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Mass Shooting in U.S. Grocery Store; Russia's Civilian Targets in Odessa; Helsinki's Underground Bunkers; NATO Foreign Ministers in Berlin for Talks; Plane Crash near Miami Kills One, Injures Five; Abortion Rights Marches across the U.S.; Lebanese Elections; Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra Wins Eurovision. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired May 15, 2022 - 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): Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead, another deadly mass shooting after a gunman opens fire in a grocery store. What officials believe the motive is behind the attack.
And with Russia's invasion in Ukraine, a historic decision is ahead. We're live in Helsinki with the latest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: A suspect is behind bars following a deadly mass shooting that set the community of Buffalo, New York, on edge; 18-year-old Payton Gendron has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of at least 10 people. He pleaded not guilty.
Police call it racially motivated. It happened in a largely Black neighborhood. Investigators are also reviewing a 180-page manifesto, in which describes his perceptions of the dwindling size of the white population. Governor Hochul condemned the racial extremism. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): A military style execution targeting people who simply want to buy groceries in a neighborhood store. It strikes us in our very hearts to know that there's such evil that lurks out there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Police say the alleged shooter wasn't from the area and traveled hours to carry out the shooting in Buffalo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERIFF JOHN GARCIA, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK: This was pure evil. It was straight up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside our community, outside of the city of good neighbors, as the mayor said, coming into our community and trying to inflict that evil upon us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: A union representative for the supermarket employees said a worker at the store called him after the deadly shooting and described the sheer chaos she witnessed at the scene.
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MARK MANNA, UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS: I hear that somebody came in heavily armed. Just walked in and started shooting. I spoke to one of the workers on my way here and she said that, you know, her family members are calling her and her co-workers and it was just like something out of a war movie.
Just non-stop shooting. People running, screaming. The person was in tactical gear, a lot of guns, a lot of some kind of armor or something. So it looks like -- I'm not going to speculate -- but it seemed like somebody came here on a mission.
And again, you know, the big picture is that these poor workers, who come here every day to punch a clock and just put money in their pockets, it's terrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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BRUNHUBER: Joining me from Buffalo is Mark Sommer, a reporter with "The Buffalo News."
Thanks so much for being with us.
Just to start, what more are we learning about exactly how this terrible crime unfolded?
MARK SOMMER, "THE BUFFALO NEWS": What we know right now is that, at approximately 2:30 Saturday afternoon, at a busy Tops supermarket, in a predominantly Black neighborhood, the shooter showed up. He was dressed in body armor, he had a military helmet with a camera for livestreaming.
And, of course, he had a high powered rifle that he used for his killing spree. He shot a few people in the parking lot. He went into the supermarket. There was a retired -- recently retired Buffalo policeman, working security. They exchanged gunfire. The officer was killed.
And then the shooter went inside and started shooting people. As you can imagine, there was all kinds of chaos, people trying to elude the shooter. One woman talked about falling down a few times as she ran toward the back and got out an exit door.
There was an employee who was working in the milk cooler, when he heard the shots, so he didn't leave there. He just hoped the door wouldn't be opened with someone shooting at him. So it was just a horrific, horrific scene.
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SOMMER: The shooter eventually came out of the supermarket. He put a gun to himself, he was going to -- it appeared like he was threatening to shoot himself. But the police tackled him and arrested him. And he has been arraigned.
BRUNHUBER: And now that alleged perpetrator, self described white supremacist, what more are we learning about him and the possible reasons behind this?
SOMMER: Sure. He reportedly left behind what appears to be a 180-page manifesto and he is only 18 years old, let's remember, which is pretty amazing. It is a very, very detailed manifesto. Some of it is more lucid than some that I have seen in the past when I've read these things: virulent racism and anti-Semitism.
He seems to reserve more hatred for Jews than anyone else in this manifesto. He is a practitioner of something called the great replacement theory. He talks a lot about that in the manifesto. That has been something promoted by white supremacists for a long time. And it is something heard on right wing talk radio routinely.
The idea is basically that white Americans are being intentionally removed from the United States, U.S. white citizens being removed by immigrants into this country. You know, it is a view that he must just live in the dark corners of the web.
But four days ago, the Associated Press did a poll to see what the Americans thought about the so-called great replacement theory. And they found that one-third of Americans saw some believability in this idea, this generally discredited idea.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, shocking how mainstream it has become. Now you've covered the community for a long time. The community there must be so shattered by this absolute horror.
How are they coping with the grief and the anger here?
SOMMER: There is a lot of anger. Down at the supermarket today, people were really furious. And there is just shock, there is dismay, people are horrified. It is the kind of thing that you read about in another city, another town, another part of the world.
And you never think that it will happen in your own backyard. You know, sadly in this country, it is just a month ago that we saw the mass shooting in Brooklyn. But it has become routine in the United States of America.
One would never have thought that, not that many years ago, that something like this could become routine. So you know, with all the other emotions, just heartbreak, sheer horribleness of what happened, the thought that somebody could be so deranged that they would want to go in and kill innocent people like this.
BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Well, listen, we'll have to leave it there. But Mark Sommer with "The Buffalo News," thanks so much for being with us.
SOMMER: Sure thing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: CNN spoke with Democratic House member Ron Higgins, who represents the district where the shooting took place. And he gives this chilling assessment of the attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BRIAN HIGGINS (D-NY): Clearly this is an individual that selected Buffalo, selected an area of Buffalo that is predominantly African American, from outside the area. That is not coincidental.
And we believe, and law enforcement officials believe, that this is part of an organized effort to attack the minority community generally and the community of Buffalo as its target.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And we'll have more details about how the tragedy unfolded, including reports the shooter livestreamed the attack a little later in this hour.
But first, a historic shift for European security as Finland takes another step toward NATO membership. We're live in Helsinki after the break. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: In northeastern Ukraine, an aggressive counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces continues to threaten Russian supply lines that support troops to the south. Ukraine's military reports some of the most intense fighting is in villages east of Kharkiv.
So far the Russian military hasn't made any major advances in the Donbas. But Ukraine says the Russians appear to be attacking the key city of Sievierodonetsk. In the Ukrainian capital, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met on Saturday with a small delegation of U.S. senators.
He called on the U.S. to officially declare Russia a terrorist state. The high level visit comes ahead of an expected Senate vote on additional aid to Ukraine.
We have CNN correspondents covering the war and we begin with Sara Sidner in Odessa.
You've been covering a recent missile strike on a shopping mall there.
What more can you tell us?
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it hit not only a shopping mall but also there were strikes on a hotel here in Odessa, as well as a large apartment complex. We went to these different sites. The damage is extensive.
The apartment complex, however, has a blast all the way through it, about three or four floors burnt out. But there are still dozens of people that are living there with nowhere else to go. A lot of people have left the city.
But some people had come to Odessa because this was considered a real stronghold -- and still is -- of the Ukrainians. And they have been fighting to keep this particular city mainly because it is a really strategically important city.
There is a port here that has been helping shuttle supplies, including supplies for the war, to help Ukrainians push the Russians back. And this is also an economically very strong city as well.
But we are seeing the results of these missile strikes. And what is concerning to so many people here, it is not that these missile strikes that are coming from Russia aren't hitting military targets.
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SIDNER: They are hitting soft targets, they are hitting targets where civilians work and live, causing a lot of consternation here, a lot worry here. Every now and then, the sirens go off and people take them very seriously after what they have seen.
Ukraine proud of the fact that it has really kept hold of this city, even after all of these attacks. The Russian military trying to amass in the Black Sea on the coast of the southern port of Odessa. But right now people are fighting back by going to work, by trying to live their lives.
Those who are still here, trying to keep their businesses going. You see a real pushback in that way as well as the pushback from the military.
BRUNHUBER: Resilience is the word we're hearing over and over again. Thank you so much, Sara Sidner in Odessa.
Russia's war on Ukraine is prompting an historic shift in Europe's security map. Finland's leaders are expected to formally announce that they want to join NATO. On Saturday Vladimir Putin warned that it would be a mistake. But Finland says it is aimed at bolstering its own security, not inflaming tensions with Moscow. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PEKKA HAAVISTO, FINNISH FOREIGN MINISTER: Our (INAUDIBLE) support to President Putin just to inform that Finland is now proceeding toward NATO membership. Our parliament will discuss this item on Monday.
And it's very likely that there is a very strong majority in our parliament also to support the NATO membership (INAUDIBLE) obligation for the coming week. We have 1,300 kilometer common border with Russia.
We -- the border is peaceful and we want to maintain that border peacefully. It's very important that we communicate with our neighbor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And foreign ministers from the G7 have announced that they will never recognize borders changed by this war in Ukraine.
And NATO foreign ministers are in Berlin wrapping up talks about the invasion. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Berlin with the latest on those talks. But first let's go to Nic Robertson in Helsinki.
You are outside the presidential palace, a seismic announcement that we're expecting soon there.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this is going to be big when it comes. It is, of course, very highly predicted and anticipated. The prime minister and the president here, during their press conversation, will say that they are endorsing and want the government, will support joining NATO.
Of course it is down to parliament to move from there. Parliament will debate it early in the week.
But President Putin told the president here of Finland just yesterday that it was a mistake to do this, because there are no threats in the region. However, Finland, for decades, has never taken Russia at its word. And the depths of that distrust, we saw them here in Helsinki yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: Question is, when is a parking garage not a parking garage?
And the answer is, when it's part of a tunnel and bunker network to be used in case of war. And there is one country threatening that war, potentially, the big threat, Russia.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Tomi Rask, Helsinki city rescue department, is going to show us around.
TOMI RASK, HELSINKI CITY RESCUE DEPARTMENT: We're going to see and see that main entrance --
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Twenty meters, 60 feet below ground, cut into Helsinki's bedrock.
ROBERTSON: How quickly can you put this together, in case of war?
RASK: In 72 hours.
ROBERTSON: And 6,000 people in here.
How many people can you fit in shelters in the whole of Helsinki?
RASK: Over 900,000.
ROBERTSON: So that's enough for the population plus visitors?
RASK: Yes, yes, it is.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The government has been building bunkers here since the 1960s, 5,500 in Helsinki, more than 50,000 across the country, enough for 80 percent of the country's 5.5 million population.
ROBERTSON: Deeper and deeper.
RASK. Yes.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): But the scale of it, not the only surprise; some of it is open to the public.
ROBERTSON: What's this?
RASK: For a ball game.
ROBERTSON: This is a bunker with a sports hall?
Oh, my goodness.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Much of it dual use to offset the costs.
RASK: So this is one example of our dual purpose use of the shelter, dual purpose here.
ROBERTSON: So sports, (INAUDIBLE) week, time of crisis, what happens here?
RASK: All the sporting goods are stacked away. All these halls, these sheltering halls are divided by smaller sheltering rooms.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): And not just sports halls, children's play areas, possibly the safest in the world.
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ROBERTSON (voice-over): Cafes, even a swimming pool.
ROBERTSON: Just a sheltering hall but with a pool?
RASK: Yes, with an Olympic-sized pool. ROBERTSON: Olympic-sized?
OK, wow. Wow.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): But everything here with one purpose in mind: glass doors, gas barriers, decontamination areas, even the 2 billion- year-old bedrock more than just blast proof.
ROBERTSON: So if there is a nuclear bomb, the rock itself absorbs the radiation and keeps everyone here safe.
RASK: Yes, that's the idea.
ROBERTSON: And the tunnels as well, they are curved. So they also prevent some of the blast coming through.
RASK: Yes, they take the most of the hit.
ROBERTSON: And now, it's a car park.
RASK: It's a car park.
ROBERTSON: Again.
RASK: Again.
ROBERTSON: That's a quite bizarre feeling.
RASK: Yes.
ROBERTSON: One minute you're preparing for a wall, the next minute you're playing hockey and now it's a car park.
RASK: Yes.
Here, you can see the different layers.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): And before we leave, Rask shows us another shelter just begun.
There is a hole in it, put explosives in, blow it and move forward?
RASK: Yes.
ROBERTSON: Thank you.
RASK: Bye.
ROBERTSON: Cheers, bye.
Here come the traffic. This is what was like on the way out. Absolutely fascinating.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: And is that happening right under these streets here. Long term plans for a potential conflict that the country here really hopes that, by joining NATO, that becomes an even more distant prospect. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Really different world there that you are showing us. Nic Robertson, thank you so much. Let's go now to Fred Pleitgen in Berlin.
What are the foreign ministers saying there on that Finland issue?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Finland issue, they said they want Finland in NATO as fast as possible and, of course, Sweden as well.
But right now Finland is one of the main points of the agenda, because that is the one that could ask for that extension in the next coming hours, as Nic was just alluding to. One of the things that the foreign ministers of NATO said, as they arrived for this meeting this morning, is that they say that they want to see this through very quickly.
They say that Finland is obviously ready for NATO membership. It certainly meets all the criteria that are necessary. But they also say that if the Russians are angry about Finland wanting to come into NATO, the Russians and Vladimir Putin only have themselves to blame.
They say that it is, of course, Finland and Sweden as well looking to enhance their security and that is why they are asking for NATO membership.
And the Germans, who are hosting this meeting, they say they want to make it happen as fast as possible. Listen to what the German foreign minister said as she arrived.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNALENA BAERBOCK, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Germany has prepared everything to do a quick ratification process. And yesterday evening, many, many countries has underlined this as well, that it is an important part, that there won't be an interim between time, a gray zone.
But that if these two countries are deciding to join, they can join very quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: Join very quickly, she says. But of course, there are still some hurdles or one major hurdle and that seems to be the Turks, seems to be Turkey. Turkey saying that they are skeptical about Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
They say that they believe these places are a safe haven for terrorists, as they put it, so therefore saying that right now they are not sure whether or not they want to support that.
Quite interesting to hear because as we were at the arrivals this morning for the meeting, most of the foreign ministers said that they wanted to work out these issues, they believed they could. And I tried to ask the Turkish foreign minister but he wouldn't answer
the question. So that issue is still there, that could be a problem. But if you look at the vast majority of member nations, they certainly want to make it happen as fast as possible.
And they do believe that Finland and Sweden will become very, very important members of NATO very quickly.
BRUNHUBER: So setting Finland aside for a second, for the foreign ministers getting together, another chance to express their solidarity against Russia.
So concretely, what might that mean?
PLEITGEN: Well, it certainly means that the NATO member nations say that they are working closer together. They want to add and increase that coherence within NATO.
And it is really a vast number of different things that they working on right now because there are, of course, a lot of NATO nations, nations within the alliance, that border the conflict region, that border Ukraine or, for instance, Russia. We heard the Romanian foreign minister, obviously very worried about the situation in the Black Sea.
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PLEITGEN: There is fighting going on in the Black Sea very close to the borders with Romania.
And then you have the Baltic states. They are concerned about their security, being neighbors of Russia, at the same time hearing some of the rhetoric coming out of Moscow. So what NATO is trying to do is it is trying to project that coherence and increase that coherence and doing it on a military level but a political level as well.
BRUNHUBER: Thanks so much, Fred Pleitgen.
Still ahead, the latest on the deadly shooting in Buffalo, New York, that authorities are investigating as a hate crime. We'll get a closer look at the platform that the suspect used to livestream the attack, that is coming up.
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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.
We're turning to that deadly shooting in Buffalo, New York. Police say an 18-year-old white male opened fire in a neighborhood grocery store Saturday after traveling from another county hours away. The suspect was arraigned on one count of first-degree murder but officials say more charges could come. He pleaded not guilty. Ten people were killed, three others wounded in the attack. Most of
the victims were African American. Here is how one witness described what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRADY LEWIS, SHOOTING EYEWITNESS: I'd seen a guy in a full army suit. He is shooting shots at people. And I'd seen the security guard run in the store, and then I'd seen the guy go in Army style, bent over, just shooting at people. And I heard him shooting at people.
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LEWIS: And then I saw three people laying down.
And I didn't have a phone on me, so I was just screaming for somebody to call the police. And then he came out. He put the gun to his head, to his chin, then he dropped it and he took off his little crew vest. And then he got on his hands and knees and put his hands behind his back and then they arrested him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Department of justice is investigating the shooting as both a hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism. Sources tell CNN that investigators are reviewing 180 pages of a purported manifesto, posted online, allegedly written by the suspect.
The author describes himself as a fascist, a white supremacist and an anti-Semite.
One of the most surreal aspects about this crime is the fact that it was livestreamed on the interactive service Twitch. The company says it pulled the stream less than two minutes in. But many are saying that these platforms need to regulate their content better. Brian Stelter takes a look.
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BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Hey, yes. This crime in Buffalo may be another example of a livestreamed murder, a terrifying phenomenon we've seen several times in recent years in the United States and in other countries.
In the case in Buffalo, authorities have confirmed that the suspect was using a livestreaming site to share his own point of view, his own vantage point, while firing his weapon. Now Twitch, which is a popular livestreaming site, owned by Amazon, it came out Saturday evening and essentially confirmed that its site was used. Its platform was used by the suspect.
The company said in a statement, quote, "We are devastated to hear about the shooting that took place this afternoon in Buffalo. Our hearts go out to the community impacted by this tragedy. Twitch has a zero tolerance policy against violence of any kind and works swiftly to respond to all incidents."
The company also said that this user, quote, "has been indefinitely suspended from our service and we are taking all appropriate action, including monitoring for any accounts rebroadcasting this content."
That's an important detail because, in the past, in some of these cases, the videos from the point of view of the suspect have gone viral on websites and have been used by others to spread certain ideologies.
So Twitch, in this case, saying they're trying to stop that from happening. What we've seen, again and again, in the U.S. and elsewhere, are examples of online radicalization. People spending too much time in front of their computer screens, being poisoned by lies and, eventually, acting out in public, in the real world.
And then, trying to share their experiences on the internet, while they are committing a crime. It will be very telling to see what investigators share in the coming days and weeks about this livestream, about what it showed and about whether it can be used in a court of law in this case -- Brian Stelter, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: U.S. leaders and organizations have been voicing their anger and condemnation over another shooting allegedly driven by hate.
President Biden said, "Any act of domestic terrorism including an act perpetrated in the name of a repugnant white nationalist ideology is antithetical to everything that we stand for in America."
The Council on American Islamic Relations released a statement saying that we condemn both the white supremacist terrorist attack targeting Black men and women in Buffalo today and the racist rhetoric that has sparked such violence again and again.
And from the NAACP, this is absolutely devastating, our hearts are with the community and all who've been impacted by this terrible tragedy. Hate and racism have no place in America.
We'll have much more from Buffalo coming up later on CNN.
Buffalo isn't the only U.S. city dealing with shootings yesterday. Milwaukee's mayor imposed a curfew in the entertainment district for people younger than 21 years of age after 21 people were injured in three shooting incidents. And they happened after an NBA playoff game last night. No fatalities were reported.
The first shooting happened just blocks away from the arena, three people injured. The second took place a little more than an hour later, one person was injured. And about 40 minutes later, a third shooting, this one injuring 17 people.
Ten people were taken into custody during the third shooting and 10 guns were recovered. They are still trying to piece together exactly what happened. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know that there are people out there that fled or that left, that saw something. If they could call and let us know what happened, we have people in custody. But that doesn't mean that we have everybody in custody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: A small plane crash near Miami, Florida, has killed one person on board and injured five others.
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BRUNHUBER: Authorities say a single engine Cessna lost power and struck a vehicle as it crashed and burst into flames. Firefighters discovered the deceased person after they put out the flames. A woman and two toddlers were inside the truck when it was hit. They were taken to a hospital.
Lebanon is going to the polls for its first general election in four years. We'll have a live report from Beirut coming up. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Tens of thousands of people marched in cities across the U.S. on Saturday in support of abortion rights. Protesters took to the streets with signs and many chanted bans off our bodies.
It is fueled by the possibility that the Supreme Court may soon overturn Roe v. Wade which enshrined a person's right to an abortion. The court's final ruling could be released within weeks. About half of the U.S. states are poised to criminalize or restrict abortion should the court overturn Roe. CNN's Camila Bernal has more from Los Angeles.
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CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thousands gathered in downtown Los Angeles to hear from speakers and to show their support for a woman's right to an abortion. Many of them out here say that they will continue to fight.
They will continue to participate in these kinds of events and rallies and school walkouts in order to get the attention of people all over the country, to get them involved and to eventually get them to vote.
A lot of these activists and organizers say California is a key state in all of this, because the state protects the right to an abortion until the fetus is viable. So a lot of woman are expected to come to California searching for an abortion.
[04:40:00] BERNAL: I talked to the founder of the Women's Right (sic) Foundation and here is what she told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMILIANA GUERECA, PRESIDENT, WOMEN'S MARCH FOUNDATION: In Los Angeles, in California, the fight is to help our sisters in Texas, in Georgia, in Missouri, because we're safe in California.
And we can't take that for granted, because, if no woman is safe across the country, how are we safe in California?
So we take that personal, to make sure that we fight for the other women across the country, fight with them for reproductive rights.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERNAL: And she also told me, as a Latina and as an immigrant, she will continue to fight for this. And particularly concerned about Black and Brown women and their access to an abortion, women of low income.
So that is why they say that they will continue this fight and aim for people to come out and support them at the ballot box -- Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Donald Trump's sway over U.S. Republican voters will be put to the test this Tuesday. Five of the states are holding primaries to choose nominees for midterm elections in November. And they include Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump has backed Dr. Oz, running against David McCormick and Kathy Barnette.
In North Carolina, Trump is backing Ted Budd and his opponents are Pat McCrory and Mark Walker. The winner has to get at least 30 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff.
And Lebanese voters are going to the poll for the country's first general election in four years. This is Lebanon's first election since the pandemic, the Beirut port blast and a major economic collapse. For the latest, Ben Wedeman is live from Beirut.
Ben, obviously a lot at stake here but also seems a lot of skepticism that things will change.
Is that right?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there is skepticism because the political elite that has ruled for decades and is really behind many of the catastrophes this country has gone through, like the economic collapse, which has seen the currency here lose more than 90 percent of its value.
The GDP is less than half of what it was just three years ago. The Beirut port blast, many people feel that that political elite has failed them, that they are corrupt, negligent and incompetent.
And therefore, the hope was that, after the uprising that took place in October of 2019 here, where there were calls to get rid of all of the political elite, the political elite, however, has been able to survive these crises, because of the money, the power, the organization and the weapons many of them have to maintain their hold on power.
And most of them are running again in this election. There are about 1,000 candidates running in 15 electoral districts for 128 seats in parliament. Of those 1,000, only about 200 represent people not affiliated with the political elite.
So you speak to people here and they say we've come out to vote, hoping that perhaps this time, unlike all the other times, that their vote will make a difference in getting this country out of this multiplicity of crises that has seen the quality of life here collapse. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, Ben, I mean, the outlook is understandably bleak for many people.
But is there any sense of there being a path out of the darkness?
What will it take?
WEDEMAN: Well, the path many people thought would take Lebanon out of this darkness that opened up in October 2019 was that new generation of political leaders would come forth and be able to somehow at least take some of the power away from the old political elite.
But instead what we've seen is, in many of the electoral districts, you have a variety of reformists competing among themselves, essentially making sure that the old political elite will maintain its majority.
Now it is expected that, unlike in the elections in 2018, there will be an increase in the number of nontraditional candidates, the candidates who will -- or rather actually more people will win seats in parliament representing this opposing view to the establishment.
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WEDEMAN: But it is still not going to be more than, say, 10 percent of the number of seats in parliament. So there is reason to question whether, even if there are more reformists elected to parliament, they will actually make a difference.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, a lot of institutional obstacles there as well. Ben Wedeman, thank you for your reporting.
More than half a billion people and counting, that is the latest projection from Johns Hopkins University about how many people have contracted COVID worldwide since the pandemic began. And more than 6 million have died. But looking ahead, the White House says that the U.S. is in for
another massive surge this fall and winter. Officials are predicting 100 million new cases, even though some analysts question that number. A former COVID response official tells CNN that it is way too early to put the coronavirus behind us.
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DR. DEBORAH BIRX, FORMER WHITE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: The fact that since this January 1st, 175,000 Americans have died, just in the last 4.5 months, that is five times any annual flu deaths.
So we need to take this five times more seriously than we take flu. And we need to lay out to the American people the common sense things that they can do in a surge.
And I'm a little bit disappointed that people have been talking about a fall and winter surge. I'm worried about the summer. And the summer surge that could start within the next three to four weeks across the South.
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BRUNHUBER: North Korea is reporting nearly 300,000 of what it calls "fever" cases just days after reporting its first outbreak of COVID- 19.
State media say there were 15 additional deaths between Friday and Saturday evening, bringing the death toll now to 42. It is unclear if or how many of those deaths were caused by COVID. The entire country has been under lockdown since Thursday.
The COVID outbreak could be disastrous for North Korea. Its health care system is dilapidated and it's not known to have imported any COVID vaccines.
And neighboring China is expected to ease restrictions in Shanghai after cases decreased Saturday. The city of 25 million will gradually reopen businesses beginning Monday, this includes supermarkets, restaurants, shopping malls and more.
Shanghai has been under strict lockdown for more than six weeks. But it is a different situation in Beijing, where panic buying has emptied store shelves. Authorities shut down public transport and online car hailing services in some areas. More than 1.3 million residents are ordered to work from home.
And it was Ukraine's year at Eurovision. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ukraine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hand you the trophy --
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Kalush Orchestra won the trophy, rapping about their mother. More after the break.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:50:00]
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BRUNHUBER: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is again calling on the U.S. to officially declare Russia a terrorist state. That came as a group of U.S. senators visited Kyiv. The Senate is expected to approve another $40 million in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine this week.
And the Ukrainian counteroffensive continues to push the invaders away from Kharkiv and back toward Russia. The Ukrainians threaten to cut supply lines that support Russian troops to the south.
And a large convoy of civilians evacuated from Mariupol has finally reached its destination. Hundreds of private vehicles began arriving in Zaporizhzhya Saturday night. Russian troops had kept the convoy waiting several days before allowing them to pass. One man said he felt fortunate to make it out alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIKOLAI PAVLOV, MARIUPOL EVACUEE (through translator): Our flat was destroyed by two impacts. These were either shells or bombs. Everything got burnt to the ground. Nearly a month, we used to live in the basement. And then we decided to sneak to Ukraine-controlled area. We don't recognize any DNR.
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BRUNHUBER: And by DNR, he was talking about the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic, people's republic, backed by Russia.
And if you would like to safely and securely help people in Ukraine who may be in need of shelter, food and water, go to cnn.com/impact and you can find several ways to help there.
Ukrainians forgot about the war with Russia for a little while yesterday when Ukraine's entrant in the Eurovision song contest won. Listen to this.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The Kalush Orchestra song, "Stefania," pays tribute to the frontman's mother, has become sort of an anthem to their motherland. President Zelenskyy posted congratulations, saying that, "Our music is conquering Europe."
Let's talk more with Barbie Nadeau. Tell us more, a sentimental favorite.
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, but skilled as well. This was kind of a weird combination between Ukrainian folk music and American style rap. But it seemed to play well to the audience there.
This is a huge, huge song contest across Europe. And, you know, it becomes political. Last year the U.K. didn't get a single vote. Many people thought that that was because of Brexit. No competition in 2020 because of the pandemic. So people were ready to celebrate.
And Ukraine winning is really emblematic I think of how people feel about the war going on in Europe. And you know, this song contest has produced some pretty big stars. Abba won in 1974 with their song, "Waterloo." Celine Dion's sang for Switzerland in 1988, which launched her career.
So it is not just a quirky contest. A lot of big stars do come out of it. Too early to tell if the Ukrainian band will make it beyond the borders of Europe. But you never know.
[04:55:00]
BRUNHUBER: We'll keep our ears tuned. Barbie Nadeau, thank you so much.
(WORLD SPORT)
BRUNHUBER: And that wrap this is hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in a moment with more news. Please do stay with us.
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