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Secretary of State Blinken Visits China; Esper and Panetta says Trump's Not to be Trusted; Multiple Shootings Across the U.S., 9 Dead and Many Injured; Supreme Court Ready to Take Action Major Rulings; Video of Lockdown Government Party Emerges; Russia and Ukraine Intense Fighting; Refugees Fleeing Violence Face Difficult Conditions In South Sudan Refugee Camps; Multiracial Groups In The U.S. Show Growing Support For African American Payments; Drug Overdose Deaths Near Record Levels; American Golfer Wyndham Clark Captures First Career Major Title At Tournament. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired June 19, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: To our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world, I am Rosemary Church. Just ahead on "CNN Newsroom," U.S. Secretary of State Blinken on his final day of a high stakes trip to China. We are live in Hong Kong with a look at what's on the table as the two countries try to improve relations.

Fatal gun violence is once again overshadowing a holiday weekend here in the United States. One attack claiming the life of a state trooper.

And the humanitarian crisis unfolding amid a civil war in Sudan. We will take you to a refugee camp where many have fled the violence.

Good to have you with us. With the second and final day of talks is now underway in Beijing where America's top diplomat is hoping to help steer the U.S.-China relationship back on course. Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held closed door discussions with China's top diplomat Wang Yi.

And on Sunday, Blinken held talks with China's foreign minister who accepted an invitation to Washington. Blinken's visit is the first by a U.S. Secretary of State to China in five years. Both sides have come into these meetings with a goal of improving their deeply strained relationship, but are playing down expectations with a major breakthrough.

And CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins us now live from Hong Kong with the latest. Good to see you, Kristie. So, what's next for Antony Blinken in Beijing and what have the U.S. and China discussed so far?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, this is the second and final day of Blinken's visit to Beijing as both the U.S. and China seek to restore to stabilize this relationship. And today, he met -- the meeting just wrapped up with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi. It was a closed-door meeting that lasted some three hours and Blinken may have a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this day. So, we are awaiting confirmation on that.

Now, Blinken is the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit China in some five years. And according to state media, we learned some key details that came out of today's meeting between Blinken and Wang Yi. Wang Yi said that the two sides must reverse the downward spiral of U.S.-China relations. And he also asked the United States to lift unilateral sanctions against China and to stop speculating on the, quote, "China thread theory."

Now, on Sunday, Blinken met with the Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang. They had candid talks which lasted some seven and a half hours and they agreed to maintain high-level ties. Qin accepted invitation to visit the U.S. He also called for stable relations. But China made it clear in both meetings with qin Gang, with Wang Yi, that Taiwan is the core issue.

I want to share with you this minister of foreign affairs readout that came out on the back of the meeting with Qin Gang and it said this, quote, "Qin pointed out that the Taiwan question is the core of China's core interest, the most consequential issue and the most pronounced risk in the China-U.S. relationship."

Now, expectations were low going into this visit, these high stakes visit to Beijing. And before the talks, U.S. officials said that they saw a little chance of a breakthrough given so many points of contention between the U.S. and China, including Taiwan, including access to technology, including the flow of precursors -- they call it precursor fentanyl chemicals from China.

Senior U.S. Officials, they say that Blinken's main goal during this two-day visit is to do one thing, to reestablish channels of communication between the U.S. and China, especially direct military to military communications. Now, also on the table were global issues where the two countries have shared interests and to cooperate with another. Issues like public health, like climate change, and global economic stability.

Going into these talks, we heard from the U.S. president over the weekend, Joe Biden, and he was optimistic. He said that he believes Blinken's trip to China could ease tensions. Not only that, he added that he hopes to meet with a President Xi Jinping in the next few months. Back to you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. We'll be watching very carefully to see what progress is made. Kristie Lu Stout joining us there live from Hong Kong. Many thanks.

[02:05:00]

Well, Donald Trump's former Pentagon chief says his former boss should not be trusted with the nation's secrets if the charges and Special Counsel Jack Smith's criminal indictment are true. Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper is the latest Trump ex-cabinet official to criticize the former president's handling of classified documents, which has put him in legal jeopardy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK ESPER, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, based on his actions, again if proven true, under the indictment by the special counsel, no. I mean, it's just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, it places our nation's security at risks. You cannot have these documents floating around. They need to be secured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, meanwhile, one of Esper's predecessors at the Pentagon, Leon Panetta, agreed with his opinion, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEON PANETTA, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Absolutely not. He's been incredibly reckless, irresponsible, careless in the way that he's handled classified documents. You know, he's been -- he's behaved like a six-year-old trying to hide cookies from his mother. I mean, it's just -- it's just unexplainable why he would do what he did.

Just reading the indictment makes clear that with 37 counts, that this president definitely put our national security at risk. And as a result of that, frankly, he should not be trusted with classified documents now or in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Former President Trump was indicted on 37 counts in connection with the classified documents he kept at his Florida home after he left the White House. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Well, we are in the midst right now of a weekend of deadly gun violence here in the United States. The most recent reports coming out of the state of Idaho where four people were killed on Sunday night. At least five other shootings were also reported across the country. One person was killed and 22 others injured near Chicago after multiple shots were fired into a crowd celebrating the Juneteenth holiday. Police are still looking for the people responsible for that incident. CNN's Camila Bernal reports.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No one is in custody out at the moment and authorities have not identified a motive, but they are giving a better timeline of what happened. They say that this Juneteenth celebration started around 6:00 p.m. and they say that law enforcement officers were there at the event, but it was at about 12:25 in the morning when they received a 9-1-1 call that reported an alleged fight nearby.

So, these law enforcement officers responded to this 9-1-1 call and as they were doing that, they heard the gunfire. They immediately went back to the Juneteenth celebration and what authorities are saying now, is that an unknown number of suspects fired multiple rounds on multiple weapons and it was chaotic, according to many of these witnesses.

Unfortunately, one person is dead, 22 are injured and authorities saying that more were also injured as they were trying to escape and run away from this chaos. Take a listen to what to some of the witnesses say happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: We were all just out and next thing you know, shots just got -- we're going off and everybody ran and yeah. It was chaos.

UNKNOWN: I've never been in anything like this, honestly. I just -- I just have a headache from the whole commotion. All I can do is check in on my friends and whether and see if everything was okay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And authorities say that right now they are talking to victims and witnesses. They are also going over surveillance video and cell phone video belonging to some of these victims and witnesses. Unfortunately, though, this is now one of 310 mass shootings in the United States according to the Gun Violence Archive. Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.

CHURCH: Meantime, in the state of Missouri, the mayor of St. Louis is calling a Sunday shooting involving teenagers unacceptable. One teenager was killed in the incident and nine others injured. Police say a 17-year-old suspect is in custody, adding that they recovered multiple guns from the scene of a party inside an office building. The city's mayor told our Jim Acosta if St. Louis had stricter gun laws this would never have happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TISHAURA JONES, MAYOR OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: It's tragic, especially with the proliferation of guns in our country how our children now have access to guns and are using them on each other. This is unacceptable.

[02:09:57]

In Missouri, we don't have any laws when it comes to guns, not even common-sense gun safety laws. And the Missouri legislature has preempted cities from enacting common sense gun safety laws on a local level, which we all know poll very well, about red flag laws and universal background checks, all of those and especially the bill that they didn't take any action on this year, would've kept guns out of the hands of minors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And tragedy struck in the state of Washington after a man fired shots in a campground near an electronic dance music festival on Saturday. Two people were killed and several others injured. Police caught the suspect after tried to get away shooting into the crowd as he floods. As a result, the music festival canceled Sunday's events. Well, police in western Pennsylvania are trying to figure out why a

heavily armed gunman on Sunday targeted officers killing a state trooper and seriously wounding another. The Pennsylvania state police say 29-year-old trooper Jacques Rougeau, Jr. was fatally shot as he tried to confront the gunman. It happened after the suspect shot up police cars near the department's barracks. CNN's Polo Sandoval traces the gunman's rampage.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was a nearly four-hour long ordeal that culminated in a violent shootout between Pennsylvania State Troopers and a suspect who is armed with a hunting rifle in a scene that was described on Sunday by authorities as a situation that was as harrowing as it gets.

It all started on Saturday afternoon when police say a suspect, a 38- year-old Pennsylvanian man pulled into the barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police in Lewiston, which is about 57 miles west of the capital city of Harrisburg, and then opened fire on their parked patrol cars. He then drove away and it was nearly two hours later that the suspect then took aim at Lieutenant James Wagner, a married father who is also 21-year-old veteran.

He critically wounded him. We're told he is still in the hospital. Witnesses even using the lieutenants radio to summon help from authorities and it was later, a couple of hours later, that authorities then tracked down the suspect near some businesses, near a restaurant, when that suspect reportedly shot and killed Trooper Jacques Rougeau, about 29-years-old, a member of the force there, and before the suspect was then shot and killed ending what was an extremely violent shoot out that was described by the lieutenant colonel you're about to hear from as a virtual war zone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE BIVENS, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE: What I witnessed, and I will tell you, in my many years with the Pennsylvania State Police and in many serious situations, it was on the most intense, unbelievable gunfights I have ever witnessed. As he, Stine, drove through a field, approached Hershberger's store and a small restaurant there, he drove to the parking lot. There were people in the lot that were patronizing that business. Our troopers put themselves between those people and by force, with their vehicles, and by engaging him, forced him away from the business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And there is a question about a motive. At this point, authorities are saying that they are not able to elaborate on that, only that this was basically a cat and mouse game that the suspect was playing. He would call into some of the 9-1-1 centers and then tell authorities that he was in a particular location. Authorities would arrive, and then he was gone.

We also know, according to authorities, that he used a very high caliber rifle that was customarily used to hunt large game and that any body armor that Pennsylvania State Troopers would have been easing would've been no match for the suspects firepower.

Now, the Pennsylvania State Troopers are moving forward with its investigation while not only panning a line of duty funeral, but also continue to support their fellow trooper that remains hospitalized. Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

CHURCH: In the U.S., the Supreme Court is entering the final weeks ahead of a self-imposed deadline to issue rulings on several high- profile cases by next month. And these decisions could have far reaching implications for many Americans. CNN's Ariane de Vogue has more.

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN U.S. SUPREME COURT REPORENT: All eyes are on this conservative Supreme Court to see just how fast and how far the conservatives want to go to move the court to the right. One big case they are considering concerns affirmative action and ask the question whether colleges and universities can continue to take race into consideration as a factor in admissions plans.

It has to do with plans out of Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The schools say that they want to be able to consider race in order to make sure that their campuses are diverse.

[02:14:58]

They say that campuses are often a pipeline to society and it's a better academic environment to have a diverse academic experience. On the other hand, challengers say that it violates equal protection. They say it mounts to racial discrimination and it shouldn't be allowed. The Supreme Court, in this case, will consider whether to overturn decades old precedent.

There is another case having to do with President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. The plan was put in place to give relief to millions of borrowers in the wake of COVID. Some of them would get up to $20,000 of relief. But here, Republican-led states said that the Biden administration didn't have the authority, basically, to erase billions of dollars of debt. They said, in that case, it would have to be Congress that stepped in and that oral arguments the conservative justices seemed very skeptical of the Biden administration's position in the case.

Finally, there is a really important case that is important to the LGBTQ community. It involves a website designer, she wants to expand her business to make websites that celebrate weddings, but she does not want to create them for same sex marriages. And here, the LGBTQ community comes in and says that if she wins, then businesses would have a license to discriminate.

But on the other side, she says the website designer, she looks at this through a lens of free speech. She says that the government can't force her to create custom product with a message that goes against her religious beliefs. Ariane de Vogue, CNN, Washington.

CHURCH: Summer officially starts this week, but over 40 million people in the U.S. are under a severe storm threat through early Monday morning. The storm prediction center says the area across the lower Mississippi valley and southeast could see heavy rain, large hail, and damaging winds with the possibility of tornadoes. Nearly 4 million people are under a tornado watch.

And, still to come, the first video surfaces of a party with government aides during London's COVID lockdowns, but allies of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson are still being honored despite their alleged involvement in the scandal.

Plus, the Kremlin's most prominent opposition figure is facing new political charges that could extend his prison sentence by decades. We'll take a look at that and more when we return. Stay with us.

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CHURCH: A senior British official is apologizing after a video emerged showing aides of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson partying during 2020 COVID lockdowns in London. In an interview with Sky News, Housing Secretary Michael Gove called the new footage, quote, "terrible and completely out of order." CNN's Scott McLean has more on the Partygate scandal from London.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, Boris Johnson is not in this video nor was it shot at Downing Street. But it is a timely example of lockdown rule breaking within his own conservative party. This video was published by the British tabloid "The Mirror." It was shot at conservative party headquarters in December 2020 at a time when social distancing restrictions were enforced and two households were not allowed to mix indoors.

Now, there were exceptions for work, but this was clearly not that. The fact that the party took place at all has been reported by CNN before, but this is the first time that we've seen a video of it. Here's part of it.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

MCLEAN: Now, London's Metropolitan Police Has handed out fines for lockdown parties in the past. The force told CNN that it is aware of this footage and considering it. The conservative party previously said that it had disciplined some of the people involved. Conservative cabinet minister, Michael Gove, was also asked about this video on Sky News today and said that it was completely out of order and terrible, in his words.

Now, the gathering was organized by the campaign staff of London conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey who previously apologized and resigned as the chair of a committee that he led at city hall. Oddly enough though, Bailey was just given a peerage this week, meaning he has a lifetime appointment to the House of Lords, the U.K.'s version of the Senate.

The man who made that appointment is Boris Johnson. The video's release also comes just days after a parliamentary committee report found Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about his own separate lockdown parties. The report found that Johnson gave an unsustainable interpretation of the rules that he helped to write. For example, he insisted and continues to insist, in some cases, that the parties were essential for work purposes.

Now, Parliament was scheduled to vote M0onday on whether to accept the findings of the report, which could have landed him a 90-day suspension. But since Johnson resigned as an MP in advance of the reports released calling it a witch hunt, they will not debate whether he should even get the customary former members pass to enter parliament at all. Scott McLean, CNN, London.

CHURCH: Both Ukraine and Russia are reporting fierce fighting along the front lines. Ukraine's president says the toughest battles are happening in the south, but they're also raging in the east.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

CHURCH: These Ukrainian forces are firing on Russian positions near the eastern city of bakhmut.

[02:24:59]

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his troops are repelling Russian attacks around that area in the direction of Avdiivka. He also says Ukraine's air force has carried out more than 100 strikes in the past week and that Russia is lying about Ukrainian losses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translation): No matter who in Russia says that our Patriots have been allegedly destroyed, they are all there, they are all functioning, and they are all shooting down Russian missiles. And they are shooting down missiles with maximum efficiency. Not a single Patriot has been destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The Russian side is giving conflicting reports about its own losses. A Russian-backed official in the Zaporizhzhia region says Ukraine has taken back one village on that front, but Russia's ministry of defense denies it is saying they have repelled several of Ukraine's attempted advances around Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk.

Meantime, fallout from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam continues. The United Nations is slamming Russia for denying humanitarian aid access to occupied areas that have been flooded.

Jailed Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny is facing new charges that could keep him behind bars for several decades to come. Navalny is due to appear in a Moscow court via video link in just a few hours to attend the first hearing in a new extremism case against him. The outspoken Kremlin critic is already serving two prison sentences for alleged fraud and parole violation. Charges that western governments and human rights groups say are

politically motivated. If he is convicted on the new charges, he could be facing another 30-year term. And, still ahead, as tens of thousands of people flee sudan, a look at the conditions they are facing in refugee camps.

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[02:30:19]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: A 72-hour ceasefire has taken effect in Sudan following intense clashes Saturday night. Residents say there was a lull in fighting on Sunday in the capital Khartoum. The latest truce comes as the U.N. is set to host a donor's conference in the coming hours to raise funds for the war-torn country.

Meantime, thousands of people displaced by the violence of fleeing to neighboring Chad. Nearly two million people have been internally displaced as the fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces enters its third month.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese are also fleeing to South Sudan, a country already stretched for resources. And our CNN's Nima Elbagir finds out conditions in the refugee camps are dire, lacking even basic facilities.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: This is Africa's largest refugee crisis. And you can see the conditions here for yourself. The people here are being largely ignored by the world. Aid agencies are doing what they can, but it is simply not enough.

ELBAGIR (voice over): South Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world, they barely have enough to feed and shelter their own returnees. And they're also being asked now to absorb fleeing Sudanese and other foreign nationals with limited support from the outside world and it is almost impossible.

With rainy season starting, what you see here, it's only going to get worse. So many of those speaking to us say that they feel a sense of humiliation that that message that they're receiving from the world, from the international community is that they are not worthy of support.

ELBAGIR: And until aid arrives here in meaningful quantities, it's hard to argue with that.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, Renk, South Sudan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A California community is debating the merits of reparations for African Americans. Just ahead, what Japanese Americans forced into internment camps

during World War II had to say about the issue, back with that and more in just a moment.

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[02:35:43]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, some Japanese Americans who were forced into internment camps during World War II are speaking out in support of reparations for Black Americans.

CNN's Stephanie Elam has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. Thanks for your comments.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Their pain is real.

JONATHAN BURGESS, TESTIFIED BEFORE CALIFORNIA TASK FORCE: Those are the harms that happened to my ancestors that we don't talk about.

ELAM (voiceover): Their vision clear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's ensure recraft legislation that historically preserves our land, our history.

ELAM (voiceover): Black Californians being heard in front of the state's reparations task force. Their passion understood by Amy Iwasaki-Mass.

AMY IWASAKI MASS, INCARCERATED IN AN INTERNMENT CAMP AS A CHILD: The government we trusted, the country that we loved.

The nation to which we had pledged loyalty had betrayed us, had turned against us.

ELAM (voiceover): She too bared her soul to a government body considering reparations.

MASS: It was a pretty scary time.

ELAM (voiceover): Mass was a Los Angeles first-greater when she and her family and more than a hundred thousand other Japanese-Americans were rounded up by the federal government and sent to internment camps. The United States' response during World War II after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941.

MASS: They didn't have their guns out protecting us from the outside. They had the guns pointing at us.

ELAM (voiceover): By the time her family left the Wyoming camp three years later --

MASS: I knew that the United States didn't love us. ELAM (voiceover): Her family returned to Los Angeles but the experience took its toll. MASS: Our scars are deep and permanent.

ELAM (voiceover): More than four decades later, Japanese-Americans were granted $20,000 and a formal apology.

MASS: If we didn't get reparations, if we felt we're still being put down by the government, I think that for me it would be hard to fight.

ELAM (voiceover): Mass is part of a growing wave of multiracial support for Black-American reparations. Many Jewish and Japanese organizations among them.

DON TAMAKI, MEMBER, CALIFORNIA REPARATIONS TASK FORCE: I think there's a growing realization that in 1865 slavery ended, but that the bias simply morphed into other forms that not only put a target on the backs of African-Americans, but also other people of color.

ELAM (voiceover): Don Tamaki is one of nine members on California's reparations task force, the first of its kind in any state. His parents, natives of the San Francisco Bay area, were also in an internment camp. He even has a copy of the check his mother received from the federal government.

TAMAKI: There is no equivalence, really between four years in a concentration camp and 400 years of systematic exclusion and discrimination. But I think Japanese-Americans as a group do understand what it's like to be excluded on the basis of race. And I think there is a sense that African-Americans opened the door and everybody else walked through it.

ELAM (voiceover): The task force is suggesting more than 100 proposals for California to address issues have historically set the Black community back, including health harms, mass incarceration and over- policing, and housing discrimination.

TIMOTHY ALAN SIMON, CHAIR, AFRICAN AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: So, to me, it's tragic that we're seeing this declining population.

ELAM (voiceover): Native San Franciscan Timothy Alan Simon says he's seen his Black neighbors move out of his bay view community. In fact, citywide in 1970, 13 percent of the population identified as Black. Now, that number stands at less than six percent.

SIMON: San Francisco has lost the brilliance to a large extent, the cultural value, the economic contribution and innovation, all that's come out of the African-American community.

ELAM (voiceover): Simon says educating the public about that loss is key and allies like Amy Iwasaki Mass are helping to shine light on the pain by exposing their own.

ELAM: Is it important for Black-Americans to get support from other Americans?

MASS: Absolutely, because when we were having trouble, Black people were being good to us. It's not the race, it's just as a human being --

ELAM (voiceover): Stephanie Elam, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Within the past few hours, the third men's golf major of the year is in the books and the winner might surprise you, not Rickie Fowler or golfing superstar Rory McIlroy, or last year's Masters Champion Scottie Scheffler. Instead, it's the relatively unknown Wyndham Clark, who time and again showed incredible determination and grit, getting himself out of some tough situations over Sunday's final 18 holes to emerge victorious.

[02:40:25]

The 29-year-old from Denver, Colorado is on quite a roll, winning his first ever PGA Tour event last month. And emotionally dedicating that victory to his mother who passed away 10 years ago after a battle with breast cancer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WYNDHAM CLARK, 2023 U.S. OPEN CHAMPION: I just felt like my mom was watching over me today. And you know, she can't be here and miss you, Mom and -- but I just feel like I've worked so hard and I've dreamed about this moment for so long. There's been so many times I've visualized being here in front of you guys and winning this championship and I just feel like it was my time and you know, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Our Patrick Snell was on the ground in Los Angeles. And we'll have a one-on-one interview with the winner coming up on CNN.

And thanks so much for joining us, I'm Rosemary Church. For our international viewers, "WORLD SPORT" is up next. For those of you here in the United States and in Canada, I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM after a short break, do stick around.

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[02:45:26]

CHURCH: New provisional data from the CDC shows drug overdose deaths in the U.S. are hovering at record levels. Nearly 110,000 people died from a drug overdose last year. That number is only slightly less than the record levels reached during the pandemic.

A data from last year shows synthetic opioids including fentanyl, were involved in more than two thirds of overdose deaths. Psychostimulants like methamphetamine were involved in nearly a third.

Meanwhile, there are calls for more research into fentanyl test strips as some states still classify them as illegal paraphernalia. These small strips of paper are used to detect the presence of fentanyl in different kinds of drugs. Health officials say they can be effective in preventing overdoses.

To Boston now, and Dr. Scott Hadland he is the chief of Adolescent Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. He joins us now. Thank you so much for talking with us.

DR. SCOTT HADLAND, CHIEF OF ADOLESCENT MEDICINE, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: So, U.S. drug overdose deaths are at record levels right now, according to new CDC data. How big a problem is fentanyl use specifically? And of course, the resulting deaths from that in America, particularly for young people in this country.

HADLAND: It's a huge issue. We have more than 100,000 Americans dying every year, more than a million Americans have died since the turn-of- the-century.

And with that focus on young people in particular, the group that I care for, young people under the age of 19, overdoses are now the third leading cause of death.

And, so you know, ultimately killing more young people in the U.S. than cancer each year. And most of these deaths are caused by fentanyl, which is a highly potent opioid that's at least 50 times more potent than heroin and more than a hundred times more potent than morphine.

CHURCH: And how did the COVID pandemic make this situation worse for young people using fentanyl?

HADLAND: Well, there have been a few different things that have changed at once. COVID specifically tended to isolate young people, keep young people sort of apart from the things that they normally do to keep themselves healthy like going to school and engaging in their activities.

It also kept young people who might have been struggling with mental health problems or addiction from getting access to doctors in the same way that they used to.

But at the same time that COVID was hitting, that's when fentanyl really started to invade the U.S. market. It had been around for several years, but it really intensified in terms of being present in all kinds of different parts of our drug supply and specifically our illicit drug supply.

You know, fentanyl is a medication that can be prescribed by doctors but where it is in our drug supply is not fentanyl that's been prescribed by doctors or dispensed by pharmacies. It's fentanyl that is being brought in illicitly and contaminating the heroin supply that people may be using.

It sometimes it's found a way into its way into the cocaine supply that people may be using. And it's also rampant throughout counterfeit pills that are available throughout the U.S. for purchase online through social media or through other parts of the illicit market, where we have fake pills that are made to look like pills that are prescribed by a doctor. Pills that are made to look like Xanax or oxycodone, but actually contain fentanyl and can fool somebody and result in an overdose death.

CHURCH: And you have suggested that one way to combat the epidemic is to give teens and young adults free fentanyl test strips. How would that work exactly? Can you explain that?

HADLAND: Yes, fentanyl test strips are one tool in our tool belt. So, there are lots of things we need to be doing at the same time. So, we need to make sure that young people who are struggling with addiction and people of all ages who are struggling with addiction have access to high quality addiction treatment that they get the recovery support services that they need.

And of course, we need to have broad prevention as well. But fentanyl test strips are one available tool that we can give to young people and people of all ages to make sure that they can check their drugs to find out if it might have fentanyl in it because many people are using drugs and not realizing that fentanyl maybe in it.

And I actually have an example of a fentanyl test strip that I can -- I can show you here. They come in a small packet like this and you tear the packet open. You take a small amount of the drug that you might be using, say a pill that you may not know what's in it and you take that drug, you dissolve in a little bit of water and within this packet is one of these fentanyl test strips and you dip the fentanyl test strip in that water that you've just dissolved the drug into. Wait 15 seconds, lay it flat on the table and then it will tell you with either one line meaning that there is no fentanyl in the drug that you're about to use or two lines letting you know that there is fentanyl in there and that you need to be aware that you're at high risk of overdose if you were to use that.

[02:50:24]

CHURCH: So, Doctor, what's been the reaction to your suggestion to give young people who use drugs free fentanyl test strips and how much support is there for this?

HADLAND: Well, there is broad support for this. You know, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a website in which they list information about this, helping people understand how they can use fentanyl test strips to help keep themselves safe.

And there are some places in the United States, some states in particular where there are some drug paraphernalia laws that sort of keep people from being able to have access to fentanyl test strips.

But that's mainly a bureaucratic challenge that many people are working around has changed (AUDIO GAP). In the vast majority of U.S. states, you can now get access to fentanyl test strips, they're often being distributed by states. And they can be very effective tools. I use them in my own practice as a way to help young people who might not be ready or willing in that moment to stop using drugs for them to keep themselves safe. And for us to have a conversation about what it looks like to navigate a world in which drugs are increasingly dangerous, so that they trust me and come back to me when they are ready to get treatment.

CHURCH: All right, Dr. Scott Hadland, thank you so much for talking with us. Appreciate it.

HADLAND: Thank you.

CHURCH: And Dr. Hadland has also written an article for parents on how to save their teens from fentanyl and you can find it on our website at CNN.com.

Well, as we mentioned earlier, Sunday was a great day for American golfer Wyndham Clark, the 29-year-old captured his first career major title with a victory at the U.S. Open.

CNN World Sports' Patrick Snell spoke to Clark after his big win.

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CLARK: Walking off 18 and seeing how many friends and family I had here was so special. You know, I won just a few weeks ago, and I was pretty much there just by myself with my caddy. And this time, I had, you know, 30 or 40 friends that were here. So, it made it so much more fun and enjoyable.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL SPORTS ANCHOR: You're out there on the course, the pressure is mounting, it's the heat of battle, a cauldron of pressure as I like to call it, you're taking down some of the biggest stars in the sport of golf, we are in Hollywood after all, what was that like for you?

CLARK: You know, I mean, it's amazing. I've always thought of myself as a star, and I always dreamt of being one. And, you know, I play against those guys all the time. And I compare myself and see where they're at. And I've never looked at one of them and said, I'm not as good as you.

And so, to finally get to the point where I feel like I'm at their level is, you know, is a dream come true. And I'm hoping this is a start of a run of a bunch of great wins. And, you know, obviously launched me into my career.

SNELL: Been on the PGA Tour for four years, two wins now in as many months including your first major, where has this come from and why now?

CLARK: It might seem like lightning in a bottle, but I feel like it's been a long time coming. It's been four or five years of tons of preparation, hard work, blood, sweat and tears. And you know, it's so satisfying to have it finally go the way that I've always dreamt it would.

SNELL: Your much beloved late mother means so much to you. She would leave notes you were telling us during the week, notes of encouragement for you when you were younger, notes of inspiration. I wonder what note would she have left for you ahead of your final round on Sunday?

CLARK: Well, she would have said play big, love mommy. And then she always had red lipstick and would have kissed the card or the note. So, that would have been -- you know, that would have been in my bag or in my back pocket.

SNELL: You were saying as well that when you're out there on the course, you sense her presence, you described her as, you're always there, supporter, how much a part of this magnificent victory is she for you?

CLARK: You know, it started earlier this week, it was crazy. I had a couple of people come up to me and they were like, hey, I knew your mom and my mom lived here in L.A. for a few years.

And you know, I didn't know the people that came up to me, but they showed me pictures of my mom back in her early 20s and 30s. And it just kind of had a, you know, crazy vibe this week as far as it was like, wow, you know, I really feel my mom's presence this week more than any other week.

You know, and then as I played the rounds and stuff started going my way, it really reminded me of her. And there was multiple times when I was out there on the golf course that you know, I followed my mom and so, it's just been a really special week and a lot of this is in memory of my mom.

[02:55:06]

SNELL: You're from Denver, Colorado. You're a Major Champion now in the Golf world for the first time, the Nuggets just became NBA champs for the first time. We're in the movie capital of the world, could you ever have scripted anything like this in your wildest dreams? And boy, your life's about to change forever now, are you ready for it?

CLARK: Yes, I mean, it's -- you know, I honestly cried. I think it was Monday or whenever the Nuggets won, it seems so long ago, but I watched them and it's just -- it inspired me. I mean, it was 47 years. And I'm a huge sports fan and I played basketball growing up, the Avalanche won last year.

And so, I love seeing people win. I love the emotions that are brought out when great athletes pull off what they've always dreamt of doing and, you know, I sat there and watched the whole thing when the Nuggets won, and I had images and thoughts of myself going, hey, I can -- I can do that this week.

So, you know, it's amazing for Denver and Colorado people and I'm just -- I'm happy I'm part of, you know, continuing the celebration.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour hit an impressive milestone one -- in one U.S. city. The singer thanked Pittsburgh fans on Twitter Sunday after she broke an attendance record at the city's Acrisure Stadium, over 73,000 of her fans flocked to see her perform on Saturday. Pennsylvania is Swift's home state which she pointed out in her message to fans. She also noted her tour was the first to play at the stadium twice.

And thanks for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church, and we'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment. Do stay with us.

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