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One World with Zain Asher

Paris Protests Over Fatal Shooting of a French Teenager Turn into Riots and Looting; Protesters Outside Swedish Embassy in Baghdad Angry at Sweden After Allowing Quran-Burning; Nigerians Face Skyrocketing Fuel Costs After Government Ended Fuel Subsidies; Transgender Influencer Dylan Mulvaney Speaking Out About Issue with Bud Light. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired June 30, 2023 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome, I'm Christina Macfarlane live in London and this is One World. France has just banned all large-

scale events, effective immediately amid fears that nightfall will bring more violent protests.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

The streets of Paris and many other French cities burned for a third straight night on Thursday as protests over the fatal shooting of a French

teenager turned into riots and looting. At the root of it all, allegations of racism and strong-arm tactics by police in mostly working-class

multiracial suburbs outside Paris. Nearly 900 people were arrested or detained, and close to 250 police officers were injured while clashing with

protesters on Thursday.

Authorities say some 200 government buildings were vandalized and a swimming venue being constructed for the 2024 Olympics was torched by

flames. Well, transportation and other public services are being affected. A dozen buses were burned at one depot, and the U.K. has warned its

citizens about travel to France at this time, while Germany expressed concern about the violence. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron cut

short a visit with other E.U. leaders on Friday, so he could return to Paris and hold this crisis meeting.

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): A third of those detained last night are young, some very young. It's the responsibility of

their parents to keep them at home. It's important for the tranquility of all that parents exercise their responsibility. I call for the sense of

responsibility of fathers and mothers. It is not the Republic's mission to stand in for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: CNN's International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson joins us now live from just outside Paris. And Nic, clearly the French government

here in crisis mode, but have yet to declare a state of emergency. How much worse could things get over the weekend with the funeral for this 17-year-

old due to be held on Saturday?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (on-camera): I think that's a big concern here. The bus station behind me here was targeted

overnight last night. Buses were burned. And clearly, when, you know, the French presidency and that crisis cabinet of President Macron, they decide

to shut down all bus and tram services in the country. It speaks to that concern, not just here in Paris, but elsewhere, that concern that public

transport can be affected, that it will become the target again.

If you compare the number of police here that were on duty last night, forty thousand compared to the number who were on duty at the peak of the

pensions protests a short time ago, that was 13,000. So, it really speaks to that issue and concern of how big this can grow. Nineteen hundred cars

set on fire in the past 24 hours and the flames circling this capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: Thursday night, Paris' underprivileged suburbs in flames. Elite cops in Nanteur, the epicenter of the violence and anger over the killing

of the young team Nile, bust through barricades of burning vehicles. Paris' ring of fire engulfing a bus station in the suburb of Aubevilliers, 12

buses on fire.

With daybreak, the extent of the losses becoming clearer. Twenty-six buses and a tram destroyed in this neighborhood alone, according to a local

official, total cost, ballpark, $11.7 million. France's transport minister came to see the damage for himself.

ROBERTSON: What will it take to end the violence, please?

CLEMENT BEAUNE (through translator): We can't allow for any ambiguity in this question. We need to condemn these violences with extreme fairness. We

need to protect our public service. It's in the interest of those who are expressing their anger today to protect the public service.

[12:05:00]

ROBERTSON: Local residents here worried about an escalation. It's the fault of everyone, he says. I've heard that Saturday will be worse. The buses

that are burned there, the people that live here use them, another man tells us. That does no favors for anyone.

ROBERTSON (on-camera): And it's not just here in Paris. The protests are spreading. Lille in the north, Nantes in the west, Bordeaux in the

southwest, Marseille in the south, Lyon in the center. The contagion of the anger is rippling out. By late morning, officials say 1900 cars set afire,

over 500 buildings burned, including 34 town halls and 24 schools in the past 24 hours.

In Lille, government offices torched. Bordeaux tires set afire. And above the Mediterranean port city Marseille, huge plumes of smoke rising. Its old

historic library set on fire. France's president cutting short a trip to Belgium, calling in his ministers for a crisis cabinet meeting. His

message?

MACRON (through translator): We all condemn this pure and unjustifiable violence, which no longer has any legitimacy. A third of those detained are

young, sometimes very young. It's the responsibility of their parents to keep them at home.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Nowe's (ph) mother, who led an initially peaceful protest Thursday, said she is not angry at all police, only the one who

shot her son. Her son's funeral planned for Saturday, expected to fuel the ongoing backlash.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (on-camera): And the idea that the French authorities can shut down any large-scale public gathering in the face of what's been seen over

the past few nights really is going to get a test tonight, but it doesn't seem likely that if people want to gather in numbers, that the police are

really going to be able to stop it or stop what people are doing, really getting reports of shops being looted late this afternoon. And most people

here are preparing for the reality that this is going to be a very troubled night again.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, possibly a troubled weekend to come. Something I know you'll be tracking. Nic Robertson there, live for us just outside Paris.

Thanks very much, Nic. Now, Russia's foreign minister says there's no need to worry about his country days after a short-lived mutiny led by the

Wagner mercenary group's chief.

The Russian president has also been in damaged control mode after the insurrection. Vladimir Putin attended a technology fair in Moscow Thursday.

Russia's FM -- Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, says his nation is resilient and things are under control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Thank you for worrying about our national interests, but you don't have to. Out of any troubles, and it

could hardly be called more than a trouble, Russia has always emerged stronger and more resilient. We are already seeing signs for that.

And we are hearing startling new claims from Ukraine about the leader of that mercenary group behind the brief insurrection. Ukraine's military

intelligence chief claims that Yevgeny Prigozhin is being targeted by Moscow. The official says Russia's federal security service has been

charged with the task of assassinating Prigozhin. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Ukraine earlier this week and sat down for an interview with

CNN's Erin Burnett.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think it's possible that Prigozhin had inside help from key members of Putin's inner circle?

MIKE PENCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I just wouldn't doubt it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, Russians stationed at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine are gradually leaving. That's according to

Ukrainian defense intelligence officials who say three employees of Russia's state-run nuclear company were the first to go. It's not clear if

Kremlin troops are also among those withdrawing from the plant.

CNN's Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is joining us live from Kyiv. And Nick, with regards to those reports that

Russians are gradually leaving, does this signal a genuine retreat that we're seeing?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's really unclear if this is some managed withdrawal by Russian forces and

those technical staff that they require to keep the plant functioning or if it might herald what Ukraine has long been warning about and that's the

possibility that Russia may try and sabotage the plant and create some sort of disaster in that particular area.

It feeds into a number of statements that we've heard from Ukraine's defense intelligence today. One of which, as you mentioned earlier refers

to their claim that the Russian FSB, their security services, are now trying to assassinate Yevgeny Prigozhin, the armed rebellion's leader.

[12:10:00]

It's not clear where he is at the moment. He was, as part of the deal which caused his forces to stop their advance on Moscow at the weekend, the deal

he apparently agreed with the Kremlin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko involved his exile to Belarus. But a man who's never been

publicity shy in the past months has yet to confirm his precise presence there.

And we've seen planes affiliated with him go back and forth between Minsk and Petersburg, Moscow, blurring certainly the idea of his whereabouts and

even photographs appearing in Russian media that might possibly suggest it's him, although they've yet to be verified saying he might be in St

Petersburg.

So, a lot of contradictory information at this point, but no solid confirmation that he's essentially going along with the terms of the deal.

So, you might argue that Ukraine's defense intelligence, a large part of their job is to continue to sow dissent amongst the Russian elite. There's

enough of that to go around already, frankly.

But is Russia's elite comfortable? Is Putin comfortable with the idea of a Yevgeny Prigozhin roaming around Russia's key cities and back and forth

from Belarus? Not necessarily the hobbled, tamed man that you might have thought would have emerged that seems to have been struck at the weekend,

we don't know.

But the Ukraine's suggestions of this assassination point just feeding in, generally, to the climate of suspicion, finger pointing, and most likely

the cleaning of house or intense interrogation of individuals that must be occurring in the Russian military and security elite after their disastrous

performance before the plot on the armed rebellion on the weekend and of course after it, to be sure that those who were not sufficiently loyal,

didn't move fast enough, are no longer in their jobs. Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yes, still no clear picture, really, on any of this. Nick, live from Kyiv, thank you. And now to a story that's developing out of Brazil,

where the country's highest electoral court has formed a majority to ban Former President Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years

until 2030. It comes amid charges of abuse of power and misuse of public resources. Four out of the seven judges voted to find Bolsonaro guilty. Two

more judges are set to vote later in the day.

CNN's Julia Vargas joins us from Sao Paulo, Brazil. And Julia, as I understand it, the charges stem from a meeting Bolsonaro held with

ambassadors in July of 2022 in which he spread false information about Brazil's electoral system and brought its credibility into question. So,

what more can you tell us about this ruling and that eight years that has been handed down?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN PRODUCER: Yeah, Christina, the ruling has not come out yet, but they did form a majority which will be necessary for this

ruling to come out. At this point, we have four out of seven, that is a simple majority that's what's needed in order to ban Bolsonaro from running

for eight years from when this happened.

So, that's 2022 in July, he called a meeting with over 40 ambassadors, the international community present, and he said things such as the results of

the 2022 elections, which he lost, would not be reliable due to fraud, which he did not substantiate. He did not provide any proof of this to the

ambassadors at the time. He said voting machines had changed the choices of voters in the previous election in 2018 to those of his opponents. He also

said, insinuated that the electoral and judicial authorities, the ones that are actually judging him right now, had been protecting terrorists.

Also, Christina, he said that the voting machines in Brazil were not audible. All of this was broadcast in Brazil's public television, EBC, and

also on YouTube. There was so much fake information there, false information, fake news, that YouTube took down the streaming, the live

stream of that meeting in 2022, because it did not comply with its fake news policies. All of that coming to a head today, but Bolsonaro did say

that he will be appealing this decision, he maintains that he did not lie about anything, that he was only showing the system's possible flaws.

Christina.

MACFARLANE: All right, Julia Vargas there live from Sao Paulo. Thank you. And turning now to more blockbuster rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court on

the last day of its term. The Court sided with a website designer in Colorado who objected on religious grounds to providing her services for

gay weddings. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the ruling has far-reaching implications and threatens to balkanize the market.

The court also blocked the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness program. These decisions coming, of course, after Thursday's landmark

ruling on affirmative action. Jessica Schneider joining us from Washington. Jessica, these really have been some seismic decisions in the past 48

hours, really set to reshape U.S. society. Let's start with that LGBTQ ruling.

[12:15:00]

What concerns specifically are being raised for the precedents this could set?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the concerns right now are on the practical implications throughout this country because this was

specifically ruling against a Colorado law. But this really does seem like it will upend public accommodation laws all across the country. And what do

I mean by that? Well, this was a Colorado law that said business owners, you cannot discriminate against same sex couples, for example.

Well, this website designer said that I am involved in creative, expressive speech as part of my business. I should not be then compelled to speak on

issues that I don't believe in. In this case, same-sex marriage. And the court saying, yes, that this Colorado law violated her free speech rights

by essentially compelling her to speak and creating potentially these wedding websites for same-sex couples.

The liberal justices here, this was a 6-3 case. So, the three liberal justices, they once again wrote a biting dissent like we saw yesterday in

the affirmative action case. They read part of their dissent from the bench, which is also something that is relatively rare and they warned, as

they had in the arguments, that this case could lead to a form of discrimination.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, you know, for the first time in its history, this decision is granting a business open to the public a constitutional

right to refuse to serve members of that public. So, that is the big concern here. We'll see how this actually plays out in the coming weeks and

months.

And then, of course, we had the big ruling about student loan debt forgiveness. The Supreme Court striking down a Biden program that had

sought to relieve debt for more than 40 million Americans, up to $20,000 in debt for individuals. The Supreme Court saying that the Biden

administration just did not have the power to remove this much debt, a program that would amount to $400 billion.

So, a big strike to the Biden administration. We'll see if they try to come up with some other sort of plan. But for student loan borrowers who may

have been banking on this decision, they will not be getting that relief that they were looking for and in this country student loan payments are

set to resume. They've been on pause because of COVID.

The payments are set to resume on October 1st. So, a lot of head, a lot of head, a lot of seismic changes from this court that has come down along

essentially party lines in the past two days. The 6-3 court making major changes. Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, absolutely. Jessica, thanks very much for breaking it down for us. All right, coming up. A one-man protest in Sweden has prompted

thousands to protest in Iraq. We'll tell you what's behind it. And Nigeria's oil subsidies are gone. We'll tell you just how hard that's

hitting people's bottom line. And an Instagram post set off a firestorm of controversy. Now, the trans woman at the center of it all is speaking out.

You'll hear from her after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Welcome back. Protesters are again outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. They're angry at Sweden after allowing a man to burn the Quran

as part of a protest outside a mosque in Stockholm earlier this week. On Thursday, crowds in Baghdad briefly breached the embassy compound as Iraq's

foreign ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador.

Sweden allowed the Quran burning protest, citing the right to free expression. But Iraq's President says it violates the right to free thought

and faith. The man was the only person apart from his translator at the Stockholm demonstration which coincided with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-

Adha.

And Nigerians are facing skyrocketing fuel costs after the government ended its fuel subsidies. That caused fuel prices to nearly triple earlier this

month. Cheap gasoline has been a part of daily life for Nigerians for decades. And the last time the government tried to remove fuel subsidies in

2012, it sparked nationwide protests.

Stephanie Busari is joining us live from Lagos with the details. And Stephanie, today is the deadline for those government fuel subsidies to

end. How have average Nigerians been coping with this for the past month?

STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, AFRICA: So, Christina, it ended on the 29th of May, actually, when the president declared that the fuel subsidy

was gone because the impact was felt immediately. The petrol prices rose immediately and they're nearly triple. And that has had a knock on effect

on transport costs.

People -- we just had the Eid celebrations, the Muslim festivals, and transporters telling us that they did not make a single trip, whereas

people would have been traveling back home to spend that holiday time with their families. The transport costs are just prohibitive for many Nigerians

who are watching what they're spending right now. So, this specific transporter in the capital of Burja told us he did not make a single trip

during the Eid festival, which is extremely rare.

And other belt tightening measures are being taken. People are carpooling, that's also very rare here. And they're cycling, which as many people know

in streets of Lagos can be somewhat perilous. And you're just seeing people generally losing their disposable income. Even the middle classes are

complaining fiercely about the hardships ahead.

And, well, it must be said that President Tinubu has succeeded where other presidents have failed in removing this subsidy. Many agree that it's not

sustainable for the finances of the country to drain on public finance, but it has been an unpopular measure.

In 2012, I remember the protest then led to what was called "Occupy Nigeria" when President Jonathan tried to remove that and the country was

brought to a standstill for two weeks. But now, there's just a general acceptance that the subsidy must go, but some are criticizing the abrupt

manner that it was taken away. Where are the cushions? Nothing has really been announced about the safety net for the poorest Nigerians. This is one

of the poorest countries with some of the poorest people in the world.

So, not much has been really announced as to how they will be helped to transition, to make this transition into the very tough times that lay

ahead. Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, I'm sure a lot of anger towards the government and the way they have gone about this. You know, the President with those off-the-

cuff comments, you know, earlier last month. I'm sure that will be, there'll be a lot of criticism over that, as well. Stephanie Busari, live

there from Lagos. Thanks, Steph.

Now, transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney is finally speaking out about the controversy surrounding her and Bud Light. In April Mulvaney made an

Instagram post sponsored by the beer brand which set off a wave of anti- trans hate. She's been quiet about it since then but in a new post, she explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DYLAN MULVANEY, INSTAGRAM INFLUENCER: I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me but they never did. And for months now, I've been scared to leave

my house. I have been ridiculed in public. I've been followed. And I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn't wish on anyone. For a company to hire a

trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:25:00]

MACFARLANE: Well, since April, Bud Light sales have plummeted. Two executives have been put on leave and it lost its spot as the top-selling

beer in the U.S. The company CEO told CBS, his company just wants to brew beer for everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENDAN WHITWORTH, CEO, ANHEUSER-BUSCH: As we move forward, we want to focus on what we do best, which is brewing great beer for everyone,

listening to our consumers, being humble in listening to them, making sure that we do right by our employees, take care and support our partners, and

ultimately make an impact in the communities that we serve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: All right, coming up. As anger boils over on its streets, some are asking if France has gone too far in allowing police officers to open

fire. A look at France's place in the ranks of armed police in just a moment. Plus, the oldest tennis tournament in the world, set to begin in a

matter of days. We'll take a look at some of the biggest match-ups ahead of Wimbledon's 136th edition.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Hello and welcome back to One World. Let's catch up now on the latest headlines. Officials in Poland are telling journalists that the

nation has arrested a Russian professional athlete who is suspected of spying for Moscow. Poland's internal security agency says 14 other suspects

have already been arrested. It's all part of an investigation into an alleged spy ring.

More than 100 million people in the U.S. are still under air quality alerts as smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to drift across the border.

Washington D.C. is seeing a slight improvement from Thursday when they were a code red for unhealthy air. There are more than 500 active wildfires

raging across Canada making this its worst fire season on record.

The leader of India's main opposition party, Rahul Gandhi, visited India's crisis hit Manipur state on Thursday. He went to meet with people displaced

by weeks of ethnic violence and had to travel by helicopter after being blocked on the road by local police citing safety today.

[12:30:00]

He went to meet with people displaced by weeks of ethnic violence and had to travel by helicopter after being blocked on the road by local police

citing safety concerns.

Now, this is supposed to be a celebratory weekend in France. The Tour de France, the world's most watched sporting event, kicks off on Saturday. But

instead, France is a nation enduring night after night of violent anti- police protests. It all stems from a police traffic stop where a 17-year- old boy of North African descent was shot and killed by an officer.

According to the CBC, it was the third such fatal shooting by French police this year and highlights the fact that France has the most armed force --

armed police force relative to population among G7 countries. Critics say French police are using their guns more. Thanks to a 2017 law that lowered

the threshold for police to fire their weapons. And it is especially impacting minority communities. According to a 2016 survey, black and Arab

men are more than two times as likely to be stopped by French police as white men.

So, now time for The Exchange. Joining me now is Sebastian Roche, a Criminologist and Research Director for the French National Center for

Scientific Research at the University of Grenoble. Thank you so much for joining me, Mr. Rush.

I know you have been following these developments closely. And we know that the killing of this teenager is not an isolated incident. I think since the

beginning of last year there's actually been 15 similar incidents at traffic stops. And it is important for us to look at the underlying issues

here.

We mentioned just there the issue of systemic racism, but it also seems too that this rule I mentioned that was passed in 2017 as part of the, I

believe, Terrorism Act is very culpable here. Can you just explain that rule in a little more detail to us and tell us how much that rule is to

blame for this spate of killings we've seen?

SEBASTIAN ROCHE, RESEARCH DIRECTOR FOR THE FRENCH NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: Yes, in 2015 -- in 2017, sorry, a new piece of

legislation was passed by the French Parliament and the socialist-led majority. And it changed the rule of engagement of the police regarding the

use of firearms.

Previously, until 2017, it was only based on self-defense. A police officer is under a threat, or a citizen is under a threat, and the police can fire

his weapon. After that date, it's possible to fire a weapon without an imminent threat, meaning that, even if the police officer is not being

threatened by in any way, he still is authorized to fire and possibly shoot somebody to death, which is what has happened in France recently, and a lot

of time since the law was passed in 2017.

MACFARLANE: So, I mean, presumably the government have been aware of how bad the statistics have been on this. I mean, "The New York Times" was

reporting that after 2017, these shootings have gone up sixfold. So, why has no one in the government moved to amend that rule?

ROCHE: Well, the government is well-aware of the number of lethal shootings in France, of course, but they didn't consider it a major issue. They

consider that to be a kind of minor, secondary-ranked problem. Plus, this legislation was voted by the socialists, but also by the French

conservative party, Les Republicains. And therefore, all these parties, they prefer not to think about what they have done and they prefer to blame

the rotten apple. They put the blame on individual mistakes by police officers, instead of course of putting the blame on themselves.

MACFARLANE: That's interesting because I was reading that it's also concerning that the officers in question have reportedly or had reportedly

been given very little training when this law was implemented. Do you know at all what training they were offered at the time?

ROCHE: Well, they were offered no training. The law was voted on the 27th of February 2017. On the 1st of March, three days after the law was passed,

the instruction was sent from the headquarters of the police in Paris, France as a centralized police system. So, an order was sent from the

center to all police units, explaining that the condition for shooting had been relaxed. And immediately, all police officers in France, 150,000 of

them, were allowed to use their weapons in a different way without training.

MACFARLANE: So, it's almost like they were they were misinformed really going into this new ruling. And I want to get to the issue of systemic

racism because you mentioned that the government viewing this very much as a social issue. And I just wondered how this is viewed within the police,

because we know that the majority of victims over the past year and a half have been of black or Arabic origin. How much systemic racism exists within

the police force in France and how much is it to blame in the targeting of these individuals?

[12:35:00]

ROCHE: We now have substantial evidence that there is systemic racism in France. I wouldn't have been able to say that 15 years ago, but during the

last 15 years, more than a dozen of independent surveys have been carried out in different cities, in Marseille, in Paris, Lille, or Strasbourg, or

Lyon. And in all the surveys, in all the places, we found traces of racism against the ethnic minority in France, which is mostly a minority which has

originated in the North Africa and in sub-Saharan Africa.

So, there is no doubt that there is systemic racism in France but in the eye of the government, there isn't. So, the government refuses that the

French police is racist or has some racist individual working into it because they said the police is Republican. So, because it's Republican, it

cannot be racist.

MACFARLANE: So, given that, how likely are we to see any change or any reform within the police's ranks if the government is denying it and the

French police are ignoring it?

ROCHE: Yes, it's very surprising, probably in the U.S. or in the U.K. that there is such a denial of the race problem. But in France, that's the

situation where we are. At the moment, the president seems to consider that there may exist some cases of racism. And he has mentioned that in a

previous case, as well. But that's where we are. And there is no political party ready to endorse any change in the legislation. There is no political

party willing to go and publicly fight for equality before the police.

MACFARLANE: Well, Sebastian Roche, your thoughts and your facts about this case have been very instructive. We really appreciate you coming on and

giving us that. Thank you very much for your time. And one final note about the French unrest, President Emmanuel Macron is drawing some criticism for

what he was doing as the riots raged this week. Wednesday night, Macron and his wife attended an Elton John concert in Palace, taking a picture with

John and his husband backstage. Critics say the French President shouldn't have been clapping along to Saturday night's "Alright for Fighting", while

his police and citizens were quite literally fighting just a short distance away.

Okay, ahead, a sobbing security officer found not guilty for his behavior during the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history. What parents of

the dead students have to say about the verdict?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: There he is, Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey, arriving not for a movie premiere, but instead for a court appearance where he is being

called a sexual bully. Opening arguments have begun in a London court where 63-year-old Spacey is charged with 12 offenses involving four men in their

20s and 30s at the time. The prosecutor told jurors that it seems Spacey delights in making others feel powerless and uncomfortable.

The verdict handed down Thursday recalls one of the saddest days in U.S. history. It's hard to forget these images from February 14th, 2018 when

tragedy struck Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 17 people, including 14 students, were gunned down in the deadliest U.S.

high school shooting on record.

A jury found security guard Scott Peterson not guilty of multiple charges that he failed to respond properly to the mass shooting. Peterson sobbed as

the verdict was read. Meanwhile, some parents of the victims are expressing outrage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANUEL OLIVER, FATHER OF PARKLAND SHOOTING VICTIM JOAQUIN OLIVER: It's another failure. Like the system did it again and again and again. Law

enforcement is receiving a green light here like a pass. This guy did not work what he was supposed to do. Now, my son is dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: And a landmark ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court largely gutted affirmative action programs at colleges and universities. While

President Biden and several key civil rights groups condemned the ruling, some in the Asian-American community had mixed reactions. CNN's Kyung La

reports from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Harvard, Yale, Columbia. Wesley Zhou shows us the rejection letters that ended his Ivy League dream.

WESLEY ZHOU, UCLA STUDENT: I'm a straight A student, you know, 4.0 GPA, 4.68 weighted GPA.

LAH: Did you get into any Ivy League schools?

ZHOU: Did not, I did not.

LAH: That was Zou when we met him two years ago. This is where we find him today, soon to be a junior at UCLA.

ZHOU: I think eliminating race and consideration would definitely be a lot fair.

LAH: And help you.

ZHOU: And probably, yes, in some sense would help me.

LAH: Zhou says he was accepted to every University of California school in the state that banned affirmative action in 1996. What's happened here in

California could signal the future for U.S. colleges without affirmative action. UCLA Professor Eddie Cole says the impact was immediate.

EDDIE COLE, ASSOC. PROFESSOR, HIGHER EDUCATION & HISTORY, UCLA: As soon as that went into effect, you saw at places like Berkeley and UCLA, the black

student enrollment among incoming freshmen dropped dramatically.

LAH: -- by more than half at those schools. Across the UC system, black and Latino enrollment fell sharply the next year without affirmative action.

But in the decades to follow, the UC system still took a progressive approach to improve those numbers to mid-90s levels. Though black student

enrollment still lags at UC Berkeley, and UCLA only recently returned to mid-90s levels.

COLE: So, if this decision is made in 1996 and we fast forward to 2023, nearly three decades later to say the numbers have finally improved with

the exception of Berkeley, imagine what it's gonna look like on a national level. You have to think about the legacy and impact across racial groups

and why there are disparities decade after decade despite so many policies.

[12:45:00]

NIA MCCLINTON, UCLA GRADUATE: I could very easily walk into a classroom and feel like I'm someone who doesn't belong here when that's not the truth,

right?

LAH: Nia McClinton graduated from UCLA two years ago and now works in black student outreach. Without such outreach and funding, McClinton sees this.

Do you feel like a lot of doors were closed for black students in this country?

MCCLINTON: I'm worried that they will. So, it's important to reach out and say like this is something that is attainable for you. Wesley Zhou will

soon be applying for medical school. He still believes affirmative action doesn't help him, but does see the impact beyond his own academic life.

ZHOU: I will say this right, affirmative action does harm Asian Americans, but without it, it will harm all the minorities in the United States. So

that's where I stand right now. After three decades without affirmative action, the University of California system still believes that affirmative

action is the way to go. The U.C. system filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court. The justices though deciding that the rest of the country

should follow California on this issue. Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: All right, tennis fans, we are just three days from the start of Wimbledon, and it's not just the players we're watching, but also what

they're wearing. We'll tell you about the drastic change in wardrobe rules, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Well, then, a century of tradition returns to the courts, Monday. The 136th edition of the Wimbledon tournament is set to begin July

3rd at the All-England Club in London. Novak Djokovic won the men's record 23rd Grand Slam title at the French Open this month- or last month, will

defend his singles title while Elena Rybakina will defend the women's crown after claiming her first grand slam title last year. And this year, a

record $56.6 million in prize money that is at stake, that's an increase of more than 11 percent over last year's pot.

[12:50:00]

Well, Barbara Schett joins us from Innsbruck, Austria to discuss all things Wimbledon. She's the lead tennis presenter for Eurosport and a former World

Number 7. Barbs, it is so good to see you again and great to chat with you ahead of the, ahead of the fortnight. So, let's discuss the big headers,

head to heads coming up over the next two weeks.

We know for the men's side that the big headline act this fortnight will be Novak Djokovic looking to tie Margaret Court's Grand Slam record of 24 and

take his eighth Wimbledon title, which would tie him with Roger Federer. The only player that seems capable of stopping that is one, Carlos Alcaraz,

who enters Wimbledon as the top seed. How likely do you think that is going to be to happen?

BARBARA SCHETT, LEAD PRESENTER, EUROSPORT: Well, I have my doubts. I have to say Novak Djokovic has been playing fantastic tennis in the last year or

so or over a decade, I have to say. And especially on the grass court, he's won seven titles there. He's playing his best tennis at the moment. It

seems like the older he gets, the better he plays. So, yes, Carlos Alcaraz is seated number one.

But I still think that Novak Djokovic goes in as the heavy favorite. Why? Because he won a couple of Grand Slam titles already this year. He's

capable of playing on every surface and especially on grass court. He plays on grass court like it's clay court, it is hard court and it's so hard to

move on that surface. And also, his experience comes into play.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, and it seems whenever he plays now, there's so much history on the line and we know how much he loves chasing those historic

landmarks. On the women's side, we know Iga Swiatek's fresh from her French Open win earlier this year, chasing her fifth title, but I believe she's

never advanced past the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. So, how do you see her this fortnight and who else should we be keeping an eye out for?

SCHETT: I mean, if you look at the paper, of course, Iga Swiatek goes in as the favorite. She's played the most, the best tennis at the moment. She's

won so many Grand Slam titles, five in the short period of time, but she has her problems on the grass court, especially with the forehands. She's

got a pretty extreme grip. That's why she's never went deep into the tournament, so far.

So, she does face some challenges there. Also, we don't know how she's feeling. She had to pull out of the tournament of the semifinals in Germany

just yesterday. So, she had some food poisoning, so, we'll have to see how she feels physically. But, of course, then you have Elena Rybakina, who won

the title last year, and Aryna Sabalenka. I mean the two of them haven't probably played the best tennis on a grass court, but they certainly are

capable because they have big serves and they have really powerful ground strokes, and they seem to be enjoying the grass court, as well.

But let's not forget Schibahara (ph), a finalist last year. She has the finesse with the slice with the drop shot. So, you never know what's

happening with her. So, you have to be aware and ready. And then one dark horse for me would be Petra Kvitova. She won the title two times already in

Wimbledon. She just won a title in Berlin on the grass court not long ago. So, it's gonna be interesting I think on the women's side. There's no

complete favorite to me, but all the girls who I've mentioned, I think they have a good, good chance.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, it would be great to see Kvitova do well again. Obviously, this will be the first year that women will be allowed to wear

colored underpants or shorts beneath their skirts to alleviate the stress of playing while on their periods. I mean, I don't know about you, but it

feels to me like this was long overdue. As a former player yourself, perhaps, I mean, how much would you have welcomed this option during your

time at Wimbledon?

Finally, the time has come and we all know traditions are traditions and don't like to be broken and changed, but that was definitely necessary.

Yes, I've played in Wimbledon many times and I've played Wimbledon when I was on my period and it's very uncomfortable if you have to wear all white

because that can always be a little accident.

So, I think it's a relief for a lot of women because on any other events you can wear dark underpants, you can wear red ones if you want to. You can

pretty much wear whatever you want, but not in Wimbledon. So, I think that was a step into the right direction. There was a lot of relief, I think,

from female tennis players, as well. And now it's their choice if they still want to play in all white or if they want to throw in a little bit of

color. So, I think it's a good thing.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, I think she made the comment that the flip side to this is you might now know which players are on their period during the

tournament. But as you say, it has been very well-received. And just one other point on the women's game, yesterday we had the news that former

world number one, Caroline Wozniacki announced her return to tennis after a three-year retirement to have, you know, she's been out having children in

that time, two kids, and she's been given a world card to the U.S. Open. This is welcome news, but how surprised were you to hear it? And how

challenging do you think it's gonna be for her to come back and face this current crop of talent on the women's tour?

[12:55:00]

SCHETT: You know when she came out with a statement, I was very surprised to say I was following her a little bit. I knew she was practicing. I was

thinking, oh she looks very fit. And then she was also entering a couple of Legends events. For example, at the French Open and also in Wimbledon she's

going to play the Legends events I believe, so, when the statement came out, I was a little bit surprised and I was wondering, hmm, I wonder why

she's doing that.

But then I was thinking, why not? She's only 33 years old. Tennis is her big passion. She wants to tell the world pretty much it is possible to come

back after having two kids to play professional tennis. I think she's actually gonna do really well. Of course, she's not match fit. She will

need a little bit of time, you know, to get used to playing tournaments, playing matches. It's completely different than playing in practice, but

she was number one in the world. She won a grand slam title. She was one of the fittest and fastest players out there. And I definitely think that she

can do some damage also to the top players nowadays.

The one thing I'm looking forward to see is how she will handle all the power from all these women we've been talking about, like Iga Swiatek,

Sabalenka and Rybakina, for example. But it's exciting. Women's tennis is exciting and I love that she comes back and wants to give it a crack.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, it is exciting and it's a boost for us mothers everywhere even if we're not top professional tennis players. Barbs, it's been great

to speak to you, I know you'll be on the ground next week enjoy the championship, I will be watching.

SCHETT: Thanks so much Christina, thank you. `

MACFARLANE: Thanks and thank you for watching One World. I'm Christina Macfarlane. Stay tuned, Amanpour is coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END