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Russian Strikes Hit Towns and Cities Beyond Front Lines; Sri Lankan Acting President Declares Nationwide Public Emergency; Report Details 'Systemic Failures' in Official Response to Uvalde Shooting; Western Europe Endures Sweltering Heat and Fires; 11th Round of Mass Testing Underway in China; 11th Round of Mass Testing Underway in China; Agencies Sound Alarm on Decrease in Childhood Vaccinations. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired July 18, 2022 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. Coming to you live from Studio 7 at CNN Center in Atlanta. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.

[00:00:39]

Coming up here on the program, Ukraine's president accusing some in his own government of collaborating with the Russians and firing two top officials.

Sri Lanka declares a nationwide public emergency. We'll have a live report on the ground, where people are still reeling after weeks of protests.

And new heat records, wildfires, and unexpected storms. Have we reached a tipping point in our planet's climate crisis?

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: And we begin with a major shake-up in Kyiv. On Sunday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, fired two top government officials, citing accusations of treason within their organizations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Today, I made a decision to remove the prosecutor general from office and to dismiss the head of security of Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Mr. Zelenskyy says he lost faith in their leadership abilities after many of their subordinates were accused of treason and collaborating with Russia. He did not disclose whether the fired officials themselves were under investigation. Mr. Zelenskyy also announcing the former regional head of Ukraine's security service in Crimea, who was fired at the start of the war, has now been detained on suspicion of treason.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY (through translator): Everyone who, together with him, was part of a criminal group that worked in the interests of the Russian Federation will also be held accountable. It is about the transfer of secret information to the enemy and other facts of cooperation with the Russian special services.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The shake-up came as more Russian missiles hammered Eastern Ukraine over the weekend. This was the scene in Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, where Ukraine says strikes left at least one person dead and 14 others wounded.

Russian forces have been focusing much of their firepower on Eastern Ukraine in a push to seize control f=of the entire Donbas region.

But even far from the front lines, safety is never a guarantee, as CNN's Ivan Watson reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russia is raining rockets and missiles down on Ukrainian cities, a campaign of long-distance violence carried out daily.

In just the last week, the Russian military hurled deadly weapons at Dnipro, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Vinnytsia, and many cities and towns in between.

The July 14 strike on the central city of Vinnytsia took place mid- morning on a Thursday. The attack killed at least 24 people, including children, and wounded many more.

But the Russian military is also firing near-daily salvos at places like the frontline city of Mykolaiv.

WATSON: Scenes like this are becoming common place across Ukraine, and the reality is any time, any place, a deadly Russian missile could come crashing into your building.

WATSON (voice-over): The governor here accuses the Russian military of firing repurposed S-300 surface-to-air missiles at his city.

VITALII KIM, MYKOLAIV REGION, UKRAINE GOVERNOR: It's terrorism. And that's it. Because this is like a strategy of Russian to scare civilian people to make panic.

WATSON (voice-over): In recent days, missiles hit a hotel, a hospital, two universities, and this elementary school.

DUCHANA (ph), DEPUTY PRINCIPAL: (speaking foreign language)

WATSON: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) Duchana (ph), who's the deputy principal here, she says that this part of the school was actually built more than a century ago. Look what's left of it.

WATSON (voice-over): The missile war is different from the furious artillery duels being fought along front lines. Because the missile strikes hit far from zones of active combat, in communities like the Southern port city of Odessa, that can otherwise sometimes feel relatively safe.

There was no obvious sign of a Ukrainian military presence at the National University of Ship Building in Mykolaiv, targeted by at least four missiles on Friday.

[00:05:11]

"If they want to scare us with terrorism, it won't work," this resident says. "Some people will leave for their safety," he adds, "but those who are ready to sacrifice everything for the defense of our country will stay."

Ukraine is carrying out its own devastating long-distance strikes with the help of long-range weapons systems provided by the U.S. and other Western allies, repeatedly pounding what Kyiv claims was a Russian ammunition depot in the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka this month, an attack that Moscow claimed killed at least six and wounded many more.

Those lucky to survive left to pick up the pieces, victims of a vicious war with no end in sight.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Mykolaiv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Sri Lanka's acting president has declared a nationwide public emergency. Ranil Wickremesinghe made the proclamation in the interests of public security after protests over the country's deepening economic crisis.

This coming, of course, as Parliament is set to hold nominations for a new president on Tuesday.

CNN's Will Ripley is following developments from Sri Lanka's capital city, Colombo. Will, what's the latest?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Michael, you mentioned that state of emergency, which comes on the heels of an announcement from protest organizers that there's going to be a massive rally here inn Colombo tomorrow, local time.

And so the state of emergency, essentially, allows for the fast deployment of police and military vehicles, kind of like this row of police vehicles you see behind me. They're going to become a common sight all over the city. We also expect, if the protest does grow as large as it is expected to, we could see the tear gas. We could see the water cannons. You could see a lot of uniformed officers, some of them armed, deployed out here, to make sure that public order is -- is maintained.

That is, of course, the goal of the acting president just one day before the Sri Lankan Parliament is set to elect a new leader. But the new leader, in the eyes of many, is looking an awful lot like the old leader.

And of course, the problems continue to persist. You have huge amounts of everything from motorcycles and tuk-tuks to cars that are sitting idle, empty in the city, because they've run out of gas. And getting gas, as I found out first-hand, is extraordinarily difficult in Sri Lanka right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: I'm in Colombo at one of the few gas stations that's actually pumping petrol right now. We had to drive around past at least two or three before we found this one. And we could spot the fact that it was open, because the line was stretching not even around the block but several blocks down.

RIPLEY (voice-over): In Sri Lanka these days, they say petrol is more precious than gold. Which explains the heavily-armed guards.

RIPLEY: I've never seen anything quite like this. We've been talking to people waiting in these lines, some of them waiting as long as six days.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Like 19-year-old Anuta Budasingh (ph).

RIPLEY: I'm Will.

RIPLEY (voice-over): He just graduated from high school.

RIPLEY: How long has you been waiting here?

ANUTA BUDASINGH (PH), RECENT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE: Since Monday. Like six days.

RIPLEY: Six days.

BUDASINGH (PH): Yes.

RIPLEY: So how do you live? What do you do?

BUDASINGH (PH): Sleep in the car. My dad's here, so we basically switch like two days each in the queue.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Like pretty much everyone else here, he's been doing this for months.

BUDASINGH (PH): People shouldn't have to do this, you know? Just suffer in the queue for so long and then just get fuel for their basic necessities.

RIPLEY: Do you have any trust left in politicians? In your government?

BUDASINGH (PH): None. None. Not at all. They stole money by fooling us and then we are the ones who have to suffer while they lead -- they luxury lives.

RIPLEY: Yes, sure.

RIPLEY (voice-over): The fuel ran out three cars before he made it to the pump. He has to wait two more days.

RIPLEY: The price is so expensive, it has skyrocketed, because the fuel is in such short supply. So people are spending, in a lot of cases, almost their entire income just to fuel the vehicle that they use to get around, to make a living.

It's hard to imagine that people have been living like this for so long here. You can understand, when you stand in the midst of all of this mayhem, the anger. The anger on the streets here from people who just want to be able to live a normal life and don't want to have to spend days waiting in line for something basic, like fuel, like food, like medicine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (on camera): Just imagine if you're that 19-year-old we interviewed. He was six days in line for gas, and then all of a sudden, a convoy of police vehicles and, presumably, other unmarked vehicles that could have been friends and family -- we don't have any way to confirm that -- but they rolled in line in front of him. They all fueled up. They ran out of fuel, and then he's stuck two more days, at least, waiting for gasoline.

That, Michael, underscores why people are, in the words of one man we interviewed, pissed off in Sri Lanka and ready to show their displeasure once again to the government tomorrow at those protests.

[00:10:11]

HOLMES: Really can't blame them. That -- that image of those tuk-tuks, stretching for it looked like miles, unbelievable. Will, thanks for the report. Will Ripley there in Sri Lanka for us.

Well, an overall lackadaisical approach. That's how Texas investigators are describing the official response to the school shooting in Uvalde that left two teachers and 19 children dead on May 24.

The 77-page preliminary report, compiled by a Texas state house investigative committee, was released on Sunday. Roughly 40 people provided testimony, including members of the Texas public safety department, Uvalde's school district police chief, and others.

Robb Elementary School's principal, a teacher and custodial staff also spoke behind closed doors. CNN's Rosa Flores is in Uvalde with more details on the report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: According to this report, there were just so many systemic and catastrophic failures on multiple levels by law enforcement. Let me take you through this report, a portion of it.

According to this report, the school police chief, Pete Arredondo, wrote the active-shooter policy for this school. He wrote his name as the incident commander, but then he didn't take the role on that ill- fated day on May 24.

According to this report, Arredondo even chose the administration office to be the command post. But again, according to this report, he didn't take that role.

Now, this report goes on to say that hundreds of police officers responded. Hundreds of police officers who were also trained in active-shooter situations, and they didn't respond adequately.

According to this report, those officers should have questioned the fact that there was no incident commander, the fact that Arredondo was not taking that incident command post; or they should have asked questions. That training, according to this report, should have kicked in.

I want to read from the report. It says, quote, "At Robb Elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active-shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety."

This report goes on to say that those officers in the hallway and Arredondo waited. What were they waiting for? They were waiting for keys. They were waiting for other gear and equipment.

One of the things that's very specific in this report is that, according to the U.S. Marshals, at 12:20, a shield, a rifle-protective shield, was delivered to this school.

Now, we know that the shooter was not shot and killed until 12:50. Important point there.

Now, according to this report, the officers on scene treated it as a barricaded subject. And this report says that these officers should have known better once that shooter started firing his weapon again. But instead, they didn't.

And yet again, this report states that those officers, their training should have kicked in at that point in time. They should have asked more questions. They -- one of them could have, this report says, taken that role of incident commander because of the training that they had.

I want to continue reading from the report, because this says, quote, "In particular, the locking mechanism to Room 111 was widely known to be faulty, yet it was not repaired. Robb Elementary had a culture of noncompliance with safety policies requiring doors to be kept locked, which turned out to be fatal."

It goes on to say, "Because of these failures of facilities maintenance and advance preparation, the attacker fired most of his shots and likely murdered most of his innocent victims before any responder set foot in the building. Of the approximately 142 rounds the attacker fired inside the building, it is almost certain that he rapidly fired over 100 of those rounds before any officer entered."

And now we know that 19 students and two teachers died on that ill- fated day.

I should add that we've reached out to Arredondo's attorney, and we have not heard back.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Rosa Flores reporting there.

Now, three people were killed and two others injured during a shooting at a shopping mall in the U.S. state of Indiana. Seems to be happening every few days now.

Police say the suspected shooter was a male armed with a long gun and several magazines of ammunition. He was killed by a person they're describing as a good Samaritan with a handgun who was inside the mall.

Police are still investigating what led up to that shooting.

[00:15:05]

A dangerous heat wave moving through parts of Europe. We'll get the latest from the CNN Weather Center after the break.

Plus, with the temperatures soaring, wildfires raging and storms growing ever more powerful, have we reached the tipping point in our planet's climate crisis? I'll ask a climatologist for his take, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Wildfires are raging across Northern Morocco as more than 1,000 government personnel race to tame the flames. In one province on the Atlantic, officials say nearly 1,400 families from 19 villages have had to be evacuated.

A similar story in a neighboring province with hundreds of hectares scorched and thousands threatened. Morocco's military sending reinforcements to battle the blazes.

And extreme temperatures striking on both sides of the Mediterranean as another heat waves grips Northern Europe. Al Goodman with the latest from Madrid in Spain. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wildfires continue to burn across Spain and one of the most concerning near the Southern city of Malagal on the Mediterranean Sea.

GOODMAN (voice-over): That fire started on Friday. That's an area very popular with Northern Europeans who come to Spain's Costa del Sol for tourism. Some of them have retirement homes there.

People have been posting on social media, showing their homes. One man wrote, "I hope mine is spared."

But there have been several thousand people evacuating, including a couple from Britain who spoke from a shelter to Reuters. The woman saying, We could only grab a few essentials before we had to get out of our home. The man saying, her husband, that they had to leave a lot of stuff behind.

That's a sentiment you've heard, as well, from Western Spain, where there are more fires. People evacuated from villages and certainly from France, south of Bordeaux, where there are two major fires that have scorched thousands of acres and caused thousands of evacuations.

But there is some promising news. Spain's national weather agency says the current heat wave, which started a week ago Sunday, will end on Monday, because cooler breezes from the Atlantic Ocean are starting to blow in, displacing some of this very hot air from Africa.

GOODMAN: However, up north, in France, officials there say that the peak day for this current heat wave will be on Monday, with temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

GOODMAN (voice-over): And further north, in the United Kingdom, the U.K. Met (ph) Office issued a three-day red alert for heat, worrying that there could be record heat of 40 degrees Celsius coming up in the next few days.

GOODMAN: Scientists who study climate change says these extreme heat waves and these prolonged droughts affecting farmers in Spain and in Italy, trying to save their grain crops and other crops, all of these, these scientists say, are clear signs of climate change.

Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now from the CNN Weather Center. Any relief out there, Pedram?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, not for another couple of days, Michael. This is an incredible heat wave that's really going to culminate here over the next couple of days into record territory. Among the warmest temperatures we've seen across some of these areas in a very long time, and in some observation points the warmest all time observed. [00:20:11]

So we'll take a look at this here, with heat building widespread across the western periphery of Europe. You know where it's been hot. Perhaps running 10, even 11 degrees above average in a few spots. About 44 degrees across the south central areas of Spain, and work your way a little farther towards the north, southwestern Spain.

Southwestern areas of France, look where it should be this time of year. Middle of July, warmest temperatures typically 26 to 29 degrees. We're running into the 40s here across this region. That was Sunday afternoon's highs. And then the heat alerts, widespread here, with the highest threshold there for excessive heat encompassing the Western area of France, as well.

And then, just to the north, even on the English Channel there in Jersey Airport, a 32-degree observation. Twenty, typically the warmest they get this time of year.

In areas just to the north there, also into the middle 30s.

But again, Monday into Tuesday, the warmest weather of the year, potentially the warmest temperatures in a very long time here set to develop. Dublin, 27 degrees. Ten better there in London at 37 degrees. This is where the red alert is in place, the first time the U.K. Med (ph) Office has ever issued a red alert across this region of the U.K., with a 50 percent chance the area indicated in red here could exceed 40 degrees.

Eighty percent chance a record temperature will be observed. So the significance of what's happening here is pretty important to note. And in these major metropolitan areas, London included, when you have a little bit less vegetation to trap the moisture, plenty of buildings to absorb radiation and, certainly, to release it as heat, it really sets up a dangerous scenario where temps could run a couple of degrees warmer than what the observations there show for some of these forecasts.

And, of course, into the overnight and evening hours, very little in the way of heat being kind of released because of a lack of vegetation. So you retain the heat. It makes it that much more dangerous.

A recent study going back just a couple of years ago showed about 0.5 percent of homes across the U.K. actually had air-conditioning units installed. So again, a lot of people going to feel the brunt of this.

But good news here, Michael. Look what happens as we go in from Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The color contours at least across the north change to a cooler temperature trend. We expect a big-time drop in the forecast here, down into the 20s by Wednesday afternoon -- Michael.

HOLMES: That's a pretty big swing. All right. Pedram, thank you. Pedram Javaheri there --

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

HOLMES: -- with the latest.

All right. Here's another stark example of just how urgent the climate crisis has become. A hypothetical weather forecast meteorologists were expecting to see in the year 2050, well, that will actually come true this week in the U.K.

Two years ago, British forecasters did an experiment with what they called plausible projections of around 40 degrees Celsius or more in the U.K. But what they thought would happen 30 years from now is the actual forecast for today and Tuesday.

Forecasters warn this type of heat, which is breaking records right now, will be quite typical in the not-too-distant future.

Earlier, I spoke with climate scientist Michael Mann, and I asked him for his take on the extreme weather events we're seeing now and where things go from here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL MANN, DIRECTOR, EARTH SYSTEM CENTER, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY: What we're seeing here, indeed, is an example of reaping what we've sown. We have continued to warm the planet for decades through carbon pollution from fossil fuel burning. And that has now warmed the planet up to the point where the impacts of climate change aren't subtle any more. We're seeing them play out in real time in the form of these unprecedented extreme weather disasters.

And this summer, you know, is just the latest in a sequence of summers where we have seen record heat waves and wildfires and floods. All a reminder that, again, the impacts of climate change aren't subtle anymore. We're now seeing the devastating consequences of human-caused warming.

HOLMES: It's important, I think, to remember that these events that we're seeing, these extreme events, are within the 1.5-degree increase in temperatures that we were warned about. You know, we often hear of the tipping point where things can't be clawed back or mitigated or reversed.

What happens when the increase is 2, 2.5 degrees?

MANN: Yes, and so you know, the warming of the planet has proceeded pretty much as climate scientists like myself predicted decades ago. Predicted, you know, the warming that would occur if we continued to sort of remain on the business-as-usual trajectory, fossil fuel burning.

And so the models have actually been quite accurate in predicting the warming that has occurred. Where the models have tended to underestimate climate change is in the impacts of that warming, for example, on extreme weather events.

And we increasingly understand that there are some subtle features in how the warming of the planet and the pattern of that warming, the fact that the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet, that changes temperature differences between the equator and the polar regions.

[00:25:15]

And those temperature differences are what govern the Jet Stream, this strong band of winds that moves weather systems along. And so what we're seeing is that the warming has impacted the Jet Stream in a way that has created these very persistent extreme weather events. And it really points to something that wasn't well-captured in our models. An example of how uncertainty isn't our friend.

In many respects, we're seeing that the consequences are greater than what our models predicted.

But what the models do tell us is that, if we bring our carbon emissions back down to zero, if we reduce our carbon emissions to zero, the planet will stop warming up. And when the planet stops warming up, then these other impacts tend to stabilize.

And so, you know, while there are uncertainties in science, and some of those uncertainties have led us to underestimate the consequences of the warming, the science does tell us that, to a great extent, our destiny is still in our hands.

If we can move away from fossil fuel burning, decarbonize our economy, and do so on a fairly rapid schedule, we can prevent the worst consequences. We can prevent this from getting even worse.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And you can watch my full interview with climate scientist Michael Mann next hour, right here on CNN NEWSROOM.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back here on CNN NEWSROOM, parts of Asia overcome by new waves of COVID infection and sweltering heat. The latest on how they're trying to slow the spread and keep cool.

And also, health experts warning tens of millions of children worldwide are missing out on life-saving vaccines. We'll look at what's behind a troubling trend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: And welcome back to our viewers all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Now, Asia's gambling hub is extending its COVID lockdown through at least Friday. Officials in Macao say all non-essential businesses will remain closed as the city goes through an 11th round of mass testing.

Macao is facing its largest outbreak since the start of the pandemic, just one of many areas fighting the virus, along with high temperatures, as well. Let's talk about all of this with CNN's Blake Essig, joining me from Tokyo.

[00:30:03]

And China, you know, they're continuing on the zero-COVID policy path. Now they've caught a massive heat wave. It sounds like quite the perfect storm.

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Michael. That heat, plus mandatory COVID testing in some spots are a combination of factors that could put pressure on China's healthcare system.

Over the past several days, CNN's weather team says a high-pressure system created a heat dome over China, with several provinces setting new record highs.

The good news is that temperatures are cooling, but it is still going to be hot.

In the past week, we've seen social media videos of people forced to wait outdoors at times in long lines for several hours during extreme temperatures in order to get COVID tested.

We've also seen social media videos of healthcare workers wearing full hazmat suits subjecting themselves to possible heat stroke. In fact, in some of the videos, you can actually see residents lined up, waiting to be tested for COVID, providing aid to those healthcare workers.

Now nationwide, over the weekend in China, more than 1,000 new locally-transmitted cases were reported across the country. In at least 16 provinces there were new local cases reported in just the past two weeks.

On the special administrative region of Macao, as you mentioned, authorities have extended its ongoing lockdown and mass testing through Friday, meaning all non-essential businesses like casinos have had their operations suspended.

And while protocol varies by location, there are some cities in China that are currently requiring daily COVID testing. That includes Shanghai, where many people are worried about another round of mass lockdowns.

In an effort to stem community spread, the city government said that it will require residents across nine districts in the city and smaller areas impacting about 9 million people to undergo COVID testing for a three-day period, starting tomorrow.

Now, whether daily testing is required, lockdown measures and COVID testing continues to impact people's lives. In some cities, negative tests are required to be presented to get into public venues and use public transportation. Those negative tests need to be completed within 48 to 72 hours, meaning regular testing must be continued, even if it's not required, to maintain a sense of normalcy in China -- Michael.

HOLMES: And meanwhile, the -- the zero-COVID policy is having a pretty big impact on China's economy, too.

ESSIG: Well, of course. The cost of zero-COVID isn't just impacting people's daily lives. It's also causing serious problems for China's economy. Just last week, China reported its worst quarterly performance in two years as a result of major cities across the country experiencing full or partial lockdowns.

Despite the economic impact, the zero-COVID policy isn't likely going to change any time soon. While visiting Wuhan in late June, China's leader, Xi Jinping, said that the country would rather temporarily affect a little economic development than risk harming people's life, safety and physical health.

So it doesn't seem that things are going to change any time soon across China -- Michael.

HOLMES: All right, Blake. Appreciate the reporting. Blake Essig there in Tokyo for us.

Now, COVID cases are on the rise in the U.S. as the highly- transmissible BA.5 variant becomes dominant. According to Johns Hopkins University, average daily cases have tripled over the past three months, and the U.S. Health Department says hospital admissions due to COVID have surpassed 40,000 for the first time in about four months.

The top COVID expert at the White House says our current tools, like vaccinations, tests, and masking, are still effective against this latest variant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ASHISH JHA, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: The public health science is very clear. If you're in a crowded indoor space, especially if it's poorly ventilated, wearing a mask reduces your risk of infection and reduces your risk of spreading it to others. So we've got to continue to encourage people to do that.

We've been doing a lot to make testing widely available. It's a really good way of slowing down the spread. And then encouraging people to get, you know, vaccinated and get up to date on their vaccines.

And then obviously, as I said earlier, if you end up having a breakthrough infection, getting treated. Because we don't want people ending up in the hospital. And treatments are working really well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now troubling new data showing that millions of children missed out on lifesaving vaccines last year. According to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, vaccine coverage overall continued to decline worldwide in 2021, with 25 million children missing out on important vaccines. The groups say we are witnessing the largest sustained decline in

childhood vaccinations in about 30 years.

Joining me now, Lily Caprani. She is UNICEF'S head of advocacy for the health, vaccines and pandemic response.

[00:35:03]

You know, I was reading today an epidemiologist in Brazil said -- and he said this, quote, "The work of 30 years has been lost overnight." Do you agree? And how alarmed are you at how big the drop-off has been?

LILY CAPRANI, UNICEF HEAD OF ADVOCACY FOR HEALTH, VACCINES AND PANDEMIC RESPONSE: Well, yes. UNICEF's very alarmed. We -- we work with governments around the world to vaccinate half the world's children. We keep a close eye on how many children are getting immunized every year. And we've seen the biggest drop in immunization rates for a whole generation sustained over the last two years.

So you might have expected at the beginning of the pandemic to see some of this. It's inevitable with some of the tough choices people had to make and the lockdown response.

But after two and a half years, we really thought we'd see a recovery by now. And the fact that numbers are still declining is really worrying.

HOLMES: And yes, exactly. Instead of numbers rebounding after the lockdowns, they went down even further. What -- what are the factors behind the drop-off. Obviously, as you say, the pandemic. What about other issues like misinformation, at least in some countries?

CAPRANI: Yes, at the beginning of the pandemic, we saw obviously, it's hard to get to clinics. And lots of parents had to make sacrifices, and so did children.

But what's really worrying is the number of health services that were diverted away from standard child services. So just simply not having enough healthcare workers, not having enough resources to be able to do the pandemic response and keep up basic childhood immunization.

And then we have seen, in some countries, perhaps, an erosion of trust and starting to question vaccination.

But also, this is such a widespread problem. We're seeing declines in over 100 countries in the world. This is a really big global issue. It's not just in some pockets. A very widespread challenge that we should all be concerned about.

HOLMES: And let's be honest. We're talking about millions of unvaccinated kids. What are the risks to children globally of the drop-off? I mean, children will unnecessarily die, won't they?

CAPRANI: Yes, the consequences of this will be measured in children's lives. And not in a few years' time but very soon. We're talking about lack of protection against common childhood illness like measles and polio and diphtheria that sometimes we take it for granted that they aren't dangerous any more.

As soon as you have these big new outbreaks happening, they're highly contagious illnesses, and they can kill children. And we're already starting to see it happening.

So we must take this very seriously. It's a huge risk to those children who are unvaccinated and to their communities, as well.

HOLMES: Yes, I was going to ask you about that. If the decline isn't slowed, if instead, it gets worse over the next few years, what will be the longer-term impacts on individuals but also, as you say, communities and nations, for that matter?

CAPRANI: Well, some of these illnesses will simply kill children. We will see children die this year, if we don't rapidly take action. And it's not going to be enough to simply restore business as usual and just get back to standard practice. We're going to need some very intensive, focused effort to catch children up.

We've got more than 25 million children in the last year missed out on vaccines, and that builds year on year. The last two or three years, we've really seen these declines. It has huge implications for them, for their health, their communities' health. And we must tackle it collectively and urgently.

We can't say, well, we beat one illness, COVID-19. And it came at the cost of all these other illnesses, and let them take hold again at the cost of children's lives. That just can't be acceptable.

HOLMES: So then how best to effectively address the issue? And how long could it take to turn the situation around? To regain that lost ground?

CAPRANI: Well, in some countries where there's enough money and resources to do it, simply a case of being politically prioritized. Other countries, they're going to really struggle and will need support from international donors in the community to get money in to do it.

But it's going to take a very concerted effort of catch-up campaigns with this direct outreach, door to door, in the communities, building the trust, building all of the confidence, and reminding parents of how dangerous these illnesses are and why it's so important to get the children immunized as soon as possible. It's essential.

HOLMES: Yes. It's a matter, literally, of life and death. Really appreciate your taking the time, Lily Caprani. Thank you so much.

Still to come on the program, a rising young star reigns supreme at golf's oldest championship. Details on the incredible come-from-behind win at St. Andrew's coming up next.

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[00:41:45]

HOLMES: Welcome back. Mine-sweeping crews are combing the wreckage of a cargo plane crash in Greece. The Serbian defense ministry says the plane was carrying a planeload of munitions. It was operated by a Ukrainian airline, and it was traveling from Serbia to Bangladesh, with a stop planned in Jordan.

Witnesses said they say it burning in the sky before it crashed. All eight people on board were killed.

Teams hope to collect and neutralize any explosives that might still be part of the debris.

There's a new world champion in the shotput event. Chase Ealey became the first U.S. woman to win the sport's gold medal at the World Athletics Championships over the weekend, edging out the defending two-time champion and reigning Olympic gold medalist by throwing just one-tenth of one meter further in the competition in Oregon.

Last month, Ealey set a U.S. record for her throw at the national championships.

One of the world's hottest golfers this year now has his first major championship. Australia's Cameron Smith came roaring from behind at St. Andrew's on Sunday, overcoming fan favorite Rory McIlroy and a red-hot finish by American Cameron Young to win the 150th Open Championship.

Smith did it with some clutch putting. It really was an incredible. And an amazing streak of five straight birdies on the back nine. He spoke to our Alex Thomas after hoisting the Claret Jug.

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CAMERON SMITH, WINNER, OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP: Really confident in the words (ph), to be honest. You know, all that stuff's nice. I don't really know what to put it down to, just a little bit of hard work and really staying in there the last nine holes. This is such a cool week. Everything -- the town's great, the golf course is great. I can't wait to bring it back here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: First mullet to win the Open in 27 years, since John Daly. He also won me some money at my local pub golf pool (ph). And there will be more of that interview with Cam Smith, next on WORLD SPORT.

Thanks for watching. I'm Michael Holmes. More news at the top of the hour.

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