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Drone Kills Civilians, Not ISIS; Secondary Education Resuming without Afghan Girls; Anti-Lockdown Protesters in Melbourne Clash with Police; Experts: Unvaccinated Americans are Prolonging Pandemic; Cuba Vaccinating Children as Young as 2; Children in U.S. under 12 Not Eligible for Vaccine; All-Tourist Space Flight Ends Successfully; Russian Voting; Interview with Najib Mikati, New Lebanese PM, on "Quick Fixes" to Help Economy; The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards Returns to TV. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired September 19, 2021 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers, joining us from all around the world. I am Michael Holmes and I appreciate your company.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, new details about that deadly U.S. drone strike, in Kabul. The warning, given seconds before 10 innocent civilians were killed.
Forced back to Myanmar, immigrants, many who were legally working in China, are given no choice but to return home.
Also --
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HOLMES (voice-over): Splashdown for the first, all civilian spaceflight. Ushering in a new era for space travel.
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HOLMES: "There may be civilians in the area, including children."
Sources say, that chilling warning came from the CIA last month, just seconds before a U.S. airstrike, killed 10 Afghan civilians in Kabul. The alert, reportedly, coming just after the missile was fired, seconds after the military, targeting the Toyota, following a suicide bombing, killing 13 U.S. troops and scores of Afghans, racing to evacuate at the Kabul airport.
But the Pentagon now admits, no one in that car was linked to ISIS-K, calling the airstrike, a tragic mistake. Now 7 of those, killed in the attack, were children. CNN's Nic Robertson, has been speaking with some of the relatives who lost siblings, sons and daughters, in the strike. He has a look at their heartbreak, in Kabul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's a lot of children.
This is the blood of the children?
AMAL AHMADI, ZAMARAI'S BROTHER: Yes. Yes.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Amal Ahmadi shows me his family's shattered house.
(on camera): It's heartbreaking to see this now.
AHMADI: Yes.
ROBERTSON: And to know they say it was just a mistake.
AHMADI: Yes, yes, that's a big mistake. You know about it, yes.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): No one has had the heart to clean it up since the drone strike three weeks ago.
AHMADI: They are all of them. Like my cute daughter that I can't forget her. She was so lively for me that I.
ROBERTSON: The Pentagon late admission, that his brother, Zamarai, was not an ISIS terrorist, something positive.
AHMADI: The USA proved that they are targeting innocent people, because of that I am so happy about in.
ROBERTSON: But he still has questions. Five children he says were inside the car when it was hit.
AHMADI: The USA's know that inside the car was children. Why they targeted an innocent person? Why they target a civilian person.
ROBERTSON: So far, they say they've had no calls from U.S. officials. Are hoping for help to rebuild, even relocate to America.
(on camera): Can you forgive them?
AHMADI: Maybe. But how should I do? You know that I lost that my family. That who return them back perhaps.
ROBERTSON: That's impossible.
AHMADI: It's impossible. No one is able to return them back.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): To the world, this is a drone strike gone wrong. For the family, it's an irreplaceable loss.
Another brother, Romal, shows me the family graves, scattered in the unforgiving rocky ground of a dusty Kabul cemetery.
His own three children, daughter Farzad, 9; sons Faisal, 15, and Zamir, 19, all killed in the strike, buried here, too.
(on camera): What do you want for the person responsible?
AHMADI: Just give me --
ROBERTSON (voice-over): His answer, justice. The drone operators should go to court.
For now, prayers and the acknowledgement of their family's innocence, their only solace -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Of course, the Taliban are no strangers to killing civilians themselves. They have come under fire for targeting women, activists and government workers.
But the militants are seizing on the U.S. airstrike as an emblematic of America's war, in Afghanistan. Here is one of their spokesman, speaking to Nic Robertson, the day after the U.S. admitted to 10 civilians were killed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that it was a mistake, the drone strike at the airport, that killed 10 people, 10 civilians, it was a mistake.
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ROBERTSON: What do you think about this admission of a mistake?
ZABIULLAH MUJAHID, TALIBAN SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Unfortunately, the Pentagon has been making these mistakes for the last 20 years. It's not their first time making mistakes. Maybe it will be their last time.
They have, repeatedly, targeted civilians under their operations in airstrikes, in Afghanistan. It is great to see that they got the courage to confess to the truth but they didn't do so for the last 20 years.
They targeted thousands of women, children, innocent civilians and martyred them. Indeed, we condemn their last airstrike and it is definite evidence that civilians got killed and got damaged.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Meanwhile, the Taliban are sticking to their line that girls will be allowed to go to school, this time. Some girls, in Kabul, heading back to primary school Saturday, as the Taliban ordered classes to resume. But secondary schools are reopening their doors only to boys. And, so, far no mention of when girls, of that age, will return to classrooms.
Nic Robertson, pressing the Taliban spokesman to explain why. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Schools have started, boys in grade 6, to 12, have been invited. But not girls. We were told, there would be education for girls, up to higher education.
So what's happening?
MUJAHID (through translator): Well, we are in the process of laying the groundwork, since girls, from grade 6, until 12, need secure transportation. And, also, there are certain rules for their class and lessons, that must be observed so that they could be safe.
We are working on this and the process would get completed and they will be allowed. We do have girls at universities, continuing their education, both in, private and government funded universities. But from grade 6 to 12, we are in the process of laying the groundwork. Work is being done on a process, in this regard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The Taliban, of course, promising to respect women's rights, now that the group is back in power. But women have been excluded from the new government, and some have been forced out of their jobs.
Meanwhile, thousands of Afghans who once worked for the U.S., pleading with Washington, to not forget them, many, stranded, in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, with no way out of the country. And, they have no doubt, the Taliban will kill them if they stay. Phil Black, with one man's story.
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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This man says he has lived and worked for almost two decades as a loyal ally of American efforts in Afghanistan. Now he is stranded, vulnerable, too scared to reveal his identity. We're calling him Wakil (ph).
"WAKIL," AFGHAN WORKER FOR U.S.: I am afraid. Maybe they have some plan. If they know, kill us now, maybe in a few days, in a few months. Definitely, we will be killed by them.
BLACK (voice-over): He has good reasons to fear Taliban retribution. He first worked with U.S. forces, he says, as a translator, in the earliest days of the war in the battle for Tora Bora. As they hunted Al Qaeda and its, leader Osama bin Laden.
"WAKIL": We went to the skiing (ph) mountain inside and then to enter the border of Pakistan. We were just looking for them.
BLACK (voice-over): In the years that followed, he said he had jobs helping the U.S. embassy, Treasury and State Departments. He says that his service was recognized with a special visa, to join America's airlift.
He and his family, fought through the chaos to reach Kabul airport but weren't allowed inside, because of a bomb blast, killing more than 170 people. Then, came a phone call and new instructions, from someone coordinating the evacuation.
"WAKIL:" They collect us and of us, there was 8 of us, among of us. And they came to Mazar (ph).
BLACK (voice-over): Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in northern Afghanistan, from where, he says, he and many others, were told the U.S. will rescue them.
"WAKIL:" And then among of us, there's only one hotel that we are living, a place. It is 450 people now.
BLACK (voice-over): They've been waiting, for weeks, terrified the Taliban will come at any moment. The U.S. based advocacy group Allied Airlift 21 says, a charter flight was allowed to leave Mazar-i- Sharif's airport, on Friday, carrying hundreds of people, Americans, legal U.S. residents and Afghans. He was not among them.
"WAKIL:" I am requesting, from the U.S. government, that they should not have left us behind. We provide service for 15 or 16 years. Even during the really bad missions. My friends were killed. And I requested from the U.S. government, that they should not forget us.
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BLACK (voice-over): U.S. officials, say they're working to help at risk allies, who have been left behind. He has not given up on them yet. But even if he escapes Mazar-i-Sharif with his, wife and three young daughters, he, must, still pay a heartbreaking price for being a friend to America. His mother cannot come with them. Still, she is in Kabul.
"WAKIL:" She is alone there. I don't have anyone to support her. Everyone is -- I am crying.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: So many left behind.
The language out of Paris, now, is the harshest yet over the new security deal that Australia struck with the United States and Britain. Under that agreement, Australia will develop nuclear powered submarines with American and British, technologies.
That deal, dissolved years of partnership between Australia and France, on a fleet of new diesel electric subs. Paris is so furious after losing the 65 billion dollar contract, it has recalled its ambassadors to Canberra and Washington. On Sunday, the foreign minister did not hide his contempt.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There has been lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt. This will not do. Things are not going well between us. They aren't going well at all. It means there is a crisis.
And at that point, first of all, there is a symbolic aspect. We are recalling our ambassadors, to try to understand. Too, at the same, time show or former partner countries that we are very dissatisfied, that there is, really, a serious crisis between us.
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HOLMES: Healing the rift with France will, likely, be on the agenda this week, when the U.S. President meets with the British prime minister.
Coming, up on the program, COVID infections among children are climbing, as schools return to in-person learning. Up next, I speak to a pediatrician on what can be done.
Plus, back on, Earth after 3 days in orbit. We bring you the dramatic splashdown of this first ever space mission. We will be right back.
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HOLMES (voice-over): You're watching police as they had to use pepper spray on protesters at another anti lockdown rally in Northern Australia on Saturday. Police say 235 people were arrested, 10 police officers injured during the protest.
Frustrations are rising after weeks of tough restrictions and lockdowns across the state of Victoria, where Melbourne is the capital. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says restrictions will ease once 70 percent of eligible residents receive the first COVID 19 vaccine shots.
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HOLMES (voice-over): Right now about 56 percent have received that first dose.
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HOLMES: China accused of forcing a large number of Burmese migrants to leave the country as part of its plan to control the COVID outbreak. Many of these migrants have worked in China for years and fear returning to Myanmar, which faces a worsening COVID crisis as well as a civil war.
The Chinese foreign ministry denies forcing migrants away. CNN's Paula Hancocks with the exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Heading home to Myanmar, these migrants carry all the belongings they can to the Chinese border city of Ruili. For many, it is not by choice.
They are being sent home due to China's fears of COVID-19. Chinese officials are seen speaking to the local community by loudspeaker. The message is clear.
"It's a city wide policy," he says to persuade the Burmese to go home because, of the pressing epidemic situation.
In other communities, the order is far more harsh. Here, early on, some Burmese migrants forced to leave in the middle of the night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They came to our place at night and asked us to sign the exit document, no matter we want to sign it or not. They forced us to sign and sent us back.
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HANCOCKS (voice-over): She doesn't want to show her face because of fear of Chinese government retribution. She works in a Chinese furniture factory. She told CNN that all the Burmese in her village were forced to leave in early August. They were bused to the border gate and from there they were told to walk back to Myanmar.
She lays out all her Chinese permits that she says proves her legal status in China. Now back home in Myanmar, she's without a job or a hope.
Since the Myanmar military seized power in February this year, more than 1,000 people have been killed by the junta, according to an advocacy group. NGOs and the U.N. said the actual number is likely far higher.
For decades, Burmese migrants have been crossing over to China, seeking job opportunities in the border city of Ruili. They've been blamed for the city's several COVID outbreaks this year, putting pressure Chinese overall epidemic control.
This Burmese girl, Su Su, and her friends have packed up their bags.
"We are willing to go back to Myanmar," she tells CNN. "We've been out of jobs for 4-5 months because of the lockdowns. We don't even have the money to pay the electricity."
But many others do not want to leave. This Burmese man also showed CNN his full set of Chinese legal permits. He's been working for years in China as a truck driver. He had hoped to earn enough money so he could marry his girlfriend.
But he and other Burmese migrants were suddenly evicted from their rental home, the door sealed, forcing them to leave.
The Chinese foreign ministry denies deporting the Burmese migrants. In a faxed reply, it says some Burmese citizens have requested to remove to Myanmar due to job losses. And they are returning to Myanmar voluntarily. The statement contradicts the appeals we are hearing on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I want to request the Chinese government to postpone the plan. We want to stay longer here and don't want to be sent back home.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): It is unclear if any of the people we spoke to have tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile on the other side of the border, Chinese migrant workers are rushing back into China from Myanmar, fleeing war and COVID-19, they find themselves stuck in a long queue outside of the border gate, waiting to be processed.
This person worked as a freelance fighter, hired by a local government militia in northern Myanmar and he didn't want to wait any longer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The epidemic control measures were very poor there. The medical facility's standard was poor as well. If I get COVID, I don't think they would be able to save me.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): He says he walked for four days through the jungle before reaching the border and crossing illegally. In order to prevent the virus coming in this way, China has built a long barbed wire fence along its border with Myanmar.
But the fence is not stopping everyone. Some try to illegally cross back into China. Chinese state media reports that many are suspected of internet fraud and gambling operations in Myanmar. A migrant homecoming on both sides of this border, some less welcoming than others -- Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.
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HOLMES: The rate of COVID vaccinations in the U.S. remains stubbornly low even as the cases new cases and deaths continues to rise. Just under 55 percent of the U.S. population is vaccinated, still well short of the 70 percent to 85 percent threshold needed for so called herd immunity.
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HOLMES: Meanwhile, booster shots will soon be available for older and high risk Americans, after Friday's recommendation from an FDA advisory committee. But experts say the key to ending the pandemic in the U.S. is not the third shot, it's getting unvaccinated Americans to roll up their sleeves for the first one.
Unvaccinated Americans are also driving a surge in COVID hospitalizations. In the states of Montana and Alaska, some hospitals are so overwhelmed they've had to ration care. And the situation even more dire in Idaho, where officials have activated what they call crisis standards of care for hospitals statewide. CNN's Dan Simon explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are being absolutely crushed by COVID.
CHRIS ROTH, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ST. LUKE'S HEALTH SYSTEM: I am scared, I'm scared for all of us.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Idaho, health care workers are beginning to triage the worsening COVID 19 crisis.
ROTH: We are going to have to start and are starting ranking how things are being done.
SIMON (voice-over): State officials say hospitals are now allowed to ration treatment in order to meet an overwhelming surge of unvaccinated COVID patients.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They get the question, if my husband, if my wife, if my son, if my daughter had been vaccinated, would this have happened?
And the answer, of course, is no.
SIMON (voice-over): The influx is forcing providers to make unimaginable decisions, determining who gets care and who must wait.
ROTH: While we are currently able to tread water, it's going to decline simply because a caregiver can't get to a patient fast enough.
SIMON (voice-over): Everyone, from cancer patients to people on a transplant list, could see delays in treatment as resources are diverted to urgent COVID cases...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): The new Delta variant is spreading twice as fast.
SIMON (voice-over): -- despite a months-long push of public service announcements like these from the state health department.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Protect yourself and others. Get vaccinated today.
SIMON (voice-over): Barely 40 percent of the Gem State is fully vaccinated, nearly 14 points less than the national average, a statistic health care workers blame on misinformation.
And in a state where some residents and their children staged a fiery mask protest in March, there is still no statewide mask mandate. There is a strict mask mandate just across the border in Washington State and frustration is spilling over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get the damn shot. We need to be safe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Health care is not an unlimited resource.
SIMON (voice-over): As some of Idaho's patients arrive in Spokane and Seattle area hospitals. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People are just counting on Washington hospitals to be available to them while their own hospitals are overrun. To rely on our state and our state's hospitals is the backup plan. This is really unacceptable.
SIMON (voice-over): The Idaho Hospital Association says some 400 health care workers are out this week due to COVID exposure, worsening a dire situation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the only thing that could make things worse is to act like this is not happening. If you went out and got a vaccine today, it's not going to help us for weeks. But it would be a start.
SIMON: Some hospitals here in Idaho are so flooded with COVID patients that they're reaching out to other hospitals on the West Coast, to see if they would accept some of their critically ill patients and, in some cases, they are being denied. One hospital in Spokane told CNN they've had to decline more than half of the patients they're being asked to take -- Dan Simon, CNN, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, the virus is surging among schoolchildren meanwhile. The American Academy of Pediatrics says there have been nearly 500,000 new cases in the past 2 weeks. Unlike the U.S., several countries around the world are vaccinating children now. Countries like Cuba, Chile, China, El Salvador and the UAE are giving the jab to children under 12. Cambodia joined them on Friday. In Israel, children as young as 5 can be vaccinated if they are at risk of severe illness.
And in Cuba, the government says its homegrown vaccines are safe for children as young as 2. As Patrick Oppmann reports, many parents there are voluntarily taking their toddlers to get a jab.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): First comes the jab and then the tears. In this one clinic in Havana, the day we visited, over 230 children between ages of 2 and 5 were vaccinated, hospital administrators tell us.
Several countries around the world have begun to vaccinate children but Cuba is believed to be the first to vaccinate toddlers on a large scale. Even though COVID vaccinations aren't mandatory here, Laura Tijeras tells me she didn't hesitate to bring her 4-year-old daughter, Anisol, to get the shot.
"I am relieved," she says, "because a lot of people are still getting sick. And with the vaccine, we are more protected."
Rather than rely on importing vaccines from abroad, Cuba has produced its own homegrown anti-COVID drugs.
The island's government says studies show they are safe even in children and have begun sending data to the World Health Organization for its approval.
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OPPMANN (voice-over): With the Delta variant, cases in children are soaring in Cuba.
And just since August, 10 children have died, according to government statistics, something doctors tell us they didn't expect would happen.
"It's more gratifying to vaccinate a child," Dr. Auroly Otano Orteaga says. "You put the vaccine and know they're going to be immunized and won't have serious complications or even die from COVID."
The pandemic has hit Cuba hard, with food and medicine shortages and in-person schooling canceled indefinitely. Cuban officials had said that they would reopen schools in early September. But with the surge of new cases and deaths, those plans are on hold.
Now officials say that, before they can safely reopen schools, they have to complete an island-wide vaccination campaign that includes children.
I meet Micelle (ph) and her daughter, Paula (ph), right before the 3- year-old gets her vaccine.
"I'm very happy," she says, "more than when I got vaccinated. Vaccinating her is the biggest comfort yet."
Cuba's vaccines require three doses. So there are more jabs to come for the kids. But parents say, if it means that life can begin to return to normal for their children, then all the tears will have been worth it -- Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now in the United States, the vaccine is not authorized for people younger than 12. That is a big concern for many with the school year now underway and more than 5 million children testing positive for the virus.
It has also sparked a fierce debate across America over mask mandates in schools. Dr. Anthony Fauci is weighing in, saying it is critical to surround children with vaccinated people. He says it also expects that the vaccine could be authorized for children under 12 within months.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER: Based on what we know, it's going to be sometime in the fall there will be enough data to apply for an emergency use authorization, both by Pfizer, a little bit later by Moderna.
But I believe both of them, with Pfizer first, we'll very likely be able to have a situation where we will be able to vaccinate children. If the FDA judges the data sufficient enough, we could do it by the fall. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Dr. Jennifer Xu is a physician with Children's Medical group in Atlanta.
Good to see you, Doctor.
What do you think when you hear things like, kids don't get COVID or aren't seriously impacted by it?
What do you see as a pediatrician in terms of COVID impact?
DR. JENNIFER XU, CHILDREN'S MEDICAL CENTER: At the beginning of the pandemic, we were seeing the kids weren't getting it as much and it wasn't a severe, which was wonderful.
But now we are seeing that the rates of COVID in children are outpacing the proportion that they are in the population. So kids make up about 22 percent of the U.S. population and, earlier in the pandemic they were making up about 14 percent of the cases. And now it's up to 29 percent, so it's becoming more common in children, unfortunately.
HOLMES: You're here in Georgia; in this state, just for one example, it's been estimated that 60 percent of all COVID outbreaks in the state are happening in K through 12 schools. And cases have increased sevenfold in that group.
What does that mean in both effects on kids but the wider community spread, teachers, parents and so on?
XU: We know that education is so important and we'd love to have children be in school in person as much as possible. But you are right. What we are seeing is that there is more transmission. We used to see more transmission within households. And now we are starting to see it happen in schools and childcare centers.
HOLMES: What are your thoughts on vaccinating younger children or making vaccinations available?
Is there enough research into clearing that hurdle datawise?
XU: I'm leaving the research up to the people who are experts at that. But I really do feel strongly that having vaccines for younger children would be very helpful in preventing them from getting COVID.
Right now, we are relying on people over 12 years old to get the vaccination to protect the children, who are still not eligible to get them.
HOLMES: It's interesting because we often talk about those who won't get vaccinated. There are stories about parents lying about their kids' ages to get them vaccinated.
Are you seeing, hearing that? XU: I actually am. A lot of patients have asked me if they could go and get their 11-year old vaccinated because that 11-year old is about the same size as a 12- to 16-year old are 12 to 15 year old. Right now I am telling them that they should wait until it is authorized to be given in children.
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XU: But I understand the eagerness of parents to want to protect their kids. I'm even seeing it in kids 6 months and up, where the parents want to enroll her kids in a vaccine trial, a study, where they have some possible chance of getting the actual vaccine.
HOLMES: I guess the school year here in the U.S. kicking into gear.
Do you think there should be mask mandates in the schools given the spread of the Delta variant?
XU: With the spread of the Delta variant and the kids under age 12 not being able to get the vaccine yet, I think it's important to do as much as we can to protect this population and allow them to get the education that they need.
So that means vaccinating as many other people as possible, wearing masks as much as possible. We talk about distancing, we talk about coworking kids, we talk about testing, hand hygiene, disinfecting, all that stuff. So there is a lot that we can do until these kids can get vaccinated.
HOLMES: I'm curious what goes through your mind when you see the often visceral and threatening reaction by some parents at school board meetings about precautions like mask mandates.
What goes through your mind as a medical professional?
XU: It's interesting the amount of emotion that goes into it and I try to remind people that we are looking at the medical aspect, the health aspect, the scientific things that we know about COVID and vaccines and masking.
If you kind of take a step back, we're looking to protect children as much as possible. These kids don't mind wearing masks, so a lot of time I'm seeing the parents project some kind of emotions into these school boards.
HOLMES: Real quick, can you see a day when the COVID vaccine is part of the general vaccine regimen for babies and children like other diseases?
XU: Yes, it might be. And the COVID vaccine is very effective and it remains to be seen how much of a dose these kids are going to get off and everyone's going to need the vaccine. But it very well could be part of the routine of childhood vaccines or our seasonal flu vaccines, for example.
HOLMES: Dr. Jennifer Xu, thank you so much good to see you. XU: Thanks for having me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right, a picture perfect splashdown into the Atlantic Ocean, giving us our first glimpse into the future of space travel. You don't even need to be a trained astronaut. We will have that when we come back.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
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HOLMES (voice-over): It was about as bold an adventure as anyone could wish for, literally out of this world. Four regular citizens without formal astronaut training successfully splashing down late on Saturday after 3 days in orbit aboard the privately owned SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lots of waves, thumbs up.
Oh, I love it. Love it.
HOLMES (voice-over): The crew members jubilant as you might imagine as they step back on solid ground and into the history books.
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HOLMES: CNN's Kristin Fisher is at Cape Canaveral.
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KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: You could hear the sonic boom here at Port Canaveral, as the crew of Inspiration4 made its way through the Earth's atmosphere a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule before splashing down just off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean.
It was the culmination of an historic three-day trip to outer space. At times, they flew even higher than the International Space Station. And what made this mission so extraordinary is really just how ordinary the crew was.
This was the first time that there was a mission to orbit with no professional astronauts on board. They spent their time doing scientific experiments and medical experiments. But they also just played the ukulele and took pictures and drew paintings and, of course, looked out at the beautiful views of planet Earth. After three days of that, they began to reenter the Earth's atmosphere
and it's an experience that professional astronauts have described as feeling like you're inside of an animal.
After going through temperatures of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, they splashed down. A crew capsule recovery ship plucked the capsule out of the ocean and then those now astronauts were flown back to the Kennedy Space Center on a helicopter, where they could celebrate with their family.
And the capsule, it will be brought back to this port, Port Canaveral, right behind me, very soon. And this really all marks the beginning of a new era of space tourism, the first time that NASA has had no part, essentially, in a mission to orbit, with people on board. That's a first -- At Port Canaveral, Kristin Fisher, CNN.
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HOLMES: The Inspiration4 also carried a greater mission, raising hundreds of millions of for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. As they orbited, the crew members spoke with some of the children at St. Jude about their incredible adventure. Listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dragon, you are now live with St. Jude Children's Hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to get right to some questions from our patients.
Ava, take it away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.
What kind of sleeping bag do you have?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So if you've ever been camping, we pretty much have those same kind of sleeping bags. And last night was the first time we had our first sleep here in space.
And it was really cool because we were in our sleeping bags, on top of our chairs but we were floating on top of the chair. We had a seat belt around our sleeping bag so we didn't fly away when we were sleeping.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was the main reason you decided to go to space?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a really awesome question. I think the idea is that there's an awful lot that still needs to be accomplished in space. There's an awful lot of it and we know so little about it. There may be some really interesting answers to questions we've all been asking for a long time out there. So we have to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My question is, can you fall in space since there is no gravity?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The reason we don't have gravity is because our spacecraft is going so fast this it's basically falling all around the Earth. So people who come to space are floating like this.
But I have to say that floating is -- I don't know if you saw it, I caught that peanut M&M. Floating is so much fun. Let's see if my other crew members than catch theirs.
They're everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What were you feeling right before you launched and what were you feeling right after you escaped the atmosphere?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we first got strapped into the rocket, it felt like time was moving really slowly, like the countdown clock was barely moving. And then when you got down to like the last five minutes, it was racing.
We just saw those numbers disappear real quick. Before you knew it, you heard "Liftoff." Then the whole journey uphill was only about 12 minutes. So before we knew it, we were hanging in our straps and floating.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there cows on the moon?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I hope there will be one day. Right now, no, there aren't. But I always heard the moon was made of cheese. Like if you saw the cartoon, Wallace and Gromit. So we're going back to the moon soon and we're going to investigate all kinds of things about it. So that's something to look forward to.
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HOLMES: Isn't that terrific?
There is still much more to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, including quick fixes for economic disaster. Lebanon's new prime minister has been in office for a week. He speaks to CNN about his plans to alleviate the country's financial crisis -- when we come back.
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HOLMES: Leaders in Ethiopia's Tigray region are applauding an executive order from U.S. President Joe Biden, which authorizes sanctions against all warring parties involved in the conflict in Tigray.
The Biden administration's order follows reporting from CNN's own Nima Elbagir, that found evidence of mass executions, sexual violence and torture in the Tigray region. On Saturday, the leader of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front says the government is, quote, "particularly grateful for the diverse steps taken by the U.S. government to address human rights violations."
The statement also asked the U.S. to play a role in facilitating a cease-fire in the ongoing conflict.
Russians are waking up to the final day of voting in their country's parliamentary elections. Polls open in just about 20 minutes in Moscow and this was the scene in St. Petersburg Saturday as people cast the ballots for the state duma or lower house of parliament.
Analysts expect most seats will go to United Russia, the party of president Vladimir Putin, who was encouraging Russians to vote.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): Dear friends, today 3 days of voting for the 8th state duma election started in our country. As you can see under sanitary constraints in quarantine, I did my civic duty online in electronic format.
Such voting systems are used in many countries of the world and have been used in Moscow several times. This time, the citizens of the Russian Federation living in 7 regions can use the service.
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HOLMES: Of course many potentially viable candidates were prevented from running in the election and this comes as Google and Apple face criticism for removing an app from their online stores, created by allies of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
The app made recommendations for candidates most likely to defeat the ruling party's candidate. A Kremlin spokesman says it is illegal in Russian territory.
Lebanon's prime minister is telling CNN that he is seeking quick fixes to help lift an economy that is in shambles. The country's government is only a week old and the challenges it faces are immense. We'll hear more from the prime minister in a moment.
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HOLMES: But first CNN's Nada Bashir reports on how the economy is jeopardizing the health care system and putting lives at risk.
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NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After more than a year of political gridlock, Lebanon finally has a new government. Now his third time in role as prime minister, Najib Mikati he says he hopes his newly made cabinet will bring an end to the country's crippling financial crisis.
NAJIB MIKATI, LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I will not spare a moment without contacting the international committees, so we can provide the basic needs of life.
BASHIR (voice-over): It's these basic needs that have proven near impossible to fulfill over the last 2 years, particularly for the country's health care sector. Power outages, lack of fuel for generators and drug shortages have become a daily fixture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If we run out of diesel it will be a catastrophe for the entire country, not just the hospital, because if there is no petrol, there is no electricity.
BASHIR (voice-over): It's a risk that is already becoming a reality for some parts of the country. NGO Doctors without Borders says a 44- hour power cut over 3 days forced one of its hospitals to reduce surgical operations by 50 percent. And other hospitals have been left unable to offer nonemergency services, including psychiatric care.
Here at the Embrace mental health center in Beirut, the struggle to keep services running is all too familiar. Since the devastating port blast of August 2020, the center has seen a rise in the number of patients seeking help, both in person and via the organization's suicide prevention hotline.
But limited power and fuel for generators have forced them to reduce operating hours and even hold therapy sessions in the dark.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't have electricity, we don't have clean water, we don't have gas, we lack the basic social and economic determinants (ph) that allow you to even thrive in any aspect of your life. That's where I tell you, our job has become harder.
BASHIR (voice-over): With more than 80 percent of Lebanon's population now living in multidimensional poverty and many patients struggling to pay the cost of medication. But with drugs running dangerously low, finding the medication is a struggle in itself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have people coming in where we tell them, there's only 2 boxes of medication in the pharmacy. Hey, maybe taper off your meds a little bit so they can last because we don't know when the next boxes will be in.
When you reach a stage where our medical doctors are telling the patients to save the medication and they know they're not giving the optimum dose because of that or they know they're prescribing a different medication because the other one is not available,, this is like trauma surgery in a war zone, where you just get whatever you can, patch the person up and hope they make it.
BASHIR (voice-over): Hope here in Lebanon is hard to come by and skepticism remains high as both the Lebanese people and the international community wait to see whether Mikati's new administration will undertake the reforms so desperately needed to pull the country and its health care center from the brink of collapse -- Nada Bashir, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Lebanon's prime minister says the country's health care and energy sector are two issues to tackle immediately. Mr. Najib Mikati is a billionaire and this is the third time as prime minister. In an exclusive interview, CNN's Becky Anderson asked him why the people of Lebanon should put their trust in his government.
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NAJIB MIKATI, LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER: It's a matter of timing, the timing is important. And it is need for today to have the government, as you mentioned, 30 months without the government vacuum and at the level of government, no decision taken.
Collapse and more collapse in the financial sector, more collapse in all sectors, education has and energy.
So it is time to have a government. At this stage yes, I'm doing the quick -- the quick fixes that it needs to be done immediately. Especially energy, health, education, work in transparency and shows it liberally when he is that there is governance, there is a transparency. That's what we are trying to do. And hopefully it would take that's what --
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: I'm going to press you on this with respect sir why should the Lebanese people trust you and this government; as I say, new faces but this is a government picked by the same old political establishment, which the people of Lebanon are quite frankly fed up of?
MIKATI: In Lebanon there is no coup -- people they don't trust, they cannot change overnight.
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MIKATI: We are in a transitory period toward a change, to take the country toward election and let the people decide whoever they want later on. At this time was a need, as I mentioned at the beginning, it's a matter of timing.
They need somebody to handle, I don't like just to say manage the crisis but at least try to stop this free fall and try to save Lebanon that's what exactly what we are going to do.
ANDERSON: One of the most urgent economic issues that your government has to address is the country's expensive subsidies program on fuel and on medicine, both of which we know are critically short, in Lebanon, at present.
Are you proposing to lift these subsidies?
And if so, what is your plan afterwards?
MIKATI: It's almost -- the subsidy is almost lift because we don't have as you mentioned, we don't have any more cash or reserve to pay to subsidize oil or our all other commodities. We are going to keep the subsidy for medicines, especially chronic medicine. But others it's almost lifted. And we are in a way to keep it -- to give it free import all this commodities that's what we plan to do because in fact, we don't have the money. It's very clear. You -- just I give you an example. The last -- in the last few months, year and more we spend to subsidy.
The commodity is around over 10 billion. It's much over 10 billion. We discovered just 26 percent of the subsidy is used by Lebanese end user and 75 -- 74 percent they were misused by traders by corrupted people.
And that's what we also want to investigate, where this money was?
Where this money went?
So this is very important to stop the subsidy and to start to build up Lebanon with end connection. And we have very good association with IMF, World Bank and all the friends and international community.
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HOLMES: Now the prime minister also spoke to CNN about asking the Arab world for help and his (INAUDIBLE) role in politics. You can watch the entire interview on cnn.com.
Still to come on the. Program they're rolling out the red carpet as the primetime Emmy awards are about to kick off. We'll have a look at what to watch. That's up next.
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HOLMES: The stars of the small screen are gearing up for U.S. television's biggest night, the primetime Emmys will return Sunday in Los Angeles. And unlike last year's awards ceremony, this time it is happening in front of a live audience. CNN's Stephanie Elam has a preview.
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STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cedric the Entertainer said television kicked butt. From space suits to hazmat suits and what was mostly a really big virtual meeting.
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ELAM (voice-over): This year's Emmys are shedding some of last year's COVID constraints and getting back to a live audience.
MATTHEW BELLONI, PUCK NEWS FOUNDING PARTNER: People don't want to see award shows on Zoom. They just don't. It takes you away from the experience. They need to see those actors up close. They need to feel like they're at an event with them.
ELAM: Cedric the Entertainer hosts, telling "People" magazine he plans a return of the big opening number.
CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER, EMMY HOST: We're excited that we're watching a few of these other award shows this weekend, that we're going to elevate the game a little bit.
ELAM (voice-over): The ceremony will take place in a tent outside in a L.A. theater. Attendees must be fully vaccinated and provide proof they are COVID negative.
What could be similar to last year, a dominant comedy.
Ted Lasso has all of the momentum.
BELLONI: Jason Sudeikis is a star. People know. And it got 20 nominations. However, there is a dark horse. I would you say it is "Hacks," which is a smaller show on HBO Max and it is a very insider Hollywood show that people who vote for these type of awards may gravitate towards.
ELAM: On the drama side, "The Crown" could take the Emmy.
BELLONI: "The Crown" is one of the great achievements of television of all time and it has never won the series Emmy.
ELAM: Real life drama could factor into the ceremony with the death of Michael K. Williams, who became a star in "The Wire." this year, he's nominated for another nuanced performance, though Emmy votes were cast before his death.
BELLONI: And he wasn't even nominated for playing one of the most iconic characters of all time. He's been a great character, actor for two decades now. And the fact that he's never won an Emmy is kind of crazy. So people thought he might win for "Lovecraft Country" this year.
ELAM: The Emmys move to CBS, where a football lead-in could lift it above last year's record low ratings. Of course, the Emmys will be the first big test for an awards show, to see if they can get people to tune back in, now that the world has opened back up -- in Hollywood, I'm Stephanie Elam.
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HOLMES: Thanks for spending part of your day with me, I'm Michael Holmes, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @HolmesCNN. Do stay with us, "AFRICA AVANT-GARDE" starts after the short break.
