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Texas School Shooting; Russia's War on Ukraine; China-Taiwan Relations; Millions Hitting the Road Despite Gas Prices. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 28, 2022 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.

Seventy-seven minutes, that's how long it took police to end the Texas school shooter rampage at a school that left 19 children and two teachers dead on Tuesday. That's according to the latest timeline, released by officials.

For much of that time police waited in the hallway, even as the gunman fired more shots and children inside the classroom, he was holed up in called 9-1-1 for help. And as Jason Carroll reports, top police officials now say it was a mistake to not engage the shooter earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I was misled. I am livid about what happened.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, Texas Governor Greg Abbott aiming his ire at law enforcement.

ABBOTT: My expectation is that the law enforcement leaders that are leading the investigations which includes the Texas Rangers and the FBI, they get to the bottom of every fact with absolute certainty.

CARROLL (voice-over): After damning new admissions from Texas authorities.

MCCRAW: It was the wrong decision, period.

CARROLL (voice-over): The incident commander making the decision not to immediately enter the classroom the gunman was in.

MCCRAW: A decision was made that this was a barricaded subject. The situation, there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to go ahead and breach the door and take on the subject at that point.

CARROLL (voice-over): Officials explained how the shooter got into the school.

MCCRAW: Well, we knew the shooter entered, Ramos, was propped open by a teacher.

CARROLL (voice-over): Investigators clarifying the timeline as police arrived.

MCCRAW: The three initial police officers that arrived went directly to the door and two receive grazing wounds at that time from the suspect while the door was closed; 11:37, there was more gunfire, another 16 rounds were fired; 11:37, one at 11:37 and 16 seconds, 11:38, 11:40, 11:44 and 11:51, a police sergeant and USB agents started to arrive.

At 12:03, the officers continued to arrive in the hallway and there were as many as 19 officers at that time in that hallway.

CARROLL (voice-over): Officers did not enter the room until a janitor provided keys.

MCCRAW: They breached the door using keys that they're able to get from the janitor. Because both doors were locked, though both of the classrooms that he shot into were locked when officers arrived. They killed the suspect at that time.

CARROLL (voice-over): In that crucial time, survivors inside both classrooms, made desperate calls to 9-1-1.

MCCRAW: She identified herself, whispered, she's in room 112. At 12:10, she called back in room 12, advised there are multiple dead. 12:13, again, she called on the phone; again at 12:16, she has called back and said there was eight to nine students alive.

CARROLL (voice-over): Minutes later, a student called.

MCCRAW: Student child called back, was told to stay on the line and be very quiet. She told 9-1-1 he shut the door. At approximate 12:43 and 12:47, she asked 9-1-1 to please send the police now.

CARROLL (voice-over): Alfred Garza says his daughter, Amerie, may have been one of those students who tried to call 9-1-1. She was killed during the shooting.

ALFRED GARZA, AMERIE JO'S FATHER: Something's got to be done now. You know, what are we going?

Where do we go from here?

You know, you were wrong. What do we do now?

You know, it is my question, what are we going to do?

CARROLL: The accountability you're talking about.

GARZA: The accountability, you know. Somebody's got to be responsible.

CARROLL (voice-over): Warning signs missed.

MCCRAW: That Ramos asked his sister to help him buy him a gun. She flatly refused. That was in September of '21.

CARROLL (voice-over): With social media group chats and posts as far back as last February, offering red flags.

MCCRAW: He had Instagram, a four-group chat and it was discussed that Ramos being a school shooter. That was on February 28th of 2022.

On March 14th, there was an Instagram posting by the subject in quotations, "10 more days."

[01:05:00]

MCCRAW: User replied, "Are you going to shoot up a school or something?"

The subject replied, "No. And stop asking dumb questions and you will see."

CARROLL: The governor here says he expects new laws to be passed to address what happened here, asking both the FBI and the Texas Rangers to investigate every law enforcement official that was involved with what happened -- Jason Carroll, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: About an hour ago, I spoke about the delayed police response with a former FBI special agent and asked him, how could something that even happen?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: If they had followed active shooter protocol, none of that would have been true.

When you have three officers in the hall, the minimum you go with is one. If you get two, you feel good and if you get three, you are doing well. Those officers should have continued down toward the sound of the shots and eliminated the shooter.

The problem with him saying we didn't think any more kids were alive, that was 45 minutes after they stopped doing what they should have done.

HOLMES: Exactly. Meanwhile, that wasn't the last of the shooting.

Do you think children actually died because law enforcement didn't act properly?

It certainly looks that way. The ones still being shot, of course but also wounded in there, not being helped, who perhaps bled out?

MOORE: Let me tell you, I responded to one active shooter at a school. And the shooting was over and the shooter had gotten off the property almost immediately. I believe there were 5-7 people shot, five of them who were 5 years old.

And one of them would not have lasted another five minutes. The rest of them, I doubt would have lasted 30 minutes. So for them to delay an hour, I find it hard to believe that lives couldn't have been saved. As you say, there was another round of shots at 12:20 or so. Those kids would not have even been injured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Moore also said the shooting clearly shows the U.S. gun policy needs to change.

Texas officials have revised another key detail about the response to the shooting. The armed officer assigned to protect the school was not on the scene when the gunman arrived. Brian Todd with that.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Among several disturbing accounts from a Texas law enforcement official regarding the response by officers to the Uvalde shooting, an admission that the resource officer for Robb Elementary School not only didn't engage the shooter, as was originally claimed...

MCCRAW: That officer was not on scene, not on campus but had heard the 9-1-1 call with a man with a gun, drove immediately to the area, sped to what he thought was the man with a gun to the back of the school, who turned out to be a teacher and not the suspect.

In doing so, he drove right by the suspect, who was hunkered down behind the vehicle, where he began shooting at the school.

TODD (voice-over): A misstep that analysts say could be attributed to the confusion in the first moments of any mass shooting.

But now, new attention is being focused on the roles of school resource officers, local police, whose biggest jobs are to be on campuses of elementary, middle and high schools across America, to protect students from shootings like this.

PROF. JAGDISH KHUBCHANDANI, PUBLIC HEALTH, NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY: There are no studies to show that they have been effective in preventing damage or minimizing the damage. And that's the sad part of it.

TODD (voice-over): Professor Jagdish Khubchandani of New Mexico State University co-wrote a 2019 study on measures taken to prevent school violence. He says, in many cases, training for these officers is inconsistent or outright insufficient. And often, he says, school officers are simply tasked to cover too much ground.

KHUBCHANDANI: They have to be in the exact same place, exact time, exact moment in front of the shooter to confront them and minimize the damage. But that does not happen. It's not practically possible for the SR to be in front of a shooter every time a shooter comes in. And shooters do plan a lot. so they don't really want to confront people as well.

TODD (voice-over): And in one infamous case, a resource officer was accused of hiding from a shooter. Parkland, Florida, February 2018, Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Peterson, resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was widely criticized for staying outside for 45 minutes and not going inside to confront a gunman, who killed 17 people.

Peterson denied the accusations, saying he thought the shots were coming from outside. The National Association of School Resource Officers acknowledges there were failures at Parkland but rejects the idea that the thousands of officers on school campuses don't make a difference.

MAC HARDY, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS: SRs do a make a difference.

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HARDY: They stop acts all the time from becoming a disaster and a massacre, like occurred in Uvalde.

TODD: Mac Hardy from the Ass of School Resource Officers, says his group is pushing for more uniform training of those officers and is pushing for those who assign officers to schools not to assign officers who may be a year away from retirement and want to cruise through that final year and not to assign officers who may have had trouble with the patrols on their regular beats.

They acknowledge it's too often that officers like that are placed in schools -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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HOLMES: Ukraine says it urgently needs more firepower to stop Russia's advance. Long-range weapons like these could dramatically alter the battlefield, if the West agrees to send them. We'll have that.

And Ukraine's president says that even if the Russian army destroys everything, the Donbas will remain Ukrainian and will be rebuilt -- we'll be right back.

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HOLMES: Ukraine's military admits it is outmanned and outgunned in Eastern Ukraine as Russian troops advance in the Donbas. But it denies the Ukrainian held city of Sievierodonetsk is surrounded. They say the Russians have moved into the city's outskirts but can't proceed any further. Ukraine also says Russian crews are repairing damaged rail lines near

Kharkiv to facilitate the shipment of crucial supplies to Russian troops in the Donbas. Now to halt the Russian advance, Ukraine urgently asking the West for multilaunch rocket systems that have far greater range than the howitzers they have already been given.

The Pentagon confirms it is looking at the request but no decision has been made. Now despite facing enormous difficulties in the Donbas, Ukraine's president remains confident his military will prevail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): That is why we have to increase our defense, increase our resistance and Donbas will be Ukraine again, even if Russia will bring all suffering and ruination to Donbas. We will rebuild every town, every community. There is no real alternative.

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HOLMES: Sievierodonetsk is a crucial city if Russia hopes to subjugate the Donbas and the neighboring town of Lysychansk appears to be the Russian army's next objective. We get more now from CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Here's how it feels when Russia is coming. This is Sievierodonetsk in Putin's crosshairs. Only one bridge left, we are told; almost anything that moves is shelled.

Across that river, next in line is here, this twin city, Lysychansk. The remnants of its once 100,000 people facing an enemy they rarely see. Only here can you feel the loathing. The police are here helping evacuate the last needy, essentially, to collect as many people with disabilities and need as much help as they can to get them out.

For Ekaterina, age 74, the war so far has swelled around her one room flat. It is time for her and her husband to go, once and perhaps for all.

EKATERINA, LYSYCHANSK RESIDENT (through translator): I didn't collect any of my things. I don't know where I will live. It's better they kill me. You know, I have nowhere to hide. We have on room. I lie opposite the shelling. In the last minute, I thought if I'm going to suffer like this, better they kill me.

WALSH: These moments are the correct way to measure Putin's invasion. Not in tanks lost, alliances forged or buildings hammered but in twilight days, totally uprooted in tiny moments of inconsolable panic.

EKATERINA (through translator): When is this grief going to end?

WALSH: This briefcase, carefully packed by Valentin, contains all documents for whatever is that comes next. Closer to Russian-backed separatists areas of Ukraine, loyalties are not simple. This large young family, which like so much of the town has relatives in Russia but no gas or electricity, seems to prefer an outdoor stove in the basement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What's the choice?

Live on the street?

WALSH: They do not seem to perturbed despite the blasts and say they want peace. Sometimes you feel they don't want you to know who's side they are on, especially this man when we mention America.

VALENTIN, LYSYCHANSK RESIDENT (through translator): You arm us, so we fight Russia in our country?

Have I got that right?

I don't understand this war. We're afraid of death.

WALSH: But still, their world is underground, with fine dust in the damp air. Their kitten born into the war, their children's sleep broken by shelling.

At the cemetery, the cost is starker. It has three types of mass graves. This line already filled with some of the 160 dead, whose relatives cannot bury them yet.

This one, half filled with the bodies collected daily. Their names recorded on each bag and this one, yawning empty, a sign of the savagery they know is to come -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Lysychansk, Ukraine.

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HOLMES: Nataliya Bugayova is a national security research fellow with the Institute for the Study of War.

It is good to have you back on to talk about this. You actually wrote another piece on foreignpolicy.com about this issue. So the Russians are obviously focusing on consolidating territory they have gained in the east and the southeast.

What are the risks of the Russians digging in there?

And why is their urgency to not let them stay?

NATALIYA BUGAYOVA, NATIONAL SECURITY RESEARCH FELLOW, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR: There are several risks. First is that Russia will establish a long term military foothold in the southeast and will launch attack from their own Ukraine again the moment it assesses an opportune moment to do so, in part because Russia's goals haven't changed.

It still is control over Ukraine and this intent will carry over to any Putin successor unless we see indication otherwise.

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HOLMES: Go on.

The second thing?

BUGAYOVA: The second is, people in the occupied territories are subjected to constant Russian atrocities, which are a part of Russia's way of war. And atrocities against the very people Russia claims to protect will continue if Russian forces are allowed to dig in.

HOLMES: Yes. And we have the map up let's pull it back up so people can see what we are talking about here.

If Russia does continue to hold that corridor, through the southeast and we can see it there along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea as well, can you see the next step being Odessa and then a bridge to the territory of Transnistria, a breakaway territory in Moldova, Moldova, itself and so on?

BUGAYOVA: Sure. Ukraine is not the only country Putin has been trying to control. Regaining control of Moldova also has been high on the Kremlin's list. And we do see Russia using a military foothold in Ukraine's southeast to launch a future attack on Odessa, which it needs to then link its gains with Transnistria, which it illegally occupies.

So its foothold will threaten not only Ukraine but also the broader Black Sea region.

HOLMES: And we talk about the urgency of these specific areas.

What is the window, do you think, for preventing a permanent or even semi permanent Russian hold on those particular parts of Ukraine, that's even annexing territory as they did in Crimea?

BUGAYOVA: Yes, I think the urgency is driven by a number of factors. First, we do see Russia setting conditions for a potential annexation of those territories and trying to absorb the occupied areas into Russian structures.

However, Russia has not yet established a permanent political control. It is trying to dig in militarily as well. But the longer it stays there, the harder it will be to expel it.

I think atrocities is another factor that drives urgency. The faster Ukraine can liberate those territories, the faster it will liberate the people. In fact, it is the only way to ensure that atrocities stop.

Finally, we Putin also has a limited constraint on how much common capable power he can deploy in the short term. But time can allow him to reorient Russia, both its people and economy on the long-term war.

HOLMES: What then does Ukraine need to stop all of that happening?

And how likely or possible is it that Ukraine could prevail militarily?

BUGAYOVA: Yes, Russia's focus right now on trying to take Sievierodonetsk to establish control over the Luhansk region and it is inflicting severe damages on Ukraine. But it is only doing so because Russia chose to concentrate forces and firepower in the area.

It is important to remember that Ukraine defeated Russia's objectives in the first phase of this war and launched successful counter offensives to expel Russian forces from Kharkiv access.

As long as Ukraine is willing to fight, the West will provide all the military aid Ukraine needs to both defend itself but also over time liberate its territories.

HOLMES: We are nearly out of time but I wanted to get this in as well. We have seen with the mass shooting in the U.S., the elections and so on, the coverage of the war, perhaps understandably, has been massively reduced.

What are the risks of waning Western focus on this war in Ukraine?

BUGAYOVA: I do think it is a risk. In fact, Putin in the past has gained sometimes only by outlasting the West in the information space. That is why it's important to remember that it is a black and white war, it is still a black and white war. Ukraine's objectives are still the same.

It is liberating its territories and people. And there's nothing ambiguous about this. And I think one of the West's top priorities should be ensuring that Russia does not introduce ambiguity in this information space.

[01:25:00]

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. Always good to get your thoughts. Nataliya Bugayova, thank you very much.

BUGAYOVA: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: There is outrage in Brazil after a video went viral, showing a man dying in police custody. A warning to viewers, the footage is difficult to watch.

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HOLMES (voice-over): The video appears to show a man being asphyxiated inside a police car. In one of the clips, officers are seen placing the handcuffed man into the trunk of the SUV. And then, as you can see, with the rear hatch closed, the vehicle fills up with an unknown gas or smoke, as screams are heard.

The widely shared video clip sparked protests in the city of Umbauba on Thursday. Federal police say the 38 year old man, quote, "actively resisted" the officers and they were forced to use what they called immobilization techniques. They add that they have opened an internal investigation into the officers involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: I'm Michael Holmes, for our international viewers, "QUEST'S WORLD OF WONDER" is up next. For viewers in North America, I will be back with more news after the break.

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HOLMES: Welcome back to our viewers, in the United States and Canada, I am Michael Holmes, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Texas officials, facing growing outrage in the town of Uvalde, after admitting huge mistakes were made in the response to Tuesday's horrific shooting at an elementary school.

Authorities revealed 77 minutes passed between the time that the gunman entered the school, to when a tactical team, finally, entered the classroom where the 18-year-old had barricaded himself with students and two teachers.

We have also learned up to 19 officers were waiting in the hallway for almost 15 minutes, while children, locked inside the classroom, frantically, called 9-1-1, pleading for help.

Police say, they did not storm the rooms because the commanding officer thought the active shooter phase of the incident was over. It was not.

Well, many people are calling for stricter gun control, following that deadly shooting, Texas governor, Greg Abbott, insists that the focus should be on mental health. CNN's Nick Watt reports.

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NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Governor Greg Abbott isn't talking at all about gun control. But he does talk a lot about mental health.

ABBOTT: Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period.

WATT: This at his press conference the day after those 21 murders in Uvalde.

ABBOTT: We, as a government need to find a way to target that mental health challenge and to do something about it.

WATT: Nearly five years ago, after 26 were slaughtered in a Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, he told CNN this.

ABBOTT: One of the challenges we have to deal with is not just evil but also mental health challenges.

WATT: Today, nearly five years later, mental health -- America's 2022 access to care rankings puts Texas dead last.

Governor Abbott clearly has other priorities. Just a month ago, he diverted nearly half a billion of mostly COVID relief surplus funds to what he calls the disaster at the southern border while taking a political pop at President Biden's open border policies. And he said this. Texans' safety and security is our top priority. And we will continue fighting to keep our community safe.

But undocumented immigrants have substantially lower crime rates than native born citizens, states of recent academic study of Texas the most aggressive immigrant removal programs have not delivered on their crime reduction promises and are unlikely to do so in the future.

To be fair, Operation Lone Star does also target illegal drugs seeping into Texas. But in the meantime, at least 388 people have been killed in mass shootings in Texas on Governor Abbott's watch while he has rolled back gun restrictions.

WATT: So briefly back to that, nearly $0.5 billion that was diverted down to the border in Texas, it was taken from various different government departments and they were essentially then reimbursed with surplus COVID relief funds.

Now the governor took more than $200 million from the Department of Health and Human Services.

And that led some people to say, hang on, is he taking money away from health care?

His office tells me that is, quote, "completely inaccurate." The department itself tells me that all of their health care programs are fully funded. Budgets for health care, mental health care have shown a modest uptick over the past couple of years.

And the governor's spokesperson also tells me that he works hard to increase funding and access to mental health care in Texas. But don't forget that lead table: Texas ranks last in the United States for access to mental health care -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The Texas state senator who represents Uvalde says he is sickened by the governor's claims that guns are not the problem. Have a listen to what he told CNN's Jim Acosta

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STATE SEN. ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D-TX): He's the leader of this state and he wants to us talk to us about gun solutions that -- I think he was asked today whether an 18-year old should have a gun.

And he says, well, we've had laws on the books for 60 years. That's when we were able to hunt squirrels with our .22 rifles.

At the end of the day, we have to do what's right for our citizens.

[01:00:00]

GUTIERREZ: Technology has changed. We shouldn't have this kind of militarized weaponry. And this man failed us and he has failed to respond to that particular issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Despite the mass shooting on Tuesday, the top gun lobby in the U.S., the National Rifle Association, opened its annual convention on Friday in Houston, just a few hours down the road from Uvalde. As CNN's Ryan Young reports, tensions flared inside and outside the event.

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RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former President Donald Trump rallying with the National Rifle Association as it holds annual meeting just days after 21 people including 19 children were massacred in a school shooting in Uvalde.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: The existence in evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens who know how to use their weapon and can protect a lot of people. The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens.

YOUNG: Instead of new gun laws, the former president calling for more focus on mental health and school security.

TRUMP: What we need now is a top-to-bottom security overhaul at schools all across our country.

YOUNG: Those arguments echoed by others who address the NRA's annual convention in Houston, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): We must not react to evil and tragedy by abandoning the constitution or infringing on the rights of our law- abiding citizens.

YOUNG: The NRA has condemned the Uvalde shooting but decided to press ahead with its gathering, though several musical performers and elected officials canceled appearances in the wake of the shooting.

PROTESTERS: NRA. Go away. NRA. Go away.

YOUNG: Across the street, a crowd of protesters gathered outside the convention site. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm looking at you, NRA, today. I don't want any more of my peers to die in a school.

YOUNG: Outraged over the gun group's influence and high profile Republican speakers the group attracted.

PROTESTERS: Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you.

YOUNG: Former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, the state's Democratic nominee for governor, joined those outside the venue calling for action.

BETO O'ROURKE (D), TEXAS GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE: The time for us to stop Uvalde was right after Sandy Hook. If you have done anything good, it is the fact that you have brought us here together and we are committing ourselves to act.

YOUNG: Texas Governor Greg Abbott initially scheduled to appear in person but sent a video message instead.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: There are thousands of laws on the books across the country that limit the owning or using of firearms, laws that have not stopped madmen from carrying out evil acts on innocent people in peaceful communities.

YOUNG: You can see the signs that arrived here. There's a lot of passion here from these protesters. At one point, the crowd here spoke (ph) over 1,000, especially when Donald Trump took the stage. There were people outside, who were screaming at the top of their lungs, hoping to have the former president hear their cries for change.

That now has moved on. As people say, they want to take that passion in the streets to change what's happening in this country -- Ryan Young, CNN, Houston, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Strategic ambiguity: that has been the operating word for the U.S. policy in Taiwan for decades.

But why is that line getting harder to stick to now that China, increasingly, flexes its military muscle?

We have that, after the break.

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HOLMES: A small island standing up to a nuclear power, more than 60 times its size. That's what's happening in Taiwan, where fears are growing that China might invade in the future and, possibly, pull Washington into the conflict. As Selina Wang reports, first, that situation is forcing the U.S. to walk a diplomatic tightrope.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a vibrant democracy, living under the threat of an autocratic superpower. Taiwan is just over 100 miles away from Mainland China's southeast coast.

This self ruled island to over 23 million is seen by China as a breakaway province that must be reunified with the mainland; even by force, if necessary. The war in Ukraine, heightening fears over the fate of Taiwan and renewed scrutiny on America's role in a potential conflict.

The island became part of the Chinese empire in the 17th century. It fell under Japan's rule for 50 years, until the end of World War II. Then was governed by Chiang Kai-shek's ruling Nationalist Party. When the nationalists lost a brutal civil war and fled to Taiwan, Mao Zedong's Communist Party took over the mainland in 1949.

Both Taipei and Beijing claim to be the only legitimate ruler of the entire Chinese territory. For decades, the U.S. and most countries recognize Taipei as the sole government of China.

But in 1979, the U.S. switched diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing. Officially, the U.S. and most countries acknowledge that there is only one China. Yet, unofficial ties between Washington and Taipei have been tightening.

Multiple American delegations have visited in recent years to show support for Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, a leader, Beijing sees, as dangerously pro independent.

The U.S. continues to sell weapons to the island. All of that infuriating China. In response, last year, Beijing flew a record number of warplanes into airspace near Taiwan.

[01:45:00]

WANG (voice-over): For decades, the U.S. has been purposefully vague about whether it would defend the island, should the Chinese attack. But as Chinese military might grows, more are calling for the Biden administration to End the so-called strategic ambiguity.

What happens to Taiwan will have ripple effects all around the world. It is the global leader in semi-conductors. Taiwan's chips power everything, from smartphones, to cars. While Beijing has rejected comparisons between Taiwan and Ukraine, experts agree, China is closely analyzing the crippling sanctions against Russia.

They say there is the potential for an even more destructive conflict that could pit the world's largest militaries and economies against each other -- Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: It's the unofficial start of summer travel in the U.S. and gasoline prices are surging. Why millions are hitting the road anyway. We will be right back.

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HOLMES: Now a sobering forecast coming out of the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water for agriculture and drinking water for millions of people. Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the U.S., will likely drop another 12 feet this fall. Now that's far lower than what experts have predicted.

The reservoir has been on a steep decline in the last 20 years or so. According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, if that continues, Lake Mead could crash to around 1,000 feet above sea level by 2023.

Now the Western U.S. has been experiencing, of course, a historic megadrought which has triggered a water crisis. Drought conditions have worsened in some states this week. California officials say 11 percent of the state is now in what's called exceptional drought conditions, the worst designation.

It comes after a week with zero rainfall and record high temperatures, drought conditions also getting worse in New Mexico and southern Nevada. Experts did note some improvements in Texas and Oklahoma after heavy rains this past week.

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HOLMES: It is Memorial Day weekend and, as the unofficial start of the summer travel season gets underway, millions expected to hit the road, despite gas prices at their highest in 10 years. CNN's Pete Muntean with the story.

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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Single dad Eric Stevens says he makes $110,000 a year. But that is not enough to afford a trip to the lake. Here in Los Angeles, $6 a gallon gas has kept his plans in park.

ERIC STEVENS, ENCINO RESIDENT: Maybe for the affluent, they can afford it. For me, to go anywhere is minimum of a $200 decision. And you haven't fed your kids or done anything else.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): GasBuddy says holiday weekend gas prices are the highest since 2012. But the pain goes beyond the pump. New data says hotels have jumped 42 percent compared to last year. Airfare is up 6 percent.

ANDREW GROSS, SPOKESMAN, AAA: This will likely be one of the most expensive Memorial Day periods we've ever seen. MUNTEAN (voice-over): Even still, AAA thinks Americans will not be stopped, traveling to top destinations, such as Orlando, Seattle, Miami and Las Vegas.

The latest projection, 34.9 million people will drive 50 miles or more around the five days around Memorial Day.

[01:55:00]

MUNTEAN: Do you think that the numbers will be all far off on the projection?

GROSS: Our projections have always been pretty accurate. But we've never been trying to project in an environment like this.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): The new fear is this expensive start to summer travel could last. GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan thinks the average price of gas will not dip below $4.50 for months.

PATRICK DE HAAN, HEAD OF PETROLEUM ANALYSIS, GASBUDDY: I don't think the fuel price will slow down many. It may slow down some. But certainly, there's still a very healthy appetite to hit the road this summer.

STEVENS: You ready for school, baby girl?

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Not so for Eric Stevens, who says he's choosing to pay for his daughter's day care over a road trip.

STEVENS: Fun has been postponed for the indefinite future, especially the way things are going. While I'd like to say our hope is there's an end in sight, I just don't see one.

MUNTEAN: One more data point: even when you adjust it for inflation, gas prices are the highest we have seen since Memorial Day 2012, a 10- year high. Traffic is going to feel more like 2019 pre-pandemic levels so not all the way back just yet.

The point is, be patient on the roads and really pad your wallet. This trip is going to cost you -- Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: More news after the break.