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Trump Hearing in Fulton County to Start; Florida Expecting a Hurricane This Week; Two Mass Shootings Reported in Jacksonville and Kentucky; Russia Confirms Prigozhin Dead; Three Marines Killed in Helicopter Crash; Outrage in India Over a Teacher Ordering Students to Slap a Muslim Student. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired August 28, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead on "CNN Newsroom," drama unfolds on two fronts today as the cases against Donald Trump and his allies enter a new phase.

We're tracking a tropical storm headed towards Florida and expected to strengthen into a hurricane before it makes landfall this week.

Plus, an emotional vigil in Jacksonville, Florida after a hate- motivated mass shooting that took the lives of three people.

Thanks for joining us. Well, in just a few hours from now, the first courtroom hearing on the charges against Donald Trump and 18 others will get underway. A federal judge will hear arguments from Mark Meadows, a co-defendant, and Trump's former White House Chief of Staff. He is pushing to get his case moved to federal court or even thrown out.

As part of that, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to lay out the evidence and legal arguments in her sprawling anti-racketeering case against Trump, Meadows and 17 other co- defendants. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump pressured to find enough votes to win the state, has been subpoenaed to testify.

Separately, we'll also likely learn the trial date for the federal election interference case against Trump. Special counsel Jack Smith is asking the judge in that case for a January trial date, but Trump is pushing for a court date in April 2026, long after next year's presidential election.

Bernarda Villalona is a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. She joins me now from Brooklyn, New York. Good to have you with us.

BERNARDA VILLALONA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY & FORMER PROSECUTOR: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: So, in the hours ahead, Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis will reveal her plan to prosecute her anti-racketeering case against former U.S. President Donald Trump and, of course, the other 18 co- defendants. The Georgia election interference case getting underway today in a federal court hearing, where co-defendant and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows hopes to move his case to a federal court. How pivotal could this be if he succeeds?

VILLALONA: Well, this would definitely be a game changer for Mark Meadows and possibly the other defendants if they decide to join Mark Meadows in this pursuit of having their case heard in federal court. But of course, not all the defendants are going to be entitled to that because they have to have been acting in their federal official capacity when they were acting with these allegations that they've been charged with.

But what's more important about it is that if there is a hearing that goes forward tomorrow, is that Mark Meadows will possibly testify in that hearing and give evidence or testimony as to how he was acting in his federal official capacity.

CHURCH: And Fani Willis issued a subpoena for GOP Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to testify about that infamous phone call with Donald Trump. Raffensperger asking, well, he was asking him to find 11,780 votes in Georgia in the wake of the 2020 election. How damning could that testimony potentially be, do you think?

VILLALONA: Well, that testimony is very damning. It's that exact phone call that goes to show, and Fani Willis is going to be able to show, that no one was acting in their federal official capacity when they were engaging in these conversations, and that actually those conversations are pivotal in the criminal charges. So that's why she's actually subpoenaed Mr. (inaudible) to come in and testify at the federal hearing, because she wants to let the judge know that there is no way that none of these defendants, especially Mark Meadows, was not acting in his federal official capacity as Chief of Staff for the former president.

CHURCH: So, what are the next steps now in this Georgia case?

VILLALONA: Well, the first step is going to be that all of these defendants have to be arraigned, meaning that they have to appear before court. It's unsure whether they appear in person or virtually.

[02:04:57]

But at that court appearance, a judge will formally let them know what the charges are against them and ask them to enter a plea, whether the plea is of guilty or not guilty. Obviously, we're expecting a plea of not guilty for each of these 19 defendants. And the judge is then going to set a motion schedule, motions for the defense to file motions, motions to dismiss on various different grounds, but possibly even set a trial schedule as well. So that's going to be the initial appearance for all 19 of these defendants. CHURCH: And Donald Trump is using his historic mugshot from his

Georgia arrest to help raise funds for his presidential campaign, raising $7.1 million since his arrest. That's according to his campaign. And this is the pattern we're seeing, isn't it? These four indictments have actually emboldened him, not weakened him. How does that action sit with the legal system where he uses a mugshot to raise money for a presidential campaign?

VILLALONA: Well, for Donald Trump's base, it seems that the more times that he gets arrested, the more emboldened his base to actually give more money, give their hard-earned money to Donald Trump. But for Donald Trump, you've got to think that his campaign, what he's running on, is on these charges because these charges, number one, he's hoping to be president so that way he can pardon himself but that's not going to work on the state charges.

But also too, he has to run wide to raise money for all these different charges to be able to afford legal representation because the legal representation in all these cases is going to cost them millions of dollars.

CHURCH: Bernarda Villalona thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

VILLALONA: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: A hurricane watch is in effect for portions of Florida's Gulf Coast where tropical storm Idalia is expected to make landfall as a hurricane later this week. Some counties on Florida's western coast have closed schools and announced voluntary evacuations. The latest update says the storm is strengthening quickly. It's expected to bring hurricane force winds to far western Cuba Monday, then make a beeline toward Florida.

Karen Maginnis is monitoring the tropical storm for us. She joins me now with the latest track of this storm. What are you saying Karen?

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Rosemary, very interesting wording as in strengthening quickly. We also say rapid intensification. When you hear that, you know that this is really gathering some strength and when it does it very quickly, it can become a monster storm. Right now, it's at tropical storm intensity. And just to get your bearings straight, here is the Yucatan Peninsula, here is Cuba, and this is expected to go through that Yucatan Strait or the Yucatan Channel and then move into the very warm, maybe hot, in fact, waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

And then Floridians along the west coast need to be aware because a storm surge associated with even a Category 1 or a Category 2 hurricane could be severe. And each time we get a report from the National Hurricane Center, they predict that the storm surges are going maybe three to five feet, maybe five to seven feet. That in particular was true for Tampa.

Now, it's been over 100 years since Tampa has seen a landfall, and we're not really predicting where that landfall is. However, the computer models are suggesting maybe in this bend area, the Big Bend area of Florida. This is a little more sparsely populated than some of these other regions like Tampa has about 350,000 people population. But there is one outlier here and this one cuts to the south of Tampa. So, we have to look at perhaps the ones that are at most agreement.

So, what can we expect? Storm surges, the number one killer in hurricanes, plus when that wall of water gets pushed on shore and because it's a (inaudible) lying area, it will inundate areas back one street, maybe two streets back. You look at Tampa, four to seven feet, but you go up into this bend area and we're looking at seven to 11 foot storm surge.

Rainfall, some areas could see as much as 10 inches of rainfall. But look at this, even as we go in towards the next five days, Big Bend area, go to Jacksonville, then you head towards Savannah, also Brunswick and then Charleston. Charleston floods during a nice thunderstorm during the summer, but it looks like this is going to be a multi-day event. So, we can't just look at the landfall and then say, oh, it's over because it's not going to be.

It's going to trek across Florida into the coastal regions of Georgia, into South Carolina, maybe also affect North Carolina, possibly Virginia. We've got a lot of territory and a lot of time to look at this and assess where we think this is going to be headed and we'll be here in the CNN Weather Center. Rosemary?

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CHURCH: I know you will. Karen Maginnis, appreciate everything you're doing on this. Thank you.

Well, federal authorities have opened a civil rights investigation into Saturday's racially motivated mass shooting in Florida. On Sunday, the Jacksonville community held a vigil for the three victims killed by a gunman at a store near a historically black university. Fifty-two-year-old Angela Michelle Carr, 19-year-old AJ Laguerre, Jr., and 29-year-old Jerrald Gallion were all shot to death.

One of Gallion's family members who attended the vigil described to CNN the kind of man he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SABRINA ROZIER, JERRALD GALLION'S FAMILY MEMBER: Gerald was a fun, loving young man. He was very active in my granddaughter's life from the day him and my daughter met to the time she got pregnant. He was at every hospital visit, every doctor's appointment. He was very, very active in her life. She loved her daddy and her daddy loved her. He didn't miss a beat in her life.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What were his hobbies? What did he want to do in life? He was such a young man.

ROZIER: He can rap. He can play basketball. They played video games together. He took her to the park. But her favorite memory is when he took her to Dave and Busters. It's hurtful because I thought racism was behind us, but evidently,

it's not. And that's what they're calling this act of racism. And I just feel like he was a coward. You went in and shot these innocent people for nothing that you didn't even know. And then you took your own life. That's just the cowardly way to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Authorities say the 21-year-old gunman used racial slurs, drew swastikas on his AR-15 style rifle and left behind multiple racist screeds. Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement that the shooting should be investigated as a hate crime and as an act of violent domestic extremism.

As of now, still no suspects in a deadly shooting over the weekend in Kentucky. Two men died and five people were hurt when someone opened fire outside a restaurant and lounge in downtown Louisville Sunday. Police say the shooting does not appear to be random. Their homicide investigation is ongoing.

According to officials, the establishment where the violence occurred was not supposed to be open. They say the business' lease will be terminated as of Thursday.

Still to come, Russia confirms Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is dead. What's next for the mercenary group and its impact on the war in Ukraine? I'll speak to a retired general just ahead.

And then three marines dead, many others injured in Australia. And so far, the U.S. military is staying silent about what may have caused their aircraft to crash. We'll go to Sydney for a live update.

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CHURCH: Ukraine is honoring the memory of three pilots killed in a collision over the weekend.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

CHURCH: That was part of a special piano ceremony held by the Ukrainian Air Force Sunday to remember a pilot known by the call sign, Dzhus, and two others. They were killed after their aircraft collided in midair while on a combat mission. Meantime, in Russia, Moscow's mayor says their air defense forces destroyed a drone flying towards the city just a short time ago. State media reports two airports were also temporarily closed and all flights suspended. No casualties or damages have been reported so far.

And on the battlefield, Ukraine says it's making gains along a key section of the southern front in the Zaporizhzhia region and is still on the offensive in the Bakhmut region.

After days of uncertainty, Russia says it has confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin was among the 10 people killed in last week's plane crash. Russian investigators say genetic tests confirmed the identity of the Wagner chief and all other victims. Prigozhin, who led a failed uprising against the Kremlin, had previously been named as one of those on board the plane which crashed near Moscow. But until now, authorities had stopped short of confirming he died.

Joining me now live from Brisbane, Australia is retired Major General Mick Ryan of the Australian Army. Appreciate you joining us.

MICK RYAN, AUSTRALIAN ARMY: Hi Rosemary.

CHURCH: So now that Russia has confirmed Yevgeny Prigozhin was indeed killed in last week's plane crash, what happens to the leadership of the Wagner militia group and what impact might this have on Wagner as a fighting force in Ukraine?

RYAN: Well, I think we won't see Wagner back as a fighting force in Ukraine. The direction by Defense Minister Shoigu in June about taking all private military companies under the Russian military initiated the mutiny by Prigozhin and everything that's happened since. So, any of these private military companies, including Wagner, are going to be part of the Russian military moving forward.

CHURCH: And will we ever know for sure if Russia's President Vladimir Putin was behind the death of Prigozhin coming just two months of course after the Wagner boss led that failed uprising against Putin and the Kremlin?

RYAN: I doubt we'll ever conclusively prove it, but for people in Russia I'm sure Putin has sent a clear message that whether he did it or not, it's clear that if you stand against Putin, terrible things will happen to you as it has to other dissidents or those who have opposed Putin in the past.

CHURCH: And General, meantime, Putin is now requiring a pledge of allegiance from anyone fighting on Russia's behalf. Why is he doing this now? What does that signal to you?

[02:20:01]

RYAN: Yeah, it's funny that after 18 months of war they finally require a pledge of allegiance beyond all the other pledges that people certainly make as part of the Russian army. I think this really is about to him personally, it's not to Russia, it's not to any institution. This pledge really is about loyalty to Putin and what he's saying is if you aren't willing to take this pledge, just look to the skies like what happened last week with Prigozhin.

CHURCH: And finally, Ukraine is claiming further gains in key sections of the southern front in the Zaporizhzhia region. What's your assessment of how the war-torn nations counter-offensive is progressing right now?

RYAN: Well, we've seen Ukraine make progress around Bakhmut and we're now seeing more in the South. It's clear the Ukrainians have closed on the main defensive positions the Russians have in the South. What we don't know is just how well the Russians can defend this second line of defenses and whether they can do it as well as they have the first.

They may well have spent a large proportion of their forces already and they're under a lot of pressure. So, the coming days will be very interesting indeed.

CHURCH: Retired Major General Mick Ryan, thanks for joining us.

RYAN: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin offered his condolences Sunday to the families of three Marines killed in an aircraft accident in Australia. U.S. and Australian military rescue crews worked together to transport the injured from a remote island to a hospital in the northern city of Darwin.

The military says 23 U.S. Marines were flying in an MV-22B Osprey when it crashed on Melville Island and many of them were injured, five severely. So, we want to get the latest now and head to Sydney, Australia, where CNN's Angus Watson is standing by. So, Angus, what more are you learning about this deadly air tragedy?

ANGUS WATSON, CNN PRODUCER: Rosemary, well, to give our viewers a sense of just how remote the area is where this tragedy occurred, it's on Melville Island, some 80 kilometers off the north coast of Australia, some 50 miles. The aircraft crashed into a hillside of dense vegetation in a sparsely populated area of this island and that's just made the initial rescue efforts and now the recovery efforts all the more difficult.

So, authorities here are saying that it could take until tomorrow to recover the remains of those three U.S. Marines who tragically died in this incident. As you mentioned, there are many more injured. The 20 other survivors of the crash were brought back to Darwin, to the Australian mainland to be checked over. At least five of those people were hospitalized.

Now, Australian authorities have issued their condolences. So has U.S. President Joe Biden, who issued his condolences in a tweet there on behalf of himself and the First Lady Jill there. So, what authorities have been very careful to say is that these incidents, this was a routine training run, but they're just as deadly, they can be just as dangerous as frontline combat of course, and we've seen that in this case now.

What we don't know is why the crash occurred. Once the recovery aspects of the mission have been completed, there'll be an investigation by the U.S. side and the Australian side to try to get a sense of things. What we do know is that the Ospreys had a track record of deadly incidents. There were just last year crashes in California and in Norway involving U.S. personnel killing nine people, Rosemary.

CHURCH: It's just a tragedy hard to comprehend. CNN's Angus Watson in Sydney, Australia. Many thanks.

Well, still to come, disturbing video out of India shows a teacher telling students to slap a Muslim classmate. More on the shocking incident when we return.

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[02:25:00]

CHURCH: Now a shocking and disturbing incident out of India. Video has emerged showing a teacher telling students to slap a Muslim classmate. The school where it happened has been ordered to shut down. CNN's Vedika Sud is live in New Delhi. She joins us now. So Vedika, what more are you learning about this disturbing story?

VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: At the very outset, yes, we should mention, Rosemary, that this is a very disturbing 39-second clip that's gone viral on social media. There's been a massive outrage ever since people have been watching this and they have obviously been demanding action against the teacher who is a part of this 39-second clip. Let me just tell you what happens, a sequence of events in those almost 40 seconds.

The teacher is sitting at her chair by the table. There are about two dozen students sitting on the floor, and there's one boy who is standing right by the teacher who is being slapped on the forehead, on the face and then on the waist by the pupils and after being directed to do so by the teacher in question. She actually asks them, three of the boys, to get up one after the other and go and slap this boy.

Now, according to the Indian police, this video is authentic and they've gone on to say that it has come to our awareness that the female teacher declared, and I'm going to quote them here, "When the mothers of Mohammedan students don't pay attention to their children's studies, their performance is ruined." This is a young Muslim boy who was beaten in the presence of at least two dozen children and that teacher.

Now, what we're also being told is that the Indian police has opened a case against the teacher. They're interrogating this entire incident. You have the Indian opposition parties, political parties, coming out and condemning the incident. They're also taking on the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

And here's what Rahul Gandhi, a senior congress leader from one of the main opposition political parties had to say. I'm going to quote him here.

[02:30:00]

In a tweet Gandhi has said, "Sowing the poison of discrimination in the minds of innocent children, turning a holy place like school into a marketplace of hatred. This is the same kerosene spread by the BJP that has set every corner of India on fire.

Now remember Rosemary, rights groups have been saying that the Indian muslims, that are about 14 percent of India's population, have been persecuted and harassed ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014. Just imagine, for a moment, the psychological trauma this child was going through while he was wheeling through that 39 second clip. Back to you.

CHURCH: Alright. Our thanks to Vedika Sud for updating that very disturbing story. More than half a dozen people are dead in Haiti after a church-led protest ended in gunfire.

According to a local human rights group, hundreds gathered to march against gang violence in a suburb of Port-au-Prince on Saturday, when a gang fired on the crowd with machine guns. The human rights groups say at least seven people were killed, and possibly many more. No word on how many were injured, but the group says up to 10 people were also kidnapped during the violence.

More than 4200 migrants arrived on the shores of the Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday. According to Red Cross data, it is a record for migrants arriving by boat in a single weekend. Authorities say some migrants arriving at night had to be rescued by local port authority boats.

Meantime the Italian military has started transferring the migrants to the mainland. The Italian government plans to meet this week to come up with an emergency plan to help the island and work on ways to manage the migrant crisis.

The women's world cup is starting to feel like a memory. But the controversy of that unwanted kiss will not go away. We'll get the latest reaction from officials and fans and a live report from Spain.

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[02:35:14]

CHURCH: It's been a week since that unwanted kiss on the lips of a player at the medal ceremony for Spain's World Cup champions. While the chief of the country's football federation shows no sign of stepping down, the pressure is building and there's word now of a new emergency meeting.

So let's go to Atika Shubert in Valencia, Spain for more on this. Good to see you Atika, so what is the latest on this story and of course, the likely future of Spain's football federation chief?

ATIKA SHUBERT, JOURNALIST: Well it has been a dramatic weekend for Spanish football. Normally it happens on the pitch, but this time it was the accusations and counter accusations flying back and forth between the head of the Spanish football federation, Luis Rubiales, and Jenni Hermoso, the Spanish player.

On Friday he made this incredible statement in which he dramatically refused to resign and insisted that this kiss that he planted on Hermoso was consensual. That was then responded to by Hermoso saying, quote, in a statement later, that on Saturday she said, "I felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse driven, sexist, out of place act, without any consent on my part", so she was very clear on that.

Since then there's been a wave of resignations, none from Luis Rubiales. But much of them from the coaching staff and, of course, the Spanish women's team have said that they will not play until Rubiales is either removed or he resigns.

Now there is no sign that he will step down any time soon, even though over the weekend the high council for sport in Spain has, at the moment, suspended him, and FIFA, football's highest governing body, has also suspended Rubiales for his behavior for 90 days, saying he cannot be involved in any international or national level football.

So it really is, at this point, a standstill between what Rubiales is saying and what Hermoso is saying. Both sides are saying they look forward to seeing some sort of tribunal or investigation taking place. So that's where we are at this moment, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So are you learning any more about this urgent meeting that's going to take place?

SHUBERT: Well, I think there clearly has to be some sort of an emergency meeting with so many resignations and, of course, this winning team that should be celebrating its World Cup victory, now no longer playing until something happens with Rubiales.

This is the problem, that Spanish football is at something of a standstill now at how to move forward on this, with so coaching staff, so many players now saying that they won't play and they won't be able to work unless something happens with him and this investigation.

And we've seen support, not just here in Spain. We've seen, for example, in the match between AC Milan as well as Atletico Madrid that they were support on the field there for Jenni Hermoso, as well as footballers outside of Spain, for example top women soccer players in U.S. and in their game showing banners and badges saying we're with you Jenni.

So this has gone far beyond the borders of Spain and we're seeing Hermoso gather a lot of support from footballers, and I think this is why an emergency meeting is likely to be called.

CHURCH: Atika Shubert, many thanks for joining us, appreciate it. A volunteer high school football coach is facing battery charges after a video appears to show him punching a player. It happened in Atlanta on Saturday.

In the video you can see the coach yelling at the student. Then he appears to punch him in the stomach. The coach was taken into custody by police. An Atlanta public school's spokesperson says the man is not a teacher. No other details were made available about this man's identity.

Star gymnast Simone Biles is continuing to make history. The four-time Olympic gold medalist won her record eighth U.S. all round title in the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in California on Sunday. The 26- year-old broke the record she shared with Alfred Jochim who won his seventh title back in 1933. She also became the oldest woman to win the championship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SIMONE BILES, GYMNAST: I've been doing it for so long I feel like I don't think about numbers. I think about my performance. And I think, overall, I hit eight for eight, it's eight. I guess it's a lucky number this year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Biles returned to action earlier this month after a two year hiatus. With this win she earns a place in the World Championships which are scheduled to start next month in Belgium.

[02:40:10]

Well, no sign of Nessie. Searchers say they heard some curious sounds but there were no sightings of the elusive Loch Ness monster in the biggest search in five decades. Teams used drones with thermal scanners, boats with infrared cameras and underwater audio equipment, all to scan the Scottish lake for the legendary creature.

But Nessie still remains a mystery. Though searchers say they will study the data they compiled to see if they can learn more about what some say is lurking in the Loch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN MCKENNA, MEMBER, LOCH NESS EXPLORATION: We had some fantastic bizarre sounds on Friday, which was incredible. I still don't know what that was. So on Saturday, and today, we went back over that area with the hydrophone on deep scan. We went back to the same area. We lowered the hydrophone again and we did not hear those sounds. So, I'll leave it up to you guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The team says they are not sure if the sounds came from an animal or the water itself. There are now more than 1,100 officially recorded Nessie sightings according to the Loch Ness center. And thanks so much for joining us.

I am Rosemary Church. For international viewers, WORLD SPORTS is coming up next. And for those of you in the United States and Canada, I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.

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[02:45:32]

CHURCH: Welcome back to our viewers here in North America. I am Rosemary Church. The U.S. commerce secretary says it is profoundly important that Washington and Beijing have a stable economic relationship. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo made those remarks during a meeting in Beijing with her Chinese counterpart and other officials.

Raimondo's visit comes amidst heightened tensions between China and the U.S., and as China faces mounting economic problems ranging from a real estate crisis to slumping exports.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins us now live from Hong Kong. Good to see you Kristie. So a critical moment for the world's top two economies. Tell us more about what this visit is expected to cover.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Secretary Raimondo is in China. She'll be visiting Beijing and Shanghai, there for a four day visit. And earlier today in Beijing, she met with her Chinese counterpart, the Chinese Commerce Secretary Wang Wentao, and Raimondo said that stable relations between the U.S. and China are profoundly important, and she pointed out that these two countries share more than $700 billion in trade a year.

She added though, that she would not compromise on matters related to U.S. national security. We also heard from the Chinese side, this from Wang Wentao, he said, quote, "I'm ready to work with you together to foster more favorable policy environments, for stronger cooperation between our business, to bolster bilateral trade and investment in a stable and predictable manner."

This visit comes at a time of deep concern and challenge for the world's top two economies. In regards to the United States, earlier we heard from the U.S. FED chief saying inflation is still too high, higher rates may be needed, but China is really facing the economic pressure coming in the form of slumping exports, of an ongoing property crisis, of youth unemployment data that is so high that the government recently suspended releasing the data.

Now this trip by Gina Raimondo to Beijing and Shanghai follows other recent visits from other top Biden administration officials. The U.S. is seeking to stabilize the relationship with China because tensions have flared. They have flared over trade, over access to sensitive technology like semiconductors, over Chinese raids on consultancy firms.

China is welcoming this visit. Just last week we heard from China, it praised the U.S. commerce department's decision to lift export control measures on 27 Chinese companies saying it paves the way to normal trade. Rosemary, back over to you.

CHURCH: And Kristie, does China's economic troubles give the U.S. commerce secretary, perhaps, a little more leverage in Beijing?

STOUT: Analysts are saying so, that the timing works on side with the U.S. commerce secretary because China is facing such deep economic issues from slumping exports to high youth unemployment, to the ongoing and deepening property crisis.

Yes Beijing has addressed it by lowering interest rates, by trying to shore up its property sector, but economists say that those measures have fallen short. So the pressure is on Beijing to find a way to revive its economy and to find a way to boost commercial and trade activity. Rosemary.

CHURCH: Alright now, thanks to Kristie Lu Stout, joining us live from Hong Kong. NASA's Cruise 7 arrived at their new home very far from Earth for the next six months. The four astronauts from four different space agencies and countries were welcomed aboard the International Space Station Sunday, after a nearly 30 hour journey on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

The new international team has crew members from the United States, Russia, Denmark and Japan. They will relieve four astronauts from the Crew 6 mission who are due to fly home next weekend. So it's a bit of a crowded house on the ISS right now with 11 people on the orbiting lab.

But the new crew say they look forward to working with everyone, stressing the need for unity and cooperation in space. Finishing at 27 under par, golfer Viktor Hovland won the Tour Championship on Sunday, here in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Norwegian golfer is now the third youngest FedEx Cup winner in history, and that comes with an $18 million first prize. 25-year-old Hovland entered the Tour Championship as the number two seed after winning the BMW Championship last week. CNN's Don Riddell caught up with Hovland following the win.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[02:50:08]

DON RIDDELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Viktor, many many congratulations. You've had an incredible season, and the last two weeks have been off the charts. Back to back wins and more than $21 million in the bank. How does it feel to be Viktor Hovland right now?

VIKTOR HOVLAND, FEDEX CUP CHAMPION: I was still kind of already on cloud nine after last week. After 61 and shooting 28 on the back nine to win. Just to have a really good chance going into this week and then obviously plan, I would say, even better this week. It's just been absolutely surreal and I don't think it's sunk in quite yet.

RIDDELL: You're still so young, which means it's not that long ago that you were riding the school bus dreaming of just playing on the PGA tour. What do you think young Viktor would make of what you've achieved?

HOVLAND: I don't think I would have believed it. It's super satisfying. It's super special, but it makes me just cherish those days a lot more. You know when it's almost like, it's a weird analogy, but it's almost like a video game. I feel like my character has gotten pretty advanced and sometimes you want to start the video game all over to see if you can do it all again. But, yeah, I mean, it's been an incredible journey.

RIDDELL: You smile a lot but you're very good at containing your emotions. So what does get you emotional?

VIKTOR: That's a great question. I don't know. Obviously I'm very happy for myself that I was able to do this. But I think when you see meaning outside of yourself, the people around you see when you can help other people and share happiness and pleasure, I think that's the stuff that gets me more emotional.

RIDDELL: You play poker a lot and you love it, right? What can you tell us about playing that game that helps you be so good at this game.

HOVLAND: I think everything you do in life basically is a matter of, you try to make the best mathematical decision you can make to improve the odds of whatever the goal you have is. So I think poker is just a great game where, okay, you have certain odds or you put the other player at a certain range and you have to make a decision whether or not the play you make is profitable or not.

And you can equate that to playing golf. You know, is it a better decision to hit the driver off this tee or a three wood? If the decision is driver, you hit driver. You take the emotion out of the shot. And obviously if you feel uncomfortable with the shot that has to play in it, but if you believe that this is the plan, you have to stick to the plan and execute and I think that's just a good way to think for most areas in your life.

RIDDELL: You are quickly becoming a big star in the pga tour. I imagine you're a mega star when you go back home to Norway, what's it like?

HOVLAND: Sadly, I don't get to spend as much time at home as I would want to. But it is pretty crazy when I go out there on the golf course unannounced and then suddenly a couple of people see me and then when I make the turn there's a large group of people there just watching me play. And I think that's just a little bit weird.

I haven't -- because I'm just so used to -- I'm just a normal guy. I want to play some golf with my buddies. It just never crosses my mind that other people would want to stop what they're doing just to watch me play golf.

You know, it just kind of doesn't compute to me, but it is really cool to see just the support that a lot of people from back home have for me and watch golf. Because Norwegians are very patriotic and whenever we do something well, they tend to watch and cheer. So that's awesome.

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CHURCH: We have some heart stopping video to show you from Daytona Beach in Florida. This is what happened to driver Ryan Preece's car on Saturday, and you can see it hit another racer and flew up in the air, flipping multiple times. By some miracle, the 32-year-old Preece was able to exit that car and was taken to the hospital. He was released on Sunday. Unbelievable.

An unusual reason for a pause in a baseball game in Baltimore Sunday. The Orioles were facing off against the Colorado Rockies at Camden Yards on Sunday when a swarm of bees forced a 5 minute delay in the bottom of the first inning. Play resumed when the swarm was identified as honey bees which are of course much less likely to sting. The Orioles lost to The Rockies 4-3 in Sunday's series finale.

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Now to the future of baseball. Louis Lappe hit a game winning walk off home run in the sixth inning of the little league world series. The California team defeated Curasol 6-5 in the championship on Sunday in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Lappe said he was just looking for a good pitch to hit. With the victory, El Segundo captures the state's eighth title and becomes the first team from california to win the little league world series since 2011.

Well it was a magical event in Germany. Hundreds of Harry Potter fans dressed up as the boy wizard to successfully break the world record for the most Harry Potters to gather in one place. A total of 1,748 people showed up at Hamburg City Hall, topping the previous world record of 997 costumed fans. Crowds were filled with people dressed in black capes, round glasses and painted on lightning bolts. No spells needed here to see how much these fans love the famous character.

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UNKNOWN (through translator): We not only made the attempt but broke the world record. That was more than exciting for us in the run up because we didn't know whether 500 people, a thousand or five thousand people would show up.

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CHURCH: The event celebrated the 25th anniversary of the publication of the German translation of the first Harry Potter book. How about that? Thanks for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. I will be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment, do stick around.

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