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Japan's Longest Prime Minister Mourned And Honored After Murder; Ukrainian Pharmacists Race To Get Medicine To Front Lines; Protesters Push Sri Lankan President And Prime Minister To Resign; Man Killed At His Birthday Party By Jair Bolsonaro's Supporter; NHK: Murder Suspect Decided to Kill Abe One Year Ago; NASA Reveals First Image from Webb Telescope. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired July 12, 2022 - 00:00   ET

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

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone, I'm Lynda Kinkade.

Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, saying goodbye to Shinzo Abe. The funeral is held for Japan's longest serving Prime Minister days after his shocking assassination.

Explosions rocked Russian occupied territory in southern Ukraine just as Ukraine's military warns that it's preparing to take back land in the region.

And Sri Lanka's government goes on damage control with protesters vowing to occupy the presidential palace until their leaders officially quit.

A funeral for the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is underway right now in Tokyo, four days after his assassination. These are live images from the temple where mourners have been gathering. The ceremony is a private event mainly for family and close dignitaries. There is an area for the public to pay their respects.

Abe's widow is thought to be hosting the funeral. And afterwards, the host carrying Abe's body will pass by his Liberal Democratic Party headquarters, Parliament's as well as the prime minister's office where staff will stand outside to pay their respects. And that's before the host arrives at the funeral home for the cremation.

And this is the scene in Nara, Japan where Abe was assassinated on Friday. You can see people lining the streets, they've been bowing and placing flowers and mementos.

Nara Police say 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami has confessed to shooting Abe. The alleged assassin is being held at the Nara Police Department while awaiting formal charges. He's scheduled to appear in court on July 19th. NHK reported a short while ago that Yamagami told investigators that he made up his mind to kill the former prime minister one year ago that he used a firearm instead of explosives because Abe was his only target. CNN's Blake Essig is standing by the Japanese parliament. We also have

Will Ripley in Taipei and Steven Jiang in Beijing.

Let's start with Blake. And Blake, obviously, we're talking a lot about the legacy of the former Japanese Prime Minister as his funeral gets underway in Tokyo.

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Yes, Lynda. Today is the day for the Japanese people to say goodbye and later rest its longest serving prime minister, a man who first served in Parliament in 1993 and would go on to become a popular leader and a polarizing figure here in Japan. Someone who is most certainly responsible for the Japan that exists today.

The funeral service for Shinzo Abe is currently underway at Zojoji Temple here in Tokyo similar to last night's closed door vigil. Today's funeral service is also limited to only close friends and family following Abe's funeral.

The body is expected to travel in procession to the prime minister's office, the Kantei, the Diet right here behind me and then, LDP headquarters before heading to the funeral hall where his body will be cremated.

Despite the proceedings being closed off to the public, people have been visiting the public side of the temple where the funeral is being held to lay flowers and express their condolences at a small memorial that has been set up that started last night.

A similar scene has been playing out in Nara for days at the location where the former prime minister was gunned down while giving a campaign speech. The public is also able to pay their respects in Abe's hometown of Yamaguchi, where people are able to lay flowers and burn incense outside of his local office.

Again, Lynda a sad day here in Japan as the country lays to rest its longest serving former prime minister a leader who experts say had a clear vision for the direction that he wanted Japan's future to go in and pursued it relentlessly, Lynda.

KINKADE: Yes, he certainly did. Blake Essig first in Tokyo. Thanks to you.

I want to go to Will Ripley who joins us from Taipei. Will, Taiwan's vice president made a private visit to Tokyo to pay tribute to Abe. He's the most senior official from Taiwan to visit Japan in decades.

[00:05:03]

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): And it speaks Lynda to the deepening of the relationship between Japan and Taiwan under the late former Prime Minister Abe who the Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen stated that she considered a friend and she was grateful for his efforts to not defend Taiwan at least in a literal sense as of now but certainly in a rhetorical sense, saying that Japan and the United States should signal to China that they would come to this self- governing democracies defense if Beijing were to try to lay claim on this island which is claimed as its own territory for more than 70 years.

You heard Blake talk about the vision of Shinzo Abe. He was called a visionary by the Indian Prime Minister Modi, a visionary and a friend.

Of course, Mr. Abe, when he was Prime Minister, even when he wasn't was a huge champion of expanding the definition of Asia-Pacific to the Indo-Pacific region, including Southeast Asia and India so that China was not the center of the -- of the discussion when it comes to economy and diplomacy and military. Of course, that certainly irritated Beijing as Steven will get to in just a moment.

Relations with South Korea certainly did struggle during our base time in office, even though he did try very hard to arrange a meeting and secure a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which never did happen.

But he was -- he was first and foremost a very strong ally of the United States. He knew that Japan and the United States needed to have a strong, stable relationship.

So, no matter who was president, whether it was Barack Obama or whether it was Donald Trump, as you know, Abe was the first to call and congratulate then president elect Trump, he took them out for a hamburger in Tokyo, they played golf together, he knew that without the security relationship with the United States and the economic relationship, Japan, you know, being that it's right at the doorstep of three authoritarian nuclear armed states be it that be China, Russia and North Korea, and that Japan could be in a pretty precarious spot.

Interestingly, he also did try to improve relations with Russia, having a meeting with Vladimir Putin as well. So, he was truly not only a Japanese recognized politician, but he was recognized around the world and has left quite an impact really putting Japan in many ways on a global stage more than any other prime minister had before, Lynda.

KINKADE: Thanks to you, Will Ripley for us in Taipei. I want to go to Steven Jiang now in Beijing. And Steven, in China, more than probably anywhere else, Shinzo Abe was a very controversial figure. What's been the reaction there?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF (on camera): Well, reactions were controversial initially as well within China's very much heavily censored social media platforms, users were actually allowed to freely post their cheer and tongs with even some images showing people celebrating Mr. Abe's death in restaurants and other public venues.

Now, initial government reaction is also quite muted and vague from fairly low levels. But of course, a day later, after his assassination on Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping did send his condolences to both the current Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Mr. Abe's family, even briefly mentioning "his positive contribution to the improvement of bilateral ties". Now, the one thing Mr. Abe did do even despite his hawkish views on

China was to maintain regular high level exchanges between the two sides. He last met Xi Jinping in 2019. And Mr. Xi was supposed to pay a state visit to Japan in 2020. But that obviously got derailed by the pandemic.

Now, almost by default, any Japanese -- any Japanese leader especially those from the political right is controversial or even despised here because of the two countries wartime history. From the Chinese perspective, the Japanese have never atone enough for their atrocities and, of course, was also true during Mr. Abe's tenure.

But the Chinese have also set the symbolic of red line for Japanese leaders that is to visit to Yasukuni Shrine, a shrine in the middle of Tokyo that honors Japan's war dead, including some of the war criminals.

But Mr. Abe despite warnings from Beijing, strong warnings did go there in 2013 that really caused tensions to rise significantly between the two sides.

And also during his tenure, tensions rise over their territorial dispute over this group of islands that the Japanese called Senkaku and Chinese called Diaoyu in the East China Sea after the Japanese government nationalized these islands, we've seen increasingly frequent and intense clashes between the two country's coast guards and even fishermen.

Now, as Will pointed out, Mr. Abe's most enduring legacies is probably his effort and success in really expanding the concept of Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific, a free and open Indo-Pacific, that is very much viewed with dismay here in Beijing, because rightly so, Mr. Abe's intention was to really expand this coalition of willing -- of will to counter China's rising ambitions and influence and with much success, especially in the grouping of Quad involving Japan, the U.S., India and Australia in terms of their coordination on geopolitical and strategic issues.

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So, quite a controversial former Japanese prime minister and getting a lot of controversial reactions after his assassination, Lynda.

KINKADE: Steven Jiang for us in Beijing, Blake Essig in Tokyo and Will Ripley in Taipei, thanks to you all.

We want to go to Ukraine where troops is stepping up counter attacks on Russian held territory in the south.

Video posted to social media shows a series of explosions rocking a Russian occupied town and Kherson on Monday night. Russian state media is reporting at least six people were killed. It appears to be the single largest attack so far behind Russian lines.

Ukrainian officials says the strikes were aimed at an ammunition depot. And it comes as Ukraine says it's massing a million strong fighting force to recapture Russian held lands in the south, particularly the coastal areas that are crucial to Ukraine's economy.

To the northeast, Russian forces is stepping up strikes in Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv. But the death toll from Monday's attacks in civilian areas has now risen to six, with more than 30 people wounded.

Those attacks haven't stopped a group of pharmacists from undertaking a dangerous mission to get lifesaving medicine to the frontline. CNN's Alex Marquardt reports.

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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In a boarded-up pharmacy in Kharkiv, we follow Yulia Klimeniuk (PH) down into the basement. They never used this space before the war. Now, it holds shelf after shelf of vital donated medicine while also serving another purpose.

As we've been down here, we can hear some heavy shelling from up above. That's not very common at this time of the day, in mid-morning. Thankfully, we are already down in the basement that's where we need to be.

That shelling killed at least six city residents. Yulia and her team are unfazed. Preparing to head out on a monthly visit to multiple frontline villages which desperately need hard to get medicine, medical supplies, and basics like baby formula.

The pharmacy comes to the village, she says. Pharmacies are either destroyed or there are no pharmacists and people need medicine.

The lead vehicle in the convoy is an ambulance. When it arrives in the first village, its sirens ring out to tell everyone they're here. Soon, a line has formed in the rain. Old retirees, young parents with their kids, anyone whose left here seems to come out, including a village doctor.

We really need medication. We don't have a local pharmacy. We have nowhere to buy anything, she says. Insulin, heart, and blood pressure drugs are at the top of her list, along with sedatives and antidepressants.

Animals are a priority, too. Another car is full of dog food for beloved pets, like Bikal (PH), whose owner Igor (PH) says Bikal is shell-shocked from all the explosions.

This village had been occupied by Russian forces, and caught between the warring sides. The scars of the fighting very visible as is the Russian retreat.

When the Russians occupied this village, a man who lives here says that they would tuck their tanks and armored vehicles between houses and cover them up to try to hide them, but then, Ukrainians retook this village and you can see they blew up and destroyed this armored vehicle. After about an hour, the team packs up and moves on to a poorer, rural village just 25 kilometers or 16 miles from the closest Russian position. Here, the residents gather around even faster. The profound need for aid is clear. While we are there, a team from World Central Kitchen arrives to hand out meals. Another eager line forms.

Many of the Ukrainians we met were forced to live in the basements of their own homes while Russians occupied them, Yulia tells us. They are helpless, held hostage by this situation, she says. We help because they cannot provide for themselves.

Alex Marquardt, CNN in Kharkiv.

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KINKADE: In Western Europe, there are new fears of Russia could soon cut off natural gas supplies. It comes as one of the main pipelines delivering Russian gas to Europe is shut down for annual maintenance. Scheduled work on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline is only expected to last 10 days. The European officials say it's unclear whether Moscow will actually turn the taps back on

KLAUS MUELLER, PRESIDENT, GERMAN FEDERAL NETWORK AGENCY (through translator): Nord Stream 1 has informed us as is customary. However, what happens once the maintenance is done remains to be seen, no one can predict that. Is it a maintenance which is over in 10 days or earlier or later? Unfortunately, we have to wait and see.

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KINKADE: Well, this all comes as Ukraine is pushing back on Canada's decision to return a repaired Nord Stream 1 turbine.

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the move unacceptable, a breach of sanctions on Russia saying it will only encourage Moscow to further weaponize energy.

We're turning now to the political upheaval in U.K. as Britain's Conservative Party is planning to name a replacement for Prime Minister Boris Johnson on September 5th. He announced his resignation Thursday, influential group of conservative ministers called the 1922 committee is in charge of setting the rules and the timetable for the Tory leadership contest.

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GRAHAM BRADY, CHAIRMAN OF 1992 COMMITTEE: What we try to do is find a balance where we're making sure the parliamentary stages are concluded reasonably rapidly before the summer recess. But we do believe we can have that proper discussion within the party.

Obviously, we know parliamentary candidates already, we do need to make sure that there's a decent period of time before the results is announced on the fifth of September. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: 11 candidates are in the running so far, with many of them promising to lower taxes and clean up the scandals that plagued Johnson's administration.

Sri Lanka's top leaders have agreed to resign but the struggle for basic necessities goes on for millions of people. A live report on what's next as the country navigates political and economic turmoil.

Plus, a birthday celebration ends in murder, raising concerns about political violence ahead of Brazil's presidential election.

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KINKADE: Welcome back, I'm Lynda Kinkade. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. After months of protests in Sri Lanka over a crippling economic crisis, the country's parliament will elect a new president on July 20th.

Nominations for the top posts will be presented to lawmakers ahead of the vote.

Well, the dramatic move comes after the president and prime minister agreed to resign on Wednesday under mounting pressure. Tens of thousands of protesters stormed their residences Saturday, some are refusing to leave until the resignations become official.

CNN's Paula Hancocks has been following this story for us and joins us now live. Paula, good to have you with us. Certainly, political chaos here. Seeing those images of people overtaking, overrunning the residences of the president and the prime minister as certainly a lot of people in Sri Lanka struggling right now just to get basic necessities.

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Lynda. I mean, this really is the worst economic crisis that Sri Lanka has suffered in recent history. And we have been seeing protests for months now calling on the political leadership to do more to try and fix this issue. People are struggling to buy fuel. There are hours long queues just to buy fuel. And there have been clashes with military and police in those queues as well. They're struggling to buy medicine, we understand that some patients have been unable to even get to the hospital when they need to, because they don't have the fuel, schools have been suspended. Food is not plentiful.

So, there are some very significant economic issues that this country is going through at this point. And that anger really spilled over the weekend. I mean, unprecedented levels of anger we saw on the streets, and as you say, tens of thousands at least actually stormed the compounds of both the president's residence and also the prime minister's official residence, his private residence was also set on fire according to two officials there.

Now, about 55 people have been injured in these protests so far, according to the National Hospital in Sri Lanka.

And what we're seeing is this anger spilling over because there is a belief that there has been serious economic mismanagement by this particular president and prime minister.

So, they will be out of power very shortly. There will be a parliamentary speaker who will take control for at least 30 days that's within the Constitution.

And then, as you say, on July 20th, there will be a new election for a new president who will -- who will carry out the next two years, the final two years of that term.

But of course, that's just -- that's just the first step. It does not instantly resolve any of the economic issues that this country is going through at this point.

Now, we know that the country is in talks with the IMF, the International Monetary Fund to try and help boost them and help drag them out of this economic crisis.

And the plan politically at least is that they will be an all-party government. So, the entire cabinet is effectively standing down as well as the leadership at the top. And it will be a more inclusive government, at least in theory, in the hope that this will help.

But of course, the concern is how quickly can help get to those who need it when there is a severe shortage of fuel, medicine and food. There are concerns for people in Sri Lanka, Lynda.

KINKADE: Yes, certainly it's not going to end anytime soon. This economic pain that people are feeling right now. Paula Hancocks for us, thanks very much.

Well, the U.S. dollar is worth about as much as a euro for the first time in 20 years, bringing the two currencies less than a penny away from parity. The value of the euro has fallen in recent months.

And let's say fears of European recession stoked by high inflation and energy uncertainties are affecting the exchange rate and sending investors towards the U.S. dollar as a safe haven.

Well, the murder of a presidential candidate supporter in southern Brazil is raising concerns about more violence ahead of October's election.

Shasta Darlington has more in the story.

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was supposed to be a happy occasion. Marcela Arruda, a member of the left wing workers party celebrating his 50th birthday with a politically themed party. But things quickly turned into a tragedy when a supporter of far right President Jair Bolsonaro broke into the party and shot Arruda.

Before he died, Arruda, a city cop shot back at the attacker seen here entering the room. The shooter is hospitalized. Jorge Guaranho a prison guard is an ardent Bolsonaro supporter seen

here with one of the president's sons. He had crashed the party earlier with his wife and baby returning 20 minutes later to carry out the attack. The victim's son told CNN Brazil.

LEONARDO ARRUDA, VICTIM'S SON (through translator): My dad said, man, get out of my party. Let me enjoy my party in peace, and the guy pulled out a gun and pointed it at him.

The men returned a few minutes later and started shooting. He shot my dad three times and my dad was able to shoot back and shot him five times.

DARLINGTON: The workers party said in a statement the crime was a result of Bolsonaro's "hate speech" that encourages his followers, militiamen and terrorists to act practically unaccountable.

The party's presidential candidate and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva extended his condolences to the family, saying the incident was motivated by the hate speech promoted by a "irresponsible president" without referring to the incident directly.

Bolsonaro tweeted saying "We dismiss any kind of support from those who practice violence against opponents". And he accused the left of an undeniable history of violent episodes.

[00:25:11]

Speaking to his supporters on Monday, Bolsonaro said the shooting "was a fight between two people". And he mentioned the 2018 incident where he was stabbed by a man affiliated with a left wing party during a campaign rally.

JAIR BOLSONARO, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): You saw what happened leading to a fight between two people (INAUDIBLE), what have you, no one says that Adelio, my attacker, is affiliated to left wing party, do they?

DARLINGTON: Tensions are high ahead of upcoming elections in October, as the country becomes more and more polarized.

A day before the birthday party shooting, two explosives were thrown into a crowd at a Lula rally. At another event, Lula was also heard thanking a local councilman who was arrested for attempted murder against the man who insulted Lula at a rally in 2018.

The president of the Supreme Court has even warned Brazil could see "an incident even more serious than what happened on January 6th in the U.S. Capitol".

BOLSONARO: I don't need to say what I'm thinking but you know what's at stake. You know how you should prepare, not for the new capital. Nobody wants to invade anything, but we know what we have to do before the elections.

DARLINGTON: Brazilians go to the polls in October, as the campaign intensifies, so does the concern about the potential for further violent crimes, especially from Bolsonaro supporters like this one.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, Sao Paulo.

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KINKADE: Well, still to come, as Japan mourns Shinzo Abe, we're learning more about the motivations of his alleged killer. Latest on the investigation after a short break.

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KINKADE: Family and friends have turned out to honor former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a private funeral service in Tokyo. Police say the man suspected of assassinating Abe on Friday has admitted to the shooting though he's not been formally charged.

And now, Japanese broadcaster NHK says the suspect told investigators he made up his mind to kill Abe one year ago.

CNN's Kyung Lah has more on the investigation.

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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At a Buddhist temple in the heart of Tokyo, the body of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived for a two day funeral ceremony. A line of mourners with flowers pause and pray. A Japanese public to whom gun violence is almost unheard of struggles to comprehend.

[00:30:15]

"I'm still so shocked," says Ideki Kakinuma (ph). "Why did this happen to Japan?"

Answering the why begins with alleged assassin Tetsuya Yamagami. Police say the 41-year-old Yamagami planned for weeks ahead of the shooting. Police recovered multiple handmade pistols from Yamagami's home, crude weapons made from iron pipe and adhesive tape.

NHK reports Yamagami told police he built them by watching YouTube videos.

Days ahead of the murder, NHK citing police sources, say Yamagami practiced shooting in the mountains. Officers also recovered wooden boards with bullet holes in the suspect's car.

The day before, police say he practiced shooting against a building in Nara.

As Abe began his speech on the street, a news camera caught Yamagami standing with the crowd, listening. The next time we see Yamagami, two shots were fired.

Officers tackled Yamagami to the ground, armed with his homemade gun. Police say Yamagami held a grudge against a group he believed the former prime minister had ties to. The group has not been named to police by CNN [SIC].

The Japanese local media report that the suspect told police his mother was involved with an unnamed group and made a large donation that messed up his family life. NHK reports Yamagami also held a belief that Abe's grandfather, a former prime minister himself, had expanded this unnamed religious group years ago.

The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, held a news conference, denying those allegations but told reporters that the suspect's mother was a member of their church. CNN has not been able to reach the suspect's mother directly to confirm this.

"We struggle to understand why the suspect killed former Prime Minister Abe due to any resentment towards our organization," says the church president. He acknowledged that he was aware that the suspect's mother had financial difficulties around 2002, but he didn't know why or the impact on the family.

The church pledged to cooperate with police.

Among the mourners gathering in Japan's capital, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We saw in him something rare: a man of vision who's had the ability to realize that vision.

LAH (voice-over): A towering political figure, globally and at home. A country begins to bid farewell.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, for more, I'm joined by Seijiro Takeshita, a professor of management and information at the University of Shizuoka. Good to have you with us, Professor.

SEIJIRO TAKESHITA, PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION, UNIVERSITY OF SHIZUOKA: Thank you for having me.

KINKADE: So let's start with the economic legacy of Shinzo Abe. This is a man who was brought in to help jumpstart the economy. Talk to us about his efforts to revitalize a declining economy and his economic legacy.

TAKESHITA: Well, at the time, Japan was suffering a strong yen, and Japanese exporters in particular were suffering. And we couldn't really get ourself out of deflation condition. And this is where he came with the infamous Abenomics, the first arrow sustaining the much better supplies in the financial market through monetary easing, which basically led to a much weaker yen, which basically led to the Japanese exporters breathing again, in fact, coming up with record high profits.

And his second and third arrow of his new policies and structural transition, their trajectory is much, much longer, so we have yet to see whether it has really achieved the goal or not.

But certainly, he has made a very positive progress, including for example, Womenomics, which is trying to get more women into workplace, like other (UNINTELLIGIBLE) nations.

And on top of that, of course, the foreign policy, internal policies. He did so much. And obviously, otherwise, he wouldn't have been the longest reigning prime minister in our history.

KINKADE: Certainly, the longest reigning prime minister of it. Certainly also, a polarizing figure.

You mentioned his efforts in terms of foreign policy. Talk to us about how he helped improve some of the relationships he had with countries within the region, within Asia, but also U.S.-Japanese alliance.

TAKESHITA: Oh, yes. Most important, U.S.-Japan alliance. And he had made bridges with Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump. And with Mr. Abe gone now, there's a lot of worry whether, you know, the Japanese government would have enough good ties with the Republicans in the states, for example.

[00:35:10] So he did well to, you know, both the parties, and he created a very nice bridge, and on top of it, he continued to, you know, build up relationship with trans- (ph) partnership. Great relationship with India, as well.

And what's really important is -- he made this very clear -- the positioning of Japan. Many of the Japanese politicians are very wishy- washy. But he made it very clear that Japan is a member of the free world. And therefore, going to fight against aggression that we're seeing against, for example, China.

That is also a very almost epic making, you know, stance as a prime minister in Japan.

KINKADE: And talk to us about his missed opportunities, potential failures; where heh could have potentially done better.

TAKESHITA: Well, he had some scandals, but you know, that's not -- in my opinion, that's not important. He wasn't able to confirm the changes in constitution which is now possible, now that the coalition government has more than two-thirds of the votes within the parliament.

So he was hoping that this would go on, and I think that would be passed on to Mr. Kishida. There will be changes, and the first changes that will be placed was the recognition and the change of definition of our self-defense force and also to increase our spending on our security measures to -- possibly to 2 percent of GDP.

So this was something that he'd really been hoping to do but couldn't see it realized. But I think, you know, again, his followers will definitely try to come -- make this true in coming months. KINKADE: Yes, and in terms of just the feeling in Japan right now, given that this was the longest-serving prime minister, assassinated, shot twice in the chest in a country where gun violence is so low. Give us a sense of the feeling in the country right now.

TAKESHITA: Well, we're all gobsmacked, myself included. Because as you pointed out, we only had one death by gun violence last year and four the year before last. So it's virtually non-existent.

And also, as far as political, you know, argumentation and disagreement goes, yes, of course, we have disagreements and we have arguments. But it doesn't go as maiming (ph) others. It would be very rare in Japan to see it happen. Because it doesn't have too much of, you know, other factors, such as you know, cultural differences or religious differences.

So, you know, we're all gobsmacked that this has happened to us and to our prime minister, who had done so much for us. And I think many people are feeling at a loss of why this has happened, this had to happen in a country like this.

KINKADE: Yes. Seijiro Takeshita, a huge shock. We will continue to cover the funeral of Shinzo Abe in this program. Thanks very much for joining us.

TAKESHITA: Thank you.

KINKADE: Well, still ahead on the program, NASA releases a stunning new image, the first of many that will forever change the way we see the universe.

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[00:50:52]

KINKADE: Well, NASA has released the first color image taken by the James Webb space telescope, and it did not disappoint. Rachel Crane has more on what makes this telescope so ground-breaking in our understanding of the cosmos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL CRANE, CNN BUSINESS INNOVATION AND SPACE CORRESPONDENT: We are seeing the very first image released from the James Webb Telescope released by President Biden at the White House. Biden talking about the significance of this moment. Take a listen to what he had to say.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a new window into the history of our universe. And today, we're going to get a glimpse of the first light to shine through that window. Light from other worlds, orbiting stars far beyond our own. It's astounding to me when I read this and I saw the -- I mean, it really is.

CRANE: And in this first image, we see those other worlds, other galaxies, other stars. NASA saying that this is the deepest and sharpest infrared image we have ever seen of our universe. So really, an incredible, historic image there.

And this is just the start. NASA will be releasing several of their images in a batch of images from the James Webb telescope. We know that we're going to see nebulae, which are essentially stellar nurseries. We're going to see additional galaxies. We're even going to get to see an exoplanet. And not just the exoplanet itself, which is a planet that orbits another star, but we're going to be able to peer into its atmosphere, if it has one, and get a sense of what that atmosphere is comprised of.

So James Webb, this is the most ambitious telescope humanity has ever created. And it's more than just a telescope. This is really a time machine. We're going to be able to see back in time to just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. This is really -- you know, it sounds like a long time ago, but it's really the moment where the universe is just turning its lights on.

We're going to be able to see the formation of galaxies, the formation of stars. And scientists are most excited about what they can't even imagine: what James Webb is going to reveal about our universe.

We know that the Hubble Telescope taught us endless amounts of lessons about our universe. We know that our universe is expanding at an accelerating rate because of Hubble. We know that there are a hundred billion galaxies out there or more, when we thought that there were just a fraction of that before.

So Hubble is the predecessor to James Webb Telescope. And what we are going to learn from this extraordinary telescope has just yet to be seen.

Rachel Crane, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Well, we look forward to the release of those next images.

Thanks so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade. WORLD SPORT starts after a short break.

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