Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Russia Bards Ukrainian Cities; Sri Lanka In Crisis; January 6 Hearings; Western Europe Extreme Weather; Middle East Diplomacy; Abortion In America; Coronavirus Pandemic; NASA And Roscosmos Agreement; Aired 3-4a ET

Aired July 17, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, as Russia targets more Ukrainian cities, we look at whether new Western military aid can tip the scales.

U.S. President Joe Biden is back from his trip to the Middle East and he has a bold retort to criticisms about his fist bump with the Saudi crown prince.

And wildfires ravage parts of Europe as a sweltering heat wave spreads. We're live in Madrid with the latest.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We begin in Ukraine where we're getting a word about a new barrage of Russian missile tryings in the south. Ukraine says at least 10 missiles hit Mykolaiv Sunday morning as the city still reels from similar strikes on Friday. Two industrial facilities were hit but no reports of casualties so far.

Ukraine says Russia also fired five cruise missiles in the south but three were shot down. In the east, Ukraine said fending off Russian ground attacks in the Donetsk region, despite intense shelling, as in this town near the front line.

Meanwhile, Russia's defense minister was in Donbas on Saturday, ordering troops to increase operations to prevent Ukrainian strikes in the region. Ukraine's artillery has been stepping up attacks behind the front lines in recent weeks. President Zelenskyy says his country is making progress and will keep up the momentum. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We have already managed to liberate part of the territory that was occupied after February 24th. We will gradually liberate other regions of our state that are currently under the occupation.

During such a war, we were able to obtain the status of the E.U. candidate. We have maintained the stability of public institutions. The power system was rebuilt to work on the power grid of the European continent. All logistical processes in the state, military and economic, were rechanneled.

And most importantly, we maintained internal unity, having overcome conflicts and contradictions that had hindered us in the past.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Zelenskyy spoke after a barrage of Russian missile strikes on cities across Ukraine in recent days. As we just mentioned, that includes the city of Mykolaiv, which was hit by at least 10 missiles on Friday morning. Ivan Watson went to see the aftermath.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the National University of Shipbuilding. It is one of two universities that was hit by Russian missiles just this week.

Normally about 1,800 students would study here. But it's summer and there's a war. So fortunately, there were no civilian casualties, no deaths reported.

But look at the scale of the blast. It blew out windows and damaged buildings across the street and in the surrounding area as well. Mykolaiv, this southern city, has been pummeled day after day by Russian projectiles.

We visited an elementary school that was destroyed this week and a hospital has been hit, a hotel as well. The air raid sirens go off every day. I spoke with a resident who has sent his wife and son away to neighboring Poland for safety.

And he says, every night, he sleeps in the basement for fear that one of these deadly missiles could crash through his ceiling.

This is a crater left by one of the rockets that was fired in that salvo against this university campus on Friday morning. And I just want to give you a sense of the power of these weapons that the Russian military is firing against Ukrainian cities.

In just the last couple of days there were missile strikes on the eastern city of dnipro, on the southern port city of odessa. And on Wednesday, a devastating strike on the central city of Vinnytsya, casualties including children.

[03:05:00]

WATSON: On this university campus, I see no clear evidence of any Ukrainian military presence here, which leads me to question, what is the strategy, what is the goal of the Russian military when it fires these deadly weapons at Ukrainian cities?

Is it, as the Ukrainian government argues, a form of psychological warfare, terrorism designed to try to break the will of the Ukrainian people?

If it is, every time I talk to a Ukrainian after one of these attacks, they say that they only hate Moscow more than ever -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Mykolaiv, in southern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: As Russian forces prepare for the next phase of their offensive, Ukraine says it needs more weapons to fend off Russian advances. Ukraine says long range artillery systems supplied by the West are already being used on the front lines.

And their arsenal is growing with delivery of new rocket launchers arriving on Friday. But Ukrainian soldiers fear it won't be enough, saying they're still outnumbered 8:1 by heavy Russian artillery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMYTRO, UNIT COMMANDER, UKRAINIAN ARMY (through translator): Our artillery does not meet all the standards but we are working on it and our Western partners are helping. They are delivering stuff bit by bit.

HIMARS are already in the works, hitting the enemy's munitions warehouses. Self-propelled missiles, artillery howitzers, we need them all and we need more munitions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: How much more munitions and other military hardware will Ukraine need to turn the tide of the war?

For that we're joined from Brisbane by Mick Ryan, a retired major general of the Australian Army, also a former commander of the Australian Defense College.

Thanks so much for being here with us. Let's talk first about the HIMARS systems supplied by the U.S.

What makes it so effective?

What kinds of targets is it particularly good at hitting?

MAJ. GEN. MICK RYAN (RET.), AUSTRALIAN ARMY: It's good to be with you again. The HIMARS is a very long range and accurate weapons system that's capable of targeting a high-value target well behind enemy lines, particularly these ammunition supply dumps we've seen but also headquarters with senior Russian officers and also air defense systems.

So in total, this really degrades Russia's capacity and allows Ukrainians to start fighting the way they prefer to fight. BRUNHUBER: Which is how?

RYAN: Well, which is not to go man to man, up against the Russians in artillery duels. It's to attack them indirectly. It's to corrode their logistics, their morale. And then they can kind of give the knockout blows, like they did in the battles of Kyiv and Kharkiv.

BRUNHUBER: So a Pentagon official has said that HIMARS was changing the battlefield.

What kind of impact do you think it is actually making right now?

RYAN: Well, it's certainly had an impact not just on Russian artillery capacity, where they have a large advantage, but it's also had a big impact on Russian morale. Far more Russian soldiers are now within range of Ukrainian long-range rockets. That has an impact on their morale, which is already very low.

BRUNHUBER: But, I mean, is all of this enough to actually turn the tide?

If not, what more does Ukraine need?

What are the priorities here?

RYAN: Unfortunately, there are no silver bullets in war. Whilst the HIMARS is very effective and more of them are required and they'll need to keep using them, the Ukrainians will need more artillery -- but hopefully more standardized.

At the moment they have one type of gun from pretty much every Western country. They need to standardize the type of artillery to simplify training and logistics. Then they need a good flow of ammunition to support those artillery guns and rocket systems.

BRUNHUBER: They've been complaining they don't have enough ammunition as well. So clearly that's a key point there. So let's turn to the Russians. I mean, there's been a lot of attrition, as we've just just said, from the Ukrainian attacks on men and equipment.

So what shape are the Russians in?

And what effect have the sanctions had on their ability to sort of get newer equipment?

RYAN: Well, they're not in great shape. They've been able to slowly claw their way forward in the east. But it's come at huge cost to them. They have massive stocks of ammunition and armored vehicles in Russia.

But particularly the armored vehicles are much older generation. So while they may have a lot, they're lower quality than the ones they've lost so far but their biggest deficit is in manpower.

They've lost tens of thousands of soldiers, killed and wounded in this war. And as we've seen from their recruiting challenges, most Russians aren't of the mind to join up for the Ukraine war. But they're going to have to address that if they're going to continue fighting this war.

[03:10:00]

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Going back to the hardware, though, Russia may get some high-tech help from Iran in the shape of drones that carry precision-guided missiles.

How important might that be if Russia does actually acquire them?

RYAN: Well, there's a couple of things we can take away from it. They're buying these from Iran; just shows the Russians actually are quite desperate. But the West will now need to provide intelligence on these drones.

There will be countries like Israel that probably understand these drones better. They can provide intelligence to the Ukrainians about the capacity of these drones so they're not used to attack systems like the American HIMARS.

BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there. Really appreciate your insights on all of this. Retired Major General Mick Ryan, thanks so much.

RYAN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Sri Lanka's parliament is getting ready to choose a new president. Lawmakers announced they'll accept nominations for the post Tuesday and they could pick a new leader on Wednesday.

But that may not satisfy protesters, who helped drive out former president graja Rajapaksa. The ruling party's prime minister looks to be prime minister and acting president rwick.

Just days ago, crowds gathered to watch as his home went up in flames. And the island remains in dire financial straits, reportedly seeking billions of dollars of aid from China. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa is a likely contender to be president.

He spoke to CNN's Will Ripley about why the country is facing financial ruin and what happens next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAJITH PREMADASA, SRI LANKAN OPPOSITION LEADER: I see it on a daily basis. I see the gas queues. I see the food queues. I see inflation going up. So the situation is very, very bad.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How did Sri Lanka get here?

PREMADASA: It's a consequence of unfortunate economic decision- making. I call it voodoo economics. RIPLEY: Voodoo? Why do you call it that?

PREMADASA: For example, a 600 billion rupee tax cut for the super- rich, which resulted in state income reducing from 12 percent to 8 percent of GDP. That's a very, very scary scenario.

The retort that you get from the government is, oh, that's an international conspiracy. That's why I call it voodoo economics. It's highly illogical, highly impractical.

And what's most astonishing is the fact that we had the COVID pandemic. To at least reverse some of the illogical decisions that they made because of COVID, they just stuck to their guns. They did not want to listen to the others. Here the outside opinion is not reflected in parliament.

RIPLEY: But then how does that bode for what we've seen in recent months, with the anger on the streets and the crowd saying that, if this old guard remains in power, they're going to be right back out there, showing the people's power?

PREMADASA: People power led to Rajapaksa fleeing the country. So people power will decide and determine the destiny of the rest to follow.

RIPLEY: What would you do if you became the president to turn things around for people who are out there, standing in those days-long queues for basic necessities?

PREMADASA: First and foremost, tell the truth. And the truth is very bitter. It's a very hard pill to swallow. But the truth is, you cannot have change overnight. Because for 2.5 to 3 years, this country has been crumbling. And brick by brick, we have to build back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: That was Sri Lankan opposition leader Sajith Premedasa, speaking to CNN's Will Ripley.

U.S. President Joe Biden is back home following his four-day trip to the Middle East, his first visit to the region as president. It was an opportunity on to re-engage with longtime allies and reassure them of American commitments.

The president's interactions with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman dominated the visit. Biden faced hard criticism after greeting him with a fist bump. At the White House he spoke briefly with reporters who asked about perhaps the most controversial part of the trip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: The Saudi foreign minister said he didn't hear you accuse the crown prince of Khashoggi's murder.

Is he telling the truth?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No.

QUESTION: The fist bump, Mr. President.

Why didn't you talk about things that matter?

BIDEN: I'm happy to answer a question that matters.

QUESTION: Will inflation go down from here, Mr. President?

BIDEN: I'm hoping.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: We'll have more on his trip later in the program.

Biden also returned just ahead of the next hearing into the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The Secret Service is promising to respond swiftly to a subpoena from the committee, asking for deleted text messages from January 5th and 6th.

[03:15:00]

BRUNHUBER: We're also learning new details about some of the fringe figures in contact with former president Trump during that time. On Saturday "The New York Times" revealed a stunning memo from a little- known conservative lawyer, laying out a plan to overturn the 2020 election. CNN's Katelyn Polantz reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: "The New York Times" has unearthed a memo from a conservative lawyer, who was speaking directly to Donald Trump in December 2020 about what Trump could do with the presidency to block the election result.

So what's important about this is that it gives us a little bit more knowledge about what was happening, what Donald Trump was hearing, what he was thinking, what he may have been planning in late 2020 after the election leading up to January 6th.

So William Olson is the lawyer here. He's writing a memo. "The New York Times" has posted it publicly.

In it he says, he and Trump spoke on Christmas Day; they had a discussion. He's following up and says, you know, I want to walk through what my suggestions are again to tell you that I know you, too, Donald Trump, will be following up on as well.

He says that the lawyers around Trump are not serving him well as president and that, as president, Trump should really take control and give some orders to make sure that he can win the election.

That includes -- Olson is insulting the Justice Department at one point. He says White House counsel's office were being shameful and dismissive toward him as president.

And then he says to Trump, here what is must be done. You should replace the White House counsel.

He tells Trump he should order the Justice Department to file a lawsuit challenging the election result or, if that won't be done by the Justice Department, Trump should get rid of that leadership over there.

And then he describes potentially working on other things that the presidency could do using its powers. And that's when Olson writes, the media will call this martial law but that is fake news.

So he's saying that to Donald Trump. After that, what we know from the record already is that Trump did want to do some of these things, including potentially firing his attorney general and putting in place someone sympathetic to these very ideas William Olson was writing about in late December -- Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Parts of Europe are in the midst of a dangerous heat wave. It's pushing temperatures in many areas to record highs and sparking wildfires. We're live in Madrid with a closer look coming up.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:20:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: The estimated death toll from the ongoing heat wave in Spain has risen to at least 237, according to the country's health ministry. More deaths are expected as temperatures continue to rise across a large part of the country.

Have a look here. This is the second dangerous heat wave to hit Europe this summer. It's also sparking wildfires and forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes.

In the U.K., the Meteorological Office has issued its first-ever red extreme heat warning for parts of the country, including London and Manchester. Authorities say people's lives are at risk with temperatures potentially reaching 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit the next few days.

(WEATHER REPORT)

[03:25:00]

BRUNHUBER: I'm Kim Brunhuber. For our international viewers, "INSIDE AFRICA" is next.

In North America, CNN NEWSROOM continues. We mentioned President Biden is back home from his visit to the Middle East, a trip now symbolized by a controversial fist bump with the Saudi crown prince. We'll explain how the Saudis feel about that image after a short break. (MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: U.S. President Joe Biden is back in Washington after wrapping up his first trip as president to the Middle East. We mentioned earlier the president's annoyance over being asked if he regretted greeting the Saudi crown prince with a fist bump. CNN's Phil Mattingly explains the image is proving extremely popular in Saudi Arabia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: White House officials are keenly aware there will be one image that really captured the entirety of President Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia. It is the fist bump.

There are several different angles, there are videos, all of which you can find on official Saudi sources because official Saudi sources didn't waste any time blasting it out, a clear acknowledgement that it was the moment they wanted to capture. It was the moment they wanted to elevate.

It was the moment they believed bestowed legitimacy on a crown prince that, the past 18 months, has only gotten the cold shoulder from President Biden and top U.S. officials. That has now changed dramatically.

However U.S. officials were aware they would face sharp criticism and they acknowledged their calculation was trying to rekindle a relationship that had been fractured was simply a necessity, not just for oil production, though that was a key component of President Biden's meetings here, but for the broader relationship in the region.

It's something that Biden alluded to when he addressed the sharpest and most personal criticism he got from the meeting from Jamal Khashoggi's fiancee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm sorry she feels that way. I was straightforward back then. I was straightforward today. What I have -- this is a meeting not -- I didn't come here to meet the crown prince.

I came here to meet with the GCC, nine nations, to deal with the security and the needs of the free world; in particular, the United States and not leave a vacuum here, which was happening, as it has in other parts of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: That vacuum was a really key element of President Biden's decision to lay out key principles, really driving the future role of the U.S. in the region before he departed Jeddah.

He hit on a number of key notes that regional leaders have been hoping, wishing the U.S. would draw on over the course of the last 18 months, where they really felt the U.S. had turned a blind eye to the region, had disengaged from the region. That had created very clear opportunities.

That was a driving force, perhaps more than any other, behind the decision for Biden to come here. Yes, they needed to recalibrate the relationship with the Saudis. Yes, they needed to officially have the president sit down with the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

But they also recognize that, for a region that is in the midst of a rapid transition, alliances seemingly shifting on a yearly basis, the U.S. needed to play a role. If they didn't, others would step in to fill the void.

That is something Biden thought simply wasn't an allowable situation. Now the U.S. is laying out its new role in the region, one that will take time, work and effort but one U.S. officials believe they took a critical first step toward on this trip -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, Saudi Arabia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: After President Biden left Saudi Arabia, CNN's Nic Robertson sat down for an exclusive interview with the Saudi foreign minister. Here's how he addressed the controversy over the fist bump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: President Biden has taken lot of heat for that fist bump photo with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

What did President Biden get out of that?

ADEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER: He got out of it a meeting with a key leader in the region. He got out of it, I think, a reinvigoration of the strategic partnership between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

ROBERTSON: He must have got something.

But what did you give him?

AL-JUBEIR: I see the image as a win for President Biden.

ROBERTSON: But did he have to get a fist bump in public to open the door to all of that?

AL-JUBEIR: I don't know why we are hung up on a fist bump. I think the two leaders met; they exchanged pleasantries. This is quite normal.

ROBERTSON: And has Saudi Arabia given any guarantees about oil?

Is there really any commitment at all to add additional capacity?

AL-JUBEIR: So we cannot give any guarantees. We're talking about the future. The most important point in the crown prince's statement today was that we need to have a balanced approach toward our energy transition because the kingdom, while it's increasing its capacity to 13 million barrels, cannot go beyond that.

[03:35:00]

ROBERTSON: What we heard from President Biden, speaking of his vision for the region, was countries that the United States wants to work with should respect human rights.

Is Saudi Arabia one of those?

AL-JUBEIR: Saudi Arabia respects human rights. We are very proud of our values and those include a strong element of human rights based on our Islamic and Arab traditions.

ROBERTSON: But we heard that the president brought up the issue of Jamal Khashoggi. We understand from the crown prince, there was pushback, pointing out the United States' actions in Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Does that really demonstrate that you're hearing the message on this?

AL-JUBEIR: The key point that his royal highness the crown prince was making when he responded to President Biden was that the kingdom, like any responsible country, took the necessary action to respond to the tragedy of the Jamal Khashoggi murder, the same as the U.S., the same as other responsible countries.

The U.S. makes a mistake at Abu Ghraib; the drone bombings that have happened in Afghanistan, where multiple civilians have been killed. It's the responsibility of a country to act on those mistakes, to make sure that they are investigated, they don't happen again.

The kingdom did this just as the U.S. does this. We expect to be held to the same standard, not a higher standard than the U.S. holds itself.

He also pointed out there are significant issues not raised. So you cannot address these issues in a selective way. You have to be consistent.

ROBERTSON: And the president has also taken heat for only bringing up the case of Jamal Khashoggi, where you have others, the women's rights activist who was released from jail.

There are other people who don't have the freedoms that perhaps they should deserve in Saudi Arabia. These are human rights values that President Biden is taking heat on for not bringing up. How is this a shared relation, really a shared relationship, if

there's commonality on human rights?

AL-JUBEIR: I don't see that they are different. We have a criminal justice system, the U.S. has a criminal justice system, which has gotten much criticism. But I think the U.S. overall believes they have a very good criminal justice system. We believe the same.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: A doctor is being investigated for giving a 10-year-old rape victim an abortion. The doctor says she's done nothing wrong. We'll have that story after the break.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:40:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: In just a few hours, families of the Uvalde shooting victims will get the preliminary findings of the Texas house committee investigation. A source close to the committee told CNN the report will show there wasn't one individual failure on May 24th but a group failure of great proportions.

The committee will also present the families with surveillance video of the school shooting, which was leaked to the "Austin American- Statesman" newspaper and shown this week; 19 children and two teachers were killed in the massacre.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris says the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was, quote, "deeply harmful to our nation." As Harris reaffirmed the president's commitment to protect women's reproductive rights, the vice president sounded the alarm about the repercussions stemming from the decision. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are talking about a situation in our nation right now where states and so- called leaders are passing laws that would criminalize medical health professionals, health care providers. We are talking about several states in our nation who will not allow an exception for rape or incest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: That scenario is playing out right now in Indiana, where a physician is under investigation for providing abortion services to a rape victim, a rape victim who's only 10 years old. CNN's Polo Sandoval has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dr. Caitlin Bernard from Indianapolis, the OB-GYN who's come forward and identified herself as the doctor who helped this 10-year old from Ohio terminate her pregnancy after being raped, that doctor is now also finding herself the subject of an investigation that's being led by the state's Republican attorney general, looking into the potential failure to report that abortion.

Just a few days ago, AG Todd Rokita announced the inquiry in order to find out if Dr. Bernard adhered to that state law, which is basically requiring any abortion procedure performed on any person under the age of 16 to be reported to the state no more than three days after that procedure is done.

Documents independently obtained by CNN reveal Dr. Bernard did notify the state health department just two days after that procedure was done. AG Rokita saying they are still gathering evidence, they are still conducting their own legal review, which remains open.

Dr. Bernard's attorney insisting that review is unnecessary, especially if you dig up these publicly available documents. In fact, on Friday an attorney sending the attorney general a letter, a cease and desist letter, calling on him to, quote, "stop making false and misleading statements" about alleged misconduct by Dr. Bernard in her profession.

In an interview with CNN, the attorney for Dr. Bernard called this ongoing investigation by the state, quote, "a smear campaign."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHLEEN DELANEY, DR. CAITLIN BERNARD'S ATTORNEY: Even the barest minimum of homework on his part would have found that that report have been timely done.

So we want him to stop this smear and then we want him to stop this dangerous rhetoric he's using, where he is whipping people up into a frenzy at a very unsettled time in our nation's history. And we want to make sure that our client stays safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: In light of this cease and desist letter, we have reached back out to Indiana's attorney general. We are still waiting to hear back -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The COVID pandemic is far from over in the U.S. Data from the CDC shows that more than half of the U.S. population lives in counties with high community transmission. They're forecasting an increase in hospitalizations as well.

In Los Angeles County, health officials are so concerned they're talking about reviving an indoor mask mandate within the next two weeks. CNN's Camila Bernal has more. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Officials here in L.A. County say that they've seen an 88 percent increase in hospitalizations compared to last month. They're also saying that they're seeing 10.5 hospitalizations for about 100,000 people.

So if those numbers stay the same or increase, what will happen is that, in two weeks, everyone will be wearing a mask when they are indoors.

[03:45:00]

BERNAL: It is possible that these numbers go down. But even officials here in the county say that's unlikely. L.A. Is hosting the MLB All- Star game this week. There are many who are traveling in to Los Angeles.

And in general, people are out sharing a meal or a drink. And they're not used to having that mask anymore. And so that is the new reality. It's going to be difficult to implement a mask mandate again.

I talked to someone who told me that she always wears a mask when she goes to the supermarket or when she feels uncomfortable but doesn't want it to be mandated. Here's what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not going to say that I don't agree because I know that it's for a reason.

Am I happy about it?

No. I mean, it's a little bit of a letdown, I think because we've been masked for so long. And to then not have to wear it, it felt so liberating and just so great to not have to.

But to have to actually go with that all the time, it's a little -- it's a little bit of a downer. But I'm not going to buck against it, though. I mean, if that's what they say we have to do, for the sake of safety and health, I'm all with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: It's not just here in Los Angeles. It's all over the country. The case rates are the highest numbers that we've seen in months. And the CDC is forecasting an increase in hospitalizations. This is the first time that we're seeing an increase in weeks instead of those steady numbers.

And that's what's concerning for officials around the country and here in Los Angeles. It is the hospitalizations and what the hospitals can handle as we continue to see these increases -- Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: The ability of the B.A.5 variant to evade immunity has U.S. health experts worried. Top U.S. infectious disease Dr. Anthony Fauci is cautioning Americans not to get complacent about COVID with B.A.5 circulating at such a high rate of infection. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER: There's no evidence that it's causing, on a case-by-case basis, more severe disease. But when you have such an increase in cases because of its ability to transmit and have an advantage over the prior variants, we saw it gradually take over.

Now it is the dominant variant in the United States. If you do B.A.4 plus 5, that's about 80 percent plus of all the isolates. And B.A.5 itself is now about 60 percent, which means it transmits better because it eludes the protection from infection.

Because there are so many cases, we're starting to see increase in hospitalization and even an uptick in deaths. We're between 300 and 400. That's not as bad as the 3,000 a day that we had many months ago but it's still an unacceptably high level of deaths and hospitalizations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Dr. Fauci also explained how masks, testing and COVID booster shots could help bring those numbers down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: By diminishing the circulation of virus in the community by vaccinations and boosting and masking where appropriate and testing, so that you can keep people separated who are infected, you cut down on that likelihood that you're going to get new variants.

With regard to the vaccines, it's important that you try and not only get a booster but, as you get more variants, we're going to be upgrading and updating the next level of boosters so that, by the time we get to the fall, it is very likely we'll have an updated booster that will address better the circulating variant at that time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Dr. Fauci also tells CNN that an FDA decision on authorizing a second booster shot for people under 50 could come, quote, "reasonably soon."

Still ahead, strained relations between the U.S. and Russia on Earth may be looking up in space. Details on that when we come back.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:50:00] (MUSIC PLAYING)

BRUNHUBER: While U.S.-Russian relations may be in a rough spot right now, their cooperation in space may be on the mend, thanks to a new deal between their respective space agencies. Michael Holmes has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A collaboration in space when relations between Russia and the U.S. on Earth are at their worst in decades. NASA and Russia's space agency say they've signed a seat swapping agreement which would allow astronauts and cosmonauts to exchange places on upcoming missions.

NASA says the first of these cross-flights is expected in September, when U.S. astronaut Frank Rubio blasts off to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. And cosmonaut Ana Kikina joins the fifth SpaceX Crew Dragon launch the same month.

Historic rivals, space exploration has always been a point of highs and lows for Russia and the U.S., both trying to outdo each other in the 1960 space race. The Soviet Union sending the first man into outer space; the U.S. landing the first crew on the moon.

But in recent decades, space has been more of a joint effort between the two nations, especially after the creation of the ISS, which is operated by NASA, Roscosmos and several other space agencies.

Both the U.S. and Russia have hitched rides with each other. Russian cosmonauts flew on the U.S. space shuttle before the fleet was retired in 2011.

[03:55:00]

HOLMES: After that, American astronauts traveled to the ISS on Soyuz spacecraft until NASA resumed its own launches in 2020 by partnering the with the commercial space company SpaceX.

But the war in Ukraine has caused some tension between the two agencies. On Friday, Russian president Vladimir Putin replaced Roscosmos' head, dragozin, who made several controversial remarks and threatened to suspend cooperation with the U.S. and allies in space in response to Western sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin gave no reason for the change in leadership. NASA also recently criticized Roscosmos over a photograph of cosmonauts on the ISS holding the flags of two separatist, self-proclaimed regions in Ukraine, saying the ISS is about furthering science for peaceful purposes.

A lofty goal and one the new ride-sharing agreement could reinforce, showing there can be common ground between Russia and the U.S., even if it's in space -- Michael Holmes, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE) (SPORTS)

BRUNHUBER: That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber and I will be back in just a moment with more news. Please do stay with us.