Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Third Night Of Unrest Across France; Third Night Of Unrest Across France; E.U. Leaders Pledge Long-Term Commitment To Ukraine. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired June 30, 2023 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Opportunity to help that amazing person you know, reach more people and change more lives. Maybe even become the next CNN Hero of the Year.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: You can find everything you need to know to nominate your hero right now at CNNheroes.com nominations closed July 31st. Thanks so much for watching CNN TONIGHT. Our coverage continues now.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM. No let up unrest on the streets across France for a third straight night as people protest against the deadly police shooting of a teenage boy.

Demonstrators stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad angry about the burning of the Quran during the Muslim holiday.

And questions swirl over the fates of top Russian military commander as well as the boss of Wagner neither has been seen in public since and attempted mutiny over the weekend.

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

HOLMES: And we begin this hour in France where police arrested more than 400 people as a wave of protests swept the country for a third night after the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy.

Confrontations fled between protesters and police in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre where the 17-year-old named Nahel was killed on Tuesday. Similar scenes playing out in Massy and Lille. More than 40,000 police officers were deployed across the country. Government leaders asking for patience to allow the justice system to run its course.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC DUPOND-MORETTI, JUSTICE MINISTER OF FRANCE (through translator): We have avoided the worst. I have said earlier and I want to say it again here. Only justice can bring peace and justice is not that and it cannot be that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Earlier, an estimated 6000 people joined a peaceful march to honor Nahel. A march led by his mother. Many people wearing shirts emblazoned with justice for Nahel. Now the teens' killing was caught on video and that sparked anger all across France, particularly a young -- among young men of -- and women of color who feel they've long been discriminated against by police.

The lawyer for the officer accused of shooting and killing the boy says his client acted in compliance with the law. But the local prosecutor says the officer may have acted illegally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PASCAL PRACHE, PUBLIC PROSECUTOR OF NANTERRE, FRANCE (through translator): During their interviews, the police officer stated that they both threw their weapons and pointed them at the driver to dissuade him from restarting by asking him to turn off the ignition. When the vehicle started up again, the police officer standing near the wing of the vehicle, fired once at the driver.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And joining me now is CNN European Affairs commentator Dominic Thomas. Good to see you, Dominic. I mean, is the officer involved in this being put under formal investigation likely to calm things or are the core issues behind the protests bigger than that incident?

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: The core issues are bigger than this one incident, Michael. There's very little and trust of the police. And they have a record of lying to protect each other when it comes to these kinds of investigations. And it's only when video evidence as happened in this case comes up and contradicts the official narrative that we -- that we get to see this.

And furthermore, they're rarely convicted, even if the legal process takes it step ahead. And I think the situation is exacerbated by the fact that the current Minister of the Interior has repeatedly stated that he does not see a problem with the police force, just a few bad apples, whereas others are looking at the evidence and the long historical record of evidence and pointing to in fact, a systemic problem with excessive use of violence, and a kind of racialized targeting of ethnic minorities in France, Michael.

HOLMES: And to that very point, often this kind of violence is in the suburbs of cities where many immigrants who are now third or fourth generation French citizens live. So, talk more about how big an issue neglect is or perceived neglect of those areas, la valeur (ph) I think they known in French.

THOMAS: Yes. So, it's a complicated because these are -- they are -- there in -- they're outside of major urban centers. And this is a deliberate French government scheme that goes back to the 1960s, 1970s to build housing outside urban centers in what were formerly industrialized areas.

[00:05:01]

And so, that model in and of itself as opposed to say the inner-city model that was adopted in the U.K. or the United States has kind of fostered its idea of feeling peripheral and marginalized. And this is an age-old problem, because each time these demonstrations come along and flare up throughout the last 30 or 40 years, most notably in 2005. There are government commitments to revitalize these areas.

But ultimately, the energy runs out and they end up getting forgotten about. These are areas that are underfunded from the school level all the way through to various social systems, Michael.

HOLMES: Thirteen people were shot this way in France last year. Reuters news agency found that a majority of victims of police shooting during traffic stops over recent years were black or Arab. So, you know, talk more about how big of a reason for the anger is that racial component when it comes to what we're seeing unfold.

THOMAS: It's a very significant component. So, as you know, the French pride themselves on Republican ideals on having adopted a model that deals with race that's different to the British model or the American model. They embrace a colorblind model. The problem is between those principles and the reality is where we start to see issues. Racialized groups in France, ethnic minorities, communities of color.

We'll talk about the fact that it is precisely their visibility as ethnic minorities, as communities of color that leads to them being targeted by the police and racially profiled. So as much as liberty, equality and fraternity are the cornerstones of this French Republic, observers will point out and individuals through their experiences that there is a deficit with the equality pillar in those ideals and that these communities feel that they are permanently characterized as being somehow second-class citizens whose adherence and to Frenchness is somehow always under suspicion. And this is the latest of these kinds of incidents that, as I said, had a long history in France.

HOLMES: Yes. Always been seen as others. I mean, it's the stuff of nightmares for President Emmanuel Macron. And, of course, comes after the violent protests about pension reform, how damaging is what's happening now for him politically?

THOMAS: Well, in his second term, things are very different to the first. Now, of course, there were incidents of police violence in the first when it came to the repression of some of the demonstrations around the yellow vests, that Emmanuel Macron 2.0, is a very different person. He lost his majority in parliament, he's had to push through controversial measures that many have argued go against democratic principles.

There were significant police repressions with the pension and reform. And his greatest fear is not so much that urban violence continues to escalate that that the urban violence around this particular issue ends up kind of galvanizing the very significant opposition in France around just about anything that he goes about proposing to Parliament. So, it makes it undermines his presidency or rather further undermines it.

And I think also makes it increasingly difficult for his government to be able to legislate and push his agenda forward. And so, as this situation unfolds, he's going to have to make some very crucial and strategic decisions as to how he goes about handling this latest crisis.

HOLMES: Great analysis, as always. Dominic Thomas, our thanks.

THOMAS: Thank you, Michael.

HOLMES: Now, the United Nations join Malaysia and other Muslim nations to strongly condemned the burning of a Quran during a demonstration in Stockholm. Swedish authorities criticized the act but called it protected free speech. But on Thursday, demonstrators broke into the grounds of Stockholm's embassy in Baghdad to protest what they called hate speech. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh with more.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Scores of protesters poured into the Swedish embassy compound in Baghdad on Thursday to protest Swedish authorities allowing a man to burn Islam's holy book outside a mosque in Stockholm on Wednesday. The first day of one of the holiest days in the Islamic calendar, the first day of Eid al-Adha. It was a brief protest for the most part, it appeared nonviolent, but they did scale the walls of the compound.

The Swedish Foreign Ministry telling CNN that they are -- their staff are safe. The protest came after the powerful influential Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr call on his supporters and this is a man who can mobilize the masses to head to the Swedish Embassy. He also called on the Iraqi government to expel the Swedish ambassador. He also called on the government to revoke the Iraqi citizenship of the man who set the holy book ablaze. He is an Iraqi refugee as we have reported with anti-Islam views.

This incident appears to be over right now but there are calls for a larger protest in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq on Friday.

[00:10:02]

It's a traditional day of protests in the Arab and Muslim world and there could potentially be protests as well in other countries. There is just so much anger and outrage across the Arab and Muslim world. Governments are not only condemning what they view as this offensive and sacrilegious act, but they're angry with Sweden furious for Sweden allowing this to happen once again.

Jordan and the UAE have summoned the Swedish ambassadors in their countries. Morocco has recalled its ambassador to Sweden. Swedish officials have always said that they don't agree and condone these acts, but they say that this is Sweden. This is freedom of speech and it is protected by the Constitution. That is -- and it is central to Swedish democracy. But Muslims around the world are saying for them. This is not freedom of speech. This is hate speech and Islamophobia.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London. HOLMES: Now the fighting in Ukraine hasn't stopped despite that attempted uprising on Russian soil over the weekend. The Ukrainian military claims its forces are making gains in round-the-clock battles near Bakhmut. Ukraine also says Russia is moving additional forces towards that city including anti-tank missile system. Wagner Group fighters captured the now decimated city in the Donetsk region last month and then handed control to Russian forces.

Meanwhile, leaders of the European Union are pledging their long-term commitment to Ukraine. They heard from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by video link who urged them to stop work on new sanctions against Moscow. The group also discussed the fallout from the Wagner group revolt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BORRELL, E.U. FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: It's clear that Putin goes out of this crisis weakened but a weaker Putin is a greater danger. So, we had to be very much aware of the consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now one of those consequences may be a housecleaning in the Russian military. A popular blogger wrote Wednesday that a purge might already be underway. And questions remain about the whereabouts of the Russian General Sergei Surovikin and the Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin. Some reports say Surovikin have been detained his daughter, no less, denies that. And Prigozhin is sought to be in Belarus although it hasn't been seen in public since Saturday.

Meanwhile, documents shared exclusively with CNN suggests Surovikin was a secret VIP member of the Wagner Group. Matthew Chance with that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): This is the last time we saw General Surovikin on Saturday looking nervous. Imploring Wagner Mercenaries to end their brief rebellion.

SERGEI SUROVIKIN, RUSSIAN ARMY GENERAL (through translator): We had victories together, we are the same blood. But you must do this before it's too late.

CHANCE (voiceover): There was clearly pressure in his words to make a difference.

It's well known that Surovikin nicknamed General Armageddon phase ruthless tactics, bombing cities in Syria was very close to Wagner.

But just how close is only now becoming clear. Documents shared exclusively with CNN suggests he was since 2018, a secret VIP member of the group with a personal Wagner registration number. The documents obtained by the Russian investigative dossier center lists Surovikin along with at least 30 other senior Russian military and intelligence officials that the Dossier Center says are also VIP Wagner members. Wagner hasn't answered CNN's request for a response. It's unclear what VIP membership entails. Like if there's any financial benefit. But it does imply an overly close relationship between the Russian military and the mercenaries. They failed to prevent from staging a military uprising at the weekend. Even allowing Wagner fighters to take over an entire Russian city with virtually no resistance. It all raises suspicions in the Kremlin of divided loyalties.

But General Surovikin whose whereabouts remain unknown. He's one of Russia's most capable, highly-decorated commanders. What's unclear is if Kremlin still trusts it.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[00:15:07]

HOLMES: Jill Dougherty is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University as well as a CNN Contributor and former CNN Moscow bureau chief. It's always great to have you, Jill. It's always been a mark of Putin's rule that he controls the narrative. He controls those around him. Having survived the mutiny itself, is his next challenge working out just who he can trust anymore? Do you see signs of a purge?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, there are indications, can we call it a purge? Maybe not at this point, it could happen. But what they're certainly trying to do is very seriously, figure out how did that rebellion happen? And Putin, as you said, is trying to figure out who can he trust? Because at this point, you have the implication that there was a connection, you know, between the rebellion and a general, General Surovikin.

So, this is -- this is serious and I think we're pretty much in the middle of this a little hard to see how it's all going to end. But it's really significant.

HOLMES: Yes. More shoes to drop perhaps. I guess, there's a purge or even just a reshuffle of those around him, in itself show weakness because it acknowledges cracks in his internal support. And that things did not go well.

DOUGHERTY: Well, you know, he's always since the beginning slayed people off balanced, the -- let's say, balance the elites. Claim one off the other. And now, that's really not working that well because you had this -- I think, extraordinary moment where for years and years since 2014 President Putin has said, Wagner? We have nothing to do with that. That's you know, ridiculous.

And then all of a sudden out of the blue, he admits that the government has been funding Wagner. And that to me, was really significant. So, this is essentially, I think he could call it kind of a state-operated entity which actually was pretty much run by the GRU which is, you know, a foreign military intelligence.

HOLMES: There were those images the other night of Putin being cheered by the public. I mean, it's highly unusual for him to do that. He's normally way down the other end of a conference table to see mingling in the street. I mean, how much of that is the counter Yevgeny Prigozhin being cheered by Russians as he left Rostov-on-Don? I mean, that Putin is now desperate to turn the tide, at least visually in the public relations battle.

DOUGHERTY: Oh, absolutely. I mean, to me, there's no question because before, Putin was in the Kremlin most of the time on Zoom calls or whatever they are using. But he certainly wasn't among the people for the most part. And then all of a sudden, he's been everywhere, and especially that, you know, incredible moment where he went to Dagestan and was literally mobbed by people.

And as we've been saying, this is a president who was sitting at the end of big tables. So, I think what they're trying to do with a series of very public events, is to say, the President's there and the people who support him. I mean, that's the message. Just as you have Prigozhin, you know, mobbed by people who wanted selfies. The President is now as one of his propagandists said, a rock star.

HOLMES: Yes. Because he just doesn't do that stuff normally. I mean, you know, I think this has kind of gotten lost in many ways. I mean, no matter the impact of the mutiny itself. What about Prigozhin's words before it all began specifically saying openly that the reasons for the war were manufactured. There was no NATO threat, there was no genocide of ethnic Russians in the east, there was no Nazi threat and on and on.

Utterly extraordinary. How might that message impact the morale of Russian troops or filter through to the Russian public?

DOUGHERTY: You know, I was thinking about the same thing because I know that it too. I mean, when I heard that, I thought, oh, my goodness, he's actually saying, the emperor has no clothes. What he's saying is the entire rationale for the invasion of Ukraine was bogus, that the military at best were deceiving the president for their own kind of grubby reasons for power, money control, et cetera.

Now, will the Russian people actually pay attention to that? Because I think it has been more swept under the rug. You are not hearing that in Russia. What you're hearing is, yes, there was this rebellion. Yes, the President was right on top of it, and it's over and it was terrible. But nobody is saying, and that guy who carried out the rebellion is actually saying that Putin started this war under false pretenses.

HOLMES: Yes.

DOUGHERTY: That is ordinarily important.

[00:20:07]

HOLMES: Yes. It doesn't seem to be getting enough attention. It really does. Jill, great to see my friend. Jill Dougherty, thanks so much.

DOUGHERTY: Sure. HOLMES: Still to come here on the program. A court rules on the U.K.'s plans to send migrants to Rwanda. The ruling and the government's reaction coming up.

Also, the end of affirmative action on U.S. college campuses. We'll explain how the Supreme Court's bombshell decision will likely impact minority students for years to come. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: A haze covered some of America's most famous landmarks yet again on Thursday, including those in the nation's capital. Smoke from the Canadian wildfires causing the poor air quality and multiple states. These conditions are expected to continue Friday with more than 100 million people under air quality alert.

A Major League Baseball game in Pittsburgh was delayed 45 minutes due to poor air quality. Fans and players wearing face masks because of the lingering smoke.

Now, the policy of taking race into consideration in the college application process, a pillar of college admissions in the United States for decades has been rejected by a majority of the Supreme Court. Thursday six to three decision by the U.S. Supreme Court had been widely expected but the fallout will be significant. It means most colleges and universities can no longer consider race in student applications and that could severely impact future enrollment of Black and Latino students.

In their dissent, the three liberal justices denounced the majority decision as "profoundly wrong," saying it a race decades of legal precedents upholding affirmative action. A divide U.S. president had this to say after the ruling came down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We cannot let this decision be the last word. I want to emphasize: We cannot let this decision be the last word.

While the Court can render a decision, it cannot change what America stands for.

America is an idea -- an idea unique in the world. An idea of hope and opportunity, of possibilities, of giving everyone a fair shot, of leaving no one behind. We have never fully lived up to it, but we've never walked away from it either. We will not walk away from it now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: By contrast, former President Donald Trump called it "a great day for America" where going to get back to merit based and that's the way it should be, he said. CNN's Jessica Schneider has more on the historic decision and the people behind it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): The Supreme Court stirring up protests with its decision gutting affirmative action saying colleges and universities can no longer rely on race in the admissions process but prospective students are still allowed to talk about how their race has shaped their experiences in their applications.

[00:25:10]

The six-three opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts will now prohibit students from checking a box indicating their race, specifically saying the practice at Harvard and University of North Carolina cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the equal protection clause. The majority not explicitly saying they're overruling more than four decades of precedent that allowed affirmative action but the three liberal justices writing, today this court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.

ANGLE GABEAU, PRESIDENT, HARVARD BLACK STUDENTS ASSOCIATION: I'm really most worried about, you know, the youth and like the students younger than asked in high school and middle school and elementary school who might not get the same opportunity that I did.

SCHNEIDER (voiceover): The two cases were brought by the group Students for Fair Admissions led by activist Edward Blum who has fought for nearly a decade to eradicate affirmative action.

EDWARD BLUM, PRESIDENT, STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS: Classifying students by race and ethnicity, treating them differently because of their race and ethnicity is -- it's unfair.

SCHNEIDER (voiceover): At the forefront of the Harvard fight, Asian students who argued they were disadvantaged because Harvard prioritized other minorities and used a personal rating score that did not rank them favorably.

SONIA SOTOMAYOR, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello.

SCHNEIDER (voiceover): The issue is deeply personal to Justice Sonia Sotomayor as the first woman of color on the Supreme Court. She issued a fiery dissent accusing the majority of employing an unjustified exercise of power that will only serve to highlight the court's own impotence in the face of an America whose cries for equality resound. Justice Sotomayor has been outspoken in the past saying that using other methods to ensure diversity won't work.

SOTOMAYOR: It's not that I don't believe it works. I don't think the statistics show it works.

SCHNEIDER (voiceover): In fact, when California banned affirmative action in 1996, U.C. Berkeley said Black and Hispanic representation on their campus dropped by 50 percent. But Justice Clarence Thomas, one of two black justices on the High Court spoke in personal terms too saying he believes the Constitution is colorblind. While I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination.

I hold out enduring hope that this country will live up to its principles that all men are created equal, are equal citizens and must be treated equally before the law. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman on the court pushed back in a separate dissent bashing the majority opinion as exuding a let-them-eat-cake- obliviousness and said deeming race irrelevant and law does not make it so in life.

SCHNEIDER: The Supreme Court however, saying that U.S. military service academies can continue to take race into consideration as a factor in admissions essentially exempting those military schools from this ruling. Now this was spelled out in a footnote in the majority opinion. But Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson calling this out in a dissent, saying that the court is essentially prioritizing diversity in the bunker versus the boardroom.

Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The British government's plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda was ruled unlawful by the country's court of appeal on Thursday. Under the scheme migrants deemed to have arrived in the United Kingdom illegally would be sent on to the African nation, which the Conservative government considers a safe third country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IAN BURNETT, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND AND WALES: There is a real risk that persons sent to Rwanda will be returned to their home countries where they face persecution or other inhumane treatment when in fact, they have a good claim for asylum. In that sense, Rwanda is not a safe third country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Humanitarian groups have slammed the policy as unethical and ineffective. The British Home Secretary though says she remains fully committed to the Rwanda plan, despite the court ruling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUELLA BRAVERMAN, HOME SECRETARY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: While labor continue to celebrate today's judgment and continue to celebrate every obstacle in our way, we will not be deterred. We will not give up. We will do whatever it takes for the British people to stop the votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The U.K. government says more than 45,000 migrants arrived in Britain in small boats last year.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has taken out the most controversial part of his judicial overhaul plan. Gone is the provision granting parliament the authority to overturn Supreme Court rulings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: And so few things right after the original proposal was put forward. I said that the idea of an override clause where the parliament, the Knesset can override the decisions of the Supreme Court with a simple majority. I said I threw that out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Mass protests have been going on for months now in response to the initial plan with many feeling their country's democratic foundations were being threatened.

[00:30:09]

But Mr. Netanyahu and his supporters have argued the High Court is elitist and doesn't represent the Israeli people.

A gritty outdoorsman, martial arts fighter, bare chested, horseback rider, all part of that strong man image cultivated by the Russian leader Vladimir Putin. But now the carefully choreographed picture is facing reality check. We'll have that more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM with me, Michael Holmes, and we appreciate that. A Russian official insists that Sergei Surovikin is not in pretrial detention amid questions about the top general's whereabouts in the wake of last weekend's failed insurrection. This after a Russian newspaper reported that he was detained. CNN can't corroborate that.

The New York Times says Surovikin knew about the mutiny in advance. And documents exclusively shared with CNN suggests he was a VIP member of Wagner. Now the group that obtained those documents says at least 30 other senior military and intelligence officers are also listed as being VIPs. General Surovikin hasn't been seen in public since he posted the video there on your screen which was him urging Prigozhin to stop the mutiny.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to project strength after Prigozhin's but Western leaders say there is still something he lost in the process. His aura of invincibility. Nick Paton Walsh explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: What's a strong man when he's no longer that strong? Just a guy on a horse who needs a shirt. We've been so accustomed to these images of Vladimir Putin as some sort of Superman manipulating the known world in a genius game of five-dimensional chest. And wrestling his opponents to the mat intellectually. Now, the world is coming to terms with a completely new concept. A weak Putin who seems almost to play the clown here today at a trade fair, making a sketch, living in a parallel reality from the near collapse of the weekend. While the weekend's armed rebellion by his former confidant Prigozhin failed, it had one catastrophic success. Bursting the bubble of Putin's impregnability.

[00:35:01]

The Kremlin head didn't even appear in public for 2-1/2 days popping up only outside the Kremlin Tuesday to deliver a surreal thank you to the military who'd step back and let Wagner march on Moscow. Putin is now in a place he's never been before, hunting for traitors in his inner circle. He was said to have isolated himself so much during the pandemic, keeping visitors at a distance that perhaps he no longer confined his way back down the table to reality.

The Moscow elite gentle bubble of assured autocracy has also been burst. It is a place where riches were earned through unquestioning loyalty. But now after the Ukraine invasion, contends with drones, attacking luxury suburbs, and even the Kremlin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Putin.

WALSH (voiceover): None of this was meant to happen. None of this is what Putin sold Russia. And none of this can be easily answered by a strong man who no longer seems strong.

Nick Paton WALSH, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Some South Koreans are fighting for laws protecting LGBTQ rights. Just ahead, the uphill battle supporter's faith and why opponents say they're against the anti-discrimination law. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: A jury has acquitted a former law enforcement officer of any wrongdoing in a mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida. Former School Research Officer named Scott Peterson, you see him there, weeping in court as the judge read the verdict. He was found not guilty of felony child neglect, negligence and other charges for staying outside during the February 2018 massacre inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Some parents of the victims blamed Peterson for not doing enough to save their children. 17 people including 14 students were killed in what is the deadliest U.S. high school shooting ever.

In South Korea, the LGBTQ community and its supporters are pushing for anti-discrimination laws to be enacted in the country but they're facing a tough battle. Here's CNN's Paula Hancocks with details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): It is a hard one celebration. The soul queer culture festival has attracted thousands since the year 2000. But this year, the Pride Parade was denied access to the venue that it's used since 2015. Seoul City Hall Plaza. Officials cite a scheduling clash. LGBTQ groups cry discrimination. The venue promised to a Christian youth event. City Hall says events for children take precedence.

So Mayor Oh Se-hoon adding his personal view at a council meeting.

OH SEE-HOON, MAYOR OF SEOUL (through translator): I personally cannot agree with homosexuality. I'm against it.

HANCOCKS (voiceover): Conservative Christian groups so they're hoping some 300,000 people will protest this year's parade. LGBTQ activists say without an anti-discrimination law in South Korea it is almost impossible to fight for their rights.

[00:40:06]

CHAE HAE-YOUNG, MAPO-GU COUNCIL MEMBER (through translator): The Constitution may say that no one should be discriminated against. But the anti-discrimination bill clarifies what discrimination is and there could be legal penalties.

HANCOCKS (voiceover): Chae Hae-Young is the first openly LGBTQ elected official in South Korea. She says her sexual orientation was used against her by her rivals when she entered politics.

CHAE (through translator): And the political or public realm revealing one's identity as a sexual minority is a handicap. Some people said that I should not be in politics because I'm a sexual minority. They made my identity my weakness.

HANCOCKS (voiceover): Since 2007, lawmakers have proposed 11 anti- discrimination bills, five have expired, two withdrawn and four are still pending in the National Assembly. Lee Jong-geol young girl went on hunger strike last year with another activist to try and push the government to move one bill forward.

LEE JONG-GEOL, GENERAL DIRECTOR, CHINGUSAI (through translator): I believe our society should be ashamed that there is no law that protects the principles of equality, even though it is one of the most basic laws out there. No matter how much our country has developed economically or socially, we should be ashamed.

HANCOCKS (voiceover): Lee's hunger strike ended on day 39 when he was taken to hospital. A survey conducted by the National Human Rights Commission in 2020 shows that almost 90 percent of the 1000 survey participants said an anti-discrimination law is needed. But opponents argue that such a law would discriminate against them.

SUH JUNG-SOOK, PEOPLE POWER PARTY LAWMAKER (through translator): When the majority of people who are normal and reasonable say that homosexuality or same sex marriage is not reasonable or normal based on South Korea social orders or long-respected custom, they could face punitive damages or a fine.

HANCOCKS (voiceover): Suh argues a new law would lead to the legalization of same sex marriage, something she does not support.

HANCOCKS: The National Assembly has less than a year to take action on any of the four remaining non-discrimination bills. If nothing happens, those bills will expire. And it will be up to the next National Assembly to start the process all over again.

Paula Hancocks, CNN Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Sources tell CNN that Madonna, the popstar is back at home and feeling better after a health scare landed her in the hospital. The music icons manager said she spent several days in the ICU battling a serious bacterial infection. But we're now told she's "In the clear." Her world tour that was due to kick off next month was postponed.

I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I will be back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first, World Sport after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)