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Ukraine Sees Opportunity in Wagner's Bakhmut Pullout; Belarus: Transfer of Russian Nuclear Weapons Underway; Politician's Son Arrested after Deadly Rampage Kills 4 in Japan; Man Arrested After Crashing Car into Downing Street Gates; 'Most Wanted' Fugitive Arrested for Crimes Against Humanity; Oath Keeper Founder Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison; Washington Post: Trump Staffers Moved Boxes of Papers Before FBI Search; Inflation Takes Toll on Consumer Spending in Germany; Negotiators Near Deal on Debt Limit; Researchers Define Long COVID; Google Removes Slavery Game after Wave of Anger in Brazil. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired May 26, 2023 - 00:00   ET

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

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, deep strike. Ukrainian forces are said to have fired a volley of Storm Shadow cruise missiles at the Russian-occupied port city of Berdyansk.

[00:00:21]

A rare outbreak of deadly violence in Japan. A masked man, armed with a hunting rifle and knife, under arrest after four people, including two police officers, were killed.

And COVID infections in China set to explode in the coming weeks, as the new SBP variant spreads across the country, where tough pandemic controls were suddenly abandoned late last year.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: Thank you for joining us here on CNN. We begin with new dramatic video released by the Ukrainian government, which they say is a drone attack on a Russian warship in the Black Sea.

The video is recorded from the unmanned drone as it zeroes in on its target at high speed. The CNN analysis found the ship is likely the Ivan Khurs, one of the most modern in the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.

The images, though, suddenly stop before the moment of impact, and Moscow says the Ukrainian attack was unsuccessful, and the ship sustained no damage.

Meantime, Moscow-backed officials are blaming Ukraine for a missile strike in the Russian-occupied city of Berdyansk. They believe Ukraine may have used the long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles recently supplied by Britain. Berdyansk is deep behind the front lines, which would make those missiles a likely choice.

And just days after claiming victory in the battle for Bakhmut, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, says his forces are beginning a week long withdrawal, replaced by Russian regular troops.

Prigozhin's claim had not been independently verified, and there are questions over the Russians' military ability to hold and defend the city from Ukrainian fighters, who are believed to still have a foothold in Bakhmut's outer suburbs.

For more, here's Fred Pleitgen, reporting in from Kyiv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Just as the Ukraine military say their forces are retaking ground on the outskirts of Bakhmut, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin says his mercenaries are on the moving out.

"That's it, moving out in 10 to 15 minutes," he tells these tankers. "Everyone leaves before June 1. We'll rest, prepare, and then get a new task."

Wagner's exit could mark a turning point in one of the bloodiest battles in Europe since World War II. The mercenaries' assaulted Bakhmut for months, often using human waves to try and storm Ukrainian positions.

Prigozhin trying to prove to Putin his hired guns can get the job done, where regular Russian units failed.

Even during the withdrawal, a swipe at Russia's defense minister. Prigozhin joking, he'll leave two scrawny fighters behind to help the army when they take over Wagner's positions.

"That is Bieber (ph), and that's Douck (ph)," he says. "The moment the military are in a tough position, they'll stand up and block the Ukrainian army: 'Guys, don't bully the military.'"

While the Ukrainians tell CNN they cannot confirm Wagner is really pulling out of Bakhmut, they believe a withdrawal could give them a boost and Kyiv's quest to retake the city.

SERHII CHEREVATYI, UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES (through translator): Compared to other units of the Russian army, Wagner did fight better and conducted more offensive actions. But this was literally due to bloody discipline and threats of execution.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): While Moscow's army struggles in Ukraine, Russians clearly feel threatened on the home front, as well. The intelligence service FSB releasing dramatic footage of arrest from earlier this month of what they claim were Ukrainian intelligence operatives plotting to attack two nuclear power plants in Northwestern Russia.

While the Ukrainians haven't commented, Russia blames Kyiv. Moscow also lashing out after a U.S. intelligence assessment saying Ukraine may have been behind a drone attack on the Kremlin in early May. DMITRY PESKOV, KREMLIN SPOKESMAN (through translator): Behind this is

the Kyiv regime. We know this, and we are carrying out our work based on this.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Russia using the incident to justify its war against Ukraine. Putin's top mercenary is recouping's forces and vowing to return.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Confirmation from Belarus that a Russian transfer of tactical nuclear weapons is underway. Belarus has been Moscow's closest ally since the war began last February, Russia repeatedly using Belarusian territory to stage incursions into Ukraine.

An agreement to deploy the tactical nuclear weapons was signed Thursday by defense ministers from both Russia and Belarus. U.S. government, as well as opposition leaders in Belarus have denounced the move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We strongly condemn the arrangement. It's the latest example of irresponsible behavior that we have seen from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine over a year ago.

As we have made clear, the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in this conflict will be met with severe consequences.

[00:05:08]

But in response to this report, I will just add we have seen no reason to adjust our strategic nuclear posture or any indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining us now from Washington, national security expert Joe Cirincione. He is also the former president of the Plowshares firm. It's good to see you.

JOE CIRINCIONE, NATIONAL SECURITY EXPERT: Thank you, John. Thanks for having me.

VAUSE: OK, so according to the Russian news agency, Tass, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has given public reassurances the nuclear warheads would be safe, saying, quote, "Don't you worry. You know we are punctual, thrifty people, so don't stress out. We'll be taking care of this."

The transfer of nukes from Russia to Belarus was floated months ago by Vladimir Putin. So are you confident it's either happened or will happen? And at this point, what are your biggest fears from the transfer?

CIRINCIONE: No, there's a lot more that we don't know about this transfer than we do know. We do know if it's actually physically started yet, although Lukashenko says it has.

We don't know if any weapons have actually left Russia yet. We don't know when they're going to be deployed. We don't know what kind of weapons that there will be deployed.

But if Putin goes through with this, and it appears that they will, this is an historic milestone. I've been talking to several nuclear experts today, and we can't remember another incident where, during a crisis, a nuclear-armed state has flushed its weapons from garrison and put them into the field, which is effectively what Putin is doing here.

The closest we've come is the Cuban missile crisis back in '62, but those were unarmed nuclear-capable missiles. The nuclear warheads had already been sent to Cuba, unbeknownst to the United States at the time. This is a major escalation of Putin's nuclear threats.

VAUSE: So once the warheads arrive on Belarusian territory, Moscow still is in control of the weapons, but is this essentially, you know, a precursor? Is it a threat? How do you see it?

CIRINCIONE: It's definitely a threat. First of all, it's illegal. This violates several international agreements, including -- that Belarus has signed, including the nuclear proliferation treaty, where it says it will be a non-nuclear state, will not possess nuclear weapons.

It violates the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, when Belarus gave up the Soviet nuclear weapons that have been stationed there. It violates the Belarusian constitution. It violates Putin's own statements of just two months ago, when with China, he declared that no nation should station nuclear weapons outside their own territory. Here, he is doing that.

VAUSE: What is the bigger concern here? That the nukes will actually be used intentionally or the law of unintended consequences?

CIRINCIONE: Well, you have accidents once you start moving nuclear weapons around. We have a long history of accidents involving nuclear weapons, and the Russian military has shown how inept it is in just normal conventional military practices, so you have things like that.

You could have Ukrainian attacks on the transfer of these weapons. So offensive forces trying to disrupt the transfer.

You could have a panic among Russian commanders in the field with Putin himself, and he actually uses these weapons. That's the worst of all the possible scenarios you can see here.

VAUSE: Right now, NATO's nuclear posture remains unchanged, and as for the United States, here's a spokesman for the State Department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MILLER: In response to this report, I will just add we have seen no reason to adjust our strategic nuclear posture or any indications that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Does that give you any comfort?

CIRINCIONE: We need much more from the United States, frankly. We need to know what they know about the movement of these weapons. We need to know not that he's not prepared to use them, has he moved them? What kind of weapons might he be moving? What kind of new sanctions or new steps could we take to stop this movement?

The Belarusian opposition leader has come out and pleaded with the West to take strong measures to try to stop this transfer before it begins. We haven't seen anything like that, even hinted at by the United States or its NATO allies yet.

VAUSE: Joe Cirincione, it is good to see you, as always. We appreciate your insights. Thank you, sir.

CIRINCIONE: Thank you, John.

VAUSE: In Japan, police say the son of a local politician is under arrest after a deadly knife and gun attack Thursday. Four people were killed, including two police officers. The suspect then barricaded himself for hours in his mother's home.

CNN's Marc Stewart joins us live from Tokyo with the very latest.

And at this point, is there any word on a motive, because there is some indications this may have been a random attack?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is the big question, John, that we've been asking since earlier this morning. What prompted this, and what is the motive behind this. We may get some insight in the next few hours, as police are starting to brief reporters about what they believe happened.

[00:10:04]

As far as that suspect, the 31-year-old, he is now in custody. We have some video of him in a police car from the Nakano area of Japan. But at this point, no clear narrative as to what prompted this.

What is clear, though, is exactly what happened. We know there was a stabbing. We know there was a shooting, and then we know this man barricaded himself in a home owned by his father, who as you said, is a local politician in Nakano City.

But again, as to the fuel behind this, that is not clear.

We should also point out that, even though gun ownership is extremely rare in Japan, this is a man who was identified as a farmer. He also lives in an area in Japan where people do hunting. So it is not out of the realm of possibility.

And getting a firearm, such as the hunting rifle, as is believed to have been the weapon in this case, does require a strict background check. There is a lot of procedure; there is a lot of protocol.

Also, John, as you know from having spent time in Asia, gun-related violence as a whole is not a common occurrence. Last year in Japan, there were four gun-related deaths, one of which was the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In that case, the gunman used a homemade weapon.

So guns are very hard to get here in Japan, and that is adding to the intrigue in this case. Not only the access to guns but what prompted a shooting like this, John.

VAUSE: Yes. You mentioned this sort of violence is incredibly rare in Japan. So what's been the bigger reaction there, the wider reaction?

STEWART: Well, I think right now, people are just still trying to digest all of it. The fact that this does not appear to be something random, in the sense that this happened in a residential area, in an area familiar with the gunman. Perhaps, that's giving a little bit more comfort, but right now, the public is still trying to just digest all of this.

VAUSE: Marc, thank you. Marc Stewart, live for us in Tokyo with the very latest. We appreciate it.

A security scare for the British prime minister, after a car crashed into the gates of Downing Street near the P.M.'s residence at No. 10. And Rishi Sunak was at home at the time.

The driver is being detained on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving. The incident is not considered terror-related.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The situation outside the gates of 10 Downing Street is very much back to normal now. You can hear music playing. Traffic is moving through. Pedestrians are moving through.

Earlier today, at about 4:20 local time, Westminster Police said that a small vehicle crashed into the gates, those iron gates that you see behind me there.

You can actually see that white vehicle still obscured by the police at those gates.

Police say that a man was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and criminal damage. But pictures that were playing on the BBC show very minimal damage, if at all, to those wrought-iron gates and to that vehicle that remains outside. Police, of course, working to clear that vehicle, to move that vehicle

as quickly as possible. Just an indication, again, that things are back to normal.

BBC footage showed that white car very slowly driving towards those gates, crashing into them. One eyewitness saying they did hear the bang of that crash.

About again, the prime minister's residence and office, 10 Downing Street, secured. Police have the situation under control and life is resuming as normal.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Almost 30 years after genocide in Rwanda, the man most wanted for allegedly killing thousands of people has been arrested in South Africa. A spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general says the arrest sends a powerful message to those who tried to evade justice that they will eventually be held accountable.

CNN's David McKenzie has details now, reporting in from Johannesburg.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fugitive Fulgence Kayishema did not look like a man on the run. South African police say they found him living the good life, in wine country near Cape Town, but for more than 20 years, his mugshot was plastered on top of the list of the most wanted perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, and even among the names that define pure evil. Prosecutors say Kayishema stands out.

SERGE BRAMMERTZ, CHIEF PROSECUTOR, U.N. INTERNATIONAL RESIDUAL MECHANISM FOR CRIMINAL TRIBUNALS: His responsibility was, in fact, to protect the civilians, and he did exactly the opposite.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): For more than 90 days, nearly 50 years ago now, more than 800,000 to Tutsis and moderate Hutu Rwandans were murdered during the genocide.

Investigators say Kayishema was not just a mastermind but was also a participant, herding fleeing Tutsis, women, children and the elderly, into the Nyange Catholic Church. At first, they used machetes.

[00:15:03]

BRAMMERTZ: When those killings were not advancing quickly enough, they brought petrol and put the church on fire and came with this heavy machinery to have the roof of the church collapsing over more than 2,000 women and children. Must be worse than having an evil character to go over days and days, continuing those massive killings.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): When the Rwandan Patriotic Front put a stop to the orgy of killing, investigators say that Kayishema melted in with the thousands of refugees fleeing Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of Congo. He used fake papers, assumed names and fellow fugitives to get refugee status and asylum in Mozambique, Eswatini, and finally, South Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kayishema is indicted for the murders of more than 2,000 women, children and elderly refugees.

At the U.N. Security Council, the chief prosecutor repeatedly blamed South Africa for a lack of cooperation. That all changed a year ago, he says, when President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered a task force be formed, and investigators began closing the net.

MCKENZIE: What message does this arrest give to those who still remain at large in Rwanda and in other possible crimes of humanity?

BRAMMERTZ: Persons who are powerful today are not powerful anymore tomorrow. Sometimes, we have to wait months, sometimes years. But the message is really very clearly, where there are no statutes of limitations for crimes, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity. And even if it takes years, we will, at the end of the day, get those guys.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Kayishema was one of the handful of those most wanted for the genocide. Rwandan prosecutors are still looking for more than 1200 fugitives. The hunt is far from over.

David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Two convicted ringleaders from the January 6th insurrection on the Capitol -- on the U.S. Capitol have received lengthy prison terms but one of them, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes remains unrepentant, declaring himself a political prisoner.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison on Thursday. That is a sentence, the largest among any January 6th Capitol riot defendant.

And the reason Rhodes is receiving that much time is because the judge decided he was the reason the members of the Oath Keepers came to Washington, D.C., on January 6 and decided to move into the Capitol in their riot gear, in military-esque gear, as a unit.

Now, Rhodes spoke to the judge today and said that he had no remorse at all, that he still believed that the election of 2020 was illegal, that this was an illegitimate government governing the United States.

And so the judge responded to that quite harshly, telling Rhodes that his crimes of seditious conspiracy and other crimes amounted to domestic terrorism in his sentencing and also that he believed Rhodes poses a continuing ongoing threat to the American republic, to American democracy.

There was another person sentenced today, too, a deputy who was working with Rhodes on January 6, a man named Kelly Meggs from Florida.

Meggs was a very different defendant, in that he did express remorse. He said he was sorry to be involved in an event that put such a black eye on the country.

But the judge also gave him quite a significant sentence, believing it, too, amounted to a crime of domestic terrorism, seditious conspiracy, and the judge gave him 12 years.

Kelly Meggs, whenever he was receiving his sentence, was crying, but the judge also took a step back and told him quite sternly that violence was not the answer and is not the answer for people who disagree with the political process in the United States.

Judge Amit Mehta, he also said, "We have a process. It is called an election. You don't take it to the streets with rifles. You don't hope that the president invokes the Insurrection Act so you can start a war in the streets. You don't rush into the U.S. Capitol with the hope to stop the electoral vote count. We will slowly but surely descend into chaos if we do."

More sentences for Oath Keepers are to come, but these were the most significant sentences so far in the January 6th seditious conspiracy cases.

Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: New reporting from "The Washington Post": just a day before the FBI was set to search for classified documents, Donald Trump's staff was busy moving boxes around his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago.

And according to the "Post," Trump also allegedly held a dress rehearsal for moving sensitive papers before they were subpoenaed a year ago.

Investigators reportedly view the timing as a potential sign of obstruction. The "Washington Post" reporter Josh Dawsey spoke to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[00:20:06]

JOSH DAWSEY, REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": What we're learning is that one day before federal authorities came to Mar-a-Lago last June, to pick up classified documents in return for a subpoena, that video camera (ph) footage shows two Trump employees, two employees at the former president at Mar-a-Lago, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) boys, moving boxes back into the storage room.

As you remember, when the -- when the feds arrived at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's team said, Come with us to the storage room. That's where the documents are. You can do a search. They would not let them in the boxes.

But what we've reported is that the boxes were previously moved after the subpoena arrived, and then the night before federal officials came to Mar-a-Lago, they were put back into a storage room.

We're also reporting that federal investigators probing the classified documents, the handling of former President Trump have multiple witnesses who've told them he displayed classified information to visitors and left them out and showed it to others, and or also reporting that for this time we did not get the documents back.

They went through what was called an apparent dress rehearsal, according to a federal judge when the National Archives asked for the documents back before.

So they have the same playbook on how not to get the documents back was, what they did with the National Archives, as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: And that was "Washington Post" reporter Josh Dawsey.

Well, we'll take a short break. When we come back, soaring inflation brings an economic recession to the economic engine of Europe. Ahead, the financial outlook.

Also, Iran's test launch of a medium-range ballistic missile drawing condemnation from the United States. That story and much more, ahead here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Super Typhoon Mawar continues to strengthen as it moves over the Western Pacific. The storm now has sustained winds of almost 300 kilometers per hour.

But the super typhoon is expected to weaken slightly before threatening the Northern Philippines or Taiwan early next week.

Much of Guam remains without electricity and water after Mawar made landfall there with hurricane-force winds. It's one of the strongest storms to ever strike Guam.

Uprooted trees, damaged cars, as well as homes dumped a lot of rain. As of Thursday, no deaths or significant injuries have been reported.

Inflation has drained Europe's largest economy into recession, and economists seem split over how long it will last. Germany's output fell 0.3 percent in the first three months of the year, marking its second straight quarter of decline.

CNN's Anna Stewart has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANNA STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We had a hint of bad

news for Germany's economy earlier this month with data from March showing a significant drop in German industrial production and a fall in retail sales.

And the IMF, of course, had already projected that the economy would shrink this year, albeit only by 0.1 percent.

[00:25:03]

Now some economists -- cattle (ph) economics, Commerce Bank, they think this recession could actually deepen further. The main cause of the contraction is the impact inflation is having on spending.

German inflation has fallen from its peak, but it's still running hot, coming in over 7 percent in April, and food prices increasing by 17 percent from a year ago.

So perhaps it's unsurprising that Household spending decreased by 1.2 percent in the first quarter. And you can see in the data today that people are spending less on all sorts of things, food and beverages, clothing and footwear, home furnishings and cars.

Now, car manufacturing, which is of course, a huge industry in Germany, has also taken a hit due to Germany phasing out grants and subsidies for hybrid and electric vehicles.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank has raised rates to their highest levels since the 2008 financial crisis. And that, of course, is further squeezing those Households with mortgages and debts to play. And the bank's president, Christine Lagarde, has hinted that there are further heights to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Negotiators working to avoid a U.S. default are moving closer to an agreement to raise the debt limit as well as cut spending.

CNN has learned Republicans and the White House are considering a plan to raise the debt limit for two years and institute a cap on federal spending, also for two years.

Funding for veterans and the Pentagon would be exempt from any cuts. The plan would allow both Democrats and Republicans to claim a win.

CNN's Melanie Zanona has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are a number of other outstanding issues, particularly on the issue of tougher work requirements for social safety net programs.

That has been something that both sides have been really dug in on. Republicans included it in their bill in the House. They are demanding it. They say it's a red flag for them. And then you have Democrats who say they're going to need to supply votes to get this thing over the finish line, as well, saying that they can't support something that has, really, any form of tougher work -- tougher work requirements.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Negotiations have ramped up for now but are expected to resume in the day ahead and then continue throughout the weekend. Hopefully, it's -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE) June 1 deadline.

When we come back, China is bracing for as many as 65 million new COVID infections a week, as the XBB variant spreads like wildfire across the country. We'll have more on that in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Iran claims to have successfully launched its most advanced ballistic missile on Thursday, and that brought condemnation from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MILLER: As we have made clear, Iran's development and proliferation of ballistic missiles poses a serious threat to regional and international security and remains a significant nonproliferation challenge.

[00:30:04]

We continue to use a variety of nonproliferation tools, including sanctions, to counter the further advancement of Iran's ballistic missile program and its ability to proliferate missiles and related technology to others.

As we've said before, an Iran with a nuclear weapon would likely act even more provocatively, and that's why we are so committed to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: According to Iran state media, the liquid fuel missile has a range of more than 2,000 kilometers and can reportedly carry warheads weighing 1,500 kilograms.

It also incorporates advanced guidance and control systems.

We now have the first definition of long-COVID based systems, an important step towards finding treatments. A list of symptoms could eventually be used to diagnose or classify someone as actually having long COVID.

The 12 symptoms identified in the study are worsening health after mental or physical activity, fatigue, brain fog, dizziness. Also included, gastronomical symptoms, heart palpitations, changes in sexual desire or capacity, loss of or change in smell or taste; and, finally, thirst, chronic cough, chest pain and abnormal -- abnormal movements.

The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control defined long COVID as conditions that continue or develop after someone had a COVID-19 infection.

Meanwhile, Chinese authority is preparing for a new wave of COVID cases because of the new XBB variant. The surge is expected to peak next month and could infect as many as 65 million people a week.

Authorities in Beijing are rushing to get as many people vaccinated against the new variant as possible. The U.S. State Department says it's watching closely as this story develops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MILLER: We continue to monitor the reports of a second wave of COVID- 19 cases in the PRC. We've been having discussions about them with our allies and partners. We don't want to see people anywhere, obviously, suffering from COVID-19.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining us now from Washington, Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and chief of the COVID task force at the World Health Network.

Welcome back to the show. It's been a while.

DR. ERIC FEIGL-DING, EPIDEMIOLOGY/CHIEF OF COVID TASK FORCE, WORLD HEALTH NETWORK: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: OK. So even though we now have these tough symptoms, which are identified as being key to diagnosing long COVID, this is seen as kind of a first step in what would be most likely an evolving process.

So what does this actually mean at this point, and where does this all go from here?

FEIGL-DING: Long COVID is officially a diagnosis under various medical coding systems, but the key thing is that people realize it is much more common than we think is. Some people thinking it's a rare condition. In terms of prevalence, like 10 percent of all people who were infected have long COVID.

But, that's actually whether you were actually vaccinated or from infection. So you're -- the vaccination protects you from dying, but in terms of long COVID, the actual -- according to the newest large study by NIH -- it's called a cover study -- it's actually similar.

And more importantly, we have to focus that if you get infected twice or more, reinfections, they have 20 percent the chance of long COVID versus just infected just once, a 10 percent chance.

VAUSE: Right now, though, the more immediate concern in China isn't so much long COVID but a new outbreak of the virus. There have been concerns this could be the largest wave of infections there since the end of the zero-COVID policy.

So from what we know at this point, how bad is it likely to get?

FEIGLE-DING: Well, China went through a really bad wave in December and January a couple of months ago. And by that, models estimate well over one and a half million, 2 million or more people actually died in China. It's just under reported.

But based on the models for many sources, that seems to be the number of how many people have suffered. But in this new wave, they're actually estimating 40 million new cases per week in May and 65 million more cases per week in June.

Sixty-five million is like 5 percent of China's population. Per week. And so, you know, even if you say most of China is now vaccinated, yes, but remember long COVID stacks with more infections.

And already we're seeing that, in some hospitals in China, 40 to 50 percent of cases that are walking in are actually -- actually re- infections.

VAUSE: Let's go to the reinfection here. As you say, there's not a lot of information out there which is available, but 40 percent of cases appeared to be re-infections, and that seems incredibly high. So what does it say about this particular variant?

FEIGLE-DING: The variant right now that China is seeing is the XBB variant. It's like this crossover variant of two different variants. Basically, two variants came together, did a little mixing, and now we have XBB strain.

XBB in many ways, although it's a type of Omicron, it is a very different version. It's further from the original Omicron wave that we had, like, two years ago than -- than actually, then, the first, you know, Wuhan strain.

So in many ways, WHO just said last week, you know, we need to stop with the bivalents. We need to make new XBB-targeted vaccines going forward.

In many ways, you know, it's a race. It's a -- it's a rat race, but it's also an arms race against the virus, and the virus seems to be winning, giving how quickly it comes back and then hits a country that was just recently hit with an apocalyptic wave just five months ago.

VAUSE: Yes. Dr. Eric Feigle-Ding, thank you so much for being with us, sir. We appreciate it.

FEIGLE-DING: Thank you. Stay safe.

VAUSE: Thousands of stolen artifacts have been recovered by Italian police, including more than 1,500 silver and bronze coins dating back to the Fourth Century, B.C., as well as Roman imperial coins, mugs, plates, miniature vases, and oil lamps. Police say many artifacts were stolen from graves and archaeological

digs across Italy. Twenty-one people have been arrested, and the search continues for at least 30 more suspects.

Still ahead on CNN, accusations of recreational racism. Google pulls a game called Slavery Simulator from its app store. But why was it there in the first place? That story and more when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Microsoft is the latest big-tech company to call for a new U.S. agency to regulate artificial intelligence.

In a speech Thursday, Microsoft President Brad Smith said A.I. had the transformative potential of the printing press, but the risks mean regulating A.I. is the challenge of the 21st Century.

Smith also called for President Biden to sign an executive order requiring federal agencies that use A.I. tools to implement a risk- management framework, saying that would leverage the government's immense purchasing power to shape and encourage the industry to adopt best practices.

Smith's remarks echo calls made last week by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which Microsoft has invested billions of dollars into.

Authorities in Brazil are investigating why Google allowed a game about slavery to be sold from its app store. One lawmaker slammed the game as, quote, "recreational racism."

Julia Vargas Jones is in Sao Paulo and has details.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, JOURNALIST: Slavery Simulator, John, that is just as disturbing as it sounds. But it was a game, available in Google Play Store, where users could pretend to own enslaved people. Most of them, from the screenshots we saw, black.

Then users could buy and sell, exchange them, and even punish them.

In the Google Play review section, we saw some users saying that they thought the game was racist and it should be taken down. But there were many users praising the game, saying how much they enjoyed it and lamenting not having enough tools to torture with.

After backlash on social media over the past few days here in Brazil, authorities did take action. They're opening an inquiry to find out why Google allowed this game on its store to begin with.

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And Google telling CNN in the statement that, quote, they "have a robust set of policies to keep users safe and that all developers must follow. They don't allow apps that promote violence or incite hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnic origin or that depict or promote gratuitous violence or other dangerous activities."

They also say that, if they identify a policy violation, they will take action.

The makers of the game telling CNN Brazil, our affiliate, that they don't condone slavery and that's all fictional. But lawmakers here in Brazil are saying that the game is trivializing an abhorrent practice, though, of slavery and that it might have broken Brazilian laws against racism.

But we have to consider this in the general context, John, of where this game is landing in society. Brazil does have a racism problem, but it also has a modern slavery problem.

This year alone in 2023, over 1,200 people were rescued from situations akin to slavery in Brazil.

Now, an NGO that tracks those kinds of numbers, they say that that number is probably closer to 1 million people living in those situations in Brazil today.

So you can imagine what it means in a society like this one that's trying to still get past that legacy of slavery, where that's still very much happening, how difficult it must be to see this kind of game, even if it's supposed to be a joke or some kind of lighthearted situation. That just does not land well here -- John.

VAUSE: Appreciate that, thank you.

Now, Virgin Galactic is one small step from taking passengers to the edge of space and charging one giant price for the trip: $450,000 to be precise.

The company successfully tested its supersonic plane Thursday carrying a crew about 80 kilometers above Earth. Commercial passengers are expected to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the Earth's curved horizon.

About 90 minutes after the kickoff, Virgin Galactic tweeted, "Touchdown, VSS Unity. Our crew and spaceship are back on Earth."

Four hundred and fifth Grants worth.

I'm John Vause. We'll have more CNN NEWSROOM about 15 minutes with my colleague and friend, Michael Holmes. Please stay with CNN. After the break, though, WORLD SPORT is up next.

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