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Families Mourning in Uvalde, Texas; Shooter Shared His Evil Plan Before the Attack; Children Died at an Early Age; Texans Call on Governor Abbott's Leadership; NRA to Meet Amidst Backlash; Uvalde Shooter Planned His Intent to Kill; Vladimir Putin Trying to Win Ukrainians; Forest Turned into a Dull Area; Hunger Spreads Around the World. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired May 26, 2022 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Rosemary Church.

We want to go straight to our top story, a Texas community searching for answers that may never come. Why did an 18-year-old gunman opened fire inside an elementary school killing 19 children and two teachers. For now, the small town of Uvalde near the border with Mexico is in mourning.

Vigils are underway and families are making funeral arrangements. A makeshift memorial with flowers and balloons is growing outside Robb Elementary School. U.S. President Joe Biden will travel to Texas soon to visit the families of the victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We must ask, when in God's name will we do what needs to be done to if not completely stop, fundamentally change the amount of carnage that goes on in this country. To state the obvious, (Inaudible) and a lot of other people here, I'm sick and tired, I'm just sick and tired of what's going on and continues to go on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: A former friend says the gunman Salvador Ramos had a history of fighting as seen here in a video obtained by CNN. Investigators say he was inside the school for 40 minutes to an hour, barricaded inside two adjoining classrooms before he was shot and killed by a border patrol agent.

More now on the investigation from CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I'm going to shoot an elementary school.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That was one of the chilling text messages the Uvalde gunman sent to a 15-year-old girl in Germany. At 11.21 central time in Texas just 15 minutes before the shooting at Robb Elementary School.

ABBOTT: Evil swept across Uvalde yesterday.

LAVANDERA: The 18-year-old gunman drove to the elementary school where he would kill 19 children and two faculty members just two days before they were heading out for summer break before the school shooting the gunman wrote messages that foreshadowed the carnage he was about to inflict.

ABBOTT: I'm going to shoot my grandmother. I shot my grandmother.

LAVANDERA: The suspect is described Texas investigators as a drop-out of the local high school. After crashing his grandmother's truck in a ditch, official say he entered the school building and classrooms, shooting children and teachers.

ABBOTT: Officers with the consolidated end up in a school district they approached the gunman and engage with the gunman at that time. The gunman then entered a back door and went down to short hallways, and then into a classroom on the left-hand side.

LAVANDERA: Investigators say from the moment the shooter engaged with the campus officer outside the elementary school, until he was shot and killed by a border patrol agent inside a classroom, it was an ordeal that lasted 40 to 60 minutes. Police and state troopers and even parents went around the school, breaking windows, trying to help children escape.

Adolfo Hernandez has a nephew at the school.

ADOLFO HERNANDEZ, NEPHEW SURVIVED SHOOTING: He saw a teacher get shot and another kid get hit in the face.

LAVANDERA: He saw another classmate get shot in the face.

HERNANDEZ: He saw a classmate from across the hall.

LAVANDERA: The gunman barricaded himself inside the elementary school.

CHIP KING, FIREFIGHTER, UVALDE, TEXAS: It was probably 30 minutes after we arrived, after I arrived, I know that, that the shooter was neutralized.

LAVANDERA: Posing with rifles, the gunman lived at his grandparent's home just blocks from the school. On Tuesday, after he shot his grandmother, he took her truck and hit the road. Driving without a license.

STEVEN MCCRAW, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: He crashed the vehicle in that point in time, he exited. He exit with a backpack, he took a rifle with him, he went towards the west side of the campus.

LAVANDERA: He had two assault style weapons, purchased legally for his birthday. Days apart within the last week.

ABBOTT: He has one weapon which was an AR-15.

LAVANDERA: He also bought 375 rounds of ammunition. One rifle was left in the truck. The other rifle was found with him in the school along with 730 round magazines. Investigators also found a backpack with several magazines full of ammunition near the entrance to the school. The gunman's motive is still unknown.

[03:05:06]

What is still not clear is what happened in that initial moment where the gunman approached the school and he was confronted by the school resource officer. We are told that shots were not fired in that moment. The DPS and Texas state trooper officials tells CNN tonight that in that moment, the gunman dropped his backpack and then ran inside the school.

But there hasn't been a real explanation yet as to why the officer didn't fire at the gunman before he went inside the school killing 19 students and two faculty members.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And slowly we are learning the names and faces of the 19 children and two teachers who were shot dead by that lone teenager with the gun. Most of them just 10 years old. Kids that age are still losing their baby teeth. They are just beginning to learn long division and fractions, and they still want hugs from their parents. Hugs that will only be memories now for far too many. Twenty-one people senselessly killed by gun violence, all in the same fourth grade classroom.

More now from CNN's Boris Sanchez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Twenty-one lives, brutally cut short. Twenty-one families now shattered by an act of violence all too common in the United States. Nineteen children now gone, just days before the start of summer break. None yet out a fourth grade.

Like 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia whose uncle calls him a great kid and full of life, he loves video games and anything with wheels. Uziyah's grandfather, Manny Renfro calling his grandson the sweetest little boy he's ever known. Renfro telling affiliate KSAT he played football with Uziyah, that he was fast and could catch well and remembered all the rouse they practiced.

And Amerie Jo Garza, just 10 years old. Her father, Angel, telling CNN he finally learned his daughter's fate from a classmate covered in blood.

ANGEL GARZA, FATHER OF AMERIE JO GARZA: She was hysterical saying that they shot her best friend, that they killed her best friend, she's not breathing, that she was trying to call the cops. And that's little girl the name, and she -- and she told me, she shot Amerie. How do you look at this girl and shoot her?

SANCHEZ: Xaxier Lopez, also 10, was excited to start middle school. His mom Felicia Martinez told The Washington Post he was recognized in an honor roll ceremony only hours before the unthinkable. She said she had never forgotten his smile. Quote, "he was funny, never serious."

Jose Flores Jr., also just 10. His father Jose Sr. telling CNN his son was an amazing kid and a loving big brother to his younger siblings. Always full of energy, he loved baseball, and video games.

Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, Lexi as she was called, had just received an award for the honor roll the morning of the shooting. Lexi's parents described her as kind and sweet with a big teacher ahead. They tell CNN she loved basketball, and wanted to go to law school.

Her mother, Kimberly Mata-Rubio posted this to Facebook. Quote, "my beautiful smart Alexandria, received a good citizen award. We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school. We had no idea this was goodbye."

And fourth grade teacher, Eva Mireles, an educator for 17 years. Her profile on the school district's web site describes her love of running, and hiking, spending time with her family, a family that includes a college graduate daughter, Adalynn. Adalynn posting a gut- wrenching tribute to her mother on twitter, describing her mom as her best friend and twin. And calling her a hero, detailing how she tried to save the lives of her students by jumping in front of them.

AMBER YBARRA, RELATIVE OF EVA MIRELES: She was a vivacious soul. She spread laughter and joy everywhere she went. She was a loving and caring mom, relative, teacher to her students.

SANCHEZ: The second adult, another teacher, Irma Garcia was finishing her 23rd year of teaching, her school biographies says, she and her husband Joe were married for 24 years, and had four kids together. She loved to barbecue and listen to music.

LALO DIAZ, IRMA GARCIA'S CLASSMATE: The teacher Irma Garcia was someone that was a year below me in school. I have known her probably 30 years, 25 years.

SANCHEZ: At least 17 others were wounded. University hospital in San Antonio is still caring for four victims, three children and one 66- year-old woman. The shooter's grandmother listed in serious condition. Officials say the gunman shot her in the face before he ran into school and began his shooting rampage.

[03:10:00]

UNKNOWN: I see it in the news somewhere else, but not here. But it is happening here. You think it's big town, big community, but a small town like Uvalde.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: And CNN has confirmed the identities of four more victims killed in Tuesday's shooting. One of them, Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez was just 10 years old. She was a third grader, and her family says that she was actually at school in class with her cousin, who apparently was also killed in the shooting.

Eliahana Ellie Garcia, just nine years old is another victim, her family says that she loved playing basketball and cheerleading, and dreamed of one day becoming a teacher.

Another victim, Tess Marie Mata who was just 10 years old. Her family says that she loved Ariana Grande and was saving up money to fulfill her dream of one day taking her family to Disney World.

Another victim, Eliahana Cruz Torres, she was just ten years old, and her family tells CNN, quote, "our baby earned her wings."

Boris Sanchez, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.

CHURCH: Joining me now is John Woodrow Cox, enterprise reporter for The Washington Post. He is also the author of "Children Under Fire: An American Crisis." Thank you so much for being with us.

JOHN WOODROW COX, ENTERPRISE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: You talked to parents who had lost children to previous school shootings and to some survivors. You discuss the pain they felt when they learned of yet another tragic shooting, school shooting in this country. This time of course at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. What were the overriding reactions from everyone you spoke to?

COX: You know, there was an enormous amount of anger. They were shocked. There was sense of sadness because they knew with these families were heading towards. But there was not a surprise. There really wasn't because an event like what happened this week was inevitable. They knew it.

These are people who have been fighting this cause since the tragedies in their own life, Sandy Hook in 2012, in some cases in Parkland in 2018. And they've all been fighting for change since those respective shootings and very little has changed, at least at the federal level.

And so, they knew, they knew that something like this would happen again. The truth is it will happen another time, in a few days or weeks, or months, or years. We will be having this conversation again about another shooting just like this one, unless something really significant changes.

CHURCH: And I do want to talk about that a little later, but I want to ask you, how the families who lose loved ones in the school shootings, as well as the children who survived but witness unspeakable gun violence and their parents and siblings. How do they ever get past this?

COX: You know they don't. They really don't get past it. It is a thing that changes them forever. And in some cases, it's because someone's gone, they lost a sibling, or a best friend, or a child, or a parent because teachers are killed in these things too. And in other cases, it's because of what they witnessed, what they went through themselves, the deep sense of fear that they are going to lose their own lives.

There is profound trauma that many of these people experience, especially the children. You know, I have written about the subject now for more than five years. Some of these kids will never recover. That's not true in every case but some of them will never really recover.

I know children who have been diagnosed with severe PTSD who couldn't ever go back to school, who have to be prescribed anti psychotics and anti-depressants, who harm themselves, who cycle through therapists, who dealt with profound depression. These events change lives in huge ways. And that's true for the children who live it, and it's certainly true for the family members who lose them.

CHURCH: And you mention that little has been done to prevent these sorts of school shooting from happening. And it has to be said that to all of the gunmen involved in the school shootings tend to be young teenage men with easy access to guns and often experiencing mental health issues. What does need to be done to convince conservative politicians, particularly who support the powerful gun lobby, headed up by the NRA, get on board with some plan to stop this from ever happening again.

[03:15:01]

Perhaps raising the age of young men from 18 to 21 when it comes to purchasing rifles, banning assault weapons. Broadening background checks, making sure the mentally ill don't get access to guns. Do you have any hope that some or all of this could happen and the conservative politicians would get on board?

COX: I have -- I have very little hope in the near term. I think that all the things you listed will happen eventually. But I think it will take time. I don't think there is the political will among members of the Republican Party to do any of those things. You know, there has been little bit of talk about red flag laws which could prevent people who are dealing with mental health issues, or signs of violence from accessing weapons or keeping their own weapons, or being able to buy new ones.

But, you know, this is not different in Sandy Hook. This is not different than other shootings that this country has endured. And those shootings didn't lead people to change their minds. And the immediate reaction from many members of the Republican Party was that, the solution to this is more guns in schools. Teacher should be armed.

There is absolutely no evidence, none, that arming teachers that even including more armed security officers will prevent these events from occurring. We know dozens of times school shootings have occurred at schools where there were armed officers. That is not a feel safe. We know that because it's happened over and over again.

CHURCH: Yes. And this latest shooting was exactly that situation. John Woodrow cox, thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it.

COX: Thank you for having me.

[03:20:00]

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CHURCH: In the wake of the Texas school massacre, protesters spelled out the word enough in a large letters, drawing a vigil at the headquarters of the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association. Gun control advocates planned to protest at the NRA's annual convention in Houston, Texas, this weekend. About four hours down the road from the scene of the deadly school shooting.

Well, the man who will challenge Greg Abbott for the Texas governorship this November, directly confronted his Republican opponent over the Uvalde school tragedy. Democrat Beto O'Rourke interrupted a news conference by Abbott, and other officials, demanding the governor take action, to stop the senseless gun violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. REP. BETO O'ROURKE (D-TX): The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing.

UNKNOWN: No.

O'ROURKE: You're offering us nothing. You said this was not predictable, this is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything.

(CROSSTALK)

UNKNOWN: Sir, you are out of line. Sir, you are out of line. Sir, you are out of line.

O'ROURKE: I'm standing up for the kids of this state to stop this from happening again.

UNKNOWN: Show him the exit. get exit.

UNKNOWN: Get out of here. Get out of here, please.

MAYOR DON MCLAUGHLIN, UVALDE, TEXAS: I can't believe you're a sick son of a (muted) that would come to a deal like this.

UNKNOWN: This is not the place to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: Worth pointing out Texas Governor Abbott is pushing back on a call for gun reform, saying tougher gun laws are not a real solution. But the state has seen a number of high-profile mass shootings in recent years including the Fort Hood shooting in 2009. Thirteen people were killed. The shooting at the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church in 2017, 26 people were killed.

Santa Fe high school in 2018, 10 killed, and in 2019, the shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, 23 people dead.

CNN's Nick Watt examines the laws that allowed a teen shooter to buy guns legally in Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nineteen small children slaughtered by a gunman not much older than they were. He was the legal owner of two AR-15 style rifles.

ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D), TEXAS STATE SENATOR: They are a assault rifles. It's the first thing he did when he turned 18.

WATT: A week ago, a day after his 18th birthday, he bought a rifle according to the local state senator; next day, 375 rounds of ammunition. Two days after that, a second rifle. Four days later, shot 19 kids and two adults dead. This killer couldn't legally buy a beer to amateur but could legally buy weapons of war.

REP. COLIN ALLRED (D-TX): Maybe we could at least agree that we should race the age for purchasing these weapons.

WATT: Unlikely, just last year lawmakers lowered to 18, the age some Texans can get a handgun license. For rifles, Texas mirrors federal, 18 and up, you can buy one of these after just a basic background check. But from an unlicensed dealer or at the gun show? No check required.

Here in liberal leading California, the legal age to buy assault style rifles was up to 21 in 2019. Struck down two weeks ago back to 18. Why? America would not exist without the heroism of the young adults who fought and died in our revolutionary army, wrote Judge Ryan Nelson today. We reaffirm that our Constitution still protects the right that enabled their sacrifice, the right of young adults to keep and bear arms.

[03:25:06]

So, 18-year-olds in California can buy semiautomatic weapons today, in part because teenage soldiers died carrying single shot muskets in a war more than 200 years ago.

SHANNON WATTS, FOUNDER, MOMS DEMAND ACTION FOR GUN SENSE IN AMERICA: Stronger gun laws save lives. Weaker gun laws cause gun crime and gun violence. The data is in. We need our lawmakers to act.

WATT: This latest tragedy in Texas is very far from an isolated instance of a legally armed teenaged attacker. Just 11 days ago, an 18-year-old white supremacist gunned down 13 people in a predominantly black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, also armed with a semiautomatic weapon. That he was also legally allowed to buy and own.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: What just happened in Uvalde, Texas, of course brings back memories of what happened in Sandy Hook, Connecticut nearly 10 years ago now. Twenty kids and six adults gunned down also by a teenage gunman, also armed with an AR-15 style weapon that was bought legally.

Now in the wake of that Sandy Hook shooting, the state of Connecticut changed their laws mainly around the size of magazines that can be attached to those rifles. So, will Texas make any changes in the wake of what happened in Uvalde? Unlikely.

Last summer, when Governor Abbott was making basically easier for Texans to carry weapons, he said this, Texas will always be the leader in defending the second amendment and at a press conference in Uvalde seemed not interested in any change.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

CHURCH: Meantime, the National Rifle Association's convention is going ahead as scheduled on Friday in Houston just days after the school shooting. Former U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to speak at a leadership forum at that same event. Ironically, attendees will not be allowed to carry guns during his address due to requirements of the U.S. Secret Service which still protects him.

The NRA is calling the convention one of the most politically significant and popular events in the country. Governor Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz both from Texas where the shooting took place are also expected to speak at the conference. All of them of course against any gun reform.

Well, still to come, CNN gets exclusive access to messages sent by the Texas gunman just minutes before the school rampage, telling a teenage girl in Germany exactly what he planned to do.

[03:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: A time line of events is slowly emerging immediately before the shooting began in Robb Elementary in west Texas. Nineteen children ages 9 to 10 and two adult teachers died in Tuesday's massacre at the school in the town of Uvalde. Seventeen people were also wounded, and we now know the name of another child shot dead.

Nevaeh Bravo, 10 years old, her devastated family says she always put a smile on everyone's face. The gunman Salvador Ramos was initially engaged by officers when he arrived at the school, but Ramos managed to barricade himself in a crowded classroom and began shooting.

Vigils for the victims were held in various places on Wednesday. One local official told CNN's Anderson Cooper he believed the grieving community would be strengthened by the tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD GARZA, UVALDE COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Our community may have differences, but in a time of need and a time of crisis people of Uvalde unite. And that's what's good about this. If there's anything good about this, it's going to, I think bring our community together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And we are also learning more about messages the gunman sent just minutes before his rampage. CNN got an exclusive look at a series of text messages to a girl the gunman met online telling her exactly what he was about to do.

Details from CNN's Drew Griffin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: This is the text conversation captured just moments before the 18-year-old shooter would attempt to kill his grandmother. Then in his words, shoot up an elementary school. You know what I'm going to do right now? He writes. Tell me is the response. I can't, since my grandpa hasn't left. I'm waiting for this dude to leave.

Shortly after 11 a.m., Texas time, the suspect then complains about his grandmother and his phone bill. I'm waiting for this bitch. I'm going to do something to her right now. She is on with AT&T about my phone. It's annoying. Five minutes passed, then, I just shot my grandma in her head. I'm going to go shoot up an elementary school right now.

[03:34:54]

That last message sent at 6.21 p.m., German time, which would have been 11.21 a.m. in Uvalde Texas. Eleven minutes later, police received their first call of a shooting at Robb Elementary School.

The person on the receiving end of the text? A 15-year-old girl in Germany. She had never met him in person. They connected through a live streaming app called, Yuba. Then facetime, texted, and he sent her videos of himself. She says the shooter told her he had bought some ammo Monday. But she told CNN she had no idea what he was planning.

She is not the only person he was communicating with, the shooter's Instagram account showed a photo of two AR style weapons, and tag another young woman who he messaged the morning of the shooting saying, I'm about to, but didn't finish his sentence, and then, I got a little secret.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: The teenage girl who spoke to CNN from Germany with her mother's consent, tells us, her only communication with the suspect had been through texting with what was innocuous conversations, but she did tell us about one conversation she had in which the shooter did alarmed her when he like to throw dead cats at people's houses. There was no explanation.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

CHURCH: And still to come, CNN And CNN goes into the forest of Kharkiv where Ukrainian troops are

trading artillery fire with Russian soldiers. Plus, a call for action amid a growing food crisis. What the head of the World Food Programme is asking Russia to do. That's next.

[03:40:00]

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CHURCH: Ukraine is now slamming Russia for making it easier for Ukrainians in some occupied regions to obtain Russian citizenship. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree streamlining the process for issuing passports. He was also seen in video released by the Kremlin making a rare visit to a military hospital. Mr. Putin wearing a medical gown spoke with soldiers wounded in Ukraine.

This as the fighting on the ground grinds on. Ukraine reports an intense offensive by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine as they attempt to seize the key town of Lyman in the Donetsk region. In the Luhansk region Ukraine says there's been fierce battles around the city of Severodonetsk with one military official saying shelling has increased exponentially.

And in the Kharkiv region officials say two people were killed and seven injured by Russian shelling in the town of Balakliya on the front lines.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more now on the fierce fighting around Kharkiv.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: The forests around Kharkiv know no peace. We're just 15 minutes northeast from the city center and the Russians are on the other side of the hill. Here it is a fight on foot waged with vast, cumbersome guns.

You can see here where Kharkiv is being shelled every night, the sheer volume of shells that entails here. This must have been beautiful here three months ago, now pillaged, artillery in the place of bird songs.

He's just saying you can see how they live like pigs and died like pigs. It's the kind of hatred we're seeing a lot of. Back and forth high explosive rattles in the pines. Like so much of the war, the battle for Kharkiv isn't over. It's just slightly out of sight yet no less vicious or intense.

These kinds of forests it's extremely hard for them to know exactly what these noises are, whether it's them firing at the Russians 100 meters away or the Russians firing back. Dusk brings escalation again. But all points north of Kharkiv that we saw over three days traveling,

the same picture of Russian persistence. Even here as we get closer to their border, the rumble is constant. The fight for Kharkiv now also one about protecting Russia.

DMYTRO, UKRAINIAN SOLDIER: Yesterday and the day before yesterday, we were attacked by tanks, hard artillery and helicopters. We hit one helicopter, and they were afraid of us.

WALSH: You smile when you say that they were afraid.

DMYTRO: Yes.

[03:45:00]

WALSH: But there is no room for grinning further northeast where Ukraine is losing ground it won just days earlier. Russia has moved into the next town up Rubizhne in the hours before we arrived, the ruins fresh, still smoldering. And here, that means the constant bewildering shelling has new, ominous significance.

"We don't know who is shelling," she says, "maybe here and there and that. It is terrifying." Not much has been spared here. Moscow hungry to cross the water and eager to punish.

Now the bridge is blown, but it is across the river there, the river Russian forces have a mask, shelling here constantly and now sensing a possibility of taking part of the neighboring town Rubizhne.

The prospect of a long, exhausting battle of attrition and loathing haunting Ukraine's second city. Even out here where calm should flow free.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, outside Kharkiv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The head of the World Food Programme is calling on the Russian leader to quote, "have a heart and reopen Ukrainian ports." Allowing the export of much needed food to countries around the world.

David Beasley speaking to CNN at the World Economic Forum is calling for action as a global food crisis grows more dire amid the war in Ukraine. He says 325 million people worldwide are now facing starvation.

And CNN's Clare Sebastian is following developments. She joins us now live from London. Good morning to you, Clare.

So, Russia says it will only reopen those Ukrainian ports if some sanctions are lifted, and that isn't going to happen. So, what could be the consequences of this?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A multi-year food crisis, Rosemary, that is how the Ukrainian minister put it talking in Davos this week. He says that it's going to disrupt the whole agricultural cycle not only the current grain stocks that are not being exported but the next harvest that is currently being planted.

The World Food Programme has pointed out that this is already leading to instability in some countries. Food related riots has been seen in the likes of Peru, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, that could intensify if this continues. And on the one hand, it doesn't seem like Russia is particularly incentivized to help here.

Yesterday they were blaming sanctions for this. They have said that sanctions -- the deputy foreign minister (Inaudible) yesterday saying if sanctions -- that sanctions being lifted could be part of the solution here. That of course a tacit admission that sanctions are affecting them.

Another admission of that interestingly this week, Rosemary, is that President Putin announced on Wednesday that he was going to raise the minimum wage by 10 percent and the state pension by 10 percent starting from June 1st. That shows that he's trying to cushion his population against inflation which is that north of 17 percent in Russia right now, partly as a result of this conflict in Ukraine.

So that is one part of the story that of course, the Russian economy two sides to this. The Central Bank just cut interest rates today for the third time since the war broke out.

CHURCH: All right. Clare Sebastian, many thanks bringing that to us live from London. I appreciate it. And we'll be right back.

[03:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JACINDA ARDERN, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: We are very pragmatic people when we saw something like that happened, it runs never again, and so that it was incumbent on us as politicians to respond to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern sharing her nation's experience with gun control. She is on a trade mission in the United States, but was asked about the deadly school shooting in Texas.

New Zealand banned almost all semi-automatic weapons, and assault rifles after a mass shooting at two mosques back in 2019. New Zealand is among many countries that introduced stricter laws following their own episodes of gun related violence.

After a mass shooting in Tasmania, in 1996, Australia banned rapid fire rifles and shotguns and restricted licensing rules. Gun deaths fell by more than half within a decade. The gun homicide rate is 0.2 per 100,000 compared to the United States rate of 4.1 per 100,000 people.

The 1996 Dunblane massacre in Scotland prompted lawmakers in the U.K. to ban the private ownership of all handguns in mainland Britain. The country now has some of the toughest anti-gun legislation in the world. And a gun homicide rate close to zero.

In France, there is no right to bear arms. But hunting is a way of life. Strict licensing and regulations ensure that guns are not abused. The number of privately owned guns dropped from 19 million in 2006, to 10 million in 2016.

[03:55:03]

According to the small arms survey, the U.S. far exceeds other countries when it comes to civilian held firearms per capita. In their most recent report, they estimated there are 120 guns for every 100 people get.

Well, Pope Francis is among the leaders worldwide who are thinking about the victims of the Texas school massacre and their families. During a weekly audience in Vatican City, he said his heart is broken. And he called for stronger gun controls to prevent similar tragedies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS, HEAD OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): I pray for the children and the adults who were killed and for the families. It is time to say enough to the indiscriminate trafficking of weapons. Let us all make a commitment so that tragedies like this cannot happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And if you would like to safely and securely offer support for those involved in the Texas school shooting, please go to cnn.com/impact and you will find several ways that you can help.

And thank you so much for spending part of your day with me. I'm Rosemary Church. CNN Newsroom continues now with Isa Soares in London.

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