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Three U.S. Marines Killed, Others Injured in Osprey Crash; Three People Killed in "Racially Motivated" Shooting; FIFA Suspends Football Chief Luis Rubiales Amid Probe; Makeshift Tribute to Prigozhin Grows in Moscow; Thousands Mark 60 Years Since March on Washington; Officials: Updated Vaccines Set to Arrive Mid-September. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired August 27, 2023 - 05:00   ET

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

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[05:00:30]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Ahead on CNN Newsroom.

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SHERIFF T.K. WATERS, JACKSONVILLE SHERIFF'S OFFICE: He targeted a certain group of people, and that's black people. That's what he -- that's what said he wanted to kill.

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BRUNHUBER: A Florida community is reeling from a racist mass shooting. It's one of several instances of gun violence across the U.S. this weekend.

Plus, soccer's governing body suspends the head of the Spanish Federation over his unwanted kiss of a female player after the country's World Cup victory. We're live in Madrid with the details.

And 60 years since the march on Washington will look toward the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous, I Have a Dream speech.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We'll get to those stories in a moment, but first we have some breaking news from Australia where the crash of an Osprey helicopter has killed three U.S. Marines. CNN's Angus Watson is monitoring this breaking story for us from Sydney. Angus, what more can you tell us?

ANGUS WATSON, CNN PRODUCER: Kim, this incident happened 9 or 10 hours ago off Australia's North Coast. But we're only just starting to learn some details. The scale of the tragedy that's occurred. 23 U.S. Marines were aboard. This Osprey Aircraft, three were killed when the aircraft crashed this morning. All 23 suffered some form of injury. Five of the U.S. personnel were seriously injured, taken to hospital. One of those people required surgery.

Now, I must say that we don't yet know why this incident happened. But the Osprey Aircraft has a bad track record of incidents. Just last year, nine U.S. personnel were killed across multiple accidents between California and Norway.

So a sad turn of events this morning as this aircraft was going about routine training as a part of the U.S. Marine rotational force, which is based up in Darwin in Australia's northern territory on a semi- permanent base. It's a sad day for Australia and the U.S., very close allies.

Of course, the Australian public monitored this very closely today as details began to emerge from the incident. Just weeks ago in a separate case where U.S. and Australian personnel were training together, an Australian helicopter went down in Queensland killing four Australians aboard. So a sad time here in Australia. The thoughts with the three U.S. personnel killed this morning. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, we'll keep monitoring this story and bring new developments when we learn them. CNN's Angus Watson in Sydney, Australia. Thanks so much.

All right, now to the shocking story coming out of Jacksonville, Florida Saturday, a deadly mass shooting that police are calling racially motivated. The suspect described as a white man in his 20s killed three black people before turning the gun on himself.

One of the suspect's guns was decorated with painted swastikas. The FBI office in Jacksonville says it's being investigated as a hate crime. The C.S. Mayor condemned the shooting and the hate that motivated it.

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MAYOR DONNA DEEGAN, JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA: It's just something that should not and must not continue to happen in our community. It's too often the same folks. And this type of hate, you know, this type of -- you see the swastikas on the gun, we must do everything that we can. We must do everything that we can to dissuade this type of hate.

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BRUNHUBER: CNN Correspondent Isabel Rosales has more on this horrific story.

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ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let me bring you up to speed to what Sheriff T.K. Waters is saying happened here. The shooter has not been identified. The medical examiner's office will have to be the one to do that. But he is a white male in his early 20s, according to the Sheriff. The Sheriff's saying that he entered the Dollar General wearing a tactical vest and a mask. And he had on him an AR-15 style rifle and a Glock handgun.

[05:05:02]

On that handgun, the Sheriff shared pictures, you can see swastikas on that gun. The Sheriff says he killed three people. All three of those people were black. Then he turned that gun on himself and shot himself dead.

The shooter, the Sheriff says, resided in Clay County with his parents. Back in 2016, there was a domestic call to that house, but no arrest was made there. And then in 2017, the shooter again, who has not been identified, was Baker Active.

Now, the guns here did not belong to the shooter's parents, the Sheriff is saying. At 1.18 p.m., the shooter texted his father, told him to look into his computer, and his father discovered three documents there. About 35 minutes later, the parents called the Clay County Sheriff's office, but were told by the sheriff by that time, the shooter had already begun.

The Sheriff says that the shooter authored several, quote, several manifestos intended to go to his parents, the media, and federal agencies. And those manifestos included the N-word multiple times. The Sheriff saying that this was racially motivated, that the shooter, "hated black people."

Here's what else the Sheriff has to say.

WATERS: We know that he acted completely alone. If you take a look at the images on the screen, you'll be able to see what he utilized. The weapons that the shooter used today are a Glock and AR-15 style rifle. This is a dark day in Jacksonville's history.

Any loss of life is tragic. But the hate that motivated the shooter's killing spree adds an additional layer of heartbreak. There's no place for hate in our community. And this is not Jacksonville. As a member of this Jacksonville community, I'm sickened by this cowardly shooter's personal ideology of hate.

ROSALES: So it's no surprise here that the FBI has -- is investigating this as a hate crime and has opened up a federal civil rights investigation into this shooting. I do also want to note that the shooting happened August 26, five years, the anniversary, five years to the day of a different mass shooting that happened in Jacksonville at a venue that has since been demolished where a shooter entered a video game competition and gunned down two people injuring 10 others.

So a traumatic situation for the Jacksonville community that's only now beginning to get answers as to how in the world this could happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Now Florida wasn't the only state that saw a mass shooting this weekend in the U.S. It also happened at an apartment building in Maryland, a football game in Oklahoma, a baseball game in Chicago, and near a parade in Boston. Now in Northeastern Maryland, four people died in a shooting at an

apartment building. In Boston, at least seven people were injured near a parade celebrating the city's Annual Caribbean -- Carnival in Choctaw, Oklahoma. A 16 -year -old boy was killed after gunfire broke out during a high school football game. And police in Chicago say two fans suffered bullet wounds at Friday's White Sox game. Now, it's not clear what happened and whether the shots came from inside or outside the ballpark.

Now there have been hundreds of mass shootings in the U.S. this year. According to the authoritative source, the Gun Violence Archive, so far this year the United States has recorded more than 471 mass shootings that compares to more than 640 for all of last year. Now CNN defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot excluding the shooter.

Former President Donald Trump is now facing criminal trials in Florida, Georgia, Washington, and New York, but he's using his Georgia arrest to make money.

His campaign says it raised $7.1 million since last Thursday. Trump has a very busy courtroom calendar looming over him in the next coming months. District Attorney Fani Willis is proposing an October 23rd trial date in Georgia, in the Georgia election subversion case.

The federal election interference trial could begin as early as January next year, and the civil trial brought by E. Jean Carroll takes place on the same day as the Iowa caucuses. The Stormy Daniels Hush Money case in Manhattan goes to trial in March, and the Mar-a- Lago Classified Documents trial is scheduled to start in May.

CNN Politics Reporter Jeremy Herb has more on some of the court cases in Donald Trump's future.

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JEREMY HERB, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Now that the 19 defendants in the Fulton County case have surrendered, we're getting into the complicated questions about how this trial will proceed. And we're seeing that even in some cases, the defendants themselves are at odds with each other.

For instance, two of the defendants, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have requested a speedy trial in the case. But that's something that former president Donald Trump is opposed to doing. A judge set a case date for Chesbro in October, and so it remains to be seen what that means for the rest of the defendants.

[05:10:07]

Now, another issue here is whether this case is kept in state court or moved into federal court. We've seen five of the 19 defendants have made a request to move their case into federal court. This is significant because it would change the jury pool. In state court, it would be in Fulton County, which is a very blue county, but the federal court would expand the district and the jury pool, potentially including more pro-Trump jurors.

Now, we're going to see this play out on Monday when we get the first hearing about the venue of the case for Mark Meadows, the former White House Chief of Staff. The District Attorney is planning to subpoena witnesses that could testify at Monday's hearing, giving us a preview of what this case against Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump, and the other defendants will look like. Jeremy Herb, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The National Weather Service says more than 70 million people in the U.S. are still under heat alerts in more than 10 states. According to the Weather Prediction Center, a dangerous heat wave will remain across portions of the southern U.S. through Monday.

And over the next three days, more than 100 record warm temperatures could emerge from California to Florida. The Prediction Center says those record high temperatures combined with some unusually high humidity will lead to heat indices near record levels over the mid- Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coast region.

Meanwhile, the heat is starting to pick up in the southwestern part of the U.S. to well over 100-degree temperatures, though some cities are expected to see a drop during the next few days.

In the Central Atlantic, Tropical Storm Franklin has strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane. Franklin has gotten a little stronger during the night, with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour. It's currently located at 575 miles southwest of Bermuda. As well, generated by Franklin are expected to start affecting Bermuda later today. And Franklin could create dangerous surf and rip currents along the U.S. east coast late this weekend and early next week.

Well, now unto the ongoing crisis in Spanish soccer. FIFA has suspended Spain's Soccer Chief Luis Rubiales from all football related activities for three months. Now, it comes after he was filmed kissing a player on Spain's team moments after they won the women's World Cup last weekend.

Well, it sparked a battle in the soccer world just hours after Rubiales' suspension on Saturday, nearly a dozen members of the Spanish National Women's Soccer program also resigned.

Let's go to journalist Al Goodman, who's in Madrid. Al, we're seeing more and more fallout from this incident. What's the latest?

AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: Hi, Kim. Well, clearly Luis Rubiales grip on power at the Federation has loosened with that FIFA suspension for 90 days. He's really been supported only by press releases from the Federation. That's through Saturday. He was the interim president, he is a trusted ally of Rubiales, but he -- that the Federation took down a press release that the Federation put up further slamming the woman Jennifer Hermoso, that was taken down.

On the other side of the coin, the voices against Rubiales keep, keep increasing. The -- of the 11 people on the women's team who left in mass on Saturday, that's the entire assistant coaching staff of the winning World Cup team condemning Rubiales' behavior.

Also the coach of the men's -- Spain's men's national team also part of the Federation, issued a statement condemning Rubiales. And here's what the FC Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez had to say at a press conference on Saturday. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XAVI HERNANDEZ, BARCELONA COACH (through translator): First, I would like to give my unconditional support to Jenni and the players of the women's team because of what they are going through now. Secondly, to condemn the behavior of the Spanish Federation President, which seems to me absolutely unacceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOODMAN: And the coach of the women's team who's been silent, Jorge Vilda, finally after all of this on Saturday night issued a statement to the Spanish news agency, FA, according to Reuters, also condemning Rubiales, his boss, and the person who talked about maybe renewing him at a meeting on Friday public meeting.

On the other side of the coin, the woman at the center of this whole controversy, Jennifer Rubiales, the star player for the women's team, reappeared in public on Saturday evening, according to reports at an important women's football match near Madrid. The women's teams of Atletico Madrid and AC Milan playing for the women's cup, she was roundly applauded when she came into the stadium, and the players on both sides unfurled a banner on the field before the game saying, "Contigo, Jennifer Hermoso, we're with you, Jennifer Hermoso."

The fallout is also looming for the government, which is trying to take further steps to sideline Rubiales, a senior government official saying on Saturday that Spain hopes that the FIFA will not undo their look at Spain. Spain is trying to host the 2030 Men's World Cup with some neighboring countries. Clearly they see that this issue could be a problem for that potential thing. Kim?

[05:15:25]

BRUNHUBER: Interesting. Well, let's hope this leads to change. Journalist Al Goodman in Madrid, thanks so much.

The mid-air collision claims the lives of three Ukrainian pilots, among them, a flyer known for his skills in the cockpit and his love for the F-16 fighter jets. We'll have that story ahead.

Plus, a former British Prime Minister slams the Russian President over the plane crash involving Wagner Leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: We're getting reports of new Russian strikes in two parts of Ukraine. Officials say the capital of Kyiv was targeted overnight, leaving two people wounded. Ten homes were damaged by debris from missiles shutdown by air defenses.

Now, farther south Ukraine says one person was killed, four others wounded in the Zaporizhzhia region. The statement says Russia has used drones, rockets and artillery in dozens of strikes over the past day.

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Ukraine is mourning the loss of a star military pilot who went by the call sign Juice. Officials say Major Andriy Pilshchikov was killed after two training planes collided in mid-air on Saturday, leaving two more pilots dead.

Juice flew on the Russian MiG-29s, but he wanted to switch to the U.S. F-16s. He spoke on CNN two months ago about Ukraine's need for Western planes, and he was killed just days after three NATO countries promised to give F-16s to Ukraine.

More Russians are paying respects to Wagner leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his top lieutenants. A makeshift tribute put out for them in Moscow grew bigger on Saturday. Now, Russia hasn't officially confirmed that Prigozhin is dead, but it said he was listed as a passenger on a private plane that crashed on Wednesday with no survivors. The Kremlin said it had nothing to do with crash.

So former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the incident revealed the Russian president's real face. In a newspaper op-ed on Saturday, Johnson called the crash, a liquidation by a head of state. He also wrote that Vladimir Putin is now exposed as a gangster who acts like those in the movie Godfather.

All right, for more, Nathan Hodge joins us from London. So Nathan, I want to go back to those makeshift memorials for Prigozhin that we've been seeing in nearly two dozen cities across Russia and occupied Ukraine. What do you make of them?

NATHAN HODGE, CNN FORMER MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Kim, first of all, I don't think that these makeshift memorials translate into any kind of broad, popular admiration or support for Prigozhin. It's important to remember that, you know, just maybe two years ago, Prigozhin had almost no public profile at all. In fact, his main usefulness to the state was the fact that he was kind of a deniable asset. So a lot of the activities, whether it was the interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections through his network of troll farms or his deployment of mercenaries, whether it be in Syria, in Donbas region, these were all deniable by the Russian state. And that was the main reason that he was useful.

Now, that changed after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. And Wagner's apparent battlefield successes in places such as Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, Russian State Media began to lionizing the Wagner fighters and Prigozhin himself, engage in a very public feud with Russia's top military brass, essentially saying that he wasn't being provided with the resources that his fighters needed to pursue the -- you know, pursue the fight in Ukraine.

So, you know, he was not, I would say, somebody who was widely loved. In many ways, he sort of represented kind of a bogeyman, kind of the sort of was a frightening figure for Russia's elite, despite the fact that, you know, I think some of his fighters may have been loyal to him, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: So you brought up the elite there. What do you think those elite, the oligarchs that surround Putin, what do you think they're thinking right now?

HODGE: Well, Kim, first of all, I think one of the big outstanding questions is, you know, what happens to Prigozhin's many businesses, for instance, his operations in Africa. Is there essentially now an opportunity for a takeover of this, possibly by some business interests that are perhaps a little bit more loyal or less confrontational towards the Kremlin. You know, obviously, you know, there's going to be a lot of questions about what happens there. But also, you know, Wagner fighters basically were being folded into or there was an attempt already underway to fold them into the conventional military.

So, you know, these activities are -- they're not going to end. And, you know, Prigozhin's basically confrontation with Putin may have been the biggest challenge to Putin in two decades of rule. So the question is, what -- who else is willing to stick their head now above the parapet, Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and you talked about Prigozhin's usefulness to Putin there, but Putin seems to want to keep these types of groups like the, you know, Wagner mercenaries on a tighter leash. And Friday Putin order all military, you know, volunteer formations and those involved in territorial defense to take an oath to the Russian flag, to swear loyalty to the Russian Federation and so on. I mean, what do you make of this? He seems to really want to try to rein them in.

HODGE: Well, Kim, part of the problem, though, for Putin is that these forces have already been unleashed. And you can't necessarily put them back in the box the way you'd like to.

And already, you know, the hit to Putin's prestige, even though the Wagner mercenaries stopped short of Moscow, the fact that they went into kind of an act of open rebellion against the state really, in a lot of ways sort of battered this sort of long-cultivated image by Putin of being sort of, you know, almost bizarre light, which was that he was, you know, fully in control of the situation, that he was the sort of the master actor, the main decider overseeing everything in Russia, the person who could resolve all problems.

[05:25:34]

That -- that image has been seriously dented by Prigozhin. And I think now, you know, despite the fact that the Kremlin's main message is everything's back as business as usual, you know, it still presented, I think the most fundamental challenge in many ways, it's Putin's rule in over two decades, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: But challenging this business-as-usual mantra, these drone attacks that one can assume have been orchestrated by Ukraine. So in terms of bringing the war to ordinary Russians, is there any reason to think it might change the way that Russians feel about the war?

HODGE: Well, Kim, first of all, you know, it's very difficult to trust in polling in a country where the state maintains tight control of the media, and there are criminal penalties for, you know, criticizing -- criticizing the military. So it's very difficult to gauge in a country where for a very long time, you know, the Kremlin has basically, you know, exercised control over information. Of course, Russians have alternative means. There's not a complete firewall between them and outside sources of information, for instance, through telegram channels, through the internet.

But, you know, it's a really difficult kind of thing to gauge in a lot of ways, because public support for the war is whatever the polls may say, the penalties for opposing the war are very severe, and the possibility of going to jail for speaking out against the war in a peaceful manner, not by marching on Moscow, as Wagner's troops did, is a very serious one, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. All right, always appreciate your analysis, Nathan Hodge, thanks so much.

All right, still to come as former President Donald Trump's mug shot becomes one of the most iconic images of the year. What does Joe Biden think of it? We'll tell you just ahead.

Plus, throngs of people turned out Saturday in Washington to mark a major milestone in the fight for civil rights. That's all ahead. Please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN Newsroom.

I want to get back to one of our top stories this hour. Donald Trump's presidential campaign is saying he's raised $7.1 million since he was booked on criminal charges in Atlanta on Thursday.

Now, this comes as a very busy and complicated courtroom calendar looms over the former president. Trump is facing four separate criminal trials. Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis is proposing an October 23rd trial date in his election subversion case in the state.

Meanwhile, U.S. President is chiming in on Trump's mug shot. CNN's Kevin Liptak has more on Joe Biden's reaction.

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KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Biden is back in Washington after a week vacation here in Lake Tahoe. While he was here, he did make a notable comment about his predecessor's legal saga. We caught up with the President after he went to a Pilates class in town here and he was asked what he thought of President Trump's mug shot. Listen to what he said.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you seen Donald Trump's mug shot yet? Mr. President, are you worried at all about that?

JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENT: I did see it on television.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What'd you think?

BIDEN: Handsome guy, wonderful guy.

LIPTAK: So the President really adopting something of a sarcastic tone there and you saw that sarcastic tone continue. The President's campaign sending out a fundraising appeal just as President Trump was arriving to the Fulton County Jail saying apropos of nothing today would be a good day to donate to my campaign.

Now, this is notable because the President, his campaign, the White House, they have taken pains not to weigh in on President Trump's legal predicament. President Biden really hoping to stay out of that. The strategy there is twofold. One is to avoid weighing in on the judicial process. The President, a believer in judicial independence, but also a political strategy to avoid giving President Trump a pretext for claiming political persecution.

President Biden's strategy has really been to go about the business of the presidency, selling his domestic agenda, conducting foreign policy. You did see that at play this week as well as President Trump was arriving in Atlanta for his surrender.

The White House said that President Biden had spoken to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but certainly President Biden will have a balance to strike here. As of now he is not weighing in on the sheer gravity of these charges that President Trump faces.

And when it comes down to these issues that are at play here, the issues of democracy, of President Trump's attempts to cling to power will be the animating feature of the upcoming campaign. And so while this is not a wholesale strategy shift for the President, it is a sign that he won't remain silent on these issues completely going forward. Kevin Liptak, CNN, traveling with the President in South Lake Tahoe, California.

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BRUNHUBER: Thousands of people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to mark 60 years since Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed his dream of an America without racism. The 60th anniversary of the march on Washington for jobs and freedom brought out veteran civil rights activists and young ones as well.

But the theme was less about nostalgia than to reaffirm that the dream remains unfulfilled. A quarter million people turned out in Washington on that landmark day of August 28th, 1963. And many believe that helped push Congress to approve the Civil Rights Act a year later. CNN's Jason Carroll returned to the Lincoln Memorial with activists who were there that historic day to hear them reflect on what it was like and what it means to them today.

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JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a call for economic and racial equality, a call to action that brought more than 200,000 people to the national mall in Washington, D.C., on August 28th, 60 years ago. A day best remembered for Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech.

[05:35:12]

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: Now is the time to make real, the promises of democracy.

CARROLL: Among the hundreds of thousands, two young activists who were filled with hope.

COURTLAND COX, 1963 MARCH ON WASHINGTON CO-ORGANIZER: I was all the way in the top.

CARROLL (On camera): All the way in the top, over to the left.

COX: Yeah, over to the left.

CARROLL (voice-over): Courtland Cox is now 82, but 60 years ago, he was a 22-year -old working for the Civil Rights Organization's SNCC, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

COX: And what I remember is the platform is there in the mid center.

CARROLL: Edward Flanagan was there too.

(On camera): Where were you?

EDWARD FLANAGAN, 1963 MARCH ON WASHINGTON PARTICIPANT: I was sitting on the wall up top there by the entertainers.

CARROLL (voice-over): Flanagan is 80 now, but on the day of the march, he was a 20-year-old who had just finished his shift as a waiter. Like scores of others, he wanted to take a stand for civil rights.

FLANAGAN: I was very close to Joan Baez. OK, I was able to notice she was barefoot. And I had on a new pair of shoes.

CARROLL (on camera): She was barefoot?

FLANAGAN: She was barefoot.

(MUSIC)

CARROLL (voice-over): A march six decades ago now seen through the eyes of two different men who shared the same goal many did that day.

FLANAGAN: It was, in fact, a march for jobs and freedom.

COX: Our thought to today is that we succeeded in changing this country.

CARROLL: As a young organizer, Cox was responsible for arranging safe transportation for people making the trek from the south to Washington, D.C. He says there were challenges from top to bottom. Much had to be done in very little time.

(On camera): The challenge from the bottom was the logistics of getting people here. Over an eight-week period, I'm trying to get trailways buses. I'm trying to get greyhound buses. And the drivers are saying, look, it's dangerous bringing people to the south. The challenge from the top was the Kennedy administration was opposed to John Lewis' speech.

CARROLL (voice-over): Cox worked alongside then 23-year -old civil rights activist John Lewis, who was the chairman of SNCC. This picture shows the two men, as they rewrote the speech to tone it down to make it less critical of the Kennedy administration's civil rights bill, which they felt didn't go far enough to protect people from police brutality.

COX: John Lewis, Jim Forman, and myself were in the back of the Lincoln Memorial, rechanging John Lewis' speech to make sure that while it was critical, it was not negative.

CARROLL: That had to have been an incredible moment?

COX: Oh, yeah, but what was more incredible to me is that John got up after all of that controversy and delivered a fantastic speech.

JOHN LEWIS, CIVIL RIGHTS ICON: It is true that we support the administration's civil rights bill. We support it with great reservation, however.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been here before. You're never been here before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've never been here before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, that's very --

CARROLL (voice-over): This week, Flanagan brought his daughters back to the place history was made.

FLANAGAN: That's the fact where the entertainers were.

CARROLL: Cox prefers to stay away this time, saying his marching days are behind him. Both agree while much was accomplished that day, the work is not over.

FLANAGAN: We are still, well, in a much better place than we were in '63, not in the place where one would expect 60 years on.

COX: We succeeded in doing a number of things by what we did in the past, but we also know that we have to do much more for the future.

CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Now, earlier, CNN spoke with Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. And she reflected on her father's legacy and says it's still relevant in the fight for civil rights. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNICE KING, DAUGHTER OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I think he would be challenging us to continue to, you know, focus on trying to find a way to create a society where we can respect the dignity worth and value of all people, and would be pulling together strategies to deal with all of these different issues and organizing people in a way around those strategies to address them and come up with solutions that can move us to a higher plane.

The way in which my father fought obviously was through non-violence. He used that as his weapon. And it was -- it was a weapon that enabled people to rally around and really focus their attention on the goal that they were seeking. And so I think those are some of the things that he would be doing today. It's just -- not just challenging it, but really organizing people strategically to address each one of those issues that you just raised.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Health authorities are sounding the alarm about an uptick of COVID-19 cases. We've got details on that and more on where case numbers are surging. Stay with us.

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[05:43:22]

BRUNHUBER: Two school districts in eastern Kentucky canceled in-person classes this week due to upticks in cases of COVID-19, respiratory illnesses and strep. The Lee County School District said attendance had dropped by 82% less than two weeks ago after classes started and staff members were sick as well.

And here in Atlanta Morris Brown College announced this week that it was implementing a two-week mask mandate and other mitigation protocols after reports of COVID cases among students.

Now officials expect updated COVID-19 vaccines to be available to the general public by mid-September. CNN's Meg Tirrell has more on the coronavirus threats emerging around the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that CDC's group of outside advisors is planning to meet on September 12th to talk about and recommend the updated COVID shots for the fall. And so that always happens after the FDA has already signed off on the vaccine. So that's expected to happen around that time frame. After that, the CDC Director will likely accept that recommendation, and the vaccines will start to become available in pharmacies. So we're talking about that sort of middle week of September, around September 12th, the few days after that really starting to happen.

Now, this updated COVID vaccine targets just one strain of the virus, known as XBB.1.5. And it's not too dissimilar from the current strain that is dominant in the U.S. right now, called EG.5. That accounts for about 20% of an estimated U.S. cases within the last couple of weeks.

Now, of course, we are in a little bit of a COVID spike right now. We have seen elevated levels of COVID in wastewater monitoring, suggesting that cases are at a higher level.

[05:45:02]

We also are seeing in the CDC's data about a 21% increase in terms of both hospitalizations and deaths from COVID right now. And of course, it's important to note that's off of a very low base, one of the lowest we've seen for the entire pandemic, but we are starting to see that uptick. And so many health authorities are looking forward to the availability of this updated vaccine, which is expected to provide better protection against the currently circulating strains.

Now, one thing that public health authorities are paying a lot of attention to right now is an emerging variant known as BA.2.86. Now, the reason they're paying such close attention to this, even though only 10 cases have been detected worldwide, including a couple here in the United States, is because this is a very mutated variant. So it looks different from the variants that have come before it. Right now, there's no evidence that this variant causes more severe disease. It's not known yet how transmissible it will be if it's more transmissible than others, and that will play a big role in whether this takes off in a big way. It's expected, according to a CDC risk assessment, to still be detected by tests and medications like Paxlovid are expected to continue to work against this variant.

But what the concern is, is that it is so different from previous variants that existing immunity in terms of previous infection or vaccines may not be able to work quite as well against this variant. And so will that lead to more infections, potentially more hospitalizations? Those are the questions that folks are wondering about right now. And they expect to have more data on that within the next couple of weeks.

But at this point, this really has not been detected extremely widely, but it has been detected in multiple countries. So it is expected that there is international spread.

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BRUNHUBER: Now, earlier, I spoke with Anne Rimoin, a Professor at the Department of Epidemiology at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health, and asked her, how concerned should we be about this recent uptick in COVID cases? Here she is?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANNE RIMOIN, PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, UCLA: I think what we're seeing is something that we expect to see in the fall. You know, we see changing patterns of people going back to school, people getting, being indoors in close proximity to each other. And that is usually what kicks off the respiratory virus season. And that's where we are right now.

We have COVID, we have RSV, and we also will have influenza coming. So I think it's not surprising that we're starting to see uptick in respiratory pathogens, COVID included. The way that this works is that the FDA is going to issue an approval for this vaccine, and then it's going to come to the CDC.

The CDC is going to determine who should get it and when. So we should be hearing that. I think the date for the CDC meeting is September 12th. So we'll hear soon after that.

What we anticipate is that the people that will be on the list to encourage to get it will be people who are older, people who are immunocompromised. Those will be the people that should be first in line to get it. And then we'll learn from CDC who's next on the list.

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BRUNHUBER: PGA's Viktor Hovland is the big man on the course in Atlanta this weekend. So is the Norwegian poise to win back, back-to- back PGA tour titles. CNN Sports Coy Wire joins me live to break down what happened on the green seats.

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BRUNHUBER: Hotlanta will live up to its name later today when, under the blazing sun, some top PGA golfers will compete in the final round of the Tour Championship. Viktor Hovland, who resides in Oklahoma via Oslo, Norway appears to light the hot and humid conditions at the East Lake Golf Club. With me now is CNN Sports Coy Wire. So Coy, is this tournament Viktor Hovland's to lose?

COY WIRE, CNN WORLD SPORT: Absolutely, and Kim, I hope you've been putting that sunscreen on that bald head of yours, my bald brother. You would think that with these feels like temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit at East Lake here in Atlanta this weekend, playing the best of the best, $18 million on the line.

Viktor Hovland might be sweating it a bit. The 25-year -old from Norway has been cooler than a polar bear's toenails. Entering the weekend, tied for the lead, Hovland turned up the heat, shooting a 4 under 66, tying the second-best round of the day. Hovland has only had three bogeys through the first three rounds. That adds up to a six- shot lead over -- for Hovland over Xander Schauffele heading into Sunday. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VIKTOR HOVLAND, LEADS BY 6 SHOTS: The list of names that's been on that trophy is pretty special. And obviously it's a, you know, maybe not a marathon, but it feels more like a sprint. Obviously it's a marathon getting into this week. But it's hard to win the FedEx Cup if you haven't played well the last few weeks. You know, it's just a great list of names that's won the tournament. And it would be awesome to have my name on there.

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WIRE: 5 PGA Tour wins to this year. Hovland is on fire.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting, all right. Well, speaking of on fire, let's turn to the soccer pitch now. Lionel Messi has been with Miami for more than a month now. But last night was technically his major league soccer debut, but, you know, still ends the same way, a win from Miami, right?

WIRE: Yeah, Kim. He's played for Inter Miami in the League's Cup, which just ended last week. Messi bringing Miami their first ever title, but now his MLS career officially beginning another road sellout last night, facing New York, getting price at Red Bull Stadium, more than $300 fans.

I had to wait a bit to see Messi resting up a bit, coming on as a sub at the hour mark. It was worth the wait. More Messi magic, putting New York's defense in a blender, setting himself up with the give and go from Ben Cremaschi, 11 goals now in just nine games from Miami. That leaves the team in scoring. And check out the reaction at Times Square in Manhattan. Simply awesome. Jaw dropping, making fans stop wherever he goes. Messi in Miami win 2-nil.

Now, another highly anticipated New York debut on Sunday. Aaron Rodgers taken the field for the Jets for the first time after 18 years in Green Bay. Rodgers said afterwards he had the butterflies. It didn't look like it. The future Hall of Famer playing just two series against the Giants less than 10 plays.

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They threw a touchdown pass there to second year standout, Garrett Wilson. Jets open up the regular season in 15 days from now, hosting the Bills on Monday night football.

Now, for the second straight week, Kim, an NFL pre-season game was called off early because of an injury. Dolphins rookie, Daewood Davis taking a blow to the head midway through the fourth quarter against the Jaguars. Davis was down for several minutes before being immobilized, carted off the field. The Dolphins say he was conscious and had all extremities had movement.

Dolphins head coach, Mike McDaniel said that he, Jag's coach Doug Pederson and the two teams player association reps all agreed they needed to stop playing this game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MIKE MCDANIEL, MIAMI DOLPHINS HEAD COACH: Without a shadow of doubt, I know that was the right call. So I'm proud of the collective group for doing the right thing. He was the guy that, you know, his teammates really root for, that tells you everything about a human being more than anything. You know, we're just hoping for a full recovery and have had some good news and hope to have some even better news moving forward.

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WIRE: Second preseason game now being called off. It shows a sign of the times of changing culture in regards to football and injuries in the game.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. Let's hope he's OK. Coy Wire, thanks so much. I appreciate that.

And that wraps this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber. You can follow me on X @Kimbrunhuber. For viewers in North America, CNN This Morning is next. The rest of the world, it's Hidden Treasures.

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