right-wing leader Naftali Bennett will be sworn in as prime minister. Elliott Gotkine joins me now from Jerusalem.

Elliott, take us through what happens in the coming hours and give us a sense of the timing here.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure. Things are set to kick off at 4:00 pm local time in Israel, 9:00 am Eastern. There's a lot to get through in this special Knesset session. First up, we'll hear from Naftali Bennett, the proposed prime

minister, for the first half of this rotating prime ministership of a coalition government. You'll hear from the man who is from the biggest party that is not in the government, that party is Likud. And that man is Benjamin Netanyahu.

You can bet that he will use all the time available to him to repeat his opposition to this government and his claims of fraud, not in the Trumpian false allegations of vote-stealing but in a sense that he feels Naftali Bennett won his vote under false pretenses, because he had promised not to go into government with Yair Lapid.

After this, other parties will have an opportunity to speak as well. Then there will be a vote for a new speaker of the Knesset. After that, that is when the main event happens. That is when there is this vote of confidence in the new government.

And what they will do is they will vote either electronically or verbally. We think it's likely to be verbally, in which case the speaker of the Knesset goes around to every lawmaker in alphabetical order. They say for or against or they may abstain.

A simple majority is required. The whole process will take time. According to a spokesman, we might not actually get this new government, assuming it passes its vote of confidence, until about 9:00 pm local time, about 4:00 pm Eastern time. So that is the expectation of how the day will go.

But of course, as we know, it's not done until it's done. There's no rabbits out of the hat expected from Netanyahu. But this vote is what matters and we'll be watching that very closely throughout the day.

CURNOW: Thanks so much from Jerusalem. It's going to be a long day, thanks, Elliot.

Reuven Hazan is the Israeli democracy and political chair at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He joins me live.

Good to have you on the show. This is certainly a momentous day, as Elliott was laying out, in Israeli politics.

It's as much about the end of Mr. Netanyahu than it is about this new government, a new prime minister, isn't it?

REUVEN HAZAN, ISRAELI DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL CHAIR, HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM: Yes. Definitely. And it's not only the end of Netanyahu. Netanyahu is single-handedly responsible for this end. He is the one who took the country to four successive elections.

He's the one who managed to gather up forces to his Right and to his Left, who are willing, for the first time ever, to sit in government for the sole purpose of getting rid of him.

So when he, as Elliott says, goes up to the podium of the Israeli parliament today and speaks as the leader of the opposition for the very first time, this is completely about him and the mistakes that he made leading up to this day.

CURNOW: What kind of leader will Naftali Bennett be?

And how constrained will he be by his coalition partners?

HAZAN: We don't know because Naftali Bennett has flipped back and forth. Let's remember, just a few weeks ago, he was negotiating with Netanyahu himself. But that government didn't have the necessary numbers.

So Naftali Bennett is a right-winger. He is more to the Right than Netanyahu. He supports the settlement process. He supports opposing any negotiations and establishing a Palestinian state.

But at the same time, he not only has center parties but left-wing and extreme left-wing. This is the first time in Israel's history that an Islamic Arab party will be part of the coalition.

So where Naftali Bennett goes and how much he is constrained, we have yet to see. This is a government that really won't be able to move on much that they don't have a consensus on.

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CURNOW: And let's talk about Yair Lapid, essentially the architect of this coalition.

What role will he play and, crucially, how much influence will he continue to hold, to try and hold this coalition together, just basically?

HAZAN: Well, Yair Lapid is being sworn in today as the alternate prime minister. This is a very strange construct that we came up with about a year ago. And in about two years, he will automatically become prime minister.

The question is if his government that he, yes, helped put together can last for two years. Now his party has only 17 out of 120 seats in the parliament. In other words, to get to the 61 majority that he needs today, he had to make a lot of compromises.

And much of that, much of the glue that has brought them together, is, on the one hand the compromises he made but, on the other hand, the hatred for Netanyahu. And these are two issues that we really don't know how long they'll stick together.

And therefore, as Elliott said, it isn't over until it's over today, when we have the vote in the parliament. But even if Netanyahu becomes leader of the opposition, you can't count him out yet.

He was already prime minister once, lost an election, came back 10 years later and has been in power for longer than any Israeli prime minister. So Israel will definitely breathe a breath of fresh air this evening. But it might not be for long.

CURNOW: With that in mind, how exhausted are Israelis? No matter where they are on the political spectrum, are they going to give this government the benefit of the doubt?

HAZAN: I definitely hope so because we have reached a point, after 12 years, of almost a political drama of the week club, that we need some calm. We need a government that will actually govern. These last years have ended with 2.5 years of lack of government. The Israeli parliament dissolved itself in December 2018. That's long before corona.

We haven't had a real government, we haven't had a budget in over two years, we've moved from one political crisis to another and, yes, Netanyahu feeds off of chaos. So this was good for him.

I think many Israelis, even those who voted for Netanyahu, would like to see some calm return to this country, if for no other reason than to mend the fences that we saw between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs, that were really frayed a few weeks ago with the Gaza operation.

CURNOW: Reuven Hazan, thank you so much for bringing us your expertise and analysis. Good to see you. And a busy day also for you, too. Thank you. We'll check in with you again.

HAZAN: Take care.

CURNOW: So coming up here on CNN, moments of real fear on the football pitch on Saturday after Danish star Christian Eriksen collapsed. We'll hear how he's doing.

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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow here in Atlanta.

A Danish football star is recovering after a terrifying medical emergency in the middle of a Euro 2020 match with Finland. Christian Eriksen had to be resuscitated after suddenly collapsing on the pitch. Teammates and fans watched in shock and anguish as medical staff rushed over to give him emergency care.

Eriksen is apparently doing fine now, according to the Danish Football Association.

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CURNOW: Also in Denmark, I want to go to Copenhagen. Jonas Ryefelt is a sport journalist and he joins me now.

Jonas, hi; it's morning there in Denmark.

[03:25:00] CURNOW: And I know it's been a pretty rough night, you said before we went on air, we chatted that you had had trouble sleeping because you were at the game. You saw what happened. Just describe for us how difficult and terrifying it was.

JONAS RYEFELT, SPORT JOURNALIST: It was indeed horrifying. It was by far the worst thing I've seen on a football pitch. Nothing can compare to this. Time stood still. We were all waiting. I was at work for (INAUDIBLE) and I just did my duties as I always would.

And I was just writing down the time when he fell down. And, as you said before, he was lying there for like 13 minutes. And it felt like hours. It really felt like hours. I couldn't believe so little time had gone by because every fan, everyone was just petrified and waiting for something good to happen.

We couldn't even begin to imagine what it would have been like if this hadn't ended well. I was -- I was just trying to look somewhere else. And I kept finding people in tears, teammates, who couldn't be like in the ring around Christian Eriksen, just players sitting on the other pitch side.

And he couldn't be there, just took a knee and waited for something good to happen. It was horrifying.

CURNOW: So you didn't know -- I mean, we're getting reports, it was obvious that this was very serious, that he was being resuscitated, that CPR, chest compressions, were taking place.

Were you expecting the worst?

And how much relief did you have when you realized, after those 13 minutes when he was taken off, that everything was at least OK for now?

Did you know, were you getting any sense of what was happening on the field?

RYEFELT: When he felt (sic) away from the pitch, I didn't actually know it was a good thing or a bad thing. We were waiting for confirmation. We had to have real confirmation that he was going to be OK.

Otherwise, no relief could enter -- could enter my mind. So when I saw first the update from UEFA, he's stable, that was the best news of the night. I can't begin to imagine what would have happened if something worse could have come to reality. But --

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CURNOW: Because the medical intervention was very -- the medical intervention was so quick, the captain realizing very quickly that something was wrong, that this wasn't just a pulled hamstring or something like that. And then again, also, the medical teams really got to work on him very fast.

Do you think they saved his life?

RYEFELT: I actually -- I totally do, totally. They were the best at their work. I saw the player, who had been throwing for Eriksen, he realized quickly as well and he were calling for medical attention right away.

He's a young player, seemed to have understood this is not normal. And he also -- he also -- as was Michael -- doing what any leader would want to do. And they did the best and, you know, we have very experienced and skillful doctors being around here and the hospital so close by.

CURNOW: That was lucky.

RYEFELT: That was very lucky.

CURNOW: Yes. One of Denmark's best hospitals was around the corner. Just before you go, I want to play -- I want you to describe for us what it was like also, because there's this sound that was being sung by the fans on either side. Let's just play it. I want to get your take on the other side.

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CURNOW (voice-over): So fans there, what's happening there, for our viewers, fans from both sides of both teams, are shouting "Christian Eriksen" in support.

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CURNOW: How important was it that the stadium was there together and, also, for Danes watching around the world and at home?

This was a huge game. It was in Copenhagen. Everybody from the crown princess and the crown prince to the prime minister were there.

This has been a bit of a national trauma, hasn't it?

RYEFELT: It was very moving when they started doing it.

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RYEFELT: And it was obvious that everyone wanted some news on Christian Eriksen. And we were waiting for a lot of times to get the -- in the -- in this -- and we were just waiting for something. And then this came up.

And this is what football does. (INAUDIBLE). So -- sorry, I'm getting a lot of (INAUDIBLE) in this. So but Christian Eriksen, the chants that have been sung, that was great. All the community in football, Lukaku, the Belgian teammates.

I saw Hakeemi from Morocco also celebrate with a small thing with Eriksen's number. So moving. All of the football world comes together. He's very well liked, I think, around the world because he's a gentleman, he's a good player. And we all like his story about coming from a small town and being one of the greats in the game.

CURNOW: Thank you very, very much for joining us, Jonas Ryefelt. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much. I hope you have a good day. And I think everybody's prayers are with Christian Eriksen. Thank you.

So Queen Elizabeth celebrates her official birthday ahead of a meeting with the U.S. President today. Coming up, a look at the special relationship between the long-reigning monarch and a dozen U.S. Leaders.

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VANIER: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to our little slice of the Cornish coast. This is the scene that U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson has picked to welcome the leaders of the G7, the richest democracies in the world.

And this, of course, is day three of the meeting. They've got two working sessions left. The White House says that U.S. President Joe Biden has spoken one-on-one with just about every leader attending this summit in Cornwall.

The group representing the world's most powerful democracies is set to hold its final in-person meetings in the coming hours. After that, there will be a communique and press conferences that we'll be following.

One area of tension is on how to best counter China's growing influence, with Mr. Biden pushing for a hardline approach.

After leaving the U.K. on Sunday evening, the president travels to Brussels for a NATO summit, then to Geneva to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

In just a few hours Mr. Biden will have tea with Britain's Queen Elizabeth. The monarch has met every sitting U.S. President except one during her nearly seven-decade reign. CNN's Max Foster takes a look back at her memorable meetings with American leaders.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: The special relationship -- or a dozen special relationships.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ladies and gentlemen, to Her Majesty the Queen.

FOSTER (voice-over): Joe Biden is the 12th U.S. President to meet Queen Elizabeth II during her reign. The queen will have met every sitting president during her 69-year reign, except Lyndon B. Johnson. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were welcomed at

the White House by the first lady at the beginning of a memorable visit to the nation.

FOSTER (voice-over): Starting with Dwight Eisenhower in 1957 and, most recently, Donald Trump, Britain's monarch has seen her share of administrative change. And the conversations invariably remain private.

PRINCE EDWARD, EARL OF WESSEX: People really do respect the fact that this is a genuinely private, off the record conversation. So they really can talk about things and get to the heart of things in a very genuine fashion because they know it's not going to come out.

FOSTER: Does she ever let slip to you in any way?

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PRINCE EDWARD: Of course not. Of course not.

FOSTER (voice-over): Well-known for their shared love of horses, Elizabeth took president Ronald Reagan horseback riding in Windsor in 1982.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was not expected to happen.

FOSTER (voice-over): His successor, President George H. W. Bush, brought the queen to her first baseball game, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, during a state visit, in 1991. Both, Reagan and Bush were later given honorary knighthoods, the U.K.'s highest distinction.

Opportunities to meet the 95-year-old monarch are dwindling. The queen no longer travels abroad. Leaders are expected to come to her. But when they do, the royal family rolls out the red carpet in a regal display of British soft power.

President George W. Bush was the first U.S. President to pay an official state visit in 2003. Bush was also the last to host the queen at the White House in 2007. Pomp and pageantry do, at times, provide awkward moments however, evident when president Trump visited in 2018.

He also revealed the topic of their conversation, Brexit, which raised eyebrows, too.

His predecessor, President Barack Obama, also committed a faux paw by speaking over the national anthem.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... the vitality of the special relationship between our peoples.

FOSTER (voice-over): Now is the turn of Obama's V.P. and current commander in chief to visit Windsor Castle. President Biden will be welcomed by a guard of honor before being invited in for tea.

BONNIE GREER, AMERICAN-BRITISH PLAYWRIGHT AND AUTHOR: The future of the special relationship depends, ultimately, on the American people and the British people, what we understand about each other. And Joe Biden is of a generation where that special relationship means something. The queen is, certainly.

ELIZABETH II, QUEEN OF ENGLAND: To the continued friendship between our two nations and to the health, prosperity and happiness of the people of the United States.

FOSTER (voice-over): Max Foster, CNN, Windsor, England.

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VANIER: With us now from London is Peter Goodman. He's the global economic correspondent for "The New York Times."

We're going to get into the economic angle of this summit. These are the richest democracies in the world. How they spend all their money makes a significant difference.

I want to start with inequalities. That's where Boris Johnson, the host of this summit, started. He opened the meeting, telling world leaders, let's not make the same mistake as in 2008 after the financial crisis. Let's not let this pandemic deepen inequalities.

I have to tell you, when I hear that, alarm bells go off, that this sounds great and often ends up being an empty promise.

Will they do that, address inequalities?

And how?

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PETER GOODMAN, GLOBAL ECONOMIC CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, your skepticism is well placed and appropriate. There are some very significant differences. I mean, after 2008, certainly in the U.K. and across Europe, there was the embrace of austerity. The banks essentially created this catastrophe; ordinary people paid for the costs of cleaning it up through diminished services.

And a lot of the impacts of that have been felt in this pandemic, which has revealed the consequences of cutting social safety nets, cutting health budgets.

So a lot of the extraordinary harm that we've experienced during the course of the pandemic has been worsened by cuts that we've made in the past. We've seen a lot of stepped-up relief programs, a lot of rhetoric around no austerity; governments should step in now and stimulate economies, should continue to help people who have been damaged in terms of loss of livelihoods and jobs.

So that is a significant political change. But one thing that's very stark is the world economy is increasingly divided into countries that have access to vaccines and those that don't. And the ones that do are now poised to recover, in some cases, very robustly. And the bulk of humanity still doesn't have access to vaccines and, the way things are going, probably will not, though, of course, there has been a lot of talk at this G7 summit about wealthy countries donating doses of vaccine.

But the prospects look pretty grim for much of the world as the pandemic continues.

VANIER: So give me your take on the 15 percent corporate tax rate that was hammered out by finance ministers a week ahead of the summit, going to be announced officially today, going to be endorsed officially today.

The deal is that multinational companies will have to pay at least 15 percent tax on their profits and that, of course, is to avoid the current situation, where some multinational companies just manage to avoid tax entirely.

What is your take on that?

Because it seems to me to be very low when we know that most people pay 30 percent, 50 percent tax and very wealthy companies are being asked to pay a minimum of 15 percent.

GOODMAN: It is low. I mean, you have to look at it as an incremental step in the direction of what many people would characterize as tax fairness. So we've come through several decades, in which companies -- and especially wealthy individuals -- have been very successful in using accountants, very creating forms of accounting -- in some cases, legal; in some cases, gray area; in some cases, outright fraudulent, moving money away from the tax collector in their home jurisdiction to some accommodating foreign jurisdiction.

And companies have gamed the system, where you have to pay a 21 percent, 28 percent, depending upon who's in power, corporate tax rate in the United States, while Ireland, very, very low corporate taxes.

Book your profits in Ireland, you move your money around so you effectively show it as you're running losses everywhere, where companies are actually taxed and all your gains are in a place like Ireland.

So this proposal that the finance ministers agreed to a week ago is significant in terms of the potential restructuring. But I think you're correct in being dubious that setting the floor that low will have a meaningful impact by itself.

This has to be the beginning of a change in the structure, where companies can no longer play one country off against another.

VANIER: All right. Peter Goodman, that's all the time we have. Thank you for joining us, from "The New York Times" in London. Thanks again.

Back to Robyn Curnow in Atlanta, at the CNN World Center.

CURNOW: Thank you very much.

I want to bring you up to date on a developing story out of China. State media reporting at least 12 people are dead after a gas explosion in Hubei province Sunday morning. Officials say 150 have been rescued from the rubble, including 37 with serious injuries. The cause of the explosion is unknown.

Kristie Lu Stout joins me from Hong Kong with the latest.

We're still trying to piece together what happened and how many fatalities but take us through what you know.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: This is what we know: a massive gas pipe explosion has ripped through a neighborhood area in the central Chinese province of Hubei, taken the lives of at least 12 people; 140 found by rescue workers so far; 37 are called to be severely injured.

This incident, this explosion, took place 6:30 am local time. The officials on the scene say that many people remain trapped inside rubble and debris there.

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STOUT: Rescue operations are underway. In fact, 137 rescue personnel, as well as six rescue dogs, are there on the scene.

Video of the aftermath of this horrific explosion has been circulating wildly on social media. And it paints a scene of utter, shocking devastation. A neighborhood, a once vibrant residential area, waking up to a new morning, instantly transformed into this unrecognizable, charred wasteland.

We've been monitoring social media in China for local reaction.

And one user said, quote, "I really can't imagine it. My home is 100 or 200 meters away from the explosion. I can't imagine that the place where I live day and night has become a ruin."

She goes on to say, "The video and the pictures are shocking."

And they are indeed shocking. Sadly, China is no stranger to deadly explosions and accidents like this. We know that in January, earlier this year, one person was killed in a factory in Hunan.

We know in August of last year, six people were killed in a chemical factory in Hubei province. China had promised that it would improve safety standards back in 2015 when the explosions took place, blasts taking the lives of 173 people, injuring over 800.

But now, six years on, we have this deadly explosion in this central Chinese city. An investigation is underway. We really don't know the exact cause just yet.

CURNOW: Kristie Lu Stout, thank you so much.

Orlando, Florida, remembering its own tragedy five years later. Coming up, how community members are paying tribute to the dozens killed in the Pulse night club massacre.

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CURNOW: The U.S. is seeing a wave of mass shootings this weekend as it remembers one of the deadliest in its history.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Giancarlo Mendes (INAUDIBLE).

CURNOW (voice-over): People in Orlando, Florida, gathered to remember victims of the Pulse night club shooting. Saturday marked five years since a gunman opened fire there; 49 were killed that night and more than 50 others wounded.

The anniversary came as communities across the U.S. reel from a new wave of gun violence. Mass shootings in five states have left at least seven people dead, another 40 injured since Friday afternoon alone.

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CURNOW: Police in Austin, Texas, have arrested one in connection with a shooting there early Saturday morning. The city's mayor says investigators are closing in on a second suspect. Ed Lavandera is on the scene with the latest.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is 6th Street, the iconic entertainment district in downtown Austin, Texas. This is where shooting erupted in the early morning hours of Saturday, 14 people were wounded.

Police say they don't believe that the 14 wounded were intentionally targeted by the gunman. They say that this appears to have been an altercation that erupted between two different people.

But exactly who fired the shots and all of those details still aren't clear at this point. But investigators say they have been going through various surveillance camera footage from the businesses and clubs around this area, trying to pinpoint exactly what happened.

There's also body camera footage from officers that were responding to this chaotic scene. There has been a biker rally going on here in Austin this weekend. So this has been the scene here in this iconic business entertainment district for much of the weekend.

So you can imagine what it was like in the early morning hours on Saturday, when that gunfire erupted; again, 14 people wounded. No one was killed. Austin police, we are told, have arrested one of the two suspects. And the mayor says they are zeroing in and close to arresting the second suspect. But that investigation continues. And this is just the latest in what

has been a long series of violent shootings across the country just this weekend -- Ed Lavandera, CNN, Austin, Texas.

CURNOW: Thanks, Ed, for that.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'll be back after the break.

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CURNOW: Welcome back. In a couple hours' time, the men's final of the French Open gets underway. World number one Novak Djokovic meets Greece's young star, Stefanos Tsitsipas. Djokovic is seeking his 19th major tennis title while Tsitsipas is seeking his first Grand Slam.

It was also a first for the women which when Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova defeated Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She is only the third unseeded player to win at Roland Garros in the last five years.

Good for her.

I'm Robyn Curnow. I will be back with more CNN in just a moment.