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Texas School Shooting; Europe Pushes Russia To Negotiate; Famine In Somalia; U.S. Gun Violence; Iran's "Secret" Drone Base; Red Flag Warnings In Southwestern U.S. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired May 29, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A warm welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Paula Newton. Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM --

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KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We know what works on this. It includes, let's have an assault weapons ban.

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NEWTON (voice-over): A call to action from the U.S. vice president after back to back mass shootings in Texas and New York. And in the coming hours President Biden travels to Uvalde, his message and options in pursuing gun control.

Plus international leaders press for a blockade on Ukrainian grain exports. Where the possible discussions stand and how the impact is felt far beyond the battlefield.

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NEWTON: And we begin in Uvalde, a community still very much in mourning after the massacre that left 19 children and two teachers dead at an elementary school. Amid the devastation, we're also seeing an outpouring of support from that community and beyond.

On Saturday, you see them there, a long line of mourners, waiting to lay flowers at a memorial set up outside Robb Elementary School; 21 empty chairs placed outside a local business, one for each life lost during Tuesday's rampage.

And as the community and in fact the entire nation reel from yet another mass shooting, outrage is growing over why a group of law enforcement officers waited so long to rush the gunman. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is in Uvalde.

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ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have seen a mix of emotions anger, frustration and disappointment after that 9-1-1 call timeline became more clear. But folks have wrapped their arms around the folks of Uvalde and its community.

I've seen lines like this, if you take a look, for folks waiting to purchase concert tickets or receive free food or other items. But these people are not waiting in line, in the oppressive heat, to get something. They're here to give and show their support.

Many have traveled from near and beyond. I talked to a person from El Paso. Some folks traveled from San Antonio, which is about 85 miles away, to lay flowers, balloons and stuffed animals on the lawn of Robb Elementary School, where those 19 students were killed and their two female teachers.

Parents we spoke to are stunned. They were shocked after they learned more than 80 minutes passed, between the time the initial 9-1-1 call came in and when the shooter was killed.

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JENNIFER GAITAN, ROBB ELEMENTARY PARENT: They were not concerned about the real trauma that was happening inside.

Honestly I think they did, they waited too long, too long, because I was out here. I was out here and I mean, I'm not the only parent that witnessed it. It's sad that a lot of parents witnessed it. And then to see that they're saying that it was, you know, they had gotten here quick and handled business, that's not -- that is not the way that happened.

ALFRED GARZA, AMERIE JO'S FATHER: Had they gotten in there sooner and somebody would have taken immediate action, we might have more of those children here today, including my daughter.

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BROADDUS: So not only are parents upset but this entire community is upset and, of course, grieving. On Saturday, family members and friends of one of the victims showed up here to the school.

And as they walked away from this overwhelming memorial, one of the relatives kept saying, "Oh, my God. Oh, my God" -- Adrienne Broaddus, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.

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NEWTON: In the coming hours, U.S. President Joe Biden and Jill Biden will travel to Uvalde to do something they did just a couple weeks ago after the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. They will again comfort victims of gun violence. Arlette Saenz has our report.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Biden is preparing to spend several hours on the ground in Uvalde, Texas, to try to offer comfort to those grieving families, dealing with the losses of the two teachers and 19 young children following that shooting at Robb Elementary School earlier this week.

The president and first lady will depart Sunday morning from their home in Wilmington, Delaware, and then travel down to Texas, where the president is expected to meet with community leaders, religious leaders and most importantly, the families who have lost their loved ones.

President Biden, time and time again, has gone into these types of communities, to try to grieve and offer comfort with them, in the wake of their losses.

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SAENZ: Of course, the president himself has very strong personal experience with loss as well, having lost his wife and young baby daughter in a car accident and then, additionally, his son, later in life, Beau Biden, who passed away from cancer.

But ahead of this visit to Uvalde, Texas, President Biden spoke at a commencement ceremony at the University of Delaware, where he talked about his trip and also issued a call to action for the next generation.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tomorrow, I'll be heading to Uvalde, Texas, to be with each of those families. And as I speak, those parents are literally preparing to bury their children, in the United States of America, to bury their children. It's too much violence. Too much fear. Too much grief.

And while this can feel like a very dark moment in America, I'm optimistic. I've never been more optimistic in my entire life. Here's why. I mean this, my word as a Biden, I mean it, because of you, this generation, your generation. Makes me more optimistic.

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SAENZ: One of the big questions now facing this White House is what more can be done to try to prevent tragedies like this from happening again. The president has said he wants to see stricter gun control but says that there's not much more he can do on his own, on the executive level.

So the White House has pushed for Congress to take action. There is that bipartisan group of senators, who are holding preliminary discussions about possible new gun safety laws. But it's unclear what kind of traction that might get.

And there are some outside groups, pressing for President Biden himself to do more. But for now, that visit to Uvalde, Texas on Sunday, will give the president an opportunity to focus on offering solace, offering comfort to these grieving families, who have had their lives shattered -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.

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NEWTON: Joining me now is Leslie Vinjamuri, the head of the U.S. and Americas Programme at Chatham House in London.

And it is good to see you. We just heard there about the comfort and support that the president and the first lady will be bringing. And they are very genuine on these trips. Throughout the entire United States, most people see that, especially given what is going on in their own personal lives.

But what more do they have to do especially when, you know, this tragedy is punctuated by the fact that they were just in Buffalo two weeks ago?

LESLIE VINJAMURI, CHATHAM HOUSE: It is a very difficult trip for the president and the first lady. But it's incredibly important to remember that, as divided as the American public might be -- and the majority of Americans are actually on the side of wanting more gun control -- but there won't be any parents in America that won't grieve for these children.

So I think that President Biden really calling on the unity of all parents and that deep feeling that we all have for those families and that community. It will be the number one thing.

But there will quickly be a desire -- and there already is -- for the president to be able to do something, not only for the community but for the broader question of gun violence of school shootings and of which we know the numbers have spiked dramatically over the last year.

And this is, whereas we all know it gets incredibly difficult. But the number one thing that the president has on his side is public opinion. And the importance here, I think, is whether the president can seize on this moment of national tragedy to mobilize the majority of Americans in a sustained way.

And this is very difficult, of course, when you are facing that very targeted, very focused lobby that is anti-gun regulation led by the NRA and many persistent and high-profile Republicans in Congress.

NEWTON: Yes, and while Americans are united in their grief, there is polarization in the country. And Joe Biden has not been known as the bipartisan broker that he used to be throughout his presidency.

I mean, how do you see him actually being able to do anything through this?

Because he does not have even on his side the goodwill that Barack Obama had after Sandy Hook.

VINJAMURI: There is a polarization in the United States and it has increased dramatically between 2016 and 2020. But on gun -- on the question of guns, the vast majority of Americans want to see more gun controls.

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VINJAMURI: We saw the poll that came out just after these devastating killings in Texas, 88 percent of Americans would like to see more background checks; well over 60 percent support a ban on assault weapons like we used to have in the United States.

So again, there is public support, even in a polarized America. And remember polarization doesn't naturally happen. It takes mobilization by leaders, who wish to see division because it suits their political purposes.

We've seen the Republican Party mobilize individuals for things that actually the broad base of America doesn't support. So the president has got to get out in front of this. It is a very difficult thing do.

He needs to appoint individuals at the highest levels in the White House to sustain the public support for doing something about the very devastating and deep problem of guns in America. Congress is a block. But Congress can't hold back if the American public pushes hard enough.

NEWTON: And yet we don't know how much influence even any of those public opinion polls will have. We heard from the vice president being very strong on this. And yet I was not surprised to see that the White House literally promised nothing after this massacre, not so far.

They know that they have tried and failed before.

Do you think there is anything that he could do when it comes to perhaps an executive order?

Because there is a lot of controversy, as you know, about the filibuster in the United States and about whether or not the Senate could ever get anything passed, when you even have Democratic senators like Joe Manchin saying, look, it would be total insanity if we tried to ram through even gun legislation with a 50 plus one majority in the Senate.

VINJAMURI: Yes, there is a question. We're not seeing right now any evidence that the president intends to use executive orders. I'm sure there are many conversations going on about whether there should be an executive order again to appoint those at the highest level to take on this issue in the White House.

The question of more background checks, could it be done through executive order?

But there is a failure of so many levels, the police in Texas, the response demonstrates that the argument of arming individuals, whether they are police or teachers, doesn't solve the problem. We had armed people there that didn't enter the classroom.

So there is the failure at the local and national level. And the president does need to demonstrate first sympathy for those individuals but really that he can take on this issue and drive it forward. The leading cause of death among young Americans is violence due to

the use of guns. It's a traumatic situation and, again, the majority of Americans would like to see something done about this.

NEWTON: Yes, and perhaps it would all coalesce around the good point that you made, there is no parent in America that is not grieving this tragedy at this hour. Leslie Vinjamuri in London for us, thank you.

VINJAMURI: Thank you.

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NEWTON: Now heated battles are raging around the key Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. And Ukraine says it is in a tough defensive position as Russian troops push into the city's outskirts. The latest on the war, that is ahead.

And plus world leaders warn of a global food crisis. What they want Vladimir Putin to do to prevent it.

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NEWTON: The Ukrainian military says some of the most intense fighting of the war is taking place in the eastern Donbas region. And a fierce battle is raging on the northern outskirts of Sievierodonetsk.

Near Kharkiv, Reuters reports an apparent missile strike on a solar power facility. The site manager says he believes two missiles were launched from Russian territory, causing extensive damage.

And Ukraine is accusing Russia of looting the recently captured port of Mariupol. Russian state media reports a cargo ship has arrived there to transport thousands of tons of metal to Russia.

And in Russia's far east, Moscow had a hypersonic missile test. The new Zircon missile flew over 600 miles to a target on Russia's coast.

And CNN correspondents are covering it from every angle. Nada Bashir is in London, Zain Asher is reporting on the food crisis and Melissa Bell is in Kyiv, where Ukraine says the weapons it has already received from the United States and other Western nations have been a great help but they need more -- Melissa.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There has been more intense fighting in Eastern Ukraine, although Kyiv is saying that the key town of Sievierodonetsk has not fallen to the Russians.

But still Kyiv is appealing for more help, more weaponry, because it says that the balance of power on the field and specifically that front line, where Russian forces have been pressing ahead their advantage is still looking extremely tense from their point of view.

Bear in mind, of course, that they have been helped hugely by some of the Javelin anti-tank weapons systems and the Stinger systems have proven key in helping Ukraine push back the Russian offensive.

So far we saw last week for the first time in use on the ground some of the Switchblade targeted drones that the United States has provided 100 of since April. But it is now long range rocket systems that Kyiv is looking for. Washington has said that it will consider the proposal but it has not yet made a firm decision -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Kyiv.

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NEWTON: And the Kremlin is coming under new pressure to negotiate with Ukraine. Vladimir Putin was pressed by French and German leaders, who spoke with him by phone Saturday.

Ukraine is one of the world's top wheat producers. And those Western leaders also urged Mr. Putin to lift Russia's blockade of the port of Odessa so the shipments can start moving again.

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NEWTON: President Zelenskyy says half of the country's exports are held up and says tens of millions of people will face food shortages if the blockade is not lifted. For more, Nada Bashir joining us.

It seems that Vladimir Putin wants to use this as a bargaining chip, not a concession.

Is there hope for negotiations on this?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Kremlin and President Putin have chosen their words very carefully around that issue. This is a huge point of contention for the international community.

According to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin has said that he would ease and avoid this potential food crisis, as we understand it, caused by the blockade on the Black Sea and those key ports for the export of Ukrainian grain.

But we've heard from Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, laying the blame on the West. They have said that they will only engage in these sorts of talks and these discussions if the West lifts what they have described as politically motivated restrictions on Russia; so namely those sanctions that we've seen put in place by the European Union and other NATO allies, the E.U. as well, trying to phase out its dependency on Russian oil.

The Kremlin, Moscow, wants to see these decisions reversed. This has been a key tool used by the European Union and NATO to put pressure on Russia, immense economic pressure on Russia.

And we've heard from the European Commission president, Ursula van der Leyen, reacting to this. She says they believes Moscow is trying to weaponize the food crisis, the food security crisis. And that is something that has been echoed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Take a listen.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Terror on Earth in Ukraine?

Terror in the energy market of Europe?

Not just our country. Terror in the food market and on a global scale.

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BASHIR: He used the word terror there. And as you mentioned, Ukraine is one of the key exporters of grain to Africa and the Middle East, hugely dependent on these exports.

You heard from Zelenskyy warning that some 22 million tons of Ukrainian grain are currently unable to leave the country. That is about half of Ukraine's grain export supplies. And the U.N. World Food Programme have continuously warned that Africa and the Middle East could soon face famine-like conditions if this is not lifted.

And this will be a key focus during the European Council summit. And the chairman of the African Union has been invited to the summit, given the acute vulnerability of that continent when comes to this food crisis.

NEWTON: Definitely something they want to put center stage right now. Nada Bashir, appreciate it.

And the war in Ukraine is perhaps contributing now a famine in Somalia. The conflict is part of a perfect storm of problems that is creating severe food shortages. Tens of thousands of people can't get enough to eat. Zain Asher reports some of the youngest Somalis never had a chance.

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ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bodies of twins are buried here. These babies only lived one day. They were born four weeks early after their mother could barely get enough food to survive.

This is the reality in southern Somalia, going through its worst drought in 40 year. According to the U.N., about 81,000 people are facing famine conditions in parts of the country.

RUKIA YACOUB, U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME, EAST AFRICA: his is the fourth consecutive drought that we see since 2011, since the famine. The food price are going up, the COVID impact is still there, the climate change is there and also conflict continues. So we have all the forces in addition to the Ukrainian crisis. ASHER (voice-over): In addition to the drought, global attention and

funding has been focused on the conflict in Ukraine. The war has halted food exports and is driving up prices, causing a global food crisis.

DAVID BEASLEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WFP: Now 49 million in 43 countries are knocking on famine's door. What that means, if we don't reach that 49 million, you will have famine. You will have destabilization of nations and you will have mass migration. The conditions now are much worse than the Arab Spring of 2007, 2008, 2009.

ASHER (voice-over): To make matters worse, high commodity prices, fuel prices and shipping costs have compounded the problem.

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ASHER (voice-over): One Somali farmer is losing up to 80 percent of projected revenues because of both the drought and high inflation.

FAWZIA SALAH MOHAMUD, SOMALI FARMER (through translator): The high cost of fuel has also affected us. Most of the local farmers are not able to buy fuel as they used to and, as a result, they have incurred losses. Because of the high fuel costs, we are now feeling the spiral effect in the cost of transportation, food and all other essential commodities.

ASHER (voice-over): The United Nations plan to provide emergency aid is far from fully funded, not enough to help all Somalis in need and not in time to save children like these twins -- Zain Asher, CNN.

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NEWTON: Kamala Harris attended a funeral of one of the victims of the Buffalo supermarket shooting. We'll find out what the vice president is calling for after two recent mass shootings.

Plus guns now the number one cause of death for children in the United States. More on the startling statistic and one ER doctor's proposal to try to curb gun violence.

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NEWTON: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Paula Newton and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

President Biden will travel to Uvalde, Texas, in the coming hours in a role that is all-too familiar, consoling a grieving community after yet another school shooting in America. Tuesday's massacre at Robb Elementary left 19 children and two teachers dead.

[04:30:00] NEWTON: But amid the grief there is also growing outrage about why law enforcement officers waited so long to rush the gunman, even as children inside the school repeatedly called for help.

Earlier, CNN spoke with Texas senator Roland Gutierrez who represents Uvalde. Here is his message for the families who are angry and questioning the police response.

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ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D-TX), STATE SENATOR: We're all angry. Law enforcement's angry. I had a long conversation this morning on the way in with Steve McCraw. And he was crying to me and I'm crying to him. And everybody is frustrated about the failures of what happened.

He has assured me that Friday we'll have a detailed report, including ballistics by next week. I want to know when each agency was here. Moving forward, never -- he assured me that never again will DPS stand down for any law enforcement agency. I hope that that's true.

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NEWTON: Mr. McCraw is a head state official in charges of security there in Texas.

Meantime on Saturday, the U.S. vice president paid tribute to the victims of another mass shooting. Kamala Harris laid flowers at the site of the Tops supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York; 10 people were killed when a white male gunman opened fire at the supermarket in a largely Black neighborhood two weeks ago.

The vice president also attended the funeral of Ruth Whitfield. She was the eldest person killed in that shooting. Shortly before she left Buffalo, the vice president called for a ban on assault weapons.

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KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We know what works on this. It includes, let's have an assault weapons ban.

Do you know what an assault weapon is?

Do you know how an assault weapon was designed?

It was designed for a specific purpose: to kill a lot of human beings quickly. An assault weapon is a weapon of war, with no place, no place in a civil society.

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NEWTON: Joe Johns is there in Buffalo for us and has more now.

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JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: The remarks of the vice president at this memorial service in Buffalo were brief and very impassioned. She did speak with the family members of victims of the shooting here in Buffalo.

She also talked, of course, with family members of Ruth Whitfield, the 86-year-old woman, who is being memorialized at Mt. Olive Church. But the initial guidance had been that she did not want to speak at the memorial service, because she was concerned that she might be accused of politicizing the event.

Nonetheless, she was called on to speak by reverend Al Sharpton during the eulogy. She talked about hate and fear, two of the things that she sees as tying together so many of the mass shootings in the United States.

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HARRIS: This is a moment that requires all good people, all God loving people, to stand up and say, we will not stand for this. Enough is enough. We will come together, based on what we all know we have in common. and we will not let those people who are motivated by hate separate us or make us feel fear.

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JOHNS: Before departing Buffalo, the vice president also talked with reporters about some of the policy issues facing legislators back in Washington, including the issue of an assault weapons ban and expanded background checks for guns -- Joe Johns, CNN, Buffalo.

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NEWTON: Here is a sobering development: guns are now the leading cause of death for children in the United States. They have eclipsed auto accidents, which were the leading cause of death, for child deaths for more than 60 years.

For 2020, the recent year for complete records, the CDC reports more than 45,000 children were killed in firearm-related incidents. Think about that, 45,000. Mass shootings are appalling but only claim a small fraction of total victims.

Children die every day from guns in the United States. For years, medical professionals have tried to call attention to the gun violence as an epidemic. Among those is an emergency room physician and academic dean of public health at Brown University.

She recently wrote a piece in "The Atlantic" about an ER doctor's approach to the gun crisis. She writes, "Core to public health is the idea that you have to think on a larger scale, not just about the patient in front of you but also about individual and population-level risk factors."

And a short time ago I spoke with the doctor about her op-ed piece. Take a listen.

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DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: This is not a new problem. [04:35:00]

RANNEY: We have been seeing the number of firearm injuries and deaths rise year upon year for over a decade now.

Many of us in medicine and public health have been trying to call attention to it. We saw that firearms became the second leading cause of death for kids. Now it's the first leading cause of death.

Day after day in emergency departments across the country, we take care of these victims of firearm injury and we keep asking, when does this become enough for us as a nation to care, for us to be ready to apply those same public health tools that we apply to any other epidemic?

This problem that is literally killing our kids.

NEWTON: Yes and again, you just said it. The trauma that you see in your emergency rooms on children, the victims of gun violence. You say there can be a third way. This is what we want to get into. What's most intriguing here is that you say it's going to get us away from this futile stalemate, right?

What does it entail, the way you see it?

RANNEY: So the way that I and many others want to approach firearm injury and have been trying to do, often with our own funds, with foundation money or with a small amount of federal funds that have been appropriated for this issue, is to deal with firearm injury the same way that we deal with any other health problem.

We start with getting data. We figure out who's at risk. We develop interventions that work. Then we put them in place.

That's what we did for COVID, right?

We developed vaccines. We figured out that masking works. We figured out that ventilation works. Together, we haven't gotten rid of every COVID death. We've made a lot of progress.

Same thing for heart disease, for car crashes. We've shown over and over that if you use science, you can make progress. Certainly policy is part of that progress. But policy alone is never sufficient.

Again, look at COVID. Masks are absolutely critical. Look at all the division in the country around masking. What also matters is getting vaccines in arms.

Same thing for guns. We can make obviously policy changes that would make a huge difference. While we are waiting, we can do things on a community and individual level to help change this trajectory so that we can stop people from having to come through the doors of my and others' ER for care.

(END VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON: Next hour, we'll show you my entire interview with her and why she says firearm owners are part of the solution in trying to curb gun violence.

Now if you would like to providing financial support or blood donations to the victims in mass shootings, go to cnn.com/impact. You will find several ways to help there.

And we'll be right back with more.

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NEWTON: Jerusalem is bracing for possible new violence ahead of nationalist marches expected to get underway in the coming hours. Israeli rightwing groups are set to march through the old part of the city to mark the Jerusalem Day holiday.

And the event has led to violence in the past. But now there is even more reason for concern.

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NEWTON (voice-over): Israeli troops shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy Friday. His funeral was held on Saturday. But Israeli officials and eyewitnesses offer very different accounts of how the teen was killed. For more on all this, we're joined by Atika Shubert near the area where the marches are expected to pass.

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NEWTON: Good to have you there on the ground. Tensions are always high during these marches. You know better than most. And yet ever more fraught, given recent events.

What is expected?

ATIKA SHUBERT, JOURNALIST: Yes, I think this is always a day that shows just how bitterly contested Jerusalem is. Of course for those that are coming here for the march, they see this, what is known in Israel as Jerusalem day, as a day of celebration.

For them they see this day that marks the day that Israel took Jerusalem as a city in 1967 as a day to celebrate and to march through in what is really a very forceful declaration of Israeli sovereignty.

And recently in years, many young Jewish nationalists have flocked here to march through the city with Israeli flags, singing songs and dancing. And it really has become a very serious point of contention.

While for them it is a reason to celebrate, for many Palestinians they see this as a provocation, particularly as the march will be going through the Damascus Gate behind me, where is where many Palestinian residents live.

So there's a lot of emotion, heated rhetoric going into this day. Hamas, for example, has threatened to escalate violence if the march goes ahead as planned. Last year, Hamas actually fired rockets toward Jerusalem in order to disrupt the march. And that followed with several days of fighting in Gaza. So there is a lot of tension going in.

As a result, thousands of Israeli police have been deployed in the Old City area to try to keep tensions from boiling over. But it will be a difficult day, I think, for them. And I think that it will be very difficult when we start to see those crowds gather. We'll have to see how it goes, Paula.

NEWTON: Yes, and I know that you will be on the scene there for us in the coming hours. Thanks so much. We'll bring you updates as we have them.

A commercial flight with 22 people on board is missing in Nepal. This is the flight path. The plane was traveling to a popular tourist town in central Nepal; 19 passengers and three crew members were on board.

The plane went missing just before 10:00 am in the morning local time on Sunday. And the Nepalese army is searching for the missing aircraft.

Iran is trying to show off what it describes as a top secret drone base that has never been seen before by the public. State media broadcasts this footage, you see it there, it says that it shows dozens of drones and missiles in a secret underground base.

Iran has a history of making dubious claims about military events, and including this self fighter jet plane that was revealed nine years ago and it couldn't even get off the ground.

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NEWTON: The U.N. human rights chief is defending a rare and controversial trip to China. Michelle Bachelet insists that her recent six-day trip including to the western region of Xinjiang was never meant to be an investigation of human rights abuses against Uyghur and mostly other minority Muslims.

It was the first visit by a U.N. human rights chief in 17 years and critics say it was a mistake, as Beijing tightly controlled access. And the U.N. official says that she shares the concerns about the policies of counterterrorism and radicalism.

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MICHELLE BACHELET, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Violent acts of (INAUDIBLE) have a terrible serious impact on the lives of victims, including those tasked to protect the community. But it is critical that counterterrorism responses do not result in human rights violations.

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NEWTON: Beijing has repeatedly denied allegations of human rights abuses. And Xi Jinping added that there is, quote, "no need for preachers to boss around other countries."

OK. Snowstorms, yes; snow. Triple digit heat expected. We'll get the latest on the weather happening across the United States, that is just ahead.

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NEWTON (voice-over): Real Madrid fans partied late into the night after they won the Champions League Saturday beating Liverpool 1-0.

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NEWTON: The United States is marking the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the traditional start of summer in the United States, with the weather and temperatures in parts of the country just not conducive to the cookouts and outdoor activities.

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NEWTON: And here in the United States, of course, millions of Americans will mark Memorial Day weekend by monitoring military members who died serving their country.

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NEWTON (voice-over): We just gave you a little sneak peek at the National Memorial Day concert in Washington, D.C. Sunday's event will feature a long list of performers paying tribute to fallen military heroes. Monday is the official holiday.

And it is also the unofficial start of summer here in the United States. At Arlington National Cemetery, that was the site yesterday of a moving event that also marks the holiday. The so-called Flowers of Remembrance Day ceremony.

It pays homage to the first Memorial Day in 1868 to honor those who died in the Civil War. The public can lay flowers at the gravesites of American soldiers as a sign of respect for their sacrifices. Earlier this week, the Army's Old Guard covered every gravestone with flags, an event known as Flag-in Day.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The flags represent, you know, some dear to our heart, we wear it on our right shoulder and, you know, it's just something to show that we thank those who came before us.

NEWTON (voice-over): The flags remain on the graves until after Memorial Day, when President Biden will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

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NEWTON: And that wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton. I'll be back in a moment with more news.