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Blinken set to Meet Chinese Leader Xi; Gun Violence ahead of Juneteenth Holiday; Navalny to Face in Court over New Charges; Senior U.K. Official Apologized over COVID Lockdown Video; Hundreds of Bodies Found in a Forest in Kenya that are Linked to a Starvation Cult; Pope Francis Delivers his Post-Surgery Angelus Address, Keeps his Schedule Light. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 19, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching "CNN Newsroom," and I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wraps up his high- stake talks with China's top diplomat. We'll go live to Hong Kong to hear what each side is saying now.

Another holiday weekend marred by gun violence. We're following shootings all across the United States.

And Russian Opposition figure Alexei Navalny is facing new charges. He's expected to appear in a Moscow court via video link this morning.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us. And we begin this hour in Beijing where the top diplomats from the U.S. and China have met for talks amid efforts to tap down tensions between the world's two largest economies.

Just hours ago, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held closed- door discussions with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, one day after meeting with China's foreign minister. Both sides have come into these meetings with a goal of improving their deeply strained relationship but are playing down expectations of a major breakthrough.

And CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins us now live from Hong Kong with the latest. So Kristie, talk to us about what has been achieved, what was discussed and what is likely to happen next.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, Antony Blinken has met with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, for talks that span some three hours earlier today, but still all eyes on whether Blinken, America's top diplomat, will have that meeting with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping later in the day. In fact, that is the big question that's been looming over this entire visit.

Now, Blinken is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit China in five years, and we do have a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs readout of today's meeting. And according to this readout, let's bring it up for you.

This is what Wang Yi said. He said this, quote, "We need to reverse the downward spiral of Sino-U.S. relations, promote a return to a healthy and stable track, and jointly find the right way for China and the U.S. to co- exist in the new era," unquote. Now, Wang also asked the U.S. to lift unilateral sanctions against China and halt its tech crackdown. Wang Yi also reiterated that Taiwan is one of China's core interests.

Now, on Sunday, Blinken met with the Chinese foreign minister, Qin Gang. That was a meeting that was friendlier, definitely less combative in tone compared to the one that happened just now. And they met for these candid talks that spanned for some seven and a half hours, and they agreed to maintain high-level ties.

And Qin also accepted invitation to visit the U.S. and he called for stable relations, which is important. And China also made clear through that meeting on Sunday that Taiwan is the core issue. I'll just quickly paraphrase what we heard from a MOFA readout of that meeting on Sunday, saying that Taiwan is the most consequential issue, the most pronounced risk in the China-U.S. relationship.

Now, going into this high-stakes visit, expectations were set rather low. U.S. officials, who briefed reporters, said that they saw little chance of any sort of a diplomatic breakthrough, given just the so many points of division between these two superpowers, including Taiwan, including trade, including technology, even the flow of the precursor chemicals that make fentanyl. These chemicals stem from China.

Now, senior U.S. officials, they say that Blinken's core goal here during this visit is to reestablish the channel of communication between these two superpowers, especially direct military-to-military communications. Also on the table, global issues where both nations have a stake in, have shared interests in, and could cooperate in, like climate change, like public health and economic stability. Back to you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Kristie Lu Stout joining us live from Hong Kong. Many thanks.

LU STOUT: Thank you.

CHURCH: And joining me now from Sydney is Jocelyn Chey, an adjunct professor at the Australia China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney. She's also a former senior diplomat specializing in Australia-China relations. Appreciate you joining us.

JOCELYN CHEY, ADJUNCT PROF., AUSTRALIA-CHINA RELATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY: Thank you, nice to be here.

[03:04:55]

CHURCH: So at the start of U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's high stakes visit to China, expectations were low, but his invitation to meet again with China's foreign minister in Washington D.C. has been accepted. And Secretary Blinken may even get to meet with President Xi Jinping in the coming hours, so we're waiting to see, that's the big question of course.

So what is your assessment of how it's been going so far and what's been achieved exactly?

CHEY: Well, it's such a relief isn't it? That's my primary emotion. I mean we've been waiting for five years for high level contacts to resume, and whatever the outcome I think that's a very positive step forward.

CHURCH: And Secretary Blinken's goal is to reset China-U.S. relations and ease tensions between the world's two largest economies. How likely is it that he will ultimately achieve that goal and how crucial is it that he does, given sensitive issues such as Taiwan, perhaps top of the agenda there, trade, human rights, Chinese military assertiveness in the region, Australia knows all about that, and Russia's war in Ukraine? I mean, these are big issues, aren't they?

CHEY: Far too many issues there. Obviously, they're not all going to be solved in one meeting, but what we hope for is that there will be an ongoing dialogue. There will be contacts at the levels that matter, the decision-making levels on both sides.

And I think the basic issue really is that dialogue can't achieve anything if there is no trust on both sides. So let's have both sides trying to build a level of trust and confidence so that people don't disbelieve as a first reaction, whatever the other side says.

CHURCH: Would you assess --

CHEY: That's on both sides, I'd be quite fair about it.

CHURCH: Right. And would you assess Taiwan as the toughest issue that they will need to deal with?

CHEY: Absolutely, I mean, I've been involved with Australia-China relations for more than 50 years. And it was 50 years ago that Taiwan was the big issue that led to a breakthrough and the establishment of regular diplomatic relations between the United States and China, and what a relief that was to our then-Foreign Minister Tony Street.

I was looking just this last weekend at a speech that he made in New York to the Asia Society where he described our sense of relief that our two major strategic partners, China and the United States, had resolved that issue and it still remains the basic issue.

CHURCH: And just ahead of Blinken's trip to China, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that decoupling from China would be disastrous for the United States. Instead, she called for deepening economic ties between the U.S. and China. What's your reaction to that? CHEY: Well, it's decoupling, de-risking, all these words are being

used, but what we see at the moment is a general movement to -- for each side to become more inward-looking and to go back not quite to that Maoist philosophy of self-sufficiency but to build up more self- reliance to talking about trading with friends rather than based on economic considerations.

So it's to the interest of the whole global economy that China and the United States can find a way of conducting normal economic and financial transactions. I think we all stand to benefit if Janet Yellen and her counterparts in China can find ways of resolving some of those issues.

CHURCH: And you mentioned at the start of our chat here that there's a sense of relief, so the important next steps now so that they can continue any advancement, any progress that is perceived on this visit, what would those next steps be do you think?

CHEY: Well, because you have set out such a broad agenda, covering so many different areas of responsibility, so we need those senior diplomats and officials who are in charge of trade, technology, military, et cetera. Each of them should be meeting with their counterparts. It's not a burden that one person can bear on his own or her own.

[03:10:06]

CHURCH: Jocelyn Chey, thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it.

CHEY: Pleasure.

CHURCH: 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 their Juneteenth holiday. Police are still looking for people responsible for that incident.

CNN's Camilla Bernal reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILLA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No one is in custody at the moment, and authorities have not identified a motive, but they are giving a better timeline of what happened. They say this Juneteenth celebration started at around 6.00 PM, 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 911 call that reported an alleged fight nearby.

So these law enforcement officers responded to this 911 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. Twenty two 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 some of the witnesses say happened.

UNKNOWN: We were all just out and next thing you know shots just got going off and everybody ran, and yeah, to -- it's chaos.

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

BERNAL: And authorities say that right now they're talking to victims and witnesses. They're also going over surveillance video and cellphone 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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The White House is commenting on the mass shooting in Illinois as well. On Sunday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted, "The President and First Lady are thinking of those killed and injured in the shooting in Illinois last night. We have reached out to offer assistance to state and local leaders in the wake of this tragedy at a community Juneteenth celebration."

Well, 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 the 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, 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.

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 have kept guns out of the hands of minors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: 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 through the windshield of his patrol car. It happened after the suspect shot up police cars near the department's barracks and wounded another officer. Police finally killed the gunman in a shootout that one officer described as the most intense gunfight he's ever seen.

Breaking news coming into CNN. Weather officials confirm what's described as a large and extremely dangerous tornado moving through the town of Lewin in Mississippi. Now, this happened a little after midnight local time. Multiple injuries and structural damage are being reported.

[03:15:05]

A flood watch also remains for the area for the next four hours. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch from northeastern Louisiana to western Alabama. Over two million people are currently under a tornado watch and large hail and damaging winds also expected in those areas.

At the same time over 50 million people are under a severe storm threat across the south and triple-digit have around 35 million from southeastern New Mexico to southern Mississippi under heat alerts.

In New Orleans, the good times roll, but the temperatures are rising. The city has opened three emergency cooling centers to help residents deal with the brutal heat wave. Officials said heat index values were forecast to hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit or 46 degrees Celsius. City and fire department officials have also set-up four hydration stations which will provide water and sunscreen.

Well, coming up here on "CNN Newsroom," the Kremlin's most prominent opposition figure is facing new political charges that could extend his prison sentence by decades.

Plus, more than 300 Pakistani nationals are among the dead after a ship carrying migrants sank off the coast of Greece last week. More details, next.

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[03:20:00]

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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. And in the east, Ukrainian forces are firing on Russian positions near the city of Bakhmut.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his troops are repelling Russian attacks around that area in the direction of Avdiivka. Officials in Moscow are accusing Ukrainian forces of shelling inside Russia, saying three settlements of the western region of Kursk came under fire on Sunday, causing damage to several buildings and 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.

Well, 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 next hour 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. If he's convicted on the new charges, he could be facing another 30-year term.

And Salma Abdelaziz joins me now live from London. Good to see you Salma. So what more are you learning about these new charges Navalny is facing?

SALMA ABEDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so a very significant hearing that will be taking place in just under an hour. Alexei Navalny is expected to attend this new criminal case, this new court hearing via video link.

You'll remember of course that he's already serving a nine and a half year prison sentence for parole violations, fraud and contempt of court, although it's important to remember that he and his team and human rights groups maintain that these are politically-motivated, that his imprisonment is politically-motivated.

As for the charges he's facing today, there are multiple charges including creating an extremist network and financing extremist activity. As you mentioned this could extend his prison sentence by up to 30 more years.

You'll remember he is, of course, the most prominent face of the opposition against President Putin. He was poisoned by Russian intelligence in 2020 with the Novichok nerve agent, that's according to him, his team, human rights groups and German authorities.

It was Germany that treated him after that poisoning. He returned to Russia in 2021 but was imprisoned upon landing in Russia and his time in prison has caused his health to deteriorate. And according to his family, he is unable to access enough nutrition. He's lost many, many pounds. He looks more sickly, according, again, to his family. So seeing him via video link today is going to be important for his family, his supporters, to see the state of his well-being.

And I also want to note, Rosemary, this is not the only case coming up against Alexei Navalny. There's another case, one of terrorism charges that his team also says is being prepared by Russia's judiciary. That one could carry another 35 years in prison.

In a reminder that just a few days ago, one of his aides was sentenced to an additional seven and a half years in prison on extremism charges that, of course, doesn't bode well. But all of this happening in the context of what human rights groups are warning is an increasing and intensifying crackdown by President Putin on any critics in an attempt to silence opposition against him and against the war in Ukraine. CHURCH: All right. Salma Abdelaziz, joining us live from London. Many

thanks.

Well, Pakistan's government says more than 300 of its citizens are among the dead after a ship carrying migrants sank off the coast of Greece last week. The country has declared a national day of mourning.

Joining me now is CNN's Sophia Safi in Karachi. Sophia, this is just a tragedy for the country. What more are you learning about this?

SOPHIA SAFI, CNN PRODUCER: Rosemary, this is a tragedy that's also shrouded in a lot of confusion. We don't have here in Pakistan an exact number of how many people are actually dead. I mean, they have said that it's close to 300. Some reports from the government themselves are saying a little over 300.

[03:25:08]

We don't have a breakdown of how many women and children are included in this breakdown. What we do know is that now we're getting a lot of testimonials that have been coming out (inaudible) affected in Pakistan by these people who have so sadly died in Greece.

There is a lot of anger, not just against the Pakistani government. There is an economic crisis here in Pakistan. There are lots of questions being asked about what has led so many people to actually flee this country, to be in these dire situations where they lose their lives. Pakistan has an IMF loan that is due to expire on the 30th of June that has stalled since last year.

There is record inflation. There is a food shortage crisis as well. But along with that, in the many newspapers here in Pakistan, there have been very angry op-eds and editorials against Europe's very, according to these editorials, xenophobic policies against immigrants.

So there is an unraveling of grief here in this country. There are lots of people in Pakistan, in the provinces of Punjab, in the North, in Pakistan, and Minister Kashmir. These are the areas where a lot of these people's families are located. They're asking many questions. A lot of them don't even know many details.

Our colleagues in Greece tell us that their community leaders, Pakistani community leaders, who've been fielding phone calls from worried family members trying to get answers about where their family members are, where their brothers are, and what's happened to them, because, at the moment, we do have a number. We don't have a definitive number. And we don't have a breakdown of how many of these people, families, children, women, and that is something that we're going to understand in the hours to come.

So what has happened in Greece is an immense tragedy here in Pakistan and will have an impact across the country. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Yeah. Heart-breaking for all those families. CNN's Sophia Safi, joining us live from Karachi. Many thanks. Well, still to come. The U.S. Supreme Court is gearing up to rule on

some high-profile cases this month. We will take a look at some of these key cases after a short break.

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[03:30:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: 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.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARIAN DE VOGUE, CNN U.S. SUPREME COURT REPORTER: 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're 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, 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. They say that the 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's 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 in oral arguments, the conservative justices seemed very skeptical of the Biden administration's position in the case.

Finally, there's a really important case that's 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 a custom product with a message that goes against her religious beliefs.

Ariane De Vogue, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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)

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.

[03:35:01]

Conservative Cabinet Minister Michael Gove was also asked about this video on Sky News today, and said 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 Sean 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. Now, 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 unsustainable interpretations 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 Monday 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 report's release, calling it a witch hunt, they will now debate whether he should even get the customary former member's pass to enter parliament at all.

Scott McLean, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Police in Austria have arrested a man and two teens accused of planning to attack a pride parade in Vienna. Officials say the trio targeted the annual Rainbow Parade, which is part of the largest LGBTQ plus event in Austria. But police say the parade goers were never in danger. The suspects are Austrian nationals, who authorities say became radicalized online and developed sympathy for ISIS. The youngest was 14 years old.

Still to come, the chilling investigation into a mass grave found in Kenya linked to a religious cult. Why police are calling what happened at the church disturbing and inhumane? That's when we return.

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[03:40:00]

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UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

CHURCH: All right, this breaking news coming into CNN, the State Department confirming that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming hours. Now, this coming -- this news coming on the second and final day of Blinken's high-stakes visit to Beijing that aims to stabilize strained relations between the United States and China. And just a short time ago, Blinken met with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi.

Let's turn now to CNN's Kristie Lu Stout. She joins us for more on this breaking news. So, of course, this was the big question, wasn't it, Kristie?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

CHURCH: So, now, he is meeting with Xi Jinping. Talk to us about the significance of this coming on this final day of his visit.

LU STOUT: Absolutely, Rosemary. It has been confirmed on this final day of this visit to Beijing, the U.S. Secretary of State will be meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. This has been confirmed by a U.S. State Department official. The meeting will take place at 4.30 p.m. local time. That is roughly less than an hour from now.

And when that meeting takes place, it would be a significant sign of China's interest in taking the steps necessary to rebuild the relationship between U.S. and China, a relationship between these two superpowers, which has hit its lowest point in decades.

Now, the two countries have been at odds over a growing array of issues that we've discussed at length here on CNN, from Taiwan to trade to technology, the war in Ukraine, fentanyl chemicals, territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the list goes on, but high-level engagement will soon take place between America's top diplomat, Anthony Blinken, and China's leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing, that meeting to take place in less than an hour from now.

And the meeting, when it happens, it also comes just days after Xi Jinping met with the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, who reported that here in CNN on Friday. And during that meeting, when that took place, there was also announced at the last minute, Xi called Gates and his first American friend he had seen this year, and he said that the foundation of U.S.-China relations is, quote, "in the people." But Blinken is set to meet with Xi Jinping within the hour. He is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit China in five years.

Now, earlier today, let's recap what happened in the run-up to that big meeting. Blinken met with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi. That was a meeting that took over three hours long. And according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs readout, this is what Wang Yi said, and we have this for you.

He said, quote, "We need to reverse the downward spiral of Sino-U.S. relations to promote a return to a healthy and stable track and to jointly find the right way for China and the U.S. to coexist in the new era."

In that meeting, he also asked the U.S. to lift unilateral sanctions, to end its high-tech crackdown, and reiterated what we've been hearing throughout this visit, that Taiwan is one of China's core interests. And when Blinken sits down with Xi Jinping, less than an hour from now, without a doubt Taiwan will be at the top of the agenda. Rosemary, back to you.

CHURCH: It is the big topic, isn't it? Just repeating that breaking news, we're learning now that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in less than an hour from now. Kristie Lu Stout, bringing us details there.

Well, hundreds of bodies have been found in a Kenyan forest as part of an investigation into a religious cult that urged members to starve themselves and their families. According to court documents, the cult's leader encouraged his followers to, quote, "neglect the children to starve and die."

CNN's David McKenzie spoke with families affected by the group's practices and we warn you his report contains disturbing material that may be hard to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He called it the wilderness, luring his flock to a remote corner of Kenya. We've come to try and understand how over many months so many could die.

In the Shakahola forest, the dead are still being found. Forensic teams carefully removed the remains of members of a Christian death cult from shallow graves. They have already unearthed more than 300 people, many of them children, many showing signs of starvation.

FRANCIS WANJE, FATHER OF CULT MEMBER: It's painful. It's so painful. It was so painful. This is my daughter.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Francis Wanje says his daughter and son-in-law both abandoned good jobs and took their children to the forest cult. What happened next is hard to comprehend.

[03:45:02]

WANJE: Everyone should die and meet Jesus and they have to start with the children.

MCKENZIE (on-camera): The members of the cult, including your own family, they were starving the children.

WANJE: Yes.

MCKENZIE (on-camera): And then when the children didn't die quickly enough --

WANJE: They suffocate them.

MCKENZIE (on-camera): They suffocate them

WANJE: They suffocate them, yes.

MCKENZIE (on-camera): And this is your own blood.

WANJE: And I wonder where my children or my child, my daughter could change to be such an animal, a world animal, to kill her own children.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Pastor Paul Mackenzie began his cult in Malindi.

(on-camera): This is the church where Pastor Mackenzie had a huge following in his sermons.

(voice-over): He amplified his message online. He preached a doomsday prophecy for at least a decade, calling on the faithful to reject modern society, pull children from school, avoid hospitals, he demanded total devotion.

You must deny yourself, you must reject yourself, you must reach a point of ending your life, he says, for the sake of Jesus.

His anti-government stance got him arrested and detained, but never prosecuted.

In 2019, the church was closed down. Later, the pastor started his forest community.

We found a former cult member in Malindi. We agreed to hide her identity for her own safety. She escaped the forest last year.

(on-camera): Why did you move your whole home and all your children and move into the forest?

(voice-over): The pastor used to call me, she says. He was calling me, telling me, my daughter, you are being left behind. And when the ark is closed, it will be too late. So I decided to go.

When the COVID pandemic hit, she says many saw it as evidence that the prophecies were real.

Mackenzie charged her family $80 for a piece of land in Galilee. There were seven other biblically named settlements in Shakahola with more than a thousand followers, she says.

Still, cult members made regular trips to a nearby village for food and water. In December, those trips suddenly stopped, says this village elder.

The starvation had begun. He says they alerted authorities, but they did nothing, even after hungry children started escaping to the village.

What's been called the Shakahola Massacre has shocked this nation.

Pastor Mackenzie and his closest followers are being held under terror laws.

(on-camera): What happened in the forest with your followers?

PAUL NTHENGE MACKENZIE, CULT LEADER: I can tell nothing about that because I've been in custody for two months. So I don't know what is going on outside there. Have you been there?

MCKENZIE (voice-over): Francis Wanje says there needs to be justice. He mounted a rescue mission to get his grandchildren out. When they found his grandson Efrem, he was close to starvation. His two brothers were already dead.

WANJE: He went through hell. He went through hell, I'm telling you. In fact, when he was rescued, he told them that if you could come here maybe a bit late, you would have already found me and already gone to see Jesus because the grave is there.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): The very highest levels of the Kenyan government have apologized for their inaction and the pain it has caused.

The scale of what happened in the forest is still being understood. Hundreds are still missing and many more mass graves need to be exhumed.

David McKenzie, CNN, Malindi, Kenya.

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CHURCH: And we'll be right back.

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[03:50:00]

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CHURCH: A large crowd gathered at St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for the Pope's first Sunday prayer since being discharged from the hospital.

CNN's Barbie Nadeau has more from Rome.

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BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Pope Francis looked good and sounded strong as he delivered his angelus over a crowd that had gathered in St. Peter's Square on Sunday morning. That's just two days after he was released from the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.

The pontiff, 86 years old, underwent surgery on June 7th, a three-hour procedure, and was convalescing in the hospital ever since. He was not strong enough to give his angelus on Sunday from the hospital, but he looked good this Sunday, looked strong.

Now, the Vatican has canceled his Wednesday audience and will keep his schedule light. However, he is scheduled to meet the leaders of Cuba and Brazil in private audiences during the week. Normally, the pontiff does not hold Wednesday audiences in July, so he will be keeping a lighter schedule. All of this ahead of two very important trips he has coming up.

The first week of August, he's expected to go to Portugal for World Youth Day, and the end of August, he has an apostolic voyage to Mongolia.

Barbie Lazzie Nadeau, CNN, Rome.

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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 Ricky Fowler or golfing superstar Rory McElroy, 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.

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.

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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 but I just feel like I've worked so hard and I've dreamed about this moment for so long.

[03:55:01]

There's been so many times I've visualized being here in front of you guys winning this championship And I just feel like it was my time and, you know, yeah, thank you.

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CHURCH: Well for most of us solving a Rubik's Cube is no easy feat but for one speedcuber from California it is a walk in the park.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

That is speedcubing legend Max Park and he made history last weekend by solving a Rubik's cube in just 3.13 seconds. That's right, seconds here. The 21-year-old now holds the Guinness World Record for fastest time ever solving the cube. The champion's father spoke about his son's achievements.

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SCHWAN PARK, SON BROKE WORLD RECORD FOR SOLVING RUBIK'S CUBE: I don't think he sort of really -- is impressed with sort of the pageantry and the fame that comes with it. I think he's just so much more focused on the actual times and beating the times and his goals. It's funny because I think maybe part of his autism just prevents him from really understanding the fame or the adulation. I think he intellectually understands it, but I don't think he feels it.

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CHURCH: Well done. And finally tonight, a big bear with a big problem. This fellow was captured on video trying to figure out how to escape from an upper story window of a house in Colorado. And you can see the bear hanging by its claws from the windowsill, deciding if there's some way it can make it down safely. It even considers the roof before heading back inside.

The bear tried to climb out multiple times before rethinking the escape route and obviously came up with a good solution, finally escaping through another window on the ground level. Well done.

Thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo, next.

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