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First Trip As President For Biden To Asia; Russian Airstrike On Ukrainian Cultural Center; CEOs Fear Looming Recession; U.S. Formula Maker Increases Output; Russia Torches Villages Near Kharkiv; Russian Blockade Threatening Food Security For Millions; Australia Votes; Deadly Tornado Hits Michigan. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired May 21, 2022 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, Asia is the future, according to President Biden. That was his message while visiting South Korea.
And, quote, "absolute evil." Ukraine's president condemning a missile attack on a cultural center that killed at least seven, including a young girl. We're live in Lviv with the latest.
And a report from the CNN Weather Center on a tornado ripped through Michigan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM.
BRUNHUBER: The U.S. President will soon wrap up the second day of his first trip to Asia as commander in chief. It comes after Joe Biden held talks with his South Korean counterpart and reaffirmed their alliance. The South Korean president said both nations committed to a goal of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOON SUK-YEOL, PRESIDENT OF SOUTH KOREA (through translator): A sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula is underpinned by a principled and consistent policy toward North Korea. In lockstep coordination with the Biden administration, I commit to resolutely safeguard peace on the Korean Peninsula and encourage North Korea to come forward for dialogue and engage in practical cooperation.
I will exert diplomatic endeavors to that end. We, as leaders of the two countries, reiterated our common goal of the complete denuclearization of the DPRK. There's no compromise for security under this shared belief. We concurred that strong deterrence against North Korea is paramount.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: The U.S. State Department says there are still concerns that Pyongyang may still conduct a missile launch during the president's visit.
Meanwhile, China has been flexing its muscles. Beijing is holding military drills in the South China Sea while Biden is in asia.
And the war in Ukraine was also a critical topic at those bilateral talks. The U.S. President called out Putin as Biden is scheduled to sign an military aid bill into law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Putin's war against Ukraine isn't just a matter for Europe. It's an attack on democracy and the core international principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
And the Republic of Korea and the United States are standing together, part of a global response of our allies and partners around the world to condemn Russia's flagrant violation of international law and to hold Russia accountable and to support the people of Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Paula Hancocks and Kevin Liptak joins us live from Seoul.
Kevin, let's start with their joint pledge of more military exercises, a break from the Trump administration's policies.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This was in the joint statement that the two leaders released before they came out for their press conference.
The phrasing is important. They agreed to initiate discussions about expanding these military exercises. Remember they had been halted under president Trump, saying they cost too much and they could potentially be provocative as he was trying to bring North Korea to the table.
This is a significant step. They were a regular occurrence here on the Korean Peninsula to demonstrate a partnership between the U.S. and the South Korea and a deterrence message to North Korea as it was building ever more powerful missiles.
It remains to be seen whether that will come to pass. But a significant statement they're talking about doing it. That wasn't the only place in today's events where President Biden seemed to separate himself somewhat from the approach that president Trump took with North Korea.
When President Biden was asked whether he would meet with Kim Jong-un, he only would do it if Kim seemed serious. So very important steps that the president was laying out there, alongside his counterpart, the new South Korean president.
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LIPTAK: One thing that the president went into today, hoping to do, was expand the partnership with South Korea to go beyond just focusing on security issues related to the North, to look at economic issues and trade and sort of a greater role for South Korea in the Indo Pacific and security issues not just tied to Pyongyang.
When they came out and spoke at that press conference, you heard them speak a lot about supply chains, trade, technology. All that will create a more fulsome alliance between the two countries. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Absolutely, I was going to ask Paula about that, because, you know, it wasn't all about North Korea.
The economy as well was a huge component of what they were talking about.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, it was expected to be as well. If you bear in mind the very first stop for President Biden as he landed here in South Korea was the Samsung semiconductor plant. They had put a lot of weight on to trying to restore supply lines, supply chains.
Certainly there has been a semiconductor shortage in America and that has had an impact on American manufacturing.
One of the themes over the last 24 hours, from President Biden and seconded by President Yoon, there should be stronger supply chains and economic partnerships with those of like-minded and similar values.
Certainly what we've seen is that what President Yoon said during his campaign since the beginning of this year, he wanted a more comprehensive partnership with the U.S. if he became president.
That has come to fruition. He's been talking in his campaigning about wanting to be more of an economic partnership, wanting to be more than just the military and security guarantees that were needed because of North Korea.
So focusing beyond that and a more comprehensive and strategic relationship between the U.S. and South Korea, this is exactly what we're hearing from President Biden's side as well. That's what the U.S. is looking for.
So this is one element that both sides have been at pains to highlight during President Biden's trip here. Now, of course, North Korea has a way of inserting itself into every single agenda. And certainly it's done it once again, intelligence agencies saying that a missile launch could be imminent.
Whether it actually happens or not, whether the president is in country or in Japan, North Korea will still manage. It will be talked about significantly. The COVID outbreak in North Korea, they admitted to just over a week ago, they were both willing to give assistance to North Korea.
In fact, President Biden said he's offered vaccines to North Korea and China but hasn't heard anything from North Korea. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Perhaps not surprising. Really appreciate your coverage, both of you, Kevin Liptak and Paula Hancocks in Seoul.
Turning now to Ukraine, the situation at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Russia claims more than 530 Ukrainian forces surrendered on Friday, after the Ukrainian commander there ordered his fighters to stop defending the city.
CNN cannot confirm if all Ukrainians have left that massive industrial site. The wives of some of those who surrendered spoke out on Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATALIA ZARYTSKA, WIFE OF AZOV FIGHTER (through translator): Today, we have connection with our husbands. Someone texted two days ago. Someone texted two hours ago. Now they are on their way from hell to hell. Every inch of this path is deadly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The Ukrainian commander was taken away from Azovstal in an armored vehicle.
At least six people have been killed by Russian shelling in the strategic city of Sievierodonetsk, the center of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. To the south, Ukraine's military in Kherson said that Russian troops continue to prevent civilians from evacuating.
They warn many nearby villages are facing a humanitarian crisis. Ukraine's counteroffensive in the northeast has been driving Russia out of the Kharkiv region but airstrikes are still a threat. At least seven people, including a young girl, were hurt by a strike on a cultural center.
Russia's heavy losses and lack of results are having repercussions in Moscow.
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BRUNHUBER: The British defense ministry believes several senior Russian commanders have been fired for their failures early in the war. We have CNN correspondents covering the conflict.
We begin with Suzanne Malveaux in Lviv.
Suzanne, the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, we still don't know whether there are any Ukrainian troops left there. And we also don't know what might happen to the troops who have been surrendered.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN U.S. CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Kim. It's very uncertain at this time. We're really just taking the word, the information that's coming from the Russians. And clearly CNN hasn't been able to independently verify these numbers.
But if you take a look -- and what we're doing here is monitoring social media messages and Instagram and things of that nature because, over the last couple of days, we have been watching intently as soldiers and even some high-ranking commanders and other officials inside the steel plant have been posting.
Some of them say they would vow to fight until the end, die there, essentially not surrendering. And then the head commander inside that steel plant begging his men to give up and stop the fight for Mariupol.
But the Russians have said more than 530 were evacuated and they'll be taken to a Russian-controlled detention center nearby. The seriously wounded would be taken to a hospital.
One of the wives of those soldiers who spoke out yesterday, saying that she fears her husband is going from one hell to another hell. And that is, Kim, because we don't have a sense of their condition at the detention center or that hospital facility.
Russian officials say they will be treated in accordance with international law. Also the Russian investigative committee say they will interrogate some of these soldiers for potential crimes.
Talks for a trade or a swap with prisoners of war have essentially broken down. And the large impact, the big picture here, the loss of Mariupol, essentially the Russians being able to take this land bridge, make a land bridge from their territory, their country, all the way to Crimea and also to the water, creating a sense of communication, of economic power and access to the rest of the world, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: And Suzanne, going back to the bombing of that cultural center, just another brutal attack on what seems to be a civilian target.
MALVEAUX: Many civilian targets being hit. And this one, a cultural center, newly renovated in the region of Kharkiv. The president, President Zelenskyy, outraged by what he saw here. Seven injured here, the building absolutely demolished.
Part of the case he's been making to the world, the Russians not only aimed at taking land and killing civilians but killing their culture as well.
We are seeing the fight on the east and the eastern region as well, Sievierodonetsk again being hit. Those civilians, six Ukrainians were killed including a shelter that was hit, a school that was being used as a shelter.
Kim, you should know, this particular area where civilians have been hiding and sheltering for three months now and if you can only imagine what kind of situation they're in, only to have that shelter be hit. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, just brutal, as I said. Suzanne Malveaux in Lviv, thank you so much. Russia has made good on its threat to halt natural gas exports to
neighboring Finland. The company rejected Moscow's demand to pay in Russian rubles. It will look to other sources now.
Moscow has already stopped natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria after they refused to pay in the Russia currency.
Coming up, a judge blocks the Biden administration from ending migrant expulsions at the border.
And the rapid spread of the monkeypox virus is raising concern around the world.
But does the public need to be worried?
We'll look at that question when we come back. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: It's been a rough week on Wall Street. The Dow finished down overall for the eighth consecutive week, making it the longest weekly losing streak in nearly a century.
And the S&P 500, for the first time since the early days of the pandemic, fell into bear market territory, dropping more than 20 percent from a record high in January. None of this is good news for President Biden.
A new AP poll shows his job approval at 39 percent. CNN spoke to an analyst about where he thought the economy was headed.
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JIM BIANCO, PRESIDENT, BIANCO RESEARCH: It seems to be headed toward a recession. You can throw in the big rise in interest rates, which, by some measures, is the biggest in record. We have 200 years of data in the bond market. We have never seen a selloff to this degree before.
And the conference board put out a survey yesterday of CEOs. And 60 percent of them think that the U.S. is headed for a recession. So the market is consistent with all of this belief, to use the Fed term. They were hoping they could bring the economy in for a soft landing to reduce the inflation rate.
But we're getting more and more worried that it's going to be a hard landing, which is a nice way of saying recession.
[05:20:00] BRUNHUBER: Another setback for the Biden administration. A federal judge in Louisiana late Friday blocked it from ending a Trump-era restriction on Title 42. Rosa Flores has more from the U.S.-Mexico border.
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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This 27-year-old Haitian woman is seven months pregnant. She and her husband have been at the South Texas shelter for three days.
FLORES: They say that they left Haiti because the situation in Haiti was very dangerous.
FLORES (voice-over): They are part of an unprecedented surge of migrants at the southern border. More than 1.2 million people have attempted to enter through Mexico since October. About half have been expelled under Title 42, the pandemic public health order that allows immigration agents to return migrants to Mexico without a hearing. The other half have been allowed into the U.S., pending their immigration cases.
FLORES: Where are you going?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bridgeport.
FLORES: Bridgeport, Connecticut.
FLORES (voice-over): Nora and France (ph) want to go by their first names for their safety and say they have no money to get to their final destination. They're part of a new pattern happening at the border, migrants entering the U.S. with no money and no immediate family to stay with or the family and friends they did have, backed out.
That was the case with this group of migrant men in San Antonio.
FLORES: How many of you had money to buy a ticket to get to your destinations?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
FLORES: No?
FLORES (voice-over): The result, a growing homeless population that could only get bigger when Title 42 lifts and up to 18,000 migrants attempt to enter the U.S. every day.
In Miami, Malena Legarre says she has already helped hundreds of homeless migrants.
MALENA LEGARRE, HOUSING DIRECTOR, HERMANOS DE LA CALLE: It has been 60 families that we helped since December. Two hundred eighty, almost 300 people. One hundred are under 18.
FLORES (voice-over): She runs a small nonprofit and says she's housing about 15 migrant families, including Joksey and Gender (ph) and their three children. The Venezuelan couple asked CNN to use their first names only and says they would be on the street if it wasn't for Legarre.
Migrants continue to call for help but Legarre says her housing capacity is maxed out.
LEGARRE: So we are relocation.
FLORES (voice-over): To Wichita, Cincinnati, Detroit and New York City, she says.
Ismael Martinez (ph) is an artist from Venezuela. He was with the group of men we spoke with in San Antonio last month.
FLORES: He says that after two days, his girlfriend's aunt told him that he had to leave the home.
FLORES (voice-over): He says he's now homeless in New York City.
Nay (ph) says she's homeless, too, along with her two children. She asked CNN not to show her face nor share her full name. A month into living with her cousin in New York City --
FLORES: She told you that you had to leave?
FLORES (voice-over): She says she ended up on the street and now lives in a homeless shelter.
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We are addressing the challenge of irregular migration.
FLORES (voice-over): The Biden administration issued a 20-page border plan for the end of Title 42. People like Ron Book from Miami-Dade's Homeless Trust are sounding the alarm about the increase in homeless migrants.
RON BOOK, CHAIRMAN, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY HOMELESS TRUST: I cannot be responsible for the cost from a flawed immigration policy that has no legitimate plan.
FLORES (voice-over): As for the Haitian couple --
FLORES: He said that his cousin is willing to take them into their home.
FLORES (voice-over): Nay (ph) and Ismael (ph) say that's what they were told but the situation changed dramatically and now they're homeless.
FLORES: We reached out to the White House and DHS about this story and we were directed to the border plan that was issued by DHS and specifically to the portion of the plan that says that the administration plans to bolster the resources of nonprofit organizations.
We followed up, asking, "What is the plan for the interior of the country where we are seeing this pattern of homelessness?"
And we were directed back to the border plan -- Rosa Flores, CNN, along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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BRUNHUBER: New numbers from a tracking agency data: 45 percent of all baby formula was out of stock nationwide last week. The shortage was even worse in these 10 U.S. cities.
The shortage has thrown President Biden's West Wing into crisis mode, taking steps to address the issue, including using military aircraft that will soon transport the first Nestle formula from Europe.
The administration has secured 1.5 million bottles of formula from the company. They point out the three kinds of formula on the way are hypoallergenic and for children allergic to cow's milk.
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BRUNHUBER: And CNN has been speaking with families that have been rationing formula.
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SHANNON HOLLAND, CLAIRE'S MOTHER: It never would have occurred to me that suddenly, we wouldn't be able to get her formula.
I usually try to be on top of things, and then when this happened and we had no -- no backup that she could take that we knew that she would like, as a mom I felt very terrible. And I felt worried for her. I never expected not to have access to her formula. It just never really occurred to me that would happen.
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BRUNHUBER: The spread of the monkeypox virus is raising concerns around the world. According to the World Health Organization there are at least 80 confirmed cases of the disease and 50 suspected cases worldwide. Officials in New York City said one patient is being treated as presumptive positive for monkeypox.
Days after a man in Massachusetts was diagnosed with the disease, he had recently traveled to Canada, which has confirmed two cases and investigating more than a dozen others.
Now we reached out to Dr. Paul Beninger, chief preparedness and continuity officer at Massachusetts General Hospital, where the patient is being treated. The Massachusetts resident, he's been hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital since May 12th. He's in isolation and in stable condition.
But the doctor said they're not sure how the patient caught the disease.
Turning now to COVID-19 and some troubling news from the White House COVID czar. Dr. Ashish Jha said that he believes cases are being substantially undercounted because of home tests. Recent data from the CDC shows people who are unvaccinated have a risk of dying from COVID 17 times higher than those who were fully vaccinated with a booster.
Still ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, CNN takes you to a village outside of Kharkiv, where the Russians have pulled back but are now shelling with incendiary bombs.
And Russia's blockade of Ukraine's ports is threatening the food security of millions. 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.
At least six have been killed by Russian shelling in Sievierodonetsk. The region has been the center of some of the fiercest fighting of the war as Russian troops try to advance.
In the southern port of Mariupol, the weeks-long siege of the steel plant appears to have ended. The Ukrainian commander ordered his fighters to stop defending the city. CNN can't confirm if all Ukrainians have left the site.
In Kharkiv region, seven people, including a young girl, were hurt by a missile strike on a cultural center. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it the epitome of Russian evil and stupidity.
Even as Russian troops withdraw from around Kharkiv, they continue to shell villages they once occupied. On Friday, one town was hit with incendiary munitions. Nick Paton Walsh has our story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): Putin would choke the light and life out of here. We are driving into the smoke of an incendiary munitions attack we're told here against this civilian village. Homes, fields, even the air itself torched.
Vera says she saw it falling from the sky and her neighbor hit.
VERA, TSYRKUNY RESIDENT (through translator): Phosphorus or bright sparks of some kind were flying. That's a fire. Before that, a bomb landed there. It blew up three houses, I think.
WALSH (voice-over): The incendiary munition, which burns hot through everything in its path came after heavy normal shelling, which makes you question like so much here exactly why Russia needed to heat fire on top of heavy explosive. It hit just 10 minutes ago, this man says, pointing the way. Some left bewildered, others in the first moments of shock.
Valentina is very matter of fact, as she describes what happened to Viktor in her neighbor's house.
VALENTINA, TSYRKUNY RESIDENT (through translator): There was an explosion, smoke all around. He climbed into the attic to see if it was on fire. Immediately, there was another explosion in the yard. I shouted, Viktor. He's not there. I go to the attic, he's not there.
WALSH (voice-over): she shows us the courtyard where a dead man lies, a large hole in his chest and air torn off. She points to the body just behind the tree and then says who he is.
VALENTINA (through translator): He's my husband.
WALSH (voice-over): Viktor had Russia check on their neighbor's home. Russia occupied here for weeks and as it retreats, these tiny corners of green aware it visits its anger. Up the road toward Russia's last positions before the border, the shells land even closer.
Natalia's husband died in shelling weeks ago and their house is like almost everything here ruined.
NATALIA, CHERKASKI TYSHKY RESIDENT: I have no strength or patience left after my husband was torn to pieces. You must understand how hard it is.
WALSH (voice-over): For the weeks we're in here was occupied, she lived across the street from an enormous Russian base. Our guides from Ukrainian Rapid Response Unit are cautious.
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WALSH (voice-over): Fighting is intensifying up the road and they know the Russians got comfortable here.
Their base even needed this aircraft warning device up high to tell Russian jets it was friendly.
WALSH: This is their problem each time they move forward. Here they are in what was once a Russian position and look, look all around you, impossible to know who's really in control of this area with a fight happening just on the other side of the hill.
WALSH (voice-over): The smell of corpses among the pines, under every footstep the threat of mines.
WALSH: Everywhere you look, foxholes, ammunition boxes, clearly a significant Russian base here. They're calling it a little of town using this forest as cover but clearly hit really hard.
WALSH (voice-over): The tomb of the unknown Russian soldiers; this says ghoulish relics here where it once buzzed with the brutish, clumsy task of besieging a city, smoldering in the trees here but swallowed in that tall silence -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The fighting isn't just taking place on the battlefields on the ground but also on the Black Sea. The Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports continues to threaten food supplies and millions of lives around the world.
The Biden administration has been working with U.S. allies to get wheat and corn out of the country. Some say a military solution might be the best option, using missiles to threaten Russian ships.
We're joined by Lawrence Freedman, from King's College, London.
I want to get your thoughts on the state of the war right now for Ukraine advances in Kharkiv and Kherson. But the loss of Mariupol, for Russia.
Are they less concerned with making advances than holding what they have?
LAWRENCE FREEDMAN, EMERITUS PROFESSOR, KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON: I think we're at a pivotal stage at the moment. Mariupol was expected to fall weeks ago, so it's symbolically important to the Russians. They have taken it now.
The main slog is in Luhansk and the Russians really put everything into a particular offensive there while trying to hold the line elsewhere. And it's the fighting. I don't think one should underestimate just how tough it is for both sides of this.
I think the problem for the Russians is just simply is one of logistics and manpower, President Zelenskyy said today they've got 700,000 troops now, many of them obviously unprepared and not very well trained volunteers.
But nonetheless in the battle. And that is potentially overwhelming for the Russians, who don't have that manpower at the moment. So time will tell for the Ukrainians. At the moment, it's quite a tough fight.
BRUNHUBER: Maybe not surprising that we've heard that top commanders, Russian commanders, have been fired from their jobs, given the lack of military progress on the ground.
But what do you make of reports that President Putin himself is making tactical military decisions, sort of granular decisions about troop movements and things that a head of state shouldn't be doing?
FREEDMAN: One interpretation is the military want it to be known it's not all their fault, that the political leadership has been sending them orders that are unrealistic. I think Putin's influence is calling the war on the basis of delusion views about Ukraine.
Then pushing the Russian military to fight before it had a chance to recuperate from the battle of Kyiv and in the north generally. So his influence is all the way through. But as I said, I suspect that some of this is about blame shifting.
BRUNHUBER: Not surprising. So most of us have been sort of focused on the war on land. But you've written recently about the importance of the war at sea, particularly that blockade I mentioned at the top, of the Black Sea.
We had some dire warnings from international agencies about the impact this blockade will have on the whole world because of the loss of Ukrainian exports, like grain, which feeds so many people around the world. Here's the head of the World Food Programme.
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DAVID BEASLEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: It is absolutely essential that we allow these ports to open, because this is not just about Ukraine. This is about the poorest of the poor around the world who are on the brink of starvation as we speak.
So I ask President Putin, if you have any heart at all, to please open these ports.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: So assuming you know Putin doesn't do what he says and opens the ports, is it likely the end of this blockade will come militarily or maybe diplomatically?
FREEDMAN: I think there's a lot going on, on this issue, both diplomatically and militarily. It's one of those issues it's dawned on everybody how potentially serious it is. There are factors, making international food supplies very tight indeed and risking famine in a number of places. So it's a very serious issue.
So I think there's a few issues. One issue is the mining that actually Ukraine did around Odessa. The Ukrainians say with better anti-ship missiles those mines could be removed. But they're still worried about the vulnerability there. So that's one issue.
And if you move a convoy, set up a humanitarian corridor, will the Russians attack it?
I think this requires a number of things to be met. One, Turkey has to agree because Turkey controls access to the Black Sea. I think it probably will, the more humanitarian this is presented.
Secondly, it's not particularly in Russia's interests to be seen to be blocking humanitarian movement. But they may want something in return.
Will this affect some of the sanctions on Russian shipping?
In the end, you need military force if you're going to convince merchant ships to make the journey and also readiness to fire back, should Russian ships take aim. I suspect that this could happen. I think people -- they wouldn't want
to brand it as a NATO operation. They would brand it as a correlation or an U.N. operation. But I think the pressure to do something about this is only going to grow.
BRUNHUBER: If it were a (INAUDIBLE) operation, Russia could veto it but still a very powerful --
(CROSSTALK)
FREEDMAN: Not necessarily. You can do it through the General Assembly. It's not inevitable they'd block it. But obviously, they'll have their own options here.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. Well, as I said, hopefully there's movement on this issue because, as we outlined, so much at stake there. Lawrence Freedman, thank you so much for your perspective. Really appreciate it.
FREEDMAN: My pleasure.
BRUNHUBER: Less than half an hour remains for voters on Australia's west coast. The latest in a live report ahead.
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BRUNHUBER: Polls on Australia's west coast will close in less than 15 minutes and counting has already begun in an election that will decide who leads the country for the next three years.
Scott Morrison is seeking re-election. His main opponent is the Labor Party. Voting is compulsory. Let's get the latest from CNN's Anna Coren, live in Hong Kong.
Really a fascinating election here. We might have change in the country that at least politically has been very constant for a long time.
ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, constant and conservative. That's certainly the case. No seats are being called as yet. I mean we're less than two hours into vote counting. But certainly we'll be seeing seats go to either the Labor Party or the incumbent coalition party.
What we're seeing, Kim, is a real shift to independents, climate change, for integrity of government. And that really speaks to the disillusionment felt by Australian voters for those two major parties.
They want change, they want the leaders of Australia to have vision, to bring about reforms that are so desperately needed. Australia pretty much coasted through the pandemic relatively unscathed. But they've seen an increase in inflation. People are finding it tough.
Now as far as Scott Morrison goes, he's been in power since 2018. He took over in a leadership spill. He was elected in 2019, which many people thought he would lose. That was considered a miracle.
He's deeply unpopular, he's seen as being arrogant, out of touch with the people. Anthony Albanese is considered to be a veteran of the Labor Party. He's been around for a very long time.
Voters say they don't know a lot about him. He's the son of a single mother. He was the first person in his family to attend university. He's very proud of his working class roots, something that he's been playing up throughout his election campaign. Let's take a look at what Anthony Albanese had to say
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ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: My message is I want to represent all Australians. I want to unite the country. There has been a lot of division in recent times. It is one of my criticisms of the current government.
Scott Morrison looks for division and difference rather than unity and common purpose. I want to bring people together. And regardless of how people vote in our great democracy, it is good that people express their views. Once it is done, then we know to unite and to move forward as (INAUDIBLE) that we can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Now the parties need 76 seats for an outright majority. This could go to a hung parliament. So we may not see a result for days.
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BRUNHUBER: Anna Coren, thank you so much.
A rare tornado devastates a community in Michigan. The latest from the CNN Weather Center ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: At least one person is dead and dozen others hospitalized after a tornado touched down in Gaylord, Michigan. Power outages reporting almost 14,000 people without power. A city council member said the tornado took out an insane amount of buildings, adding, the town is devastated.
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BRUNHUBER: That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Please do stay with us, "NEW DAY" is next.
