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Memorial Services Begin For Texas School Shooting Victims; Canada To Cap The Market For Handguns With New Legislation; EU Agrees On Partial Ban Of Russian Oil Imports; Thousands Of Flights Canceled During Memorial Day Weekend; Agatha Downgraded To A Tropical Storm After Making Landfall In Southern Mexico. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 31, 2022 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:09]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. This is CNN Newsroom. I'm John Vause. Ahead this hour.

Now it really hurts, the anguish of the community saying goodbye to 21 lives including 19 children gunned down at a Texas elementary school.

It is close enough, good enough. The European Union agrees to an almost total embargo on Russian oil imports, and Russian for it focuses their firepower on one of the last Ukrainian health cities in territory under control of Moscow's allies in the east.

Funerals begin Tuesday in the grief stricken Texas town of Uvalde for the 19 children and two teachers gunned down inside their classroom one week ago. There's growing anger now over the police response as the justice department prepares to launch a review of how law enforcement responded. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're now getting our first glimpse at some of the information relayed to officers outside Robb Elementary School as a massacre was unfolding on the inside.

ABC News obtained a portion of video that appears to be audio from one 911 operator relaying information from a child inside the classroom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a child on the line. Child is advising he is in the room full of victims.

BROADDUS: CNN has not been able to independently confirm the audio or at what point in the incident. It was heard. On Friday, the Texas public safety director said there were at least eight 911 calls from two callers in the school pleading for help.

Investigators now say 19 officers waited outside the classroom where the gunman was for about 50 minutes until a Customs and Border Patrol team decided to go in without direct orders. That's according to Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez.

ROLAND GUTIERREZ, TEXAS STATE SENATOR: What's been made clear to me is that at that point, the CBP team that went in, in frustration said we're going in.

BROADDUS: The Justice Department now says it will review the law enforcement response, which Texas officials say deviated from Active Shooter protocols.

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

BROADDUS: Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez said President Biden told him that Robb Elementary School would possibly be raised and rebuilt. Gutierrez says there is a federal grant process for schools where there have been mass shootings.

GUTIERREZ: What kind of world are we living in that legislation was created for raising these schools?

BROADDUS: For too many Uvalde parents, those questions coming to late.

GARZA: No matter who is held responsible, it's not going to bring my daughter back.

BROADDUS: This is how those who love 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza will remember her, a decade of photo showing a happy girl with a sweet smile, described by family as sassy, funny, and a little diva who hated wearing dresses, memories of happier times, as her family, friends and community say goodbye during visitation and a rosary service.

GARZA: It brings me joy to know that she -- that I got an opportunity to have such a great daughter and, you know, I tried to be the best father that I could be.

BROADDUS: Just down the road, another grieving family says goodbye to Maite Rodriguez, also 10 years old.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love her that I miss her that I'm proud of her. She wanted to be a marine biologist before she could even say the word. She loved animals.

BROADDUS (on camera): So much potential. Maite's cousin told us her classmates called her a hero. They said she was brave, showing the other students in the room where to hide moments before that 18-year- old gunman entered their classroom and Maite's mother also said her daughter was her heartbeat. But it's the rhythm of this community that's helping her family and others move forward as they face their new reality. Life without the children and adults they loved. Adrienne Broaddus, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VAUSE: Former Special Agent Steve Moore spent 25 years with the FBI. He joins us now live from Los Angeles. OK, Steve, so can all of the blame for this hour long plus delay be placed on the commander at the scene, the chief of the Uvalde School District Police, who determined the gunman was not an active shooter, but rather a barricaded suspect. Can all the other law enforcement officers on the scene say they did nothing because they were just following orders?

STEVE MOORE, RETIRED SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT, FBI: That's going to be very difficult, very difficult to justify as you saw law enforcement officers at a certain point said no, we're not going to obey the orders.

[01:05:11]

So yes, that's what -- that's one of the things that the DOJ Critical Incident Response study is going to do. They're going to try to find out what they should have done, why they didn't do it. And we're going to get the answers to questions like that, but generally, on you -- if somebody gives you information or an order, which is going to result in deaths, and you know, it's an incorrect order, I believe you should act.

VAUSE: Who decided to the chief of the school district police was in charge anyway?

MOORE: Well, there's a thing called Critical Incident Command post, and there's a there's a set up order of rank as to who's going to be the critical incident commander on scene. And so this person just kind of assumed it because he was the school district chief, at least I assume that's what happened, and took it over as his incident and immediately made a series of tragic decisions.

VAUSE: How can he say that this was a barricaded suspect, not an active gunman?

MOORE: Not with a straight face. I mean, it's -- what bothers me is he had training in December five months ago, six months ago, and then he held training. He trained his officers in March. This, I have not met a single law enforcement officer or talk to them since this incident happens. And I talked to him a lot. Who says that this was a barricaded incident, barricaded subject, this isn't even close.

VAUSE: At one point, officials were claiming police did not have the right equipment. Back in 2018, though on Facebook, the Uvalde police department posted their gratitude to the state governor for passing a bill to outfit every Uvalde Police officer with level four body armor. This important piece of legislation provided funding to equip police officers with body armor rated to stop rifle rounds.

For the record, level four armor is tested to self-30 caliber steel core armor piercing rifle ammunition. Like the rounds being used to kill small children last Tuesday, it would seem they were not liking at least one crucial piece of kit. But even without the right equipment, law enforcement are expected to put themselves in harm's way to save others.

MOORE: That's right. That's right. I mean, your job as a law enforcement officer highly trained and armed is to trade your position and your safety with that have an untrained innocent child in that room with a shooter. One of -- either the child or you are going to have to face the shooter.

So there is no there is no excuse from a safety standpoint from not going in there. And by the way, John, we are not -- during active shooter responses, we're not even going to go back to the car to get our vest we are going to go in as we are because every minute the person is in there a life is lost on average.

And so you don't go back to your car. It's -- you don't -- you just go with what you have. And if you have to, that's enough. Some people say if you got one, it's enough. But you go in.

VAUSE: The protocol since Columbine has been run towards the gunfire, right?

MOORE: Yes.

VAUSE: It says acceptable.

MOORE: And it's simple. It's simple. You run to the gunfire and engage the shooter. And by the way, you're more highly trained than the shooter if you're a trained law enforcement officer, and you're shooting is going to take that person down before he can take you down. Is there a massive risk to you? Yes. Is there a massive risk to the children? It's an incalculable risk to the children.

VAUSE: It's also part of the job. What will be the end result of this Justice Department investigation? Is there a concern this cops investigating cops?

MOORE: Not this, no. That's why you go to the Department of Justice. First of all, I don't think that we would get a skewed report from Texas DPS necessarily. But in order for everybody to trust the report, you're going to need to have the DOJ who is an outside agency, look at it themselves and they will bring in police officers but not from Uvalde, not from Texas likely and they'll bring in tactical officers, they'll bring in FBI, SWAT guys tactical guys, and they will investigate this as deeply as they would the crime that was committed by the shooter. And they're going to find out every single detail to the second of who said what and what their motivation was.

[01:10:00]

VAUSE: It will be an interesting investigation or review see what they find. But yes, Steve, thank you. Steve Moore, former FBI special agent.

MOORE: Thanks John.

VAUSE: Thank you. Thank you, sir. U.S. President Joe Biden is optimistic lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will agree to new gun restrictions. His comments come a day after he traveled to Uvalde with the First Lady. He spent more than three hours meeting with the grieving families. Mr. Biden says as president, he's limited on what he can do on gun reform. But he's hopeful Congress might finally take action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: The Second Amendment was never absolute. You couldn't buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed. I think things have gotten so bad that everybody's getting more rational about it. At least that's my hope and prayer.

(END VIDE CLIP)

VAUSE: The two rational Republicans he mentioned we're Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican Senator John Cornyn, who says bipartisan talks on gun reform will continue this week with a virtual call scheduled on Tuesday.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now pushing to strengthen gun control. And a news conference on Monday he introduced legislation that is focused on handgun ownership. Trudeau said the fewer guns in the communities safer, everyone will be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: We're introducing legislation to implement a national freeze on handgun ownership. What this means is that it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada. In other words, we're capping the market for handguns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That new legislation would also require that long gun magazines be limited to no more than five rounds

EU leaders have agreed to an almost total ban on Russian oil imports by the end of the year as a response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, this comes after weeks of negotiations. The embargo is just one of many new penalties included in a six round of sanctions on Russia. Though the deal has some exceptions or EU leaders seem to agree on his principles. This according to European Commission president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: I'm very glad that the leaders were able to agree in principle on the six sanctions package. This is very important things to this council should now be able to finalize a ban on almost 90 percent of all Russian oil imports by the end of the year. This is an important step forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Live now to Hong Kong, CNN's Ivan Watson joins us now with the very latest on this. And this is significant, it is sweeping, and I guess the impact on the rest of the economy will be severe.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and but we can expect to feel it over time for months to come. But the six package of sanctions was announced late Monday night in Brussels, and it is hurting Russia's single biggest export.

Let's take a look at some of the numbers here.

In 2020, for example, Russia exported around $75 billion worth of crude oil. It's the second largest crude oil exporter in the world. And again, oil is the most valuable export in Russia's economy.

As far as the destinations for this oil, well, here are the figures as of January of this year, China buying the bulk of it, followed by four European countries which have all pledged now to stop buying this crude oil. The embargo begins immediately, according to these officials with shipped oil that comes in tankers.

And the leaders have announced that by the end of the year, Poland and Germany, for example, will stop importing oil through a pipeline called Druzhba that runs to the north. Meanwhile, there is one exemption for Hungary, which is a landlocked country, and relies almost completely on crude oil that comes from a Druzhba South pipeline.

The President of the European Council was saying that this is an example of European Union unity, and the Europeans looking tough when it comes to Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES MICHEL, EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT: That is a very strong signal that you sent today. Because the recent hours, the recent days, there were speculations about the risks for a lack of unity of European Union's unity. And I think it's more than ever, it's important to show that we are able to be strong, that we are able to be firm, that we are able to be tough in order to defend our values to defend our interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: John, the Europeans are also announcing sanctions against Russia's largest bank Sberbank. They're banning three Russian broadcasters and the reinsurance of Russian ships and they're also saying that they're going to be issuing grants of billions dollars to help prop up the Ukrainian government.

[01:15:04]

They're also saying that this is part of a larger move away from relying on Russian fossil fuels. And you've already seen the Germans putting a stop to a natural gas pipeline. This is in the first days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

So the trend is for Europe to be shifting away. And that's got to be a concern for the Kremlin right now, which has relied on European markets to pump this gas and oil to. Yes, India is buying some of these products. Yes, China is. But those markets are much further away for Russia, and it's going to present problems down the road. Also, those other markets are getting discounts on this vital Russian export. John. VAUSE: Ivan, thank you, CNN senior international correspondent, we appreciate it. Thank you. Earlier I spoke with CNN European Affairs commentator Dominic Thomas about the specifics of the ban on Russian oil is part of our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So this agreement came late Monday night after a marathon meeting in Brussels among member states. But before the deal was made, the President of the European Parliament talked about this need for unity issue.

ROBERTA METSOLA, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT: I really hope that there will be an agreement, we cannot afford there not to be in our aim needs to remain to disentangle ourselves from Russian energy. In essence, we should not be the ones to blink.

VAUSE: I mean, that is the question I guess in many ways. On the one hand, this is the most far reaching measure taken by the EU to punish Moscow so far. On the other, it's significantly scaled back from the original plan, which was to fail at or phase out all Russian oil imports within six months. Did they kind of Blink?

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Yes, John. They did. Because I think there's a distinction between unity and agreement. And the absolute imperative going into this in the summit was to achieve unity with a full understanding, as President Zelenskyy pointed out that the slightest indication of a kind of fracture in the united response of the European Union would give grounds to President Putin to exploit those.

And so with an understanding that countries like Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and so on at this particular stage, were unwilling to go on along with the 100 percent embargo. They went for the agreement model to compromise to try and kind of salvage that initial desire to achieve unity, and instead to kind of phase in the sanctions as they as they go along. But yes, John, they did blink.

VAUSE: OK, so after there was this agreement, the European Council President Charles Michel tweeted tonight, European Council agreed on a sixth package of sanctions, it will have a ban on oil imports from Russia, sanctions will immediately impact 75 percent of Russian oil imports. By the end of the year, 90 percent of the Russian oil imported in Europe will be banned. How much of a hit will this be to the Russian economy? And who will be paying the biggest price for this in Europe?

THOMAS: Yes, well, I think it's significant because as we've already pointed out, this comes on the heels of multiple rounds of sanctions that have hit, you know, frozen assets, you know, travel bans, banking regulations, and also, of course, on the heels of the existing gas sanctions and that are there.

So it's going to cost billions to the Russian economy, billions that are going into the militarization and the attack that they have launched on Ukraine, and also runs the risk of further destabilizing the Russian economy. We've already seen and President Putin for whom dollars and euros are worthless at this moment. There's nothing that he or his entourage can do with them to try and boost the ruble.

So there is some concern that. The big question is whether or not this is going to be enough to incentivize the Russian leader to come to the negotiating table in a meaningful way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: An adviser to Ukraine's president says military victory against Russia is unlikely if the U.S. refuses to supply long range artillery. The official says as few as 20 multiple launch rocket systems could be a game changer. But President Joe Biden has ruled out that request.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine?

BIDEN: We're not going to send to Urakine rocket systems that can strike into Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Russian forces are gaining ground in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, focusing much of their firepower on the city of Severodonetsk. Ukraine's Defense Ministry reports artillery strikes on much of the front line says the attacks have reached a maximum intensity, as the Russians appear to be trying to encircle Ukrainian troops in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Severodonetsk is said to be in ruins with two-thirds of the city's buildings destroyed. Ukrainian Russian troops said to be fighting street to street.

[01:20:00]

According to the Regional Governor, Russian troops have entered the outskirts of the city and have been met by Ukrainian fighters who are not backing down.

Moscow says it will not prevent grain exports from Ukrainian ports. The promise came in a phone call between the Russian and Turkish presidents Monday. The Kremlin says Russia emphasize the importance of safe navigation in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

On Friday, Ukraine's President accused Russia of blocking nearly half of its grain supply set for export and satellite images show Russian ships allegedly offloading stolen grain in Syrian ports.

Here in the United States, more than 2,000 flights were canceled over the Memorial Day weekend causing chaos a lot of frustration for travelers. CNN's Pete Muntean explains why there was so many issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Travelers and the airlines are facing a huge test right now not only is this the first major travel rush since the end of the transportation mass mandate, but airlines are being forced to cancel flights because they do not have enough workers.

FlightAware says airlines in the U.S. canceled hundreds more flights on Monday, more than 2,000 flights in total canceled in the U.S. since Friday. As so many people are coming back to traveling, the TSA screened 2.1 million people at airports across the country on Sunday. It anticipates when it's all said and done screening more than 2.2 million people on Monday.

These numbers about 90 percent of where we were back in 2019 before the pandemic and the TSA says as summer travel ramps up, we could see those numbers actually exceed pre-pandemic levels.

I want you to listen now to an interview I did with transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, where I asked him whether or not airlines are up for this big challenge.

PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: We saw a lot of airlines during the pandemic thinning out their schedules and thinning out their workforce not knowing when demand was going to return now faster than expected. The demand has come roaring back and they are struggling to keep up. That's true whether we're talking about flight attendant crews, whether we're talking about pilots, and so we've got to make sure that we have short term and long term approaches

MUNTEAN: One of those short term solutions airlines proactively canceling flights. Delta Airlines is one of the latest to make such an announcement saying it will shut about 100 flights a day from it's scheduled during the month of July.

Memorial Day is so much about driving and AAA anticipated 34.9 million people would drive 50 miles or more over the five days surrounding Memorial Day when gas prices are so sky high when you adjust those for inflation. The last time we saw gas prices this high was during Memorial Day 2012 at 10 year high. Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VAUSE: In the coming hours, U.S. President Joe Biden scheduled to discuss record high inflation with Fed Reserve chairman Jerome Powell. This meeting comes as Americans grapple with soaring prices from inflation not seen in decades. The Fed is under pressure to lower the inflation rate, cool the economy and not cause a recession.

Still ahead, Hurricane Agatha becomes a tropical storm but it's still a threat in southern Mexico. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis will have the very latest in a moment. Also, simmering tensions over Taiwan. Beijing's show of force in the island as a U.S. lawmaker visits Taipei. Details when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [01:27:21]

VAUSE: Just gone 27 minutes past the hour, and welcome back. Hurricane Agatha has been downgraded to a tropical storm and making landfall in the south of Mexico. But those strong winds and heavy rain are not quite over, at least not yet. Let's get the latest now from CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis. What's the forecast?

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we still have a long way to go with the system. Even though as you mentioned, it has been downgraded. But as you can see from this video, this coming out of that Southern Pacific coastline of Mexico, Puerto Escondido, we're seeing battering winds and a very heavy surf here. And so much rainfall already landslides and mudslides.

Now there's still the potential there. Even though it has been downgraded when it made landfall, it was the equivalent, it was a category two hurricane. Here's the latest information on it now supporting winds of 110 miles per hour. So it's just below that hurricane intensity. But it's going to ring out across this South Central sections of Mexico.

Right over here on the other side into the Bay of Campeche, that's about an eight-hour drive. But even though the remnants are going to move across this region, National Hurricane Center says there's a pretty good chance over the next five days that this may actually develop into something more substantial.

And the computer models are suggesting that this remnant area of low pressure could be a tropical development has about a 50 percent likelihood. All right, this made landfall Agatha, right around 4:00, that is local time, it had the equivalent speed of 105 miles per hour, or just under 178 kilometers per hour.

Now most of the heavy rainfall is along that western edge usually think that's wrapped around moisture, so the equivalent around the center of that hurricane. But no, most of this is just kind of blown over on that western edge.

And as a result, that's where we will see some of the heaviest precipitation, precipitation amounts of between 250 millimeters and 500 millimeters or about 10 to 20 inches of rainfall.

Right here this is where we have those tropical storm warnings out for some of those coastal areas. And here's that area we're talking about right along that Yucatan Peninsula in the next five days, John, a 50/50 chance we could see some further development. Back to you.

VAUSE: Karen, thank you for the update. Karen Maginnis there with the very latest from the CNN Weather Center.

Well, the death toll is rising from landslides and floods in northeastern Brazil. At least 91 people have died after several days of intense rainfall. More than two dozen are still missing.

President Jair Bolsonaro said the worst of the damage from the air when he toured the region by helicopter. Nearly 4,000 homes have been destroyed since the heavy rains began last week.

When we come back, CNN meets with Ukrainian fighters defending territory directly in the crosshairs of the Russian army. While a neighboring city is now mostly in ruins.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:29:44]

VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the death toll is rising from landslides and floods in northeastern Brazil. At least 91 people have died after several days of intense rainfall. More than two dozen are still missing.

President Jair Bolsonaro saw the worst of the damage from the air when he toured the region by helicopter. Nearly 4,000 homes have been destroyed since the heavy rains began last week.

When we come back, CNN meets with Ukrainian fighters defending territory directly in the crosshairs of the Russian Army while a neighboring city is now mostly in ruins.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: It's just gone 34 minutes past the hour.

Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

Ukraine's defense ministry says Russian air strikes in the Donbas region has reached maximum intensity with shelling on much of the frontline. Moscow now has its sights set on Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region. But not far away Russian forces are closing in on another key city.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has our report.

[01:34:56]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the last road into Lysychansk. Putin's forces have moved with rare focus here and may soon encircle the pocket of two cities on a river we're driving into.

The Ukrainian forces we saw here mobile, tense, at times edgy. And this is why. Across the river here the besieged city of Severodonetsk, increasingly more in Russian hands, whoever you ask.

We can hear the crackle of gunfire down towards the river below.

(on camera): We were told the Russians have tried already to get into town. And it looks like we might be witnessing another attempt over there, that smoke near one of the remaining bridges into the city.

(voice over): Our police escorts shout drone, often used to direct artillery attacks. We are on high ground, exposed and scatter.

It is a tale of two desperations here, that which makes people stay and that which makes them finally flee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've not slept for three months.

WALSH: Leonid is the latter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shooting. Windows shaking. It's a catastrophe. One man told me the Germans in the war were better.

WALSH: Some who stay are increasingly angry of what's left of the Ukrainian state here. A young woman was killed here a day earlier by a shell. And locals told us not to film saying cameras attracted shelling.

Russia's bloody persistence and unbridled firepower is bringing the kind of victory in the ruins they seem to cherish.

This cinema was a bomb shelter, local officials said. It's unclear if when their huge air strike hit that the Russian military was aware it had been empty days earlier.

(on camera): Just startling how whole chunks of this cinema had been thrown into the crater there. This is just the ferocity of the air strikes we're seeing here designed simply to get people out of this town.

(voice over): Those who stay among the shards of glass feel abandoned already.

ANYA, LYSYCHANSK, UKRAINE RESIDENT (through translator): Many, many people but there is no gas or water or power or anything. We ask the aide workers today when it will all come back and they said there are only prostitutes, junkies and alcoholics left. That means the aide workers have left here.

WALSH: Lydia is carefully picking up the pieces of the air strike which she felt the full force of in her apartment eight floors up.

"There's an old lady on the first floor and me with my disabled son," she says. He doesn't really understand the war is happening."

Retreat lingers in the empty air. If Putin takes here he may claim he's achieved some of his reduced goals in this invasion.

It's now the unenviable choice of Ukraine's leaders if this is the hill its men and women will die on.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN -- Lysychansk, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Another journalist has been killed while covering the war in Ukraine. Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff worked for the French news channel BFMTV, an affiliate of CNN. The French president tweeted that Leclerc- Imhoff had been traveling with civilians fleeing by bus the Russian military.

According to BFMTV the 32-year-old died in Severodonetsk while he's in the region. The Ukrainian president says 32 journalists have been killed while covering the war. He paid his respects to Leclerc-Imhoff during his nightly address.

When we come back, justice Cuban-style. Two activists on trial behind closed doors in Havana. Could this be the start of a renewed government crackdown on political dissent?

[01:38:57]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: A show of force above Taiwan with Beijing sending dozens of war planes into the island's Air Defense Identification Zone. Same day a U.S. delegation led by Senator Tammy Duckworth arrived in Taipei. The unannounced visit drew backlash from China's embassy in Washington which urged the U.S. to stop, quote, "all official interactions with Taiwan".

This comes amid heightened tensions in the region especially after President Joe Biden's controversial comments about American policy towards the island.

More now from CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live in Hong Kong.

And you know, one way to annoy or get Beijing outside (ph) is to send an official delegation to Taipei.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And as a result you have that annoyance factor and you have Taiwan drawing ever closer into the orbit of the United States. You have this unannounced U.S. bipartisan congressional visit, a three-day visit taking place right now in Taiwan being led by the U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.

They've already met with the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-Wen. In fact they met just a few hours ago. As expected they discussed matters of regional security as well as economic cooperation and trade. And Tsai Ing-Wen made sure to thank Senator Duckworth for America's support on security as well as America's donations of COVID-19 vaccines throughout the pandemic.

I want you to listen to this from the Taiwan president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TSAI ING-WEN, TAIWANESE PRESIDENT (through translator): We look forward to deeper and closer U.S.-Taiwan relations in matters of regional security. At the same time to address the challenges of the post pandemic era. Taiwan and the U.S. have reviewed and assessed the many facets of our trade cooperation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Well, Senator Duckworth added that she hopes to make this visit an annual one, adding that Taiwan is not alone.

[01:44:51]

STOUT: Now, China has already reacted angrily to this unannounced bipartisan U.S. congressional visit through remarks that were delivered by a spokesman of the Chinese embassy in the United States.

They said that they firmly oppose this visit. They also said this, "We urge the U.S. side to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three Sino-U.S. Joint Communiques, handle Taiwan related issues in a cautious and proper way, stop all forms of official interactions with Taiwan and avoid sending wrong signals to the Taiwan independent separatist forces," unquote.

The visit comes right on the back of the U.S. President's recent visit to the region in which U.S. President Joe Biden said, yes, that the U.S. would militarily intervene if China were to try to take Taiwan, something that he said in the past and something that the White House had to down-play again.

China reacted angrily to that statement, and tension is rising. In fact on Monday, according to Taiwan's defense ministry, you had 30 Chinese war planes make incursions into Taiwan's air defense zone.

And that has sparked some very worrying response from one minister of parliament in Taiwan. He took to Twitter to say this. Now this is Wang Ting-Yu. He said, "The more China does this the sooner the we become used to it and will become increasingly difficult to determine if China is just doing their routine exercises or are they preparing to launch an attack on Taiwan?" This is, he says, a very worrying trend.

Taiwan's president has vowed to maintain peace but will defend Taiwan if necessary. And China claims Taiwan is part of its own territory which could be taken by force if necessary.

Back to you.

VAUSE: Kristie, thank you. Kristie Lu Stout live in Hong Kong.

Trials began Monday in a closed Havana courtroom for two of Cuba's most prominent anti-government dissidents. Both men were detained last year after widespread anti-government protests. Both are now facing years in prison.

Our man in Havana is Patrick Oppmann.

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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is the highest profile trial of anti-government opposition activists that we have seen in Cuba in years.

The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and a rapper known as Osorbo are believed to be going on trial in Havana starting on Monday. It's expected to be a several-day trial and they're facing serious charges of potentially lengthy jail sentences for their activism. The government -- the Cuban government has not said much about these trials of the rapper known as Osorbo who was locked up last year shortly before the widespread anti-government protests took place in July. And Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, a very famous artist, who's led the charge against government censorship here in the arts, was locked up, detained on the first day of the protests as he was going to take place in the protests before.

The media that has tried to cover these trials it is essentially impossible because there's been a blackout up until now in the Cuban state-run media and for the press trying to go and cover the trials.

They have been met with police barricades both international press and diplomats that have been trying to attend the trial have been told that the trials are closed to everyone but close relatives of these two men.

The Cuban government is taking something of a risk by putting these men on trial because in times past when this artist, this dissident artist Otero Alcantara has been detained, we have seen fellow artists and students go out and stage sit-ins demanding his release.

This time around though, the Cuban government seems to be indicating that they will not put up with any dissent, that the era of detaining dissidents and then releasing them when the outcry became too much is over.

And now they appear to be pursuing lengthy jail sentences against these two outspoken critics of the Cuban government.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN -- Havana.

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VAUSE: Well, after violence and clashes marked yet another Jerusalem Day march calls are going to outlaw two extremist groups believed to be stoking tensions with the Palestinians. More on that with a report from Jerusalem in a moment.

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VAUSE: Israeli police have detained two suspects for allegedly assaulting a journalist on Sunday in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Sunday saw the annual Jerusalem Day march which include parts of the old city which as often the case, it led to clashes.

And now some within the Israeli government are talking about bans on two groups involved in some extremist activity.

CNN's Hadas Gold now reports in from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Condemnations and calls to outlaw two extremist Jewish groups in Israel after violence erupted at Sunday's Jerusalem Day Flag march. More than 70,000 people took to the streets of Jerusalem to commemorate when Israeli took control of East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 war.

But in recent years the march has become a magnet for far right extremists. On Sunday, violence broke out in the streets of the old city between marchers and Palestinians, some of them chanting things like "death to Arabs" and some of them waving the flags of extremist groups like Lehava and La Familia.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett condemned what he said was a minority trying to set the area ablaze. Foreign minister Yair Lapid saying in several tweets that such people don't deserve to carry the Israeli flag saying instead of a day of joy, they try to turn it into a day of hatred.

Now there are growing calls to outlaw these groups by designating them as terrorist organizations.

BENNY GANTZ, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): As defense minister I also think the time has come to reexamine the designation of organizations like La Familia and Lehava as terror organizations.

I know this issue is on the doorsteps of the various security organizations and I rely on them to carry out the examination in the cleanest and best way.

GOLD: Israel's public security minister Omer Bar Lev joining Gantz's calls to outlaw these groups saying they are harming Israel's security.

Now, the question will be whether these denunciations and calls will actually turn into real action.

Hadas Gold, CNN -- Jerusalem.

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VAUSE: The governing body of European Football UEFA has commissioned an independent review of the event outside the Stade de France before, during and after the Champions League finals, including why and how so many fans tried to force their way into the stadium and the police's use of tear gas in response.

The French interior minister says a large number of fake tickets is to blame for the trouble which delayed the match by more than half an hour. He noted that as many as 40,000 English fans were at the stadium either without a ticket or with a counterfeit ticket.

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GERALD DARMANIN, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER: What we have observed is massive industrial scale and organized fraud concerning fake tickets. According to the pre-screening conducted by stadium staff, the Stade de France, and the French Football Federation forecasted nearly 70 percent of all tickets were faked upon entry to the Stade de France.

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VAUSE: He added the French government regretted the disorganization in the reception of the British supporters unlike the Spanish supporters. Britain's prime minister added that he's hugely disappointed in how Liverpool fans were treated.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.

Rosemary Church up, after the break.

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