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Uvalde Incident Commander Had No Radio during Massacre; U.S. Gun Debate; January 6 Investigation; Russia's War on Ukraine; China's Brutal COVID-19 Enforcers; Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee; Tropical Storm Alex. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired June 04, 2022 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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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.
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, a chilling 9-1-1 call during a Texas school massacre. A child revealing, quote, "a lot of bodies" in the classroom, pleading for help as officers failed to storm in.
After 100 days of war, Russia continues to press forward in the Donbas.
And some of the harshest COVID-19 restrictions remain in China. Why the brutal behavior of the workers enforcing it have many people concerned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: The mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was an unthinkable tragedy, 19 young students, two teachers gunned down. But now we're hearing more chilling details about police failures on that terrible day.
A state senator says the incident commander, police chief Pete Arredondo, did not have a police radio on him at the time of the shooting. We're also getting new information about a desperate 9-1-1 call, made by a 10-year-old student while the shooter stalked the building. CNN's Ed Lavandera with the latest.
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New questions raised in the investigation of the deadly school shooting in Uvalde.
Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez says School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo didn't have a radio with him at the scene, something that may have hindered his ability to communicate directly with police dispatchers.
STATE SEN. ROLAND GUTIERREZ (D-TX): I have been told that this person did not have, this person being the incident commander, did not have radio communication and I don't know as to why.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Gutierrez says he learned the school district chief didn't have a radio from a law enforcement official at DPS. CNN has reached out to Uvalde police and the school district for comment on Gutierrez's statements and to Chief Arredondo to confirm if he had a radio, but we have not heard back.
Arredondo is facing serious criticism for making the call to not send officers sooner into the adjoining classrooms where the gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.
GUTIERREZ: I don't think any of us need to be rational people or policemen to understand active shooter protocol says you go in. You go in immediately.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Gutierrez says he wants to know more about what was happening at Robb Elementary School on that day, including what information was relayed to first responders on the campus from the 9-1-1 calls made inside the school.
Like this one from a transcript reviewed by "The New York Times" from 10-year-old student Khloie Torres who survived the massacred.
She says, "There is a lot of bodies -- I don't want to die. My teacher is dead, my teacher is dead, please send help, send help for my teacher. She is shot but still alive."
Torres' call lasted for 17 minutes. According to the transcript, 11 minutes into it, the sound of gunfire could be heard.
The senator says he was told by the Commission on State Emergency Communications that the 9-1-1 calls were replayed to the city's police force. What remains unclear is whether or not that information was given to the school district police chief, Pete Arredondo.
Questions have also been raised over how the gunman got into the school. Initially, investigators said it was through a propped open door.
An attorney for educator Emilia Marin says she was the one who propped open the door while helping a co-worker carry in items but that she did shut the door when she heard her co-workers running and heard people yelling, he's got a gun.
Marin, who ran to a nearby classroom to hide survived, but her attorney says, in the days that followed, she was overcome with emotions thinking she may not have closed the door after all.
DON FLANARY, ATTORNEY FOR EMILIA MARIN: It really shocked her. It hurt her. It scared her. It even made her second guess her own memories. And so, the rangers had to tell her, no, we've looked at the video. You didn't do anything wrong and still she was worried. LAVANDERA (voice-over): Authorities testified last week that the door didn't lock after Marin kicked it shut.
LAVANDERA: Preliminary death certificates were released today for 20 of the 21 victims in this shooting. Even though we knew all of them died from gunshot wounds, it really is the first official documentation that details the gruesome nature of this attack.
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LAVANDERA: And in those documents it said the vast majority of these victims had been struck by multiple gunshots -- Ed Lavandera, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.
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HOLMES: Now as you heard in Ed's report, the attack had been going on for more than half an hour when that 10-year-old called 9-1-1, pleading to be rescued. Questions growing, of course, over how much Uvalde's police department knew about calls coming from inside the classroom.
The police department's actions and inactions have infuriated many law enforcement professionals. CNN law enforcement analyst Anthony Barksdale weighs in.
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ANTHONY BARKSDALE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It's sickening that this chief, the incident commander, was so ill-prepared to deal with this. And I have so many questions.
You're still hearing shots. You're still a green light for an active shooter situation. There was no justification that this should have moved to a hostage barricade situation. They should have kept going after the shooter, deep concerns, sickening that this chief didn't have a radio as an incident commander.
When you run the incident command system and you choose to be incident commander, it is for command, control and coordination. How the hell are you the incident commander without your radio? This is -- it's just unacceptable.
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HOLMES: CNN law enforcement analyst Anthony Barksdale.
A Trump adviser, Peter Navarro, has been indicted for refusing to cooperate with the House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. He faces two counts of contempt of Congress, one for not producing documents demanded by the committee and the other for failing to show up for subpoenaed testimony.
Navarro is the second former Trump aide to be charged with contempt of Congress after Steve Bannon. But the investigation dealt a major blow when the Department of Justice revealed on Friday that it will not indict two other former Trump White House officials. CNN's Ryan Nobles with the latest for us from the Capitol.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Department of Justice informing the January 6th select committee it will not indict the former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows or his deputy Dan Scavino for criminal contempt of Congress, despite that the two men did not comply with the subpoena request.
This is a blow to the committee as they try to put some weight behind the subpoenas they've handed down. They still have a number of subpoenas outstanding at this point, including five subpoenas for Republican members of Congress, that these Republican members have defied up until this point. And the committee has not said how they plan to enforce.
While that was certainly a blow to the committee to lose out on the Meadows and Scavino subpoenas and criminal contempt referrals, they did have some success in that Peter Navarro, a former White House trade advisor, openly defiant of the subpoena, was indicted by the Department of Justice and will now face criminal prosecution.
And if convicted, he could face up to two years in prison and fines of around $200,000. This all comes at an important time for the committee. They begin their hearings, their big public hearings, Thursday of next week; the first one in prime time, 8:00 pm Eastern.
That's where the committee promises they will reveal much of what they've been working on behind closed doors, essentially lay the groundwork for what will be a month's worth of hearings on a number of topics, different parts of their investigation and what they have learned.
This could be an important part of their public relations strategy as they try to reinvest the American people into what happened here on January 6th and why there needs to be changes and people held accountable. Of course, they're still planning on issuing a final report sometime this fall -- Ryan Nobles, CNN on Capitol Hill.
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HOLMES: Joining me now to talk about the January 6th hearings and gun control, CNN's senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.
I want to start with this, the gun issue. Chris Jacobs, he's a Republican representative from Buffalo, where that gunman massacred people at a supermarket. So he comes out after that and calls for an assault weapons ban.
And within days, his re-election campaign is destroyed with a backlash from his own party.
It really does say everything about the chances of gun law reform in Washington, doesn't it? RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, it says everything you need to know about the evolution of the Republican Party.
You know when we passed the assault weapon ban in the U.S. in 1994, when Joe Biden was still in the Senate, 38 House Republicans voted for it, 10 Senate Republicans. When George W. Bush ran for president in 2000 --
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BROWNSTEIN: -- people forget this -- he promised to sign an extension if Congress would pass one.
Of course, the Republican controlled Congress didn't and he allowed it to die. But that's a reflection how much this issue has moved within the Republican Party.
And it's not necessarily a shift of opinion within the coalition. If you look at polling even as recently as last year from the Pew Research Center, a majority of Republicans who don't own guns still support the two things that that congressman said he would move toward: high-capacity magazines and a ban on assault weapons.
But opposition is enormous to those ideas on Republicans who do own guns. And their influence in the party, I think, has only grown over the past quarter century, as Republicans have become more dependent on the votes from the most culturally conservative parts of the country, a change in motion before Trump, which he accelerated.
And the irony, even as the National Rifle Association gets weaker as an institution, its hold on the Republican Party is getting stronger because of the changes in the Republican coalition itself.
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HOLMES: Yes, all right -- absolutely. And just worth pointing out, there have been 20 mass shootings since Uvalde. That's incredible, 20 in the few days since that one.
Let's talk January 6th, the committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol. A new public phase, if you like, prime time hearings next week.
What do you expect, blockbuster or theater?
BROWNSTEIN: I expect blockbuster. This committee has been really well run. By and large, it has not put the cart ahead of the horse. I mean the information we've gotten from them have mostly been through legal filings they've submitted to try and obtain more information.
They've done an enormous amount of interviewing. They've assembled an enormous amount of documentary evidence. And they are indicating there are going to be kind of shocking revelations here.
And I -- as well as probably the most coherent attempt we have had yet to piece this all together and show how the violence on January 6th was part of a much broader effort to undermine the election. I think it's going to be eye-opening for a lot of people if they're willing to have their eyes opened.
HOLMES: Well, that's true, of course.
The other thing, too, if Republicans take back control of Congress in November, time could well be up for the committee. Republicans will shut it down.
How much pressure is there on Democrats to get as much of the committee's work finished and public ahead of the midterms?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, ahead of the changeover in Congress, absolutely. I think there's no doubt Republicans are going to shut down this committee. They've been trying to shut it down.
It's extraordinary to see members of Congress itself refusing to comply with a, you know, request for information and subpoenas from a committee, in a body in which they serve.
It's really, I think, the extent to which Republican leaders in Congress have tried to undermine this committee and normalize what happened on January 6th by portraying any investigation of it as sort of partisanship as usual, you know, dismissing the whole thing as an attempt for partisan gain by Democrats.
It's, on the one hand, shocking and on the other hand, based on everything we've seen over the last five years, not shocking. But in either case, I think it's a very good indication of where you can expect any interest in covering Trump's role and what happened January 6th as the Republicans take over in November.
HOLMES: A lot of people I've talked to in the last four or five years have said nothing ever happens. I think it's fair to say no one in power has been able to account for January 6th or other misdeeds over the Trump years.
Do you think from what we've seen and heard so far, when it comes to the insurrection, that will change in terms of people in power?
BROWNSTEIN: You know, I forget who said it but someone described a coup without consequence as practice. And I think there's a lot of truth to that.
I mean, people who study the strongmen, the rise of strongmen around the world say the single most important thing in defending democracy is to impose consequences for attempts to undermine it.
So I don't know the answer about whether there will ultimately be consequences. That really depends on the grand jury investigating in Fulton County, Georgia, but even more on the Justice Department.
I mean, the Justice Department should not be relying on a county prosecutor in Georgia to establish consequences that it is unwilling to pursue themselves. It is hard to believe from the -- the evidence already has been
presented by this January 6th committee, that there is no one at the highest -- higher levels of power, who should not be charged on -- on their actions around January 6th.
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BROWNSTEIN: But we don't really have a feeling about whether Merrick Garland and ultimately Joe Biden have the stomach for a prosecution that would be portrayed on the Right inexorably as politicizing -- as criminalizing political difference.
HOLMES: Which shouldn't be part of the equation. If it was wrong, it was wrong.
Wish we had more time, but we got to leave it there. Ron Brownstein, thanks so much as always.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, Michael.
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HOLMES: One hundred days and counting of brutal conflict. Ukraine says the city of Slovyansk appears to be the next target of Russian aggression. We'll have the latest when we come back.
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HOLMES: Russia's military has been attacking Ukraine now for more than 100 days. Neither side showing any sign of giving up. The International Red Cross says the level of destruction defies comprehension.
The most intense fighting is centered on Sievierodonetsk. Moscow continues to press its relentless assault across the Donbas region. Ukraine says Russian troops are amassing for a renewed assault on the key city of Slovyansk.
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HOLMES: But to the south, Ukraine claims its forces have progressed in the Kherson region, reclaiming several kilometers of previously Russian occupied territory.
The human toll in Ukraine almost incalculable, of course. Some 12 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced by the fighting, according to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
And even if the war ended right now, many of those people, of course, would have no home to return to. In the capital, there's almost a surreal sense of normality, however. More now from CNN's Matthew Chance. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you are joining me here in the heart of the Ukrainian capital. You could see, 100 days after the start of this war with Russia and life seems to have returned to some degree of normality.
That's right, isn't it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CHANCE: It has gotten a bit better. Right.
People are here at lunchtime. They are in this lovely cafe. They're ordering their lunches and they're having coffees out on the street, just like it was before February the 24th, when the Russians attacked.
But, of course, behind all of this, you've got to remember the massive price that Ukraine has paid 20 percent of the country's territory has now been occupied by Russian forces. That's according to the Ukrainian president. There have been countless casualties, deaths. There's no exact figure.
But when you talk about soldiers and civilians on both sides, the estimates run into tens of thousands of people who have been killed, who have lost their lives and then there are millions more who have been uprooted, 12 million internally displaced people as a result of the fighting.
Ukrainian officials that we've spoken to said 5 million people have actually left the country, many of them to Russia. Ukrainian officials accused Russia of forcibly evacuating hundreds of thousands of people from Ukrainian territory into the territory of the Russian Federation.
And despite all this calm here, you can see elsewhere in Ukraine the military situation is very dire indeed. There is fierce fighting taking place in the east of the country in Donbas, where there is a battle still underway for control of the city of Severodonetsk, which is now 80 percent under Russian control.
And, of course, there is a counteroffensive underway as well with Ukrainian forces trying to take back territory that has already been conquered by Russian forces into the south of Donbas as well. So a lot of dynamism, a lot of ebb and flow between the two sides still.
And even 100 days after this conflict began there is no sign of it coming to an end, because both sides, both the Russians and Ukrainians, appear to be digging in for very long fight -- back to you.
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HOLMES: Now the U.S. has been portraying the Ukrainian war as an epic geopolitical struggle between democracy and autocracy. I spoke about this with political science professor Steven Fish.
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STEVEN FISH, UC BERKELEY: I think it actually has. For the better part of the 21st century, democrats, defenders of democracy around the world, have really been on the defensive. It seems autocracy has been advancing.
And it's been advancing on some claims that autocrats and would-be autocrats make, such that, for example, decisions are made more swiftly, and you can make better decisions not constrained by interest groups and public opinion and opposition parties in autocracies.
We now see how disastrous it can be when the top leader is not constrained. There's nobody around Putin to tell him not to take this position. So he made this colossally stupid decision, which was based on ridiculous assumptions that the Ukrainians would greet Russian troops as liberators and nobody would stop them.
Meanwhile in the democracies, the guys under constant pressure from their own electorates like Biden are making masterful decisions and showing the competence of their side.
What's more, corruption in the armed forces, which is a hallmark of autocracy, has undermining Russian fighting forces' capacity. Putin has a really very incompetent military and is being held back by vastly under numbered Ukrainian forces.
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FISH: Democracy is looking much better than it used to.
HOLMES: And morale through the floor on the Russian side.
Sanctions, of course, in place; many Western stores are closed, a lot of Western products most of them gone from the shelves and so on. But many harsher sanctions, on everything from spare parts to military technology, they're yet to fully hit.
How much of the fallout from the war has begun to hit street level, hit pockets, if you like?
And what could happen if it gets worse?
FISH: It has actually begun to hit people's pockets as you mention. But as you also say, the worst is yet to come.
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FISH: Look, we know in the States how hard it is to live under 8 percent inflation. That's what we've got right now.
And, of course, inflation is high all over the world. But in Russia it's running close to 20 percent. That's already affecting people's pocketbooks in a big way. And it's bound to rise. Inflation is going to rise. Russia is teetering on the edge of default.
After default, it's going to be almost impossible for it to gain, to borrow any money on global capital markets. That means no growth, higher unemployment; it means shoddy government services.
And this is going to be -- this is the new normal for Russians. So you know, I do think this is actually going to take a toll on support for Putin and for the war and especially as people grow weary over the months and the sanctions bite even more deeply.
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HOLMES: University of California Professor Steven Fish speaking to us a short time ago.
Now Russian President Putin, he's pushing back against accusations he's using food as a weapon of war. Ukraine says half of its grain exports are held up because of Russia's blockade of its ports.
Putin says Russia is not stopping Ukraine from exporting its food. Rather he told a state broadcaster, Ukraine, mind its own ports, not Russia. The Russian president also says Russia can increase its grain production next year to help fill gaps in global supply.
China's COVID enforcers are known as Big Whites and their pandemic policing efforts are sending shock waves through the country. We'll have a report on that after the break.
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HOLMES: The U.S. could soon get a new COVID vaccine option. Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will meet next week to discuss adding doses made by the company Novavax.
Data provided show the vaccine's efficacy was around 90 percent. It was administered in two doses three weeks apart and a possible third shot after six months. The report shows most reactions were mild to moderate and lasted just a few days.
North Korea has anticipated an offer of vaccines from China. In fact, COVAX scaled back North Korea's allotment in February because the country failed to arrange any shipments.
North Korea has also failed to respond to vaccine offers from the U.S. and South Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said earlier this week that conditions were improving, a claim quickly disputed by the World Health Organization.
Now China itself has seen some easing of pandemic restrictions. But many of its stringent zero-COVID policies are still in place, enforced by workers clad in hazmat suits and known as the Big Whites. As CNN reports, now their brutal behavior is shocking the nation. A word of warning, viewers might find some of the images disturbing.
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SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a common sight in China, armies of COVID workers and full bodied white protective gear. Shanghai may be exiting its harsh lockdown but China's COVID war is not over.
Since lockdowns began in cities across China, hazmat suit workers have become symbols to many of brutality and authoritarian excess. In this Shanghai community, a COVID worker repeatedly beats a man with a stick.
This COVID worker forcefully shoves a woman to the ground. She hits the pavement that clutches her head in pain. In another video, a COVID worker kicks and slaps a man to the ground.
And a brigade of COVID enforcers drag this woman out of her apartment in Shanghai. She screams that she will go with them if she can just get her shoes. She tries to resist with all her strength but in vain.
CNN was not able to verify the identities of the people involved or the circumstances in these videos or even if they all related to COVID control and authorities did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Most of the Big Whites are health care workers, volunteers and police officers genuinely trying to help their communities. While extreme violence from these COVID enforcers is rare, these viral videos have sparked outrage underscoring people's growing frustrations with Chinese zero COVID policy.
This video in particular horrified Shanghai residents earlier when they were locked down. It shows nine police officers in hazmat suits, surrounding a man in a Shanghai community, with some relentlessly beating and kicking him.
He tries to run away but they catch him and continue to throw their punches. CNN geolocated where this meeting happened. I called the local police station.
WANG: And so she seems to have seen the video. She knows that the video exists she says she's going to call over her colleague who's going to give me a call back.
WANG (voice-over): But I never got the call back, so I tried again.
WANG: (Speaking foreign language).
He told me that this never happened.
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WANG: And then he just hung up.
WANG (voice-over): This isn't the image of COVID control that China wants. This is more desirable. Government propaganda has called COVID enforcers "Big Whites," a nod to the cute and inflatable robot from "Big Hero 6."
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WANG (voice-over): Like Baymax, the Big Whites in state media videos are lifting people spirits, they're leading dances and quarantine centers, helping the elderly even climbing ladders to deliver COVID tests.
But the innocent image of the "Big Whites," solely by the horrific behavior of some, were possibly empowered by the anonymity under their white suits.
Numerous videos showed them beating residents, barricading them in their homes, breaking doors to take people to quarantine, climbing into houses through windows to disinfect, even beating pets to death.
Chinese social media have even started calling the COVID enforcers White Guards, referring to the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution through savagely beat, tortured and killed.
But most of these videos of brutality from the Big Whites are gone, censored from Chinese social media. In their place are fluffy heroes. But the "Big Whites'" cruelty, already seared in just so many minds, shaking people's faith in the Chinese government -- Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.
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HOLMES: Fears of a recession might be lingering over the U.S. economy, but new jobs are hardly in short supply. Still ahead, job creation steams ahead, despite the impacts of high inflation.
Plus, the U.K. gives its thanks to the queen. Hundreds of people gathered at St. Paul's Cathedral to share their appreciation for Britain's longest reigning monarch. More on the jubilee after the break.
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HOLMES: The U.S. economy keeps churning out new jobs, despite turbulence on Wall Street. Employers added 390,000 jobs in May. That's lower than the previous few months but still more than twice the monthly average from before the pandemic.
The employment rate -- the unemployment rate remains at 3.6 percent, which is near record lows. But inflation is near 40-year highs, raising fears of a recession. Now the high inflation rate, along with staff shortages, throwing a wrench in summer plans for many Americans.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has a look at how the hospitality industry is managing all of that.
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BRIAN KNOEBEL, CO-OWNER, KNOEBLE'S AMUSEMENT RESORT: We got a steam powered carousel and a food stand and a couple of games of chance. And little by little, we're now 60 rides.
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since 1926, Knoebel's Amusement Resort in rural Central Pennsylvania has been a summer tourist destination.
KNOEBEL: See the train slowing down, so there should be some squirrels around.
YURKEVICH: Or little chipmunks. Oh, little chipmunks.
KNOEBEL: Have a little chipmunk. Yes.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): The park is free to enter and rides like the Pioneer train or pay as you go. But even prices at this family run park surrounded by idyllic farmland aren't exempt from high inflation.
KNOEBEL: The rising cost of everything from, gasoline to chicken to rolls electricity. We had to increase our prices.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Inflation is gripping the nation's pocketbook with prices at a four-decade high, a pain point for President Biden as most Americans are sour on the economy. Still an estimated 39 million Americans were expected to travel Memorial Day weekend, most by car up from last year.
TIMOTHY DOWHOWER, MARKETING DIRECTOR, SUSQUEHANNA RIVER VALLEY VISITORS BUREAU: When I hear inflation, that's where we're going to spend our ad more locally. So that's where we're going to be focusing on the backyard tourists. The locals will spend more reaching people within a two-to-three-hour range.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): People like Rebecca Kent, who usually makes a day trip from Philadelphia. She says gas prices won't cut her summer plan. They'll just be scaled back.
REBECCA KENT, PARK VISITOR: The one year we were coming up here, I think we made it up here 26 times in the summer.
YURKEVICH: Do you think you're going to dial it back a little bit?
KENT: Not 26 but probably pretty close to a dozen or more.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Valerie Bloom says she's being mindful of higher prices elsewhere like groceries so she can still give her kids a great summer, meaningful after two years of COVID.
VALERIE BLOOM, PARK VISITOR: What are you going to do?
I mean, like, you got to live, you got to have, yes, have fun, it's summertime. YURKEVICH (voice-over): But more customers mean the need for more workers. Despite rising wages, labor shortages persist with a near record 11.4 million open jobs in the U.S. And inflation is hitting employees here too. So the park is launching a cost-effective shuttle to save employees gas money and ensure the park is staffed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's more money in the employees' pockets.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): In smaller communities, places like this are economic drivers, supporting other businesses in town.
KIMBERLY COOPER, DOLLAR GENERAL MANAGER, ELYSBURG: For our success here in town is pretty critical of our sales will go up once they start.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): And despite also having to raise prices in store, Kimberly Cooper says the crowds are still coming and buying.
COOPER: It doesn't seem to have made a difference here so far this year.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN.
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HOLMES: Royal festivities in honor of Queen Elizabeth's historic 70- year reign are going on as planned, despite Her Majesty being unable to attend some events. On Friday, the royal family, along with hundreds of others, gathered in St. Paul's Cathedral to give thanks to Britain's longest reigning monarch during her Platinum Jubilee. Max Foster has more from London.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bells toll for the queen, as guests arrive at St. Paul's Cathedral in London for the Thanksgiving service, including former PMs, the mayor of London and ministers.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also in attendance, receiving boos from the crowd. Perhaps the most notorious guests were Prince Harry and Meghan, welcomed with cheers in what was their first public appearance as a couple at a royal events in two years since a very public break from royal life.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge make their way to the cathedral next, closely followed by the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles. He was there to represent the queen in this celebration after the monarch felt discomfort after Thursday's events.
As the queen watched from Windsor Castle, Charles took her seat, one that he's ordained to one day take himself as king. But even in her absence, the queen's public service, her life and even her love for horse racing were at the heart of this event.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your Majesty, we are sorry that you're not here with us this morning. But we are so glad that you are still in the saddle.
FOSTER (voice-over): A touching service enchanted by the cathedral and Royal and military choirs and prayers.
BORIS JOHNSON, PRIME MINISTER OF U.K.: Keep on doing --
FOSTER (voice-over): And even a reading from the prime minister himself.
But the ceremony wasn't without its hiccups, including a last-minute change of archbishop after the Archbishop of Canterbury contracted COVID-19.
It was a beautiful and cheerful ceremony, honoring the longest serving monarch of Great Britain and in the first royal event in St. Paul's Cathedral without the queen in 70 years -- Max Foster, CNN, St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
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HOLMES: And there are much more Platinum Jubilee celebrations ahead. On Saturday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit Cardiff Castle in Wales and the Derby will be followed by the Platinum Party at the Palace concert, featuring an all-star line-up from the worlds of music and dance.
And we're tracking a storm system right now slamming into Cuba, heading toward Florida. We'll get the details from the CNN Weather Center after the break.
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HOLMES: Millions of people in southern Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas are under tropical storm warnings and watches. They're bracing for the system already in the area to gain strength and possibly become tropical storm Alex in the hours ahead. It would likely move over Florida Saturday afternoon.
And as you can already see, it's slamming Cuba at the moment, one person found dead, 50,000 in Havana without power. The system expected to bring heavy rain, flooding, possibly tornadoes.
(WEATHER REPORT)
[02:55:00] HOLMES: And thank you for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @Holmes CNN. Do stick around. Kim Brunhuber will be back more news. I just saw him come in.
