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U.S. President Joe Biden Meets with Democrats to Get Agenda Moving; Merck's COVID-19 Pill; Las Vegas Mass Shooting Four Years Ago; Belarusian Leader Dismisses Reports of Human Rights Abuses; Expo 2020 Dubai. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired October 02, 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 AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden has a message for Democratic lawmakers feuding over key pieces of his agenda. Details as well as the response from the chair of the progressive caucus.

Plus, as the U.S. passes another milestone in COVID deaths, a new pill could be a game changer.

And in Taipei, they say they have witnessed the largest air incursion by Chinese military airport.

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: President Biden says that he is confident Democrats will eventually put aside their differences and agree on two massive spending bills that are the centerpiece of his domestic agenda.

The president met with Democratic lawmakers on Friday after party progressives blocked a vote on a bipartisan bill to fix America's roads, bridges and airports. After their meeting, members of the progressive caucus said they appreciated the president's input but some came away hoping for more.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still feel like the president ought to weigh in and make specific asks. It is his agenda.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would I have preferred that he engage sooner on the reconciliation bill?

Sure. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the president should be involved. Very few

of us have seen the president in the nine months he's been president. And I think that he should come to a caucus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Ryan Nobles has more on the message Biden brought to Capitol Hill.

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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A number of deadlines came and went this week. And we still do not have a bipartisan infrastructure bill passed into law. And that became clear after the president, Joe Biden, came here to Capitol Hill and met with his House Democratic Caucus.

Biden came up with a compromise between moderates and progressives that, at this point, everybody seems to be on board with, as they move ahead to the next step.

He asked the group to just take a hold, let's not vote on the bipartisan infrastructure package yet and let's continue to negotiate the much broader $3.5 trillion social safety net package, with the caveat that the price tag on that social safety net package needs to come down.

And it seems Democrats are in a place where they agree. The other thing that the president told this group was to not be in a rush to get this done. Take a listen.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Thousands of different questions and they're all legit. I'm telling you, we're going to get this done.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: When? When?

BIDEN: It doesn't matter when. It doesn't matter whether it's in six minutes, six days or six weeks. We're going to get it done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: So Biden essentially freeing Democrats to not abide by the self-imposed deadline, to allow them more time to try to figure out where they will go.

And the progressives that left this meeting did acknowledge that the 3.5 price tag is not a reality and they now have to figure out what they are willing to strip out to get to the price tag that everyone can agree on.

Moderates, for their part, still want the bipartisan infrastructure package passed. They'll just have to wait a little longer. Democrats are roundly in agreement that they all want to get this done but, at this point, they have a new direction to go in, to make sure that they can get to the finish line -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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BRUNHUBER: As Ryan reported, progressive Democrats were generally upbeat following the meeting. Pramila Jayapal is the chair of the progressive caucus and made this prediction.

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REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Our position is exactly the same as the president's, which is we are going to get both these bills done. And we are going to send them to the president's desk.

And it will take us a little bit of time to negotiate because what we are clear on is we're not doing one and leaving the other behind. The president reemphasized that today.

And he also said that we have to get all 50 senators on board. So we're doing the work we need to do, to go back and look at our priorities and make sure that we are really thinking through what we need to have in this bill and how we can come to agreement.

The Speaker was in a tough position, because there were nine House Democrats, who said that they wanted that deadline or they weren't even going to vote for the budget resolution.

And that is unfortunate but these things happen. So that deadline got set. And I've said from the beginning, I think I said it on your show the other day, that is arbitrary.

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JAYAPAL: And the president made that clear today, six minutes, six days, six weeks, we'll get it done. We need a little time to negotiate. There was a lot of time to negotiate the infrastructure bill. And there were skeptics like me, who said I don't think it will get done.

And I was wrong and I'm happy to be wrong about that. Now we need a little time to negotiate on this Build Back Better Act and I believe that we will be able to do that.

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BRUNHUBER: Natasha Lindstaedt is a professor of government at the University of Essex in England and is joining us from Colchester.

And I want to ask you about that quote from President Biden, it doesn't matter whether it is in six minutes, six days or six weeks, we'll get it done. So the last part first.

Will they get it done? NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Well, I think that they absolutely have to. This is one of the situations where they don't have a choice because the Democratic Party appears as if they can't govern if they don't get it done.

And this is also, as you already mentioned, this is the cornerstone of Joe Biden's huge domestic agenda to really transform society by providing huge amounts of investment in infrastructure that is badly needed, which we've talked about, you know, at length, all the investment in high speed internet and bridges and roads and so forth.

But this social safety net bill, which the progressives really have fought for to delay, in order to ensure that it does get passed, is going to be popular, offering support for pre-K, offering free community college tuition, expanding Medicaid and offering child tax credits.

All these things will be very popular. And this is really critical at this point because, right now, Joe Biden's approval ratings aren't doing that well. He is at 45 percent. Now that is 7 points higher than Trump at this point but 7 points below Obama at this point.

And he is really struggling with key demographics in the Democratic Party; namely women, Hispanics, African Americans and younger people. Hanging on OK with older people, men and white college educated.

But people have this perception that the one big thing he said that he was going to deliver was he's going to improve people's trust in government and make people feel like government can help them.

And at the moment, the optics aren't very good. So they needed to come back to the table and at least ensure that they get these two big pieces of agenda passed.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, because I wonder about that first part of the president's comments about the when, if it takes six days, six weeks and so on, because you touched on it, the issue of governance.

The longer it goes on, the impression grows among voters that Democrats can't govern and the more that they might leak Republican support. We've heard rumblings already directly from Republicans, who first supported the infrastructure bill, who now say, well, you know, I don't think that we're going to do that anymore.

So is it possible that the more Democrats dither here, they could lose vital support from the few Republicans that they have on side?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, I would agree with you that they can't wait forever here, because this was a bill that had huge bipartisan support. It had 69 votes of support in the Senate, which is unheard of right now, because the country is so polarized.

And there could be a chance that Republicans will seize upon these very visible divisions in the Democratic Party and basically try to undermine things that might really help the American public. And we know that the Republican Party is far more united; it is

basically the party of Trump, with the exception of a few Never Trumpers or those that oppose Trump. But it has a much more united front at this moment and the Democrats don't.

And they will have to work on this because there is the perception that the Democrats don't trust one another. And that was why the progressives wouldn't help support that infrastructure bill unless they got some sort of assurances from the president that they would get support for their big safety net package.

So this is something that the Democrats will have to work on.

BRUNHUBER: So on that big social safety net package, they have got the cost down to please the key moderates, from the $3.5 trillion to maybe half that, let's say.

So what is on the chopping block here, what are they likely to lose?

LINDSTAEDT: I think what they are likely to lose is how long the support goes for. They are going to have to limit also the eligibility of who is going to receive this.

And that was one of the things that Joe Manchin had talked about. He is one of the key holdouts, of course, in the Senate, that he wanted the support to really be directed at those that are truly impoverished and not necessarily to the middle classes.

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LINDSTAEDT: Now he was on board with some tax increases to corporations but he also is a holdout in how much this big safety net bill affects the coal industry, because of his interests there in West Virginia.

Now the other issue is Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who doesn't want any kind of tax increases to corporations. And it is very difficult to figure out what she wants.

I think with both these two cases, you are not really working with people who have been that committed to the Democratic Party. And it is almost better to think of them as independents because it is kind of hard to figure out what exactly they want.

But for the most part, I think that they will have to cut the length of the support that is offered and eligibility.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, and then the advantage of that is, when these things run out in 2024, Democrats can run on this and say, you know, listen, these things are popular, vote for us, we'll keep them going. We'll have to leave it there, Natasha Lindstaedt, thanks so much.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: In an exclusive interview, CNN goes one-on-one with Europe's last dictator. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has been accused of human rights abuses following last year's disputed re- election but he says he has nothing to be sorry for. Listen to this.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You say you've got nothing to apologize for but Human Rights Watch says multiple detainees have reported broken bones, broken teeth, brain injuries, skin wounds, electrical burns.

Amnesty International speaks of detention centers being becoming torture chambers, where protesters were forced to lie in the dirt, stripped naked while police kicked and beat them with truncheons.

You don't think that is worth apologizing for?

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BRUNHUBER: Matthew Chance's exclusive interview coming up in about half an hour.

And coronavirus might be soon treatable with a little pill. We'll speak with a medical expert about hopes behind the new Merck antiviral drug.

And why Democrats in Alabama are crying foul after a state's governor signed a new bill into law on how they plan to use federal COVID dollars. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. coronavirus death toll has now surpassed 700,000, a staggering number that once seemed unthinkable. Here is a look at how things got there.

It took 74 days after the pandemic was declared for the U.S. to reach 100,000 deaths; 122 days later, 200,000 American lives were lost; 81 days after that, the toll hit 300,000; 400,000 had died 35 days later during the peak of the winter surge, with another 100,000 dead 36 days later.

And it took an additional 114 days for the U.S. to hit 600,000 deaths. And now 108 days later, the death toll has topped 700,000. But a new type of COVID treatment could soon be deploy deployed. The Merck antiviral drug is seen as a potential major breakthrough. Jason Carroll has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It could be a

game changer in the battle against COVID-19.

The pharmaceutical company Merck says it has developed a pill that interim results from one trial show cuts the risk of hospitalization and death in half if you get infected. If authorized by the FDA, it would become the first antiviral pill to treat COVID-19.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT AT TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: The way it would work is if you start having symptoms and you have -- and you're identified as having COVID, then you could take the pill and it will reduce your risk of hospitalization and potentially death. But it's reduced. This is nothing nearly as powerful as getting a vaccine.

CARROLL: Merck says it will seek emergency use authorization as soon as possible. The development was welcome news at today's White House COVID-19 briefing where medical experts cautioned the pill would not be a stand-in for getting vaccinated.

JEFF ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: If approved, the right way to think about this is, this is a potential additional tool in our toolbox to protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID.

I think it's really important to remember that vaccination as we've talked about today remains far and away our best tool against COVID- 19.

CARROLL: The battle over vaccine mandates is about to shift to California, which just become the first state in the country that will require all eligible public and private school students to be vaccinated to attend in-person.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I want to get this behind us. Get this economy moving. Make sure our kids never have to worry about getting a call saying they can't go to school the next day because one of the kids or a staff member tested positive.

CARROLL: The new rule will be phased in by grades, once the FDA grants full approval for kids 12 and older.

And the FDA announced Friday that its advisory committee will be meeting to discuss boosters for both the Moderna and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Those meetings are expected to take place on October 14th and 15th.

To date, the FDA has only approved boosters for the Pfizer vaccine and that is only for certain adults -- Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

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BRUNHUBER: Dr. Stephen Parodi is the associate executive director of the Permanente Medical Group and joins me from San Francisco. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us here. Your hospital system treats millions of patients. During this pandemic, you've dealt with countless cases of COVID-19; unfortunately, many of them fatal. It is early days yet but just want to get your reaction to the potential of this treatment.

DR. STEPHEN PARODI, ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PERMANENTE MEDICAL GROUP: So I think that it is good news that there is potentially a new medication that we'll have available to us, particularly if it is in oral form.

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PARODI: Right now the treatments consist of IV forms; they are a lot harder to give. And, of course, the data we eagerly await to see it, because right now we're working off a press release.

But reduction in the number of hospitalizations by half and no deaths in the group that actually got the medication is certainly promising as an early oral treatment that we could give on an outpatient basis.

BRUNHUBER: Of course the best defense against this is still the vaccine.

But do you think that news of a pill might discourage people from getting vaccinated?

I can imagine plenty of people thanking that it is easier to take a pill when you get sick than to get a shot when you feel fine.

PARODI: Well, prevention is still the best medicine. And vaccines work. And particularly in our experience now, with the vaccinated population, less than 1 percent of all those people are actually requiring hospitalization and/or experiencing complications.

So that pales in comparison to any kind of pill or intravenous treatment. So by far and away, our best defense against this in stopping the pandemic will be the vaccines.

BRUNHUBER: And on that theme, I mean California, where you are, is leading the way with vaccine mandates across many industries. We saw teachers, now students, as we saw, and health care of course, the deadline for health care workers in the state to get vaccinated was Thursday.

So what is the state of play across your hospital system?

Has it pushed your staff to get vaccinated?

PARODI: We have had an incredible response. So before the mandate was put in place, we were at about 78 percent vaccination rates. In California now, we're up above 96 percent for employees and 98 percent for our physicians, a tremendous uptick.

And I'll tell you, it is three things. One, there is nothing like a requirement. But two, it encourages these conversations, critical conversations about disinformation.

And I have to call out our managers and actually our labor unions, that have leaned in to actually dispel that disinformation.

And then the third thing is you can't really dismiss the Delta effect. I think Delta, that variant, really galvanized people. It scared people, too. And so all those things, put together, I think has led to these incredibly high percentages of vaccinations.

BRUNHUBER: And then those who haven't, I mean what have you done or what are you planning do with those who have refused, do you suspend them, fire them?

PARODI: So a number of people have applied for exemptions. And so, of course, we're verifying those exemptions. There are a few people that have declined to get an exemption or get vaccinated and they have been put on administrative leave.

They have the opportunity over the next couple months to engage in further conversation. But, yes, if necessary, we'll terminate people. That is not our goal, though, absolutely not our goal.

Our goal is to protect the workforce, protect our patients and protect our communities. And I'm just so heartened by the fact that we saw this tremendous uptake. And I'll just tell you, when you have percentages above 90 percent, our communities are not seeing people get hospitalized.

This latest surge, we have communities within California, particularly the San Francisco Bay area, where the vaccination rates are 90 percent and higher for the eligible population. And their hospitalization rates were 20 percent comparable to other places with lower vaccination rates.

BRUNHUBER: Let me ask you about that. The areas, like rural parts of the state, the vaccination rate is much less. I was reading that the busiest hospital in one very Republican part of the state said that about more than 30 percent of the workers had been granted those religious exemptions that you were talking about; another saying the same thing, that they are granting religious exemption exemptions for anyone who asked for them to avoid the mass exodus of staff and to avoid lawsuits.

But it's a paradox because we're seeing more COVID patients and COVID deaths in areas where more people are refusing to get vaccinated. And yet that seems to be where hospitals are letting their staff keep working without getting vaccinated.

How do you deal with that in those types of areas?

PARODI: I think one of the most important things here is to actually show people the outcomes and to show that you don't get sick. You don't have your hospitals overrun with COVID when you do this.

For Kaiser Permanente, we've been challenging our vendors, our contractors to also participate in the vaccination effort and actually asking them to mandate vaccination. We're also reaching out to community benefit organizations, that we provide grants and funding to, to also participate in mandatory vaccination.

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PARODI: And the other thing I'll just say is that we need to get the business community to rally around this. The airline industry is one in particular that has moved in the route of mandating vaccination.

If you look at the country as a whole in the United States, you know, more than two-thirds of all workers now have some form of a mandate. So I think that the momentum is on the side of getting our workers vaccinated.

BRUNHUBER: All right. That is all the time we have. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us.

PARODI: Thank you. Good to be with you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: A controversial move by Alabama's Republican governor is drawing swift condemnation by Democrats in her state as well as in Washington.

Governor Kay Ivey signed bills into law that allow the state to use federal COVID relief funds to build new prisons. This is money the federal government had earmarked for states to help plug budget shortfalls caused by the pandemic. Dianne Gallagher has details.

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DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The state of Alabama planning to use millions in COVID relief funds to build new prisons.

GOV. KAY IVEY (R-AL): We've got an Alabama problem and we're going to get an Alabama solution.

GALLAGHER: That solution, a roughly $1.3 billion package laid out in a series of bills to build two new prisons while closing or renovating the existing ones.

The majority is paid for in bonds and through the state general fund but up to $400 million, more than 30 percent of the total cost would come from the money issued to Alabama under the American Rescue Plan. It's a move Republicans say is legal under the broad federal guidelines.

STATE REP. STEVE CLOUSE (R-AL): Not only to prohibitions are now cannot spend these funds on a tax cut or -- and you can't use the funds to prop up your pension program.

GALLAGHER: But opponents say, just because it might be legal doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. STATE SEN. KIRK HATCHER (D-AL): We haven't done our due diligence in terms of responding to the COVID crisis. It is in my view, morally reprehensible for us to even consider using those funds.

GALLAGHER: Alabama is among the states that get more federal funding than they provide in federal taxes. The state currently has the fourth highest COVID death rate in the nation and is in the top ten when it comes to the COVID case rate per 100,000 people.

KATIE HILL, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER ACTION FUND: Our nursing homes need this money. Our rural hospitals, especially, need this money and because our rural hospitals are failing our urban hospitals need this money.

HATCHER: We had meetings just yesterday regarding people who still need rent assistance on a massive level. Those funds were earmarked for things like that.

GALLAGHER: The governor's urgency to address the prison problem stemming in part from a lawsuit filed by the Trump Department of Justice last year that alleged conditions and the violence in Alabama's prisons violate the U.S. Constitution.

This week, New York Congressman Jerry Nadler asked the U.S. Treasury Department to block Alabama from using federal COVID funds to build prisons, writing, quote, "the American Rescue Plan is an historic effort to provide urgent assistance in a time of great suffering. It should not be used to worsen our national problem of over- incarceration."

Governor Ivey shot back, accusing Nadler of overstepping and insisted the funds can be used for, quote, "lost revenue."

IVEY: Nothing about this is going to be easy.

GALLAGHER: Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Montgomery, Alabama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: A North Carolina sheriff says they are monitoring tips of alleged sightings of Gabby Petito's fiance, Brian Laundrie. This as we are getting a look at new body cam video showing what Petito told police about a dispute she had with her fiance just weeks before her remains were found and Laundrie disappeared.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he just grab you?

GABBY PETITO, BRIAN LAUNDRIE'S FIANCEE AND MURDER VICTIM: Yes..

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he hit you though?

I mean, it's OK if you're saying you hit him and then I understand if he hit you. But we want to know the truth, that he actually hit you.

PETITO: I guess --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you know --

PETITO: I guess, yes but I hit him first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did he hit you?

Don't worry, just be honest.

PETITO: Just he like grabbed my face. He's like, like this. He didn't like hit me in the face, like punch me or anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he slap your face or what?

PETITO: Well, like, he like grabbed me, like with his nail. And I guess that's why I definitely have a cut right here because I can feel it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PETITO: When I touch it, it burns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: These videos were taken after a witness in Moab, Utah, reported seeing a couple fighting. No charges were filed at the time. The couple was separated for the night. Laundrie stayed in a hotel and Gabby stayed in their van.

President Joe Biden returned to his old stomping grounds Friday, Capitol Hill. We'll look at how he is trying to rally Democrats to support his economic agenda.

And Taiwan says it has now witnessed the largest air incursion by China's air force yet.

So what kind of message is Beijing trying to send?

We'll have the latest coming up from Taipei. 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.

President Biden says his agenda will pass Congress eventually. But Democrats are struggling to come together. They are trying to get enough votes to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the economic reform package. Biden went to Capitol Hill Friday to meet with members of his party.

Bill Clinton's former chief of staff says that the meeting should send an important message.

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LEON PANETTA, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I think that the White House has to be directly involved. This is his agenda. These are the issues that are critical to the president and he believes they are critical to the country.

So the White House, at the highest level, ought to be sitting down at the table on Capitol Hill or at the White House, trying to work these details through. Now you don't necessarily need the president at the table to drive that.

But the president has to be encouraging people to move toward an answer. I'm glad that he went up and talked to the caucus. I think it is important for the president to be able to try to pull the party together. But what is needed right now is the hard work of resolving these issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: So it is not clear when the House might vote on the bipartisan bill and the status of negotiations on the budget reconciliation package also unknown.

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BRUNHUBER: Taiwan's defense ministry is reporting the largest ever incursion by China's air force. The self-governing island says more than 3 dozen military aircraft entered its Air Defense Identification Zone Friday, as Beijing unveils its new electronic warfare jet, capable of jamming enemy radar and anti-aircraft systems.

Will Ripley is following the story for us.

Will, what are we to make of this?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is part of an ongoing pattern and an escalating series of events from the view of the government here in Taipei, to have these large numbers of Chinese warplanes entering the Air Defense Identification Zone.

If we put up a map of the Air Defense Identification Zone, it is not what is considered Taiwanese airspace, which is 12 nautical miles from the coast. It is a buffer zone beyond that.

But when aircraft enter, Taiwanese aircraft control will ask them to identify themselves and they will alert the military of a possible incoming threat. In this case, you had 38 warplanes, the largest number ever recorded, in two different waves on Friday entering the ADIZ.

And if you bring up the list what was in the skies, you had 32 fighters, four nuclear capable bombers, one anti-submarine warfare aircraft and one early warning aircraft. And even though they didn't violate Taiwanese airspace, the Taiwanese feel this is a clear case of bullying and they believe that the timing is not a coincidence.

Because this later incursion, this record high number of warplanes in a single day, happened on national day in the mainland, a day that the Communist Party celebrates 72 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

And Xi Jinping was front and center in the celebrations. And one analyst says that this military intimidation is tantamount to political and propaganda warfare, a show of force, projecting strength to the mainland, trying to intimidate the people and the leadership in Taiwan but it also provides military training.

And with all the hardware moving around and new weapons being introduced, it feels like every week, then we wonder if there is some sort of a risk of a miscalculation here.

The Taiwanese ministry of foreign affairs put out a pretty clear statement about how they feel about all of this, saying that, "Taiwan is Taiwan. And it is not part of the People's Republic of China. The People's Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan for a single day."

Even though Beijing does claim this island of about 24 million people as its own sovereign territory and Beijing does not recognize the democratically elected government here. Beijing has claimed it for more than 70 years, even though the island has ruled itself for 70 years.

So this seems to be something that will continue and, in fact, just in a matter of days, Taiwan will be demonstrating its own show of force, showing off new domestically produced missiles and aircraft that they say would be used, if there were some sort of an invasion, if you will, by the mainland.

BRUNHUBER: A reciprocal message there. Will Ripley, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Still ahead, the president of Belarus grilled on allegations of widespread human rights abuses following his disputed re-election win. We'll have an exclusive interview with Alexander Lukashenko coming up, stay with us.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brett Schwanbeck, 61, from Bullhead City, Arizona. BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Las Vegas is remembering the 60 people killed

in a mass shooting there four years ago Friday. The gunman opened fire from a room in the Mandalay Bay hotel.

There were thousands on the ground, attending a concert; hundreds were injured in the panic during the shooting. The gunman took his own life. Investigators never determined his motive.

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BRUNHUBER: The ongoing feud over migrants is escalating between Poland and Belarus. Poland says a record number of migrants tried to cross the border last month, almost double the number reported in August.

And five migrants have died near the crossing. The E.U. accuses Belarus' Lukashenko of funneling migrants into E.U. border states in retaliation for sanctions imposed over human rights abuses but Lukashenko says that there is no proof.

Known as Europe's last dictator, he has led Belarus for nearly 30 years. But last year's re-election was highly disputed and provoked huge protests by the opposition, which his forces brutally put down.

Now in an exclusive interview with Matthew Chance, Lukashenko is dismissing reports of human rights abuses and insists he has nothing to be sorry for.

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CHANCE (voice-over): This is what the brutal crackdown in Belarus looks like.

Opposition activists detained then beaten by police. After disputed elections last year, the mass protests that followed were crushed. Human rights groups called it a catastrophe. And widespread reports of torture, even killings in police custody.

Now CNN is confronting the man responsible, dubbed Europe's last dictator.

CHANCE: Would you take this opportunity now to apologize to the people of Belarus for the human rights abuses that they've suffered at your hands?

ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): No, I would not like to take this opportunity. I don't think this is even a relevant question. And in principle, I have nothing to apologize for.

CHANCE: Well, you say you've got nothing to apologize for but Human Rights Watch says multiple detainees have reported broken bones, broken teeth, brain injuries, skin wounds, electrical burns.

Amnesty International speaks of detention centers being becoming torture chambers, where protesters were forced to lie in the dirt, stripped naked while police kicked and beat them with truncheons. You don't think that is worth apologizing for?

LUKASHENKO (through translator): You know, we don't have a single detention center, as you say, like Guantanamo or those bases that the United States and your country created in Eastern Europe.

As regards to our own detention centers, they are no worse than in Britain or the United States. I suggest you discuss concrete facts and not the views or statements of some dubious human rights organizations.

CHANCE: Well, I don't think Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are dubious. They're internationally recognized, you know, standards and human rights activism.

[04:45:00]

CHANCE: And they all got testimony a former detainees in your prison camps, in your prison detention centers, both men and women who spoken of sexual violence against them, including rape and threats of rape. Are you saying that that is just made up, that it's fake?

LUKASHENKO (through translator): Everything that you've just said is fake and fantasy.

CHANCE (voice-over): For the past 27 years, you Lukashenko, the former Soviet collective farm boss has ruled Belarus with an iron fist, is its first and only president. He's known as a maverick who makes controversial remarks on issues like COVID-19.

LUKASHENKO: (Speaking foreign language).

CHANCE (voice-over): What he famously dismissed as a Western psychosis to be battled with vodka and saunas.

He told CNN those remarks were just a joke but only after he'd become infected himself and more than 4,000 Belarusians have died, according to official figures.

But no one's laughing on the streets of the capital, Minsk, where people are reluctant to speak out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I can't.

CHANCE: Why?

What do you think about Lukashenko?

Are you happy with your president?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very interesting question. I can't tell you the truth.

CHANCE (voice-over): It's understood here. Openly criticizing the regime can have life-changing consequences.

(Speaking foreign language).

CHANCE: Do you think it's a free country?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).

CHANCE (voice-over): It was a lesson passengers on board this Ryanair flight flying over Belarus in May learned the hard way. It made an emergency landing in Minsk after local air traffic control told the pilot there was a bomb threat.

Once on the ground, Belarusian police arrested a dissident on board, along with his girlfriend, before allowing the aircraft to depart.

CHANCE: Do you continue to insist that there was a genuine bomb threat or do you now admit that the whole incident was manufactured by you and your security forces in order to capture a critic that you wanted in jail?

LUKASHENKO (through translator): Matthew, I'm not going to admit to anything in front of you. I'm not under investigation. So please choose your words carefully.

But if this had been a premeditated action planned by our security services, you would be flattering me because, for security services to carry out such an operation without breaking a single international law or even instruction, well, that would have cost a lot. So this is your fantasy.

CHANCE: But it's not just me that doesn't believe your story. Most airlines in the world have stopped flying here.

Isn't it true that you will do anything even violate international laws in the skies in order to get the people you want to get your critics into custody?

That's the truth, isn't it?

LUKASHENKO (through translator): If you are afraid to fly over our territory, I can personally guarantee your safety. But if I or the law enforcement authorities see any threat to the Belarusian state, we will force any plan to land, be it from the United Kingdom or the United States.

CHANCE (voice-over): There's growing evidence of international norms being violated on the ground as well. European officials accusing Belarus of using migrants as a weapon, encouraging them to cross its borders with the E.U., an act of revenge, they say, for sanctions and support for dissidents,

LUKASHENKO (through translator): Do you take me for a madman?

Only weak people care about revenge. And pardon my modesty but I don't consider myself a weakling.

CHANCE (voice-over): But it is weakness that Lukashenko's critics is pushing him ever closer to another strong man next door. Vladimir Putin of Russia has provided hundreds of millions of in financial aid. Kremlin support like that is likely to come with strings.

CHANCE: This talk of closer integration, closer economic, political as well as military ties. Isn't that the real price of Vladimir Putin support that this country of Belarus will be slowly absorbed into Russia? Is that what you've agreed to pay?

LUKASHENKO (through translator): To say that Belarus would become part of the United States, Britain or Russia, is an absolute fallacy. Putin and are intelligent enough to create a union of two independent states that would be stronger together than separate. Sovereignty is not for sale.

CHANCE (voice-over): But it is unclear if Belarus has much of a choice. Already Russia is stepping up joint military drills and adding to its permanent presence in the country, fueling concerns that, with Belarus, Russia is gaining a new western outpost --

[04:50:00]

CHANCE (voice-over): -- Matthew Chance, CNN, Minsk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Participants are pulling out all the stops to make an impression at the Dubai's World Expo. Next the unique, stunning and wacky ideas at the ongoing world fair. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: World Expo 2020 is now in full swing in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Over the next six months, more than 190 countries will showcase their innovation, architecture and culture. It is the world's largest in-person event of 2021 apart from the Tokyo Olympics. The opening was delayed a year because of the pandemic. But as Scott McLean reports, participants are going all out to make a splash.

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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After eight years of planning and a global pandemic, Expo 2020 is finally open to the public. This is part tech invention, part United Nations and part theme park, all under the scorching temperatures of the Emirate Desert.

[04:55:00]

MCLEAN (voice-over): On Thursday the show opened with an Olympic sized opening ceremony, which showcased just how far the country has come over the past 50 years. Even the crown prince of Abu Dhabi was spotted recording it on his cellphone.

Also notable to see was the flag of Israel after a historic reset in relations with the UAE just a year ago. They are represented with their own pavilion here at Expo 2020, along with 191 other countries, some of which have some truly wild and wacky pavilions, like the Saudi pavilion. There is nothing traditional about the design here.

Same goes for the Moroccan pavilion, which is equally impressive on the inside.

This is the very first Expo where all the nations of Africa are represented, thanks to some help from the Emirate government. The African Union tells me that the reason that they are here is to send the message that Africa is a secure police to invest -- Scott McLean, CNN, Dubai.

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BRUNHUBER: All week, you can join us for more reporting on climate and biodiversity as part of Dubai Expo 2020 right here on CNN.

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