Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Close-Up Look At Destruction In Kharkiv From Russian Shelling; Russia Expected To Cut Gas Supplies To Poland And Bulgaria; Residents Flee Russian Offensive As It Nears Central Ukraine; Dow Falls More Than 800 Points On Recession Fears; Deutsche Bank Warns Major U.S. Recession Is Coming. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired April 27, 2022 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:01]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and thanks so much for joining us. I'm Anna Coren live from Hong Kong.
We begin with a dramatic escalation in tensions between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine, now threatening to boil over and hammer European economies.
In the coming hours, Russia is expected to cut off natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after they refuse to pay in Russian rubles.
For now, both countries say they aren't putting any restrictions on gas consumption. But the move represents a direct threat to European economies more broadly, which is still heavily reliant on Russian energy.
The Kremlin said last month that "Unfriendly nations would need to start paying for energy in rubles, but until now, supply has remained largely unchanged".
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.
Well, during their meeting, the U.N. says Mr. Putin agreed in principle to involve the U.N. and Red Cross in evacuations from the besieged city of Mariupol.
But he also cast doubt on claims of Russian war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, calling them provocations that he says derailed peace talks with Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): And the position of our negotiators from Ukraine on a further settlement, it changed dramatically after that. They departed from their previous intentions to put aside the issues of security guarantees and the territories of Crimea, Sevastopol and the republics of Donbass. They just gave up on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Well, let's go live now to Isa Soares in Lviv, Ukraine. Isa, how are you?
ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much, Anna. We are tracking this new video obtained exclusively by CNN, which further calls into question really Russia's claims that it had nothing to do with atrocities committed in Bucha.
Now, highlighted there in the middle of your screen is a Russian military vehicle sitting at intersections, you can see there in Bucha. Right out the street are the bodies of several dead civilians. It is the first evidence really to emerge showing Russian forces operating there and it was filmed on March 13th.
And this video from March 12th shows Russian soldiers around a military vehicle parked outside a house down the street from those same killed civilians.
CNN has geo located as well as confirmed the authenticity of these videos. And we've reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for a response.
Meantime, Ukraine's top prosecutor has exclusively shared photos with CNN's Anderson Cooper showing atrocities in Bucha. And a warning, the images we're about to show you are graphic.
They were taken in early March and show bodies just strewn on the street. The photos are yet further evidence in Ukraine's investigation into war crime.
CNN's Anderson Cooper will have a full report on this later today. So, do stay tuned for that.
Meanwhile, a spate of attacks in and around Moldova is really raising fears Russia is planning a new front in its war on Ukraine. This video shows a plume of smoke rising outside Odessa.
Authorities say a Russian missile hit a critical bridge in the Odessa region. The damage essentially cuts the far southwest corner of Ukraine which borders Moldova, off from the rest of the country, hence, it's positioning.
On the same day, radio towers were damaged by explosions in Transnistria. A Russian backed of course breakaway region in Moldova.
And this incident as well as a reported rocket attack on Monday prompted Moldova's president to really call an emergency meeting of the country's Security Council. Ukraine's president says Russia is trying to sow tensions between his country and Moldova have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This is happening to destabilize the region and threaten Moldova. They are showing them that if Moldova supports Ukraine, this is what's going to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued Tuesday in the region -- eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine. An advisor to President Zelenskyy says Russia remains focused on encircling Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine's military, meanwhile, claims it successfully repelled several attacks. Although, shelling and airstrikes continue along the frontlines were fighting in the streets in some areas.
[00:05:01]
SOARES: Well, Kharkiv in the northeast there is among the hardest hit cities from Russia bombardments. Our Clarissa Ward gives us an up close look at the damage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There is no rest at night for the people of Kharkiv. Flares light up the sky as artillery thunders through the air.
For nearly nine weeks, Ukraine's second largest city has been shelled relentlessly. Only by day, you see the full scale of the destruction. The neighborhood of Pavlov Lapolye (PH) was hit repeatedly last month, as Russian forces tried to push into the city. No site was spared, not even the local nursery school.
So, it looks like this was some kind of dormitory. You can see children's beds here all around. And then, in the next door room over there was their classrooms.
Their shoes still litter the locker room. Mercifully, the school had been evacuated, so no children were killed in the strikes.
The mayor of Kharkiv says that 67 schools and 54 kindergartens have been hit here since the war began. And what's so striking when you look around is that it's so clearly not a military target. This is a residential neighborhood.
Just a few blocks away, the bare skeleton of an apartment building. Authority say more than 2,000 houses have been hit here. The sounds of war are never far away.
So, you can see this is what's left of the bedroom here. It's just astonishing.
Two doors down, we see a figure peeking out. 73-year-old Larissa Klarina (PH) is still living there alone.
So, she's saying that she does have a sister who she could stay with but she also lives in an area that's being heavily hit and she's living in a shelter at the moment.
It's from outside, she says, from there and there they can shell. With her fresh lipstick, Larissa is a picture of pride and resilience.
Much like this city, still standing tall in the face of a ruthless enemy.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Kharkiv.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Let's get more. Daniel Treisman is a political science professor at UCLA. He's also the co-author of Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century. And he joins me now live from California. Thanks very much, Daniel, for taking the time to speak to us.
Let me start if I could in really in Poland and Bulgaria, both countries have been told by the Russian state oil giant Gazprom that their supplies will be halted unless of course they pay in rubles.
How do you interpret Daniel this push and this move by Russia? Are sanctions biting here?
DANIEL TREISMAN, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, UCLA: Well, I'm not sure if it's the sanctions fighting. It is true that Poland, apparently these new sanctions on Gazprom and NOVATEK, another gas company. So, Russia may be responding to that.
But it's also Russia is increasing the pressure trying to intimidate the East European countries that are most dependent on Russian gas and other energy supplies, and punish, in particular Poland, for the very assertive role that's taken in providing supplies to the Ukrainians and supporting the Ukrainian resistance.
SOARES: Yes, meanwhile, we still haven't seen of course, a sanctions on oil and gas, as many have been calling for in Europe.
But let me ask you this. I mean, what we have seen Daniel, in the last 24 hours is a third mass grave that's been uncovered in Mariupol. One adviser to President Zelenskyy told me just last week, that he fears we could be looking at around 20,000 dead just in Mariupol.
Have mass graves -- just to really put into context for us. Have mass graves historically been part of the Russian playbook?
TREISMAN: Well, you just have to look at the campaigns in Chechnya in the early 2000s. That started in late 1999 and going into the 2000s.
There were huge numbers of civilian casualties and very little supervision of the soldiers who are committing various atrocities at that time.
So, mass killing of civilians in the kind of war that Russia fights are nothing new. It of course it's chilling and just the numbers are absolutely shocking, 20,000 possibly. But it's not-- it's not something that is completely unexpected to people who've looked closely at previous fighting by the Russian Armed Forces in Chechnya and also in Syria.
[00:10:27]
SOARES: Important context there for our viewers, of course. And Daniel, the city of Kherson, what we have been hearing is obviously Russia is trying to hold an independence. I mean, holding independence referendum in order I suspect to try and legitimize the invasion as we heard from President Zelenskyy. Many of the Ukrainians and turning their backs and standing tall in the face of this. What are your thoughts as Putin tries to do this?
TREISMAN: Well, this is very much the Russian playbook. We saw exactly the same thing in 2014 in the Donetsk and Luhansk, so called People's Republics.
Shortly after the separatist uprising or proxy war stirred up by the Russians, referenda were held on the creation of these republics, and no state in the world recognize these referenda as legitimate. They violated the constitution of Ukraine. And there were many allegations of fraud.
But apparently, the Kremlin thought that they provided greater legitimacy. It provided some basis for claiming that these were independent units, political units at that -- at that point. And so, I think that's what they're planning to do in Kherson.
It's not completely clear when exactly this would happen, that it's been said to be planned for April 27th, Wednesday, and we'll see. But in any case, that seems to be the way that they hope to stabilize things politically, and consolidate their control within at least that one city that they have so far taken.
SOARES: Yes. And they are facing -- I mean, they are facing fierce resistance on that front as well from Ukrainians.
Let me ask you, Daniel, about what we've heard in the last 24 hours. General Mark Milley spoke to my colleague, Jim Sciutto. And he said that the entire global international security audits that's been put in place after the Second World War is at stake if Russia gets away, his words was cost free.
What do you make of those comments, Daniel?
TREISMAN: It's hard to disagree in any way with that statement. I believe that Secretary General of the U.N. Antonio Guterres said to Putin in the meeting, he definitely has said this since the start of the Ukrainian invasion, that it's simply a violation of the U.N. Charter, the most basic element of international law. Russia's war of aggression is almost clearly on the face of it, a violation of the Charter and a war crime.
So, it's saying nothing surprising to point out that Russia's aggression in Ukraine cannot be seen to succeed without causing serious damage to the international order on which we all rely for the peace and stability of the world.
SOARES: Yes, and as you were there, we're talking -- we're looking at video of course of President Putin meeting with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in yesterday. Of course, what Secretary General was trying to achieve there was a humanitarian corridor for Mariupol.
President Putin said he has agreed to it in principle, with the U.N. and the Red Cross, we shall see. We've been here before of course.
Daniel Treisman, always great to get your insight. Thank you, Daniel.
TREISMAN: Thank you.
SOARES: As Russia continues its offensive in the east and the south, there are fears that pro-Russian elements in the southern city of Kherson that Daniel and I were talking to, would stage a sham independence referendum in creating Kherson People's Republic, similar to those found in separatist regions in the East, as Daniel just mentioned, was a result some Kherson residents are fleeing to central Ukraine, including President Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih that you can see.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is there and has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): These southern field conjure a piece along past a world away from Ukraine's hell. It's quickly ruptured by Russia's new offensive. Sending waves of evacuees fleeing the growing unthinkable world of Russian occupation.
[00:15:07]
WALSH: Families for whom the shelling over the last two hours was finally too much.
(INAUDIBLE) one of the villages further down here, the Russians are actually close to them yet, but it's impossible to stay, a woman was injured there.
Antonina (PH) was three when the last war ended, but doesn't know when this one will. Hour by hour, everything changes.
Things are moving fast enough here that just 24 hours ago, a village about four kilometers in that direction was the meeting point from which people were get evacuated.
Now, it seems to be under fire. And we just see panicked locals rushing in to collect their relatives.
Distant tree lines are packed with troops. The blue horizon sometimes pockmarked by smoke. Here is a rumble of rocket still here and you can see the damage of what they've done before.
But somewhere like this has felt to some degree that had survived the worst of the war. But now in this second phase of the Russian operation, the brutality of those forces is essentially coming straight their way.
The flag flies still in the spot here where Lenin (PH) used to stand and it needs an army to hold it in place.
People don't want and cannot live under occupation, he says, we've managed to get 7,000 out across our 100 miles of frontline, some by bicycle, some in wheelbarrows or by foot.
Here's where they're welcomed. In President Vladimir Zelensky's hometown Kryvyi Rih, talk of a sham referendum on Wednesday, trying to gentrify the Russian occupation. And many flee these past days with queues of cars backed up from the miles.
This father and son lost a wife and mother respectively to a bomb and even here do not want their face to be shown.
If they see us, they'll shoot everyone left there, he says. We left on foot over the water and the river.
For this family, it was about saving the eldest, fearing their 18- year-old son would be conscripted after the sham vote.
The first time we tried to leave they shot at us, the second time, we got out, she says.
We are completely occupied she says, there's no food, no money, we have nothing. They'll do a referendum and take our children. My son is 18 and they'll take him as cannon fodder. We ran as fast as we could.
It is jarring among the generosity of donations and offers of new homes to hear of the casual brutality of the occupiers.
Mihail (PH) was tortured for days in a basement after Russian troops mistook his rough builders hands as a sign he'd been a soldier.
One got out of gun, a real one, he says, I saw it was cocked, two shots. They hit the concrete wall. I think it was a starting pistol. Two other men then came in and talk less, they were drunk.
One must have been a boxer as he beat me in the same place on my ribs, breaking six of them, rupturing the lung. Broken in parts here. But even as Russia closes in, still breathing.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: And so many horrors being committed right across this country in the East, in the south is just no words really to what we're seeing from our correspondents are capturing on the ground. And I'll have much more from Lviv the next hour. But for now, I want to go back to on Anna Coren in Hong Kong, Anna.
COREN: Thank you, Isa. Appreciate it. Speak to you soon. Well, still ahead, a stark warning from Deutsche Bank. A major U.S.
recession is coming. Why they say the Federal Reserve could be making things worse.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:23:22]
COREN: Well, fears of a coming U.S. economic recession taking a toll on Wall Street. The Dow fell more than 800 points on Tuesday and the tech heavy NASDAQ sunk to a 52-week low.
A new report from Deutsche Bank predicts a major U.S. recession is coming and inflation will likely stay high for longer than expected.
The bank says aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve meant to keep inflation in check could actually make things worse.
Well, let's bring in our Kristie Lu Stout following developments here in Hong Kong. And Kristie, after the round on Wall Street, how are markets looking today here in Asia?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anna, it's a mixed picture here in Asia so far on Tuesday, Wall Street stocks plummeted. The tech heavy NASDAQ led U.S. losses. The NASDAQ fell some four percent, its lowest level since the end of 2020.
And it's basically all being spurred by fears about global economic growth and the global economic slowdown. That's the concern here. It's being triggered by a number of factors. You know, the factors including aggressive tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the aggressive zero COVID curves by China, as well as the war in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, I should say that China shares ended lower, there has been deep concern about China's battle against COVID 19 in not just Shanghai but also Beijing and elsewhere.
Also deep concern about the economic impact of its tough zero COVID policy, how it's leading to a slowdown domestic consumption in China, as well as wreaking havoc on the global supply chain.
And if we can bring up once again, just this picture of what you can see right now, it's the middle of the trading day here in Asia, you could see how Asian markets are responding as I said earlier is a mixed picture. You have the Shanghai Composite and the Hang Seng Index currently on the rise.
[00:25:09]
STOUT: But you could see the Australia S&P, Seoul KOSPI, the Nikkei, all trading lower. Fears of a Beijing lockdown that has been dragging on Asian markets in recent days.
And with good reason, I want to bring up a statement for you, this from a global market strategist with OANDA, he tells CNN this "Although some parts of China had been under restrictions longer than Shanghai, Omicron's arrival in Beijing would be an ominous development", he tells us. He says "China is the world's second largest economy, has shown no signs that it tends to live with the virus. And with that in mind, the likely pressure valve is going to be disruption to China's export machine, and a cratering of consumer competence".
Now, there's just so much uncertainty out there Anna about China's zero COVID, about the Fed and its further tightening of interest rates.
And of course, about the ongoing war in Ukraine. In fact, it was just last week, the International Monetary Fund, what the IMF said that there will be a severe setback to global economic growth because of the war in Ukraine.
So, you have the entire world looking at three economic shocks right now. And that is being seen the ripple effects on global markets. Back to you.
COREN: Kristie Lu Stout, as always, thank you.
Well, joining us now from New York is Catherine Rampell. She is a CNN Economics and Political commentator, as well as a Washington Post opinion columnist. Catherine, great to have you with us.
Deutsche Bank, among other commentators are warning of a major recession, stating a deep recession will be needed to bring inflation to hill. Do you agree with this?
CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Deutsche Bank is somewhat of an outlier right now, and that they seem to have the most pessimistic forecast on all of Wall Street. That doesn't mean it's a crazy forecast. But it is more pessimistic than what most are predicting.
A lot of other forecasters on Wall Street and elsewhere, various economists are however, predicting that we have a rising risk of recession here in the United States. And there are, of course, many concerns about recessions elsewhere in the world, particularly in the E.U.
COREN: We are however expecting the Fed to raise interest rates, Jerome Powell has indicated as much for the Federal Reserve meeting next week.
But I guess the question is, is that going to bring down inflation if interest rates continue to rise?
RAMPELL: Well, that's the goal. I mean, that's the primary tool that is available to policymakers to deal with inflation, it's to raise interest rates.
Now, there are a couple of risks here, one, of course, is that they don't raise interest rates quickly enough to deal with those inflationary pressures that we have throughout the economy right now, driven by a whole host of factors, including, you know, very expansionary monetary and fiscal policy for the past couple of years, as well as supply shocks, the war in Ukraine and Russia, these lock downs in China etcetera.
So, it's not a done deal that the interest rates alone, particularly if they're relatively slow, that they will bring down inflation.
The other risk, however, is that they raise interest rates too quickly, precisely for all the reasons I've just mentioned that, that maybe the Fed really is very concerned about these longer term inflationary pressures. And they say, we got to be really aggressive, we got to raise rates faster than everyone expects, the risk there is that they're so aggressive that they tip us into recession.
COREN: You mentioned demand, but as we know, inflation has actually been driven by supply constraints and not demand. And that isn't about to be fixed overnight. Do you anticipate that this could perhaps lead to stagflation?
RAMPELL: Well, I would say it's a mismatch between supply and demand. Demand is quite strong, particularly here in the United States.
You know, consumers are buying more than they were before the pandemic, particularly if we're talking about purchases of goods, furniture, cars, clothing, sporting equipment, that sort of thing.
So, demand is quite strong, supply remains quite constrained, primarily and -- well, initially, I should say, because of these pandemic related effects.
And then, layer on top of that, these other shocks to global supply chains, including the war, and including China's zero COVID policy, which is obviously related to the pandemic, but is a more draconian approach this late in the game to the risk of COVID than other Western countries per se.
COREN: I was going to say, just finally, some say that the Fed has been asleep at the wheel.
I mean, last year, they said that inflation was transitory. And then last month, the consumer price spiked to 8-1/2 percent, a 40-year high. Should the Fed have been more proactive?
RAMPELL: In retrospect, I think the answer is yes. And probably, if you ask people who actually are on the Fed, they would agree with that, that their forecasts last year were much too optimistic. And there are a number of reasons why they made those mistakes.
I mean, almost everybody did, to be fair. I did. Almost all economists did. They thought that inflation, if not -- if they didn't use the particular word "transitory," they thought that, at the very least, the economy would normalize. Supply chains would normalize, and, therefore, all of those concerns that I was just talking about would kind of unwind themselves, and those inflationary pressures would abate. In retrospect, obviously, that didn't happen. It didn't happen for a
number of reasons, including that the demand-side pressures were much stronger, I think, than people realized or people accounted for. We had these additional variants, COVID variants, that also roiled supply chains.
And then you have all of these, you know, separate shocks like the war that have made things much worse. So yes, in retrospect, in hindsight, it would have been great if the Fed decided to take action much sooner, but hindsight is 20/20.
COREN: It will be interesting to see how markets react after the Fed raises rates, as we expect next week.
Catherine Rampell, great to speak with you. Thanks so much.
RAMPELL: Thank you.
COREN: Well, still to come, a Ukrainian prosecutor shows CNN where newly two dozen abducted civilians were taken, and what they were forced to endure.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:35:42]
COREN: Welcome back. We've heard heartbreaking stories of Ukrainian civilians and troops being detained, and in some cases, deported by Russia.
Well, CNN's Phil Black speaks with one man, released from detention, and others still waiting to see their loved ones.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): War creates powerful connections between people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BLACK: Volodymyr Harpun (ph) and Nadia Yarova (ph) didn't know each other before the Russians came. Now, he's brought her news that inspires pain and hope.
Volodymyr (ph) was recently freed from a military detention center in Russia. He says Nadia's (ph) grandson, Sacha (ph), was there, too. For weeks, Sacha's (ph) family didn't know if he was still alive.
Seized and held by Russian soldiers in early March, they heard nothing about his safety after the invaders retreated.
Vasily (ph) and Helena Hyliyk know the same pain and uncertainty. Volodymyr (ph) has told him he knows their son, Dmytro (ph), was recently alive in the same detention center in Russia. He says he heard Dmytro's (ph) name shouted every day during roll call. There is comfort in that, but not enough to soothe a mother's anguish. "I do not have hope anymore," Helena says. "I know they are beasts.
They will kill them, and no one will find them."
Ukrainian officials say dozens of people were abducted from around the town of Dima, near Kyiv, during Russia's occupation. And most were initially held here in a sprawling industrial site the Russian forces used as a command post.
(on camera): This is where they are kept?
ALEXANDER ZUS (PH), UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR: Yes.
BLACK: Ukrainian prosecutor Alexander Zus (ph) shows me the conditions those captured people were forced to endure. A small, dark, cold room. People were packed together here, he says, hands bound, eyes taped.
ZUS (ph): This place was where 22 people. When they try to get to the toilet, they -- they need to walk on the legs of somebody else, because there are too much people.
BLACK: He says people came and went. Some spent weeks here. Someone tried to keep track of days by scratching marks on the wall. He says all the people who came through this room had only one thing in common: they were civilians.
Several people who were kept here tell us they were frequently beaten and interrogated for local information. One man says his hands and fingers were cut to the bone by Russian soldiers, because he couldn't help them.
(on camera): Does it make any sense to you that they did this?
ZUS (ph): No, no sense, I don't know exactly what kind of information they could take from these people.
BLACK (voice-over): This drone video captures the moment when Ukrainian forces attacked the industrial site, driving out the Russians. A number of those who were still locked in the room at that time tell us that's when all remaining captives were able to escape.
But others, including Volodymyr Harpun (ph), had already been taken elsewhere. Along road trip, via Belarus, in the back of a military truck ended in Russia, where he was given this military identification document. It says he "resisted the special operation conducted by the president of the Russian Federation."
In reality, he was detained while volunteering with the Red Cross, helping people escape the fighting.
The Ukrainian government has confirmed Volodymyr (ph) was returned to Ukraine as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia. He believes that explains why Russian forces are abducting Ukrainian civilians.
He says, "They took us as goods that can be exchanged later, like a mobile phone or another commodity." Here, Volodymyr (ph) inspects a list of more than 40 names provided by
the local government, a register of people from the area who are still missing. He says he recognizes most of the names from his time in the Russian detention center, because he deliberately tried to remember as much as possible.
He says, "Sooner or later, one of us had to be the first to be released. And that's why we tried to remember the names of other people, to let their relatives know they're alive."
[00:40:04]
Volodymyr (ph) says there were about 200 Ukrainians in detention while he was there. He hopes all will get home quickly, so the suffering they and their families are enduring can end, and their healing can begin.
Phil Black, CNN, in the Kyiv region.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Still to come on CNN, mass COVID testing in Beijing has sparked fears the city may be placed under a strict lockdown, like Shanghai. A live report from China is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COREN: Welcome back. Just into CNN, Myanmar's deposed leader, Aung Sung Suu Kyi, has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to five years in prison.
Well, the country's military rulers alleged Suu Kyi accepted gold and cash payments totaling $600,000 from another official. Well, this is just the first of 11 corruption charges against the Nobel Prize winner.
We're told she was not able to meet with her lawyers before the verdict was announced. Suu Kyi denies all allegations.
[00:45:08]
Well, COVID testing for millions of people in Beijing is underway. Shanghai has been under strict lockdown for weeks. And residents of Beijing fear they could be next under China's zero-COVID policy.
Well, CNN's Selina Wang joins us now from Kunming in China. And Selina, is it imminent, do you believe, that Beijing will be placed under lockdown?
SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anna, officials in Beijing are on guard. They want to avoid the disaster and chaos in Shanghai. You're seeing them roll of these targeted lockdowns and mass testing earlier in the outbreak in Beijing than they did in Shanghai.
And the level of restrictions that they implement really depends on how many cases are found through this mass testing. They're doing three rounds of testing of 20 million residents. So far,
since Friday, they've only reported about 114 COVID-19 cases.
But officials are concerned. They are calling this a fast and furious, urgent and grim outbreak. They've been trying to reassure Beijing residents that you're not going to see the same kind of chaos in Shanghai, that they're going to keep store market shelves stocked. There's going to be enough food for people and daily essentials.
But still, residents, they're anxious. They've seen the horrors posted on Chinese social media, what people in Shanghai went through: the lack of food, medical care; the unsanitary conditioners at those quarantine facilities.
So we have seen residents in Beijing panic buying, rushing to the grocery store. We've seen some of the store shelves get emptied. But so far, we have yet to see the same kind of panic and chaos that we did in Shanghai.
COREN: Selina, a Beijing government official has said that efforts have reached a critical moment. I mean, how concerned should Xi Jinping be, considering what is unfolding in the capital and the ongoing anger that we are seeing coming from residents who have been locked up in Shanghai for now over a month?
WANG: I mean, it's concerning. In Shanghai, the censors are having trouble keeping up with the volume of complaints and desperation of the residents in Shanghai, who've been confined in their homes for weeks, struggling to get their basic needs met.
And in addition to that, Shanghai is this extremely affluent, well-off city. So we've seen all the struggles really well-documented. We've seen even rare protests break out and clashes between residents and the police.
But important to remember, Anna, that it's not just Shanghai. Millions across -- of people across China are being confined in their homes. There are multiple, simultaneous Omicron outbreaks across China. There are dozens of cities that have implemented some sort of lockdown restrictions.
So we are here in year three of the pandemic, and still so many places in China have been dealing with these on and off lockdown restrictions. And people are feeling very fatigued.
In Beijing, even though they have not announced any citywide lockdown, there are targeted lockdowns happening. There are people confined to their homes -- Anna.
COREN: Yes, Selina, as you say, dozens of cities across China are in lockdown. But it's really only those big cities like Shanghai or Beijing getting the attention.
Selina Wang, joining us from Kunming in China, many thanks.
Well, still to come, why police are concerned about some text messages sent by a "Rust" crew member as the investigation into the shooting continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:52:42]
COREN: Police in the U.S. state of New Mexico are concerned about newly-released text messages connected to the shooting on the set of the Alec Baldwin film, "Rust."
Santa Fe's sheriff told NBC that no one has confessed to bringing live rounds to the movie set, but texts from a crew member may play an important role going forward. CNN's Nick Watt has this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One female shot in the chest, male shot in the stomach.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Body cam video of the immediate aftermath.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He shot her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She came in here, and it went across her chest. And it came out the back and went into here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to air flight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Yes, we already left (ph).
WATT: This among the trove of evidence just released by the Santa Fe sheriff. Here is Alec Baldwin rehearsing just before the fatal shot, and here, immediately after.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How's it going, sir? So my understanding is that you are in the room when the lady was -- was shot?
ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: I was the one holding the gun, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
WATT: Holding the prop gun when it discharged on the set of the western "Rust" last fall, killing the director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, wounding the director.
BALDWIN: Am I being charged with something?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
WATT: Baldwin was very soon being questioned.
BALDWIN: I put it in the holster. I pulled it out slow, for rehearsal. We're not filming anything. I pulled it out slow, turned, cocked pistol. Bang, it goes off and she hits the ground.
WATT: He was shown for the first time what came out of that gun barrel, not a blank.
BALDWIN: If that's a bullet that was pulled out of her shoulder, then someone loaded a live round into the gun I was holding.
WATT: It was a real bullet. And the key question remains, how did a live round get on set and into that prop gun?
Amongst this just-released trove of evidence, and of particular interest to the sheriff --
SHERIFF ADAN MENDOZA, SANTA FE COUNTY, NEW MEXICO: There was several text messages and emails in reference to the use of possible live rounds on a different movie set.
WATT: Text messages from this key "Rust" crew member.
HANNAH GUTIERREZ REED, "RUST" LEAD ARMORER: I'm the armorer. Or at least I was.
WATT: Texts sent a few months prior, asking a colleague about shooting live rounds from a prop gun.
"It's a serious mistake. Always ends in tears," he tells her.
"Good to know. I'm still going to shoot mine, though," she replies.
Apparently, Gutierrez Reed wanted to know how the vintage weapon worked. "She was going to shoot it offset," her lawyer told CNN, "but Seth said don't do it, so she didn't."
Officials in New Mexico fined "Rust's" producers last week, claiming the crew willfully violated gun safety rules. The criminal investigation continues.
MENDOZA: There's a degree of neglect. Whether that degree reaches a criminal level, that will be up to the district attorney to -- to determine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're getting these guys treated. We're securing the scene, and then we'll get -- we'll get with you guys in a second.
WATT (on camera): We reached out to the production company for comment. Nothing yet. But we have heard from one of Alec Baldwin's lawyers, who says that all this newly-released evidence, quote, "demonstrates once again that Mr. Baldwin acted responsibly."
Now, investigators are still waiting for a few more key pieces of this puzzle. Ballistic reports from the FBI, forensic analysis of Alec Baldwin's phone. Once everything is in, then the D.A. down in New Mexico says they will make a determination as to whether criminal charges are going to be filed in this case.
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, thanks so much for your company. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. I'll be back with more news after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:00:00]
