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Extreme U.S. Weather; L.A. County Reinstating Indoor Mask Mandate; U.K. Sees Surge Of Cases As Restrictions Set To Lift; At Least 160 Dead, Hundreds Missing In Europe Flooding; Two Athletes Test Positive For COVID-19 In Tokyo's Olympic Village; Israeli Prime Minister: Vaccines Alone Aren't Solving COVID-19 Problem; Myanmar's COVID-19 Crisis Deepens Amid Distrust Of Junta; Biden Administration Promises To Appeal DACA Ruling; International Diplomats In Haiti Call For New Government, Elections; Spike Lee Announces Cannes Winner Early, Stuns Audience. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired July 18, 2021 - 05:00   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): Masks back on: Los Angeles County reinstates the mandate to wear face coverings amid a worrying case surge.

Also ahead, Freedom Day in the U.K. is just hours away, despite cases being in a six-month high and the prime minister being exposed to the virus.

And this Oregon wildfire is burning thousands of acres every hour. It is just one of 70 fires burning in the U.S. right now.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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BRUNHUBER: The push to vaccinate all Americans is hitting a wall of resistance just as cases once again are rising from coast to coast. We're seeing COVID-19 outbreaks in every single U.S. state for the second day in a row.

Areas with the lowest vaccination rates are at the most risk; 48.5 percent of the population here is fully vaccinated, when looking at the latest data from the CDC.

The problem: herd immunity might not kick in until we hit 70 percent. In Los Angeles County, COVID-19 cases have gone up by 300 percent compared to July 4th. Angelinos are now told to wear masks indoors again even if they're fully vaccinated. Officials say the more infectious Delta variant is making matters worse. CNN's Paul Vercammen is in Los Angeles.

(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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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: U.S. vaccination rates have barely budged recently. President Biden is blaming social media, Facebook in particular. Dr. Anthony Fauci agrees that misinformation is a problem. Here's what he told CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER:

disinformation and misinformation is really, really a problem. When we go out into the community and ask people why they don't want to get vaccinated, very often they come back with things that are really just not true.

So that's one of the things that the Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the other day made an appearance at the White House press conference and really stressed the importance of countering misinformation with correct information.

[05:05:00]

FAUCI: And that's really what we're trying to do, Jim, to get out there with trusted messengers, to get people to understand the facts about vaccine. The numbers that you mentioned, Jim, are striking.

You can't run away from those, 99.5 percent of the deaths that occur from COVID- 19 are among unvaccinated individuals. That's a striking statistic that should really --

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: And yet people don't believe that, though.

FAUCI: -- wake up everybody.

ACOSTA: But, Dr. Fauci, people -- there are people out there --

FAUCI: Well, it's the truth.

ACOSTA: -- who don't believe it -- yes.

FAUCI: Well, unfortunately that's when you get into the misinformation, Jim. People don't believe something that is absolute statistical facts that are collected not only by the CDC but by every organization that looks at this.

ACOSTA: And it's not just social media, though. The most-watched television show on FOX News right now is outright hostile to the vaccine.

In this environment, do you think we could have eradicated polio or defeated the measles if you had FOX News, night after night, warning people about these vaccine issues that are just, you know, bunk?

FAUCI: Well, that is a very good point, Jim. If you look at the extraordinary historic success in eradicating smallpox and eliminating polio from most of the world -- and we're on the brink of eradicating polio -- if we had had the pushback for vaccines the way we're seeing on certain media, I don't think it would have been possible at all to not only eradicate smallpox; we probably would still have smallpox.

And we probably would still have polio in this country if we had the kind of false information that's being spread now. If we had that back decades ago, I would be certain that we would still have polio in this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: On Monday, England kicks off a huge, 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.

Everyone's talking about one specific case of COVID, the U.K. health secretary, who tested positive for COVID-19.

What's the latest on that and the repercussions that might have for Boris Johnson?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It means, on Freedom Day, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, will not be free. He will be stuck at home isolating. It's an uncomfortable position for him to be in. He's supposed to be guiding, to a significant degree, England's entire response to the pandemic.

And he's a big fan in a policy sense of Freedom Day, the lifting of these restrictions. Technically, under usual circumstances, everyone who is identified as a close contact, someone who has had face-to- face, recent face-to-face contact with him, would also have to be isolating as well.

And we've learned this morning that both the prime minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, have been contacted by the track and trace system here and confirmed as recent contacts. But they will not be isolating.

We are told instead they will be taking part in an already existing test program, which replaces isolation with daily COVID-19 testing. This is not an option available to the British broader public. But it turns out it is available to the prime minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and they are taking advantage of it.

All of this is a powerful reminder really of the circumstances that the U.K. is in, as England essentially prepares to throw away the pandemic rulebook. And it shows something I guess we already knew, the Delta variant is so transmissible it can reach anyone.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Now turning to the big picture for the vaccine rollout, there is some good news there, I understand.

BLACK: The government says it has met a milestone it set for itself, to have offered every member of the adult population across the U.K. at least their first dose by the end of July. That does not mean needles have gone into the arms of every adult.

The more detailed statistics show around 68 percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated, two doses. The remaining 32 percent has had either one or none. The number of people fully vaccinated is continuing to grow every day. But it is not growing among people under the age of 18. The rollout

doesn't include people aged between 12 and 17, unlike other countries.

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BLACK: So I guess the key context, as England prepares to do away with restrictions and embrace a model of personal responsibility as opposed to the government telling people what they should be doing, the overall vaccine coverage doesn't cover at least a third of the U.K.'s population.

And that is why, one of the reasons why, many critics of this decision to proceed with unlocking, while being in the middle of a surging wave because even the most conservative, the most optimistic modeling suggests, you're still looking at millions of people falling seriously ill over the coming months.

And even if those people are helped to some degree by vaccine coverage and we do see less serious illness, you're still talking about thousands of people, perhaps many thousands of people, needing treatment in hospital.

BRUNHUBER: We'll follow the course of this so-called experiment. Thanks, Phil Black in Essex, England, we appreciate it.

A frightening situation in Washington on Saturday night abruptly ended the Major League Baseball game between the Nationals and the Padres. It was the middle of the 6th inning when gunfire erupted. The players suddenly left the field and fans began rushing for the exits.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. The action is outside of the stadium.

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BRUNHUBER: Three people were wounded when people inside two vehicles got into a shoot-out on a nearby street. CNN's Chris Cillizza was at the game and says it was many minutes before anyone knew what was happening.

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CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS EDITOR AT LARGE: They were supposed to do fireworks after the game tonight, so I think most people didn't think anything of it. Suddenly a lot of people in left field started trying to get out of the center field gates.

And for the next 8-10 minutes, I think people, no one knew what was happening. You saw people hiding. We were crouched behind our seats down the third baseline and not a lot of information.

The players were taken out of the dugouts. Some came out to get their families and grab them and bring them under the stadium. So there wasn't any information. Eventually they came over the PA and said they believed the shooting was outside the stadium. But for 8-10 minutes it was a pretty scary situation.

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BRUNHUBER: The remainder of the game was suspended and will resume Sunday afternoon.

Floodwaters are receding in Western Europe, revealing the extensive damage left behind. We're live in Belgium next.

Plus fears that dry lightning could spark more wildfires in the western U.S. on tops of dozens of fires already ravaging the region. Details are ahead. Please do stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Cleanup efforts are underway in parts of Western Europe as floodwaters recede. Germany and Belgium have suffered the brunt of damage from catastrophic flooding. Bridges have been washed out, homes and businesses destroyed and thousands left homeless.

But the human toll is even more devastating; 160 people are now confirmed dead and hundreds of others still missing. Residents of the once scenic town of Altenahr are banding together to clean the wreckage. 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.

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SHUBERT: 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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: In hardhit Belgium, residents are combing through what's left of their homes and businesses. Let's bring in journalist Chris Burns, live in Verviers, Belgium.

Just looking behind you the devastations there for all to see.

What is the latest where you are?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest is the digging out continues but also it's a question of the electrical facilities, the water, the gas. And over my shoulder, you just see them driving off now. But that's the electrical company trying to restore the power. As of last night the electric company says about 40 percent of homes

here in Verviers had electricity. And what is slowing them down is lots of electrical switching boxes, 40 of them across the town, many of them were so flooded and damaged that they're going to have to fix them, repair and replace them over the next several days.

So it's going to take some time. So you have people, looking out their windows and they've confirmed to us they do not have electricity. They have water but that's it.

But when it comes to water even, you have to watch out for that. The government is saying online, check your water company to make sure that the water is drinkable. If not, don't even boil it, just use bottled water.

So it is kind of an ordeal as far as that is but also it's a question of digging things out. And over my shoulder you can see the piles of wreckage there under the bridge. There are not one but two cars under all that wreckage.

And you see that throughout the town, lots of piles of furniture and belongings lined along the street, as people are trying to put together their lives. We saw that yesterday in Pepinster as well -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Unbelievable, cars in that wreckage behind you. Chris Burns in Belgium, thank you so much.

In the U.S. at least 70 large wildfires are burning across 11 states, mostly in the West. The biggest one so far this year is in Oregon. Officials say the so-called Bootleg Fire is scorching about a thousand acres every hour and it's only 22 percent contained. To make matters worse, dry thunderstorms and high temperatures this weekend could spark even more wildfires.

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BRUNHUBER: Still to come, at least two Olympic athletes in Tokyo's Olympic Village have tested positive for COVID-19. We have a live report next.

And Israel's prime minister argues it's too early to relax coronavirus restrictions, even with vaccines. You'll hear why coming up. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM. With five days to go until the opening ceremonies in Tokyo, more

Olympic athletes at the Olympic Village have now tested positive for COVID-19. CNN's Selina Wang joins us from Tokyo.

Selina, just this hour, we're learning more about those infected athletes.

What can you tell us?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, we learned that two athletes and one official from the South African soccer team have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Olympic Village. This is as the number of COVID-19 cases linked to the Olympics continues to grow.

Now 55 athletes, officials and contractors testing positive. It is critical they contain the COVID-19 cases in the village, where thousands of these athletes will be staying.

[05:30:00]

WANG: I took a visit to the Olympic Village, where it's very much an antisocial, sanitized bubble, not like the usual years of festivity and partying. These athletes are asked to dine alone.

But medical experts have raised concern that these athletes are sharing rooms. I walked through a suite in the village, where eight athletes would be living, four people sharing one bathroom and just 110 square meters total.

But there is a long list of COVID-19 rules, Kim, for everybody involved in these games. Contact tracing, social distancing, regular testing; even though I've been living in Japan as a credentialed journalist, I'm also tested regularly and I also fill out a daily health app online.

But medical experts still saying it's just impossible to keep the local population completely separate from the Japanese public. And the public here is still very much opposed to these games.

As COVID-19 cases are surging in Japan, Tokyo in another state of emergency and, Kim, just about 20 percent of the population is fully vaccinated here. These games are not at all what Japan or the world was hoping for. It's going to be bizarre.

There's going to be no spectators in the stands for the athletes, no cheering, no high-fiving. Masks on as much as possible. Some athletes have withdrawn, citing the spectator ban and the fact their friends and family won't be there to support them in person -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Plus fake crowd noise. Five days to go. Look forward to it. Thanks so much, Selina Wang in Tokyo.

Israel's prime minister says vaccines alone aren't doing enough to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Naftali Bennett is warning the vaccines give, quote, "significantly less effective protection" against the Delta variant. Israel is weighing whether a possible third dose of vaccine is necessary for those already fully vaccinated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Nadav Davidovitch is the director for the School of Public Health at Ben Gurion University and the chair for the health policy program at the Taub Center and he joins me from Tel Aviv.

Thank you so much for joining us. As I just mentioned, Israel is being sort of forced to change strategy on how the country lives and deals with the coronavirus because of that Delta variant. So give me a sense of what's happening right now in Israel.

NADAV DAVIDOVITCH, DIRECTOR, SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, BEN GURION UNIVERSITY: So first of all, we need to face the public to understand that we will continue to live with the virus. And although vaccines are very efficient in preventing severe cases and deaths, there is no one -- 100 percent protection.

And this is why we need a targeted approach. I think Israel is giving a glimpse to the future, showing that we need to have, both, high- vaccination rates. But also, contact tracing, breaking chains of transmission. Lots of tests. And of course, having a very important strategy around those who are entering from abroad.

We need to see how we are not creating health inequalities. We have our population that has a lower vaccination rates and we are investing lots of energies. And especially, we need to have integration. We need to have integration, in order to have all of our economy open, schools that are open.

Vaccination are extremely important. We had 1,400 deaths, in January, when we didn't have the vaccine. But vaccination are not enough. And I think that Boris Johnson' approach that was actually negated by many scientists right now is the wrong one.

We need to learn to live with the virus but this can be done with many actions, not just with vaccinations.

BRUNHUBER: But I -- I do want to ask you a bit more about the vaccinations, because Israel has become the -- the first country in the world, I understand, to give third doses, booster shots to adults with impaired-immune systems.

So based on the evidence that you've seen there, do you think a booster for everyone is warranted?

DAVIDOVITCH: No, I think there are lots of misconceptions here. Israel -- Israel approved only third dose for people that are immunocompromised. We are talking a really tiny minority of the population. Those under organ transplantation or suffering from a cancer.

Otherwise, there is no decision, yet, to have the third dose. And I suggest that people around the world will be focusing about having the first and second dose. We have, in Israel, about 1 million people that are, still, not vaccinated. Especially, important for those who are above 50.

But in general, we have a -- a -- a, you know, a warning sign about global-health governance because the main reason for the situation of variants is because we have gaps in vaccination around the world.

[05:35:00]

DAVIDOVITCH: All vaccine nationalism proving to be very detrimental to our public health and this is something to think ahead of ourselves for the future emergencies.

BRUNHUBER: But we are looking to Israel, as you said, you know, Israel offers sort of a glimpse into the future. And it was data from Israel that led Pfizer to announce that the U.S. should authorize a booster shot for everyone. And that had the CDC and the FDA here banding together and -- and declaring that wasn't necessary.

So how applicable or -- or universal do you think the data and evidence from Israel is for -- for the rest of the world?

DAVIDOVITCH: Israel is, indeed, a model country. We are very proud of it. We are sharing information. But I totally think that currently we don't need too much -- to think too much about the third shot. We need to think, especially, about the first and second one around the globe.

Pfizer is adopting, now, the vaccine for new variants. And maybe, in 2022, we can think about having a modified-third shot. Currently, in Israel, all experts, including myself or most experts, are just giving the recommendation for those who are immunocompromised and, maybe, for the elderly, those who are over 65 or maybe, even 80. This is something to think about.

But again, this is not first priority. First priority is to have the first and second shot for everybody that can do it. And in Israel, it's about 1 million people. This is quite a lot. And especially, also, to think about minorities and to think about the globe.

The globalized scale, how to create a more equal situation, including here in our region for the Palestinian Authority and, of course, for other low- and middle-income countries. This is for the best of all of us and it's a sign of solidarity. COVAX is good but it's not enough.

BRUNHUBER: We will have to leave it there but I really thank you for all of your insights. Nadav Davidovitch, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

DAVIDOVITCH: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: A COVID crisis is unfolding in Myanmar fueled in part by February's military coup. The country is seeing record-breaking numbers of new cases and deaths in recent weeks. And experts say the actual numbers are actually much higher after the junta takeover crippled the nation's health care system. CNN's Vedika Sud has more.

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VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Myanmar's junta doesn't care much for human lives. It's proven that, day in, day out, since it seized power five months ago, targeting and killing hundreds of democracy protesters and detaining thousands more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since February the 1st, we haven't had any reason to trust in them.

SUD (voice-over): The army takeover pitted Myanmar's health system as the pandemic raged. Doctors and nurses left their jobs to join the underground democracy movement. Health workers, not spared from state violence. Now COVID is surging across the country. Lines of coffins surround crematoriums, like this one in the capital, Yangon.

THOMAS ANDREWS, U.N. SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON MYANMAR: This is a complete catastrophe. The entire health system is in shambles. The number of people being infected is just going through the roof and no one trusts this junta to provide information or health care or vaccines that they need to confront this pandemic.

SUD (voice-over): This man asked us to hide his identity for the fear of the junta. He is one of thousands of people in Myanmar, who have demanded a return of Aung San Suu Kyi's election-winning National League for Democracy. Now nine of his family are sick with COVID-19, including a grandparent in his 90s.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): The regime is in complete denial, in criminal denial about the scale of the crisis. Before the coup, the health care system we had wasn't perfect but at least we knew that they were accountable to the people.

SUD (voice-over): In largest city Yangon, desperate people line up for oxygen, a surge in cases plain to see, despite the junta's failure to adequately count cases, let alone manage them.

The smattering of tests that the crippled health care system is capable of conducting show one-third of patients positive for COVID- 19. Residents have resorted to trying to fill their own oxygen cylinders or desperately scouring social media to locate supplies.

Volunteers, like this woman, say the junta is looking on, as its people run out of breath.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): There were some people who died because I couldn't get oxygen in time.

[05:40:00]

SUD (voice-over): She works throughout the day, picking up oxygen from suppliers and delivering it to those who need it most. She says she receives 5-6 requests per hour. She's able to help 5-6 people a day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): People are not able to be treated by proper doctors, they just want an oxygen supply, which is the only answer for them. So without oxygen, they will surely die. SUD (voice-over): In the days just before the coup, Myanmar had begun

one of Southeast Asia's earliest COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. But inoculations faltered after the junta seized power, as residents refused to cooperate with military authorities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): I would rather allow myself to contract COVID-19 than have their vaccine.

SUD (voice-over): In the meantime, the ministry of health is appealing for volunteers to work in understaffed state-run hospitals. And many fear coming out of hiding at all -- Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: What began as a fun day out turned into a health hazard for families in Texas. Authorities are investigating what caused around 65 people to become ill at a water park near Houston.

Officials say a chemical incident happened on Saturday at the Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splash Town in Spring, Texas. The fire department says people suffered from respiratory distress. They're urging anyone at the water park on Saturday and feels sick to seek medical attention.

Public health officials ordered the park to stay closed until they determine what exactly happened.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lifeguard was sick and soon after that, more and more people began becoming sick. Children were walking out of the pool with respiratory issues. And eventually it became very clear that there was something, either in the environment or the water that was making these children sick, these families sick.

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BRUNHUBER: U.S. President Joe Biden slams a court ruling that impacts young American immigrants. Ahead, what Biden plans to do and what his old boss has to say about it. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Barack Obama is calling on the U.S. Congress to protect young immigrants. On Twitter 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 were brought to the U.S. as children to stay without fear of deportation. CNN's Joe Johns has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Earlier I spoke with Karen Tumlin, founder and director of the Justice Action Center in Portland, Oregon. I asked her who is likely to be most impacted by the Texas ruling. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

KAREN TUMLIN, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, JUSTICE ACTION CENTER: Yesterday's decision was a really sad day for DACA recipients and those who are applying for DACA. 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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: That was Karen Tumlin, founder and director of the Justice Action Center in Portland, Oregon.

The wife of Haiti's assassinated president returned to the island on Saturday in preparation for his funeral. The first lady, Martine Moise, was injured in the attack that killed her husband and has been recuperating in the U.S. at a Miami hospital.

Acting Prime Minister Claude Joseph greeted her at the airport in Port-au-Prince. The funeral for Jovenel Moise is set for Friday.

The assassination of Moise left Haiti without a fully functioning government and elections are not scheduled until late September. On Saturday, international diplomats based in Haiti called on the designated prime minister, Ariel Henry, to form a government and organize elections as quickly as possible.

Moise had picked Henry to become prime minister but Henry was never sworn in. Claude Joseph has been acting prime minister in the interim.

[05:50:00]

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 U.S. intelligence assessments warn the Taliban is advancing, quote, "at an accelerating pace" ahead of the pullout of foreign troops in September.

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BRUNHUBER: Filmmaker Spike Lee surprised everyone at the Cannes Film Festival Saturday, he accidentally announced the winner of the top award before anyone was supposed to know. How that happened and what the response was -- that's next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Filmmaker Spike Lee stunned the audience at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in Saturday, when he accidentally announced the winner of the top prize, the Palme d'Or, at the beginning of the awards ceremony.

[05:55:00]

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Saskya Vandoorne explains the mishap.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN PRODUCER: There was a collective gasp at the Cannes Film Festival Saturday as the jury president, Spike Lee, revealed the winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or much earlier than intended.

At the start of the closing ceremony, Lee was asked to announce the first prize of the night but misunderstood and read out the best movie winner instead, the French film "Titane."

It was directed by Julia Ducournau. She is now the second woman to have won the top award. But she didn't come up to the stage to accept the prize until the formal announcement was made at the end of the evening.

Lee apologized after the ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPIKE LEE, JURY PRESIDENT, CANNES FILM FESTIVAL: I messed up. I'm a big sports fan just like the guy at the end of the game and the foul line, he misses a free throw; a guy misses a kick.

So I know apologies but I can say I messed up, as 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANDOORNE: This isn't the first time an awards ceremony has been plunged into confusion. In 2017 at the Oscars, you may remember that "La La Land" was mistakenly announced as best picture instead of "Moonlight" -- Saskya Vandoorne, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: I'm Kim Brunhuber. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. For our viewers in North America, "NEW DAY" is next. For everyone else, it's "AFRICA AVANT-GARDE."