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L.A. County Reinstating Indoor Mask Mandate; At Least 160 Dead, Hundreds Missing In Europe Flooding; Three Shot Outside D.C.'s Nationals Park; Two Athletes Test Positive For COVID-19 In Tokyo's Olympic Village; Biden Administration Promises To Appeal DACA Ruling; Texas Voting Rights Battle; Hundreds Protest In Miami In Solidarity With Cuba Demonstrations; American Designs Surrealist Fashion For The Modern Era. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired July 18, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): In the U.S., the push to vaccinate everyone hits a wall of resistance. And with cases spiking, Angelinos are told to start wearing their masks again.

Water might be receding in places but the danger is far from over in Western Europe, as crews desperately search for survivors.

And gunfire interrupts a Major League Baseball game in Washington, D.C. Players and fans scramble for cover as three people are wounded outside the stadium.

Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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BRUNHUBER: It's the middle of summer in America and the U.S. is facing a grim reality, COVID cases are back on the rise, from coast to coast. They're up in every single state for the second day in a row.

Health experts urging people once again to get vaccinated, because the overwhelming majority of people ending up in the hospital or dying because of the virus are unvaccinated.

A little more than 48 percent of the population here is fully vaccinated when you look at CDC data. That means there's a long way to go before hitting herd immunity, which starts potentially at around 70 percent.

Now in Los Angeles County, the more infectious Delta variant is making matters worse. Masks are mandatory indoors for vaccinated and unvaccinated people. COVID-19 cases have gone up by 300 percent there, compared to July 4th. And as you can imagine, not everyone is on board with this new mandate. Paul Vercammen is in Los Angeles for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The COVID-19 numbers in Los Angeles County started heading back up, in the wrong direction: 462 hospitalizations, 11 new deaths. And that positivity rate leaping, now, to 3.7 percent. It was just 1.5 percent, on the 4th of July.

So there is a lot of debate about this new rule that mandates wearing masks indoors, at restaurants, movie theaters and the like. And a lot of drama unfolding here.

This is Paty's Restaurant. It's in Toluca Lake. Look at the head shots. This is right in the shadow of movie studios and television studios. So here, there is a lot of unscripted, healthy debate about this. Most people say they are willing to wear the masks, again, indoors.

But you will see great divides. At one table, a husband vaccinated; a wife, who was not.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's good. I think it protects people. I think anything to protect people and I don't mind the inconvenience of doing it. Most of the time, I'm outdoors, anyway. So when I go into a market or something, I put the mask on. I got it in my back pocket. And we go from there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like anything that's mandated. I haven't seen the evidence to show that it protects you. The -- the virus is so small. Show me the science, not just what -- you know, what the media says. I think if you have cold symptoms, any -- any kind of symptoms, you should be honest and wear a mask to protect others.

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VERCAMMEN: And also, jumping on to the stage, the L.A. County sheriff, Alex Villanueva, he said in a statement, quote, "Forcing the vaccinated and those who already contracted COVID-19 to wear masks is not backed by science."

He said, "The underfunded/defunded sheriff's department will not expand our limited resources and, instead, ask for voluntary compliance."

It remains to be seen how all this is going to play out here in Tinseltown and points beyond -- reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now back to you.

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BRUNHUBER: There's a vaccination slowdown here in the U.S. and President Biden is blaming social media, Facebook in particular. He's accusing them of killing people for not blocking false information about vaccines. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're killing people. The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they're killing people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: As you can imagine, Facebook has responded, it claims that 85 percent of Facebook users in the U.S. have been or want to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and also says President Biden's goal was for 70 percent of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4th. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed.

Canada is making up for lost time with its vaccination campaign. The country has more than 48 percent of his population fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University. Paula Newton has more on how things are improving.

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: For Canada, this is quite a milestone, given the slow start it got off to.

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NEWTON: Both Canadians and Americans now at over 48 percent fully vaccinated.

But if you go back to a split screen even in May, Canada had very few people fully vaccinated. It was trying to get as many doses as possible, first doses, into as many people as possible.

And the reason there has been a lot less vaccine hesitancy here was what was, unfortunately in the spring and late winter, a punishing third wave of the virus, hospitalizations were through the roof. They had to transfer patients from hospital to hospital just to make sure they could get care.

Really, cities like Toronto, in fact, have only now emerged from lockdown. Canada is still being quite cautious. They say they will open borders to fully vaccinated international visitors, possibly throughout August and September. But they say that, because of the Delta variant, they will continue to be quite cautious -- Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.

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BRUNHUBER: On Monday, England is kicking off a risky experiment by lifting social distancing restrictions. Not everyone's happy and London's mayor says it's still mandatory to wear face coverings on public transport because life isn't back to normal yet.

The Delta variant is fueling a surge in new infections. On Saturday, the U.K. reported more than 54,000 cases, the highest number in six months. Phil Black joins me from Essex, England.

A story everyone's talking about, one specific case of COVID, the U.K. health secretary, who tested positive for coronavirus.

What is the latest on that and what repercussions might that have for Boris Johnson?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The man only one step below Boris Johnson in having overall responsibility for England's response to the pandemic Sajid Javid has tested positive and is isolating at home.

What that means in theory also is that anyone who has had close contact with him would usually be told to isolate at home as well, regardless of who they are. We have learned the prime minister, Boris Johnson and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, have both been contacted by the contact tracing system here because of the recent time they have spent with Javid.

But they will not isolating, despite the rules that usually apply to everyone in these circumstances. Instead, they're taking part in a pilot program, which replaces isolation with daily COVID-19 tests.

It is an already existing test program not available to the broader British public. And it is something that it does happen to exist in this test form. So the prime minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be taking advantage of that and so will in theory be free come the so-called Freedom Day tomorrow.

They will not have to isolate at home. It is all very much a keen illustration of precisely the circumstances the U.K. is in, with the surging wave of the Delta rare variant and the variant can reach anyone -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Amidst that surge, there is some good news on the vaccine front to share.

BLACK: So the government has reached a milestone, a self-imposed goal by the end of July. It wanted to say it has offered at least one dose of the vaccine to every member of the adult population. It has reached that goal.

That does not, however, mean that a needle has gone into the arm of every adult here. The key statistic is that around 68 percent of the adult population is now fully vaccinated. The remaining 32 percent have either had one or none.

In addition to that, you have to consider that everyone under the age of 18 has zero vaccine protection because the rollout here does not include 12- to 17-year olds, as it does in some other countries.

The overall vaccine coverage picture is this: as England prepares to unlock and throw away the rules, at least a third of the overall population has limited to no vaccine protection.

And that is why even the most conservative or even optimistic modeling suggests that, in the months ahead, we will be seeing millions of infections here and thousands, perhaps many thousands of people, falling seriously ill.

BRUNHUBER: All right, thanks so much, Phil Black in Essex, England. Appreciate it.

France is also on edge because of the Delta variant. People who travel there from countries where it's spreading fast and who aren't vaccinated now have to show a negative COVID test. And it has to be taken within 24 hours instead of the usual 72. The countries affected included the U.K., Spain, Portugal and Greece.

The desperate search for survivors is underway in Western Europe, following devastating floods that have ravaged the region. At least 160 people are confirmed dead, with hundreds of others still unaccounted for.

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BRUNHUBER: Rising waters, landslides and power outages are making rescue efforts even more difficult. The Netherlands Red Cross is supporting residents in Venlo, where 10,000 people were ordered to evacuate their homes Friday due to a surging river.

Cleanup has begun in areas where waters receded. Homes lost, roads, bridges, even cemeteries swept away. One official calls this flood a catastrophe of historic proportion.

Later today German chancellor Angela Merkel see the damage firsthand when she visits flood zones. The scenic town of Altenahr, Germany, was overwhelmed with mud and wreckage. Residents are clearing the rubble as they come to terms with what's lost. Atika Shubert has more.

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ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All day, helicopters circled the once picturesque German town of Altenahr, nestled into the bends of the Ahr River, now choked with mud and debris, cut off from neighboring towns without communication.

DEBORAH STRETCH, ALTENAHR RESIDENT: I'm happy that I'm alive.

SHUBERT (voice-over): This is home for Deborah Stretch but her family in the U.K. had no idea if she had survived until they saw her on TV. Now she is delivering fresh cups of coffee to keep spirits up.

STRETCH: I came over the mountain, down here and then I just saw (INAUDIBLE). Unbelievable. We were all just crying, everybody. It was awful. It was really, really terrible. And everybody's walking toward the -- this is our little town. It's gone, it's just gone.

SHUBERT (voice-over): Residents try to clear what they can, working with firefighters, police and soldiers. But the closer we get to the river, the greater the devastation. On a hotel wall, the historic marker of the water level of the last great flood in 1910. That is now dwarfed by this catastrophe.

SHUBERT: To give you a sense of scale, I am standing at the banks of the river. This hotel right beside it had water all the way up to the third story. You can actually see the water line right there, marking just how far up the floodwaters got. SHUBERT (voice-over): This was no ordinary flood. The water took out

chunks of the road, sweeping through the local cemetery. At least one house was carried away by the flood.

Neighbors told us the body of the person who lived there was later found in a hillside vineyard.

Restoring critical infrastructure is a top priority to get the help the town needs.

"We are trying to make this road passable again," explains First Staff Sgt. Pfennig (ph).

"Over there, you can't see it from here, there is a railway bridge, completely unusable and, on this side, there is also a lot of damage. But we are taking some of the material here to stabilize that bridge and to facilitate movement of heavy equipment," he explains.

But it's not until we come around the bend that we see the sheer scale of their task.

SHUBERT: This here is a railway crossing. And that explains what we see over here. The river swelled so high, so quickly, that it was able to tip over the bridge holding up the railway line. You can see all of the trees, the debris that it had collected further upriver.

SHUBERT (voice-over): It just became this wall of water, knocking down everything in its path. This is a scene of destruction that is just incredible. This town has never seen anything like this.

SHUBERT (voice-over): For generations, this town has lived off the river and all that it brings. But now, as extreme weather hits this once tranquil valley, the waters have turned against them -- Atika Shubert for CNN, in Altenahr, Germany.

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BRUNHUBER: In hardhit Belgium, residents are combing through what's left of their homes and businesses. The death toll there is now at least 27 people. Belgium will observe a national day of mourning for the flood victims on Tuesday. Chris Burns is live in Verviers, Belgium.

Let's start with the rescue and recovery.

What are you seeing where you are?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, in fact I can raise that death toll to 30 from an official here in Liege province. It's more than 30 dead and more than 100 are still missing.

And over my shoulder, there are people working there in the cleanup. It's not only a cleanup but it's also in some places a grim search for bodies as well, which they are doing all over the place.

[04:15:00] BURNS: Here we can see all over the center of town here, there's a big cleanup effort. Lots of earth movers and trucks and people with shovels and buckets. The people who are working there just near us had actually come from Brussels to help out in the effort.

We saw a lot of that in Pepinster yesterday as well. One point the government is making is that a lot of people who have come on their own are tying things up and blocking things, blocking rescue efforts. They're asking, if you want to help, to contact the Red Cross, to make sure this is done in a systematic way.

BRUNHUBER: All right, in terms of the cleanup that we're seeing there and reconstruction, I know you've witnessed this firsthand. You've seen what's going on there locally. Tell us what you saw and give us the big picture about what the government is doing to help those people rebuild.

BURNS: It's absolutely mind boggling when you walk around here, it looks somewhat like a war zone. It is piles and piles of stuff, of shop goods, as well as furniture, people's belongings, people's clothes. It's just piles and piles.

And that's what they're busy sorting through right now. The government has offered some help, a few million euros in Wallonia province, to clean things up, to hire cleanup crews, to start restoring services.

That's also a big issue. The electricity is still out in Verviers here. It has been restored to some cities in the region but others not. And water is a big issue. They have water here and other places they don't. And if you do have water, the government says online to check online and make sure that your water is safe.

And if it is not because a lot of it is polluted from the flooding, don't even boil it. Buy a bottle of water. It's still complicated here. We saw a lot of twisted train tracks as well. The train station here in Verviers is still closed. It could take weeks. We have bus service but that's about it. It's going to be tough for quite some time.

BRUNHUBER: We can see that. Thanks for that, Chris Burns in Belgium.

Here in the U.S. a shoot-out during a Major League Baseball game in Washington sent players and fans scrambling. A CNN reporter at the game describes the confusion and panic inside the stadium.

Two Olympic athletes in Tokyo's Olympic Village tested positive for COVID-19. We'll have a live report next, stay with us.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) BRUNHUBER: Saturday night's Major League Baseball game between the

Nationals and the Padres abruptly ended midgame when gunfire erupted outside the Nationals park stadium in Washington.

Police say two vehicles were involved in a shoot-out on a nearby street, at least three people were wounded. Even though everyone was told to stay inside the stadium, dozens of people scrambled into the dugouts to escape.

Nervous fans were eventually given the all clear to safely leave. The game was suspended until Sunday afternoon. Chris Cillizza was at the game and described the confusion.

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CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS EDITOR AT LARGE: I was sitting off the third baseline. And there were some loud bangs behind us, a bunch of some, right in a row.

But they were supposed to do fireworks after the game tonight. So I think most people didn't think anything of it. But then suddenly, a lot of people in left field started jumping out and trying to get out of the center field gates.

And then for the next about 8 to 10 minutes, I think people -- no one knew what was happening. You saw people hiding behind -- we were sort of crouched behind our seats in -- down the 3rd baseline.

And not a lot of information. The players were taken out of the dugouts. They -- some came out to get their families and grab them and bring them under the stadium. So there just wasn't any information.

Eventually they came over the PA and said that they believed the shooting was outside the stadium.

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BRUNHUBER: With five days to go to the opening games in Tokyo, two athletes have tested positive for COVID-19. Olympic organizers haven't revealed the names or nationalities of the positive cases as coronavirus cases are surging in Tokyo raising fears the games could turn into a superspreader event. Selina Wang joins us from Tokyo.

More positive cases with athletes.

So what do we know?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as we are seeing, thousands of Olympic participants flood into Japan for the games, we are seeing a growing number of COVID cases linked to the Tokyo Olympics. Now that number up to 55, with athletes, officials and contractors testing positive for COVID-19.

Two athletes in the Olympic Village; one athlete just today, testing positive, who lives outside the Olympic Village. I visited the Olympic Village and it's not the usual place for partying and celebration. It is very much socially distanced, antisocial. These athletes are asked to dine alone.

But medical experts have raised concern these athletes are sharing rooms. I visited a suite with eight athletes sharing one room about 110 square meters. So not an ideal condition during the pandemic.

And for athletes, it's going to be an incredibly challenging experience for them. There is no cheering, no high fiving, no spectators in the stands. They have to wear their masks on as much as possible.

And even at the medal ceremonies, they're not having the medal put on over their head. It will be handed to them on a tray. So a very bizarre scenario for them. But IOC officials are confident they can keep these cases contained with the Olympic individuals separate from the Japanese public.

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WANG: Look at what one official had to say here.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no such thing as zero risk and, that, we all agree. At the same time, the mingling and crossing of population is incredibly limited, incredibly limited. And we can ensure that transmission between the various groups is almost impossible. I am clarifying almost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WANG: Kim, we're seeing from reports from some Olympic teams, including from the Chinese sailing team, saying that they are able to in fact mix with the local population. And medical experts for months have been saying that it's impossible to keep a completely safe bubble.

And Kim, this is happening as Tokyo is under a state of emergency with COVID-19 cases surging to the highest level since January and just about 20 percent of the population fully vaccinated here.

BRUNHUBER: All right, Selina Wang, thanks so much, in Tokyo.

Clearly the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of our lives. In some ways children are bearing the brunt of that. The U.N. says nearly 23 million children around the world missed their routine vaccinations last year. And that's making them vulnerable to other illnesses.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Breathing heavily and hooked up to tubes, these children aren't victims of COVID-19 but another disease that can be fatal that's almost entirely preventable: measles.

Although the risk of COVID to children is relatively low, the U.N. cautions that they're at risk of contracting other diseases, because of pandemic-related disruptions to immunization campaigns.

Globally, more than 22 million children missed their first dose of the measles vaccine last year. That's 3 million more than the year before. Up to 17 million children likely didn't receive a single dose of any childhood vaccine in 2020.

And nearly 23 million children across the world missed out on their routine vaccinations last year due to pandemic-related lockdowns, the highest number in more than a decade.

Pandemic restrictions largely cut off access to health services and immunization outreach. Funding shortfalls, vaccine misinformation and instability in some parts of the world has added to the troubling picture of low vaccination rates.

As countries begin to ease their COVID-19 restrictions, the gap in global vaccination coverage has set the stage for what one World Health Organization official said could be the perfect storm.

DR. KATE O'BRIEN, IMMUNIZATION DIRECTOR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: As we go from 2020, where we did see actually a period of social engagements, that were interventions in themselves for reducing transmission of these vaccine-preventable diseases, in 2021, we have potentially a perfect storm about to happen.

And we don't want to get to that perfect storm, to be ringing the alarm bell. We're ringing it now.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Backsliding of childhood vaccinations across the globe has stoked an increase of easily preventable but devastating diseases, including polio and measles.

The World Health Organization report finds many children who didn't receive a single dose of the DTP vaccine, which is one of the first shots a child gets, are from 10 countries, led by Nigeria and India.

DR. EPHREM LEMANGO, CHIEF OF IMMUNIZATION, UNICEF: Most of these children that missed their first dose of vaccine live in communities that affected by conflict and crisis, live in communities that are underserved, premature (ph) in places and they live in informal slum settings, particularly urban poor areas.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, global childhood vaccination progress had stalled at around 85 percent for several years. But UNICEF's executive director says the pandemic has made a bad situation worse.

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BRUNHUBER: An Obama-era policy protecting young immigrants is under threat in the U.S. federal courts. Why the former president thinks it's time for Congress to get involved.

Plus Texas Democrats make a last-ditch attempt to block new voting restrictions in their state but they're fighting an uphill battle. Coming up, a look at the state of play and where things go from here. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to everyone watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Barack Obama is calling on the U.S. Congress to protect young immigrants. The former U.S. President slammed a recent federal court decision declaring the DACA program to be illegal. DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

The program allows undocumented immigrants who are brought to the U.S. as children to stay without fear of deportation. Joe Johns has more.

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JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: The judge in Texas essentially invalidated DACA. He said it was against the law, because Congress never signed off on it with legislation; also because it never went through the federal rulemaking process.

But he postponed any enforcement of the case until it came up through the appeals process.

Now the President of the United States for his part put out a statement on Saturday, saying he was deeply disappointed with the ruling, also indicating the administration would appeal the case and would put DACA through a rulemaking process. But he indicated, in his view, Congress does need to act.

Former president Barack Obama also weighed in, essentially saying the same thing on Twitter. It was during his administration that DACA was first introduced.

It was just about one year and one month ago that the United States Supreme Court threw out the Trump era challenges to DACA. Now hundreds of thousands of people inside the United States are once again in limbo about their status -- Joe Johns, CNN, at the White House.

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BRUNHUBER: Karen Tumlin is the founder and director of Justice Action Center and joins me, now, from Portland, Oregon.

Thanks so much for being here with us. You represent some DACA recipients. You have been active in many court cases on the issue, including one that went to the Supreme Court. So I just want to get your reaction about who this will affect and -- and how.

KAREN TUMLIN, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, JUSTICE ACTION CENTER: Yes, absolutely. Thanks so much for having me, Kim. Yesterday's decision was a really sad day for DACA recipients and those who are applying for DACA.

[04:35:00]

TUMLIN: The judge's decision has the most impact on individuals who are first-time applicants for DACA.

So those are individuals who had qualified for the program during the three years it was on hold by former president Trump and who had submitted to apply. And now, the judge's order says that those cases cannot go forward.

And that's the biggest impact of the decision. Later, the judge says, that he will lift a temporary period where individuals with DACA can seek renewals. So this is really a crisis call moment. And it's a call to Congress to pass legalization for DACA recipients and others.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, really underscores that need for Congress to act. I mean, Democrats have tried, a couple of times. It's, you know, passed the House. But hasn't got through the Senate. So now, they are trying to include it in that infrastructure bill and pass it through reconciliation, which would sidestep the filibuster.

But it's not, at all, clear that the Senate parliamentarian would actually allow it to go forward, on that basis.

How confident are you that it'll pass that hurdle?

TUMLIN: You know, I am confident that this is what the senators need to do. I am also really uplifted by the words of both the president and the vice president this morning, making clear that they expect Congress to use the reconciliation vehicle in order to pass legalization.

And I think what that shows is that the president and vice president are saying this is a priority.

And we know we don't have time for anything else, except to attach legalization to a reconciliation package. And it needs to get done now.

BRUNHUBER: You deal, intimately, with the people involved here. Tell me a bit more about what's at stake and how they feel about having their lives upended this way. It seems to be this sort of yo-yo effect that they are allowed, they're not allowed. They are allowed, they're not allowed.

Somebody had written in one of our articles, it's like a paid subscription. I keep subscribing to the United States, that the -- it keeps having to be renewed like this.

So what effect does it have on them? TUMLIN: Yes, thank you, Kim, so much for asking. Because this isn't a court case. This isn't just a program. These aren't numbers. These are members of our communities and our friends and our loved ones.

And, you know, I got to speak to my plaintiffs yesterday after the court decision. And many of them said, I don't want another roller coaster. I don't want to live court case to court case. I am here. This is my home. I don't want to live in two-year increments.

I don't have to worry, will the next court overturn my ability to work here and live here without fear of deportation?

And really, that's what we all want, right?

We want security and we want to build our lives in a positive direction. So enough with the funny business in courts. We need to have a real and permanent solution for our immigrant communities.

BRUNHUBER: And I think most polls support that idea. Most people seem to support that idea.

So there's the -- the path through Congress. There is, also, the -- the judicial path here. They've -- the government has promised to appeal this. But if so, it's headed to the -- the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which I understand is fairly conservative.

And then, if it were to go forward, then, of course, the Supreme Court, 6-3 conservative majority. And I think three of the justices there had, previously, called the program unlawful. So you know, it -- it -- do you have any faith that -- that the courts will sort of come to its rescue?

TUMLIN: So I -- what I would say about that is, first of all, I give credit to the Biden administration for making clear, today, that they will appeal the ruling from judge Hanen yesterday.

Second, judge Hanen is just one judge. He is a district court judge. I represent plaintiffs in a nationwide class, in another case in Brooklyn, New York, before another district court judge where we brought a challenge to president Trump's effort to end the DACA program.

So we're a long way from having a clear decision in the courts on the legality of DACA. But we don't need another court fight.

We don't -- we don't need to go through all of this when, as you said, Kim, poll after poll shows us that Americans, no matter what political persuasion they are, believe that we need legalization and permanent protection for immigrant young people under the DACA program.

So the Senate needs to do what the House has done and get it done and provide a real solution for these young folks.

BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there. Thanks so much for joining us, Karen Tumlin, appreciate it.

TUMLIN: Thanks, Kim.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Texas is staking center stage in the national fight over voting rights in the U.S. The Republican-led Texas state senate voted this week to push a controversial bill that would impose stricter rules for voters.

[04:40:00]

BRUNHUBER: But the new restrictions won't become law just yet. After Texas House Democrats fled the state to prevent a quorum in a final vote on the bill. On Monday the lawmakers flew to Washington, D.C., where they met with key congressional Democrats and urged them to pass federal voting rights legislation.

But Republican Governor Abbott vows to do whatever it takes to win the showdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I can and I will continue to call special session after special session after special session all the way up until election next year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Abbott is also threatening to arrest the Democrats as soon as they return to Texas though it's not clear he has that authority.

Ultimately Texas Democrats lack the votes to block the bill. The bill would rein in things like drive-through and 24-hour voting, further tighten the rules for voting by mail, bolster access for partisan poll watchers.

Despite unlikely odds and widespread criticism from the other side of the aisle, Texas Democrats defend their decision to leave the state, they say Republicans left them with few other options. On the other hand, the Texas GOP defends the push for new voting restrictions in the name of election security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREY MARTINEZ FISCHER, TEXAS STATE HOUSE DEMOCRAT: We debated this proposal for a 24-hour period in committee and the committee is really where you do all the work, where you consider alternative language, where you consider and adopt amendments.

Republicans would not adopt a single amendment offered by Democrats. And so their mission was to pass it and pass it quick. Their mission was to pass it over our objections. They weren't willing to be pragmatic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reason this bill was necessary because we always have to do our best to have those sorts of reliable elections. It's been 10 years since we've done an overhaul of our election laws and I think it was very much time to do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Cuba cracks down on protesters who held the largest anti- government rallies in decades and for the first time, we get an idea how many people were detained. That's ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Cuba's government took a page from Black Lives Matter Saturday, putting up a "Cuban Lives Matter" sign at its embassy in Washington. The message also calls for ending U.S. economic sanctions against the island. Havana blames sanctions for the slumping economy which went from bad to worse in the pandemic.

The embassy did that as hundreds took to the street to show support for anti-government protests in Cuba. CNN affiliate WSVN says many protesters were Cuban Americans who traveled across the U.S. to support the largest rally in decade across Cuba.

Since then Human Rights Watch says more than 400 people have been detained on the island, including Cubans who went missing as the government cracked down on the protesters.

Cuban officials are silent on how many people are arrested but some detained protesters are being released. CNN hasn't independently confirmed that claim or the number detained. In Havana, the government held its own political show of force. Patrick Oppmann has that.

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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Cuban government on Saturday staged a massive demonstration, the largest we've seen since the pandemic. It was billed a revolutionary reaffirmation. Tens of thousands of government supporters took part in it.

And it seemed like it was a direct response to President Joe Biden's comments, criticisms of the Cuban government, calling Cuba a failed state, saying that Communism was not an ideology that worked.

And his offer to restore the internet here after the Cuban government took it down, in large part, following massive anti-government protests that we've seen in the last week. Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel took part. He was the main speaker. Also on hand was the former Cuban leader, Raul Castro, obviously showing his continued support, even though he has retired.

Miguel Diaz-Canel says that the world had been lied to and that Cuban police had not beat up protesters. But of course, hundreds, if not thousands of videos now on social media paint a very different picture.

And CNN has seen in our own coverage, going out and covering these protests, people, Cubans being forcibly arrested simply for saying they won't liberty or a change in government -- Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The Afghan government resumed peace talks with the Taliban on Saturday in Qatar. Both sides expressed hope for peace, even though fighting has escalated across Afghanistan. Negotiators are expected to talk again Sunday.

Meanwhile, officials in Afghanistan say about 12,000 families in a northern province have fled heavy fighting and the U.N. estimates more than 2,000 people in Kandahar have been displaced this month. Sources tell CNN the Taliban is accelerating ahead of the pullout of troops in September.

Bridging the world of art and fashion, the story how an American in Paris bringing a surreal style to the modern age. Stay with us.

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[04:50:00]

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BRUNHUBER: The notion that fashion can be a form of art can be polarizing in some creative circles. But a young American designer in Paris is hoping to enlighten the debate with a surreal approach.

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DANIEL ROSEBERRY, COUTURIER: My name is Daniel Roseberry. I am from Dallas, Texas.

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ROSEBERRY (voice-over): I am the first or the only American working as a couturier. I've been in Paris now for two years as the creative director of Maison Schiaparelli, which is a storied house from the '20s and '30s and early '40s.

Elsa Schiaparelli was an Italian and she moved to Paris and founded her maison, here on the Place Vendome. Her archrival was Coco Chanel. And they were in direct competition with each other.

She was the first designer to foster relationships with the artists of her day, Dali, Cocteau, Giacometti. So I would say that the foundation of the house is really rooted in her relationship with art and surrealism.

I think that being an American gives me a different perspective. And I think there is, always, like this push and pull, where I feel rebelling against couture and all of this kind of classic French-ness behind it but also, a total surrender.

I have never done couture before, I am not classically trained and it required a lot of getting used to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, here for the singing of our national anthem, please welcome Lady Gaga.

ROSEBERRY (voice-over): Dressing Gaga for the inauguration was the honor of a lifetime, in a way. And I loved having her input, too, because, originally, what's she wanted with something all white, a very neutral, almost pure gesture.

But once she saw this sketch, she actually suggested the red and the blue. And that is what we did and it was so much stronger than white.

The audience, as I felt it, at the beginning of the pandemic, was not interested in seeing frivolity. Today, I do feel that there is a shift.

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ROSEBERRY (voice-over): Fashion, especially couture, where there are no commercial boundaries, there is no limit on the imagination, it is purely emotional, this, I think, has a huge role in what people want to see right now.

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BRUNHUBER: Moviemaker Spike Lee delivers a shocking scene to the Cannes Film Festival and definitely without a script. Lee is president of the festival's jury. He accidentally announced the winner of this year's Palme d'Or, the top prize, way too early.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking French).

Can you tell me which prize is the first prize?

SPIKE LEE, JURY PRESIDENT, CANNES FILM FESTIVAL: Yes, I can.

Mai ouis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cool.

LEE: The film that won the Palme d'Or is "Titane."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wait, wait, no.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking French).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking French). (END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: You can hear there, the audience gasped as the winner was revealed, a clearly mortified Spike Lee stood dazed by the confusion and delivered a heartfelt apology later. Here he is.

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LEE: I messed up. Simple as that. And I was very specific to speak to the people of "Titane" and tell them that I apologize. They said, forget about it, Spike. So that means a lot to me. Thank you.

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BRUNHUBER: As you heard no complaints from the winner. Julia Ducournau's film "Titane." She is only the second woman to win the highly coveted award since its inception in 1939.

I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in a moment with more CNN NEWSROOM. Please do stay with us.