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Thousands Mourn George Floyd at Houston Memorial; Joe Biden, Former U.S. Vice President and Democratic Presidential Candidate, Meets with Floyd's Family; Protesters Create Pressure to Remove Racially Charged Statues; Floyd's Death Sparks Global Demonstrations; COVID-19 Infections Surge in Some U.S. States as They Reopen; Economists: U.S. Is in a Recession; Travelers to U.K. Must Self-Isolate for Two Weeks; U.S. Prosecutors Seek Interview with Prince Andrew over Epstein Link; Axios Allows Staffers to Participate in Protests. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired June 09, 2020 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
HALA GORANI, CNN HOST (voice-over): Hello, everyone. Welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Hala Gorani in London.
A private funeral for George Floyd will be held in Houston today, after thousands came to pay their respects to him and his family at a big public
memorial yesterday.
Also as U.S. Democrats introduce an extensive police reform bill, we'll look at what they're proposing and how it is being received and how
realistic its implementation is.
Plus, they link us to our history but at what cost?
The growing movement to remove historical statues and landmarks that some are calling symbols of vile racism.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
GORANI: Well, two weeks after George Floyd died while pleading for air under the knee of a police officer, the world will see his funeral. It
begins in two hours in Floyd's hometown of Houston in Texas and it will be livestreamed.
A horse-drawn carriage will take him to the burial site. Floyd's death reinvigorated the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States and not
only in the United States. It sparked protests across the globe. You can watch George Floyd's funeral here on CNN in just a few hours in Houston.
CNN's Omar Jimenez is there in Texas.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well, Hala, it has been a journey from Minnesota to North Carolina and now here to Texas, where
George Floyd heads to his final resting place.
For the city of Houston here, his family and friends, the mourning continues but so, too, does a push toward long-term police reform in
Floyd's memory.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Thousands stood outside in Houston's blistering sun, waiting for their chance to pay respects to one of their own whose life was
cut short and reignited a worldwide movement.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I see that unity. I see a bunch of people that are tired of, you know, the system.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Inside the church, both black and white, young and old, attended the public viewing for George Floyd.
Outside, his family standing alongside others whose loved ones were killed.
PHILONISE FLOYD, GEORGE'S BROTHER: Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Ahmaud Arbery, it just hurts. Breonna Taylor, everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love you.
P. FLOYD: But thank y'all. We will get justice. We will get it. We will not let this door close.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): While many here mourn the man who grew up in Houston's third ward and died in Minneapolis police custody just over two
weeks ago, it didn't slow down the massive protests demanding change to honor Floyd and others who have died at the hands of police.
Those calls reaching Minneapolis. The city council vowed to disband their police department.
LISA BENDER, MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL: We have started a lot of the work to help build new systems in our city that are keeping everyone safe.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey says he hasn't changed his opinion.
MAYOR JACOB FREY (D-MN), MINNEAPOLIS: If we are talking about massive cultural shifts in the way our police department does business, I'm on
board. If we're talking about abolishing the entire police department (INAUDIBLE), that's not where I am.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Meanwhile Monday, former vice president Joe Biden met privately with the Floyd family, including with Floyd's 6-year-old
daughter, Gianna.
JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think what happened here is one of those great inflection points in American
history for real in terms of civil liberties, civil rights and just treating people with dignity.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): So did Texas governor Greg Abbott, who pledged to back police reform legislation in his state.
[10:05:00]
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): This is the most horrific tragedy I have ever personally observed. But George Floyd is going to change the arc of the
future of the United States.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): As night fell, hundreds gathered at Floyd's high school for a candlelight vigil.
RODNEY FLOYD, GEORGE'S BROTHER: Everybody waking up, let's keep this energy going. It's a beautiful thing. Let's keep it real. You know, love
all y'all.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JIMENEZ: Today, Hala, the funeral service is set to begin in a little under two hours' time. The guests will be limited to about 500 people. But
afterward, the Houston Police Department will escort George Floyd's body to his final resting place.
The last mile of the procession will be led by horse-drawn carriage so people can watch as that passes by and then, of course, all of it
culminates in what will be a private burial ceremony. He is expected to be buried next to his mother, the same mother he cried out for in his final
moments under the knee of an American police officer a little over two weeks ago today -- Hala.
GORANI: All right, Omar, thanks very much. Omar Jimenez is in Houston.
Did you imagine we'd be here two weeks ago?
A global Black Lives Matter movement, statues, King Leopold II in Belgium, that statue removed and statues removed here in the U.K. as well of former
slave traders.
The former police officer who pressed his knee on George Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes had a court appearance yesterday. Derek Chauvin is
charged with second degree murder. He appeared via video link. A judge set his bail for $1.25 million.
The three former officers charged with aiding and abetting Chauvin are being held on $1 million bail each. All four will return to court later
this month.
So what will be the political implications of this?
Well, politicians at the highest levels in Washington are scrambling to find a way to implement police reform and to do it fast. And there are some
people who said that for decades that this needed to happen. Top Democrats are shying away from activists' demand to, quote, "defund the police."
But they're offering some legislation to crack down on police brutality. The majority of Americans now appear to be convinced by statistics showing
African Americans are more likely to be brutalized by police.
Look at these numbers from a Monmouth poll. 57 percent of Americans say police are more likely to use excessive force if the suspect is black.
Compare that to December 2014, only 33 percent answered yes to that question, are police more likely to use excessive force if the suspect is
black?
Let's bring in Abby Phillip; she is in Washington with more on this legislation that is being proposed -- Abby.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Hala, you know, House Democrats are moving very quickly to address a push by activists for them
to put forward reform proposals.
Now some of these are things that they say ought to be fairly common sense. They want to create a federal database that outlines officers who have had
disciplinary actions against them, so they can't move from district to district, getting new jobs if they -- if they have disciplinary actions
against them.
It wants to ban chokeholds. That's something we saw in the Eric Garner case in New York.
And then there's also police racial bias training and also mandating bodycams. That's something that has been a movement for quite some time.
But even the bodycam proposals, we should note, over the years, have not necessarily reduced the amount of force used by police officers and
certainly not the number of deaths of individuals in interactions with police.
So you're seeing Democrats putting forward these proposals and saying also very clearly they don't believe the answer is to defund the police. That's
another proposal that more liberal activists and some Democrats have proposed to really completely restructure and reshape what policing looks
like in this country.
That is getting sort of batted down by a lot of national Democrats. But you're also seeing increasingly a push by some Republicans to say we are
also interested in reforms, even if it is not specifically the ones put forward by the Democrats.
GORANI: All right, Abby Phillip, thanks very much.
I want to talk more about all of these issues, the push for police reform and among other things and the ongoing struggle to combat racism, not only
in the United States but, as we have been covering over the last several weeks, around the globe. There's a global movement sparked by the death of
George Floyd.
Let's talk to Cornel West, a professor of public philosophy from Harvard University.
[10:10:00]
GORANI: He is joining me today from New Jersey.
Thanks, Professor, for being with us. You were quoted as saying and you told us that this was a turning point.
How can you make that assessment so early on in the movement?
CORNEL WEST, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Well, we have been calling for a massive moral spiritual democratic awakening around the humanity of not just black
people but poor and working class black people, all of the hell they have been catching on every front. Not just the police front, on the economic
front, the ways in which their predicament has been rendered invisible by the politicians --
(CROSSTALK)
WEST: -- including even the black politicians. So on this very, very sad day on the burial of dear brother George, I'm hoping that we can push in
such a way that we're talking about empowerment.
We're not talking about these little, small reforms that really don't get at the two basic issues. And the two basic issues are civilian oversight,
so that we have accountability of police who murder, police who brutalize.
And then secondly, we've got to have a serious, serious talk about the issues of poverty, the issues of schools, the issues of jobs because you
can't separate the police crimes with social misery that people are undergoing.
GORANI: But do you think this moment is different?
I mean, we're two weeks into this movement that -- and I think this surprised some people. I know it surprised me. I don't live in the United
States anymore and, here, the Black Lives Matter movement has really, really gained momentum.
Statues are being toppled reminiscent of the Saddam Hussein statue toppled in Baghdad. Former slave trader Colston, King Leopold II; the authorities
had to remove the statue of the king of Belgium, who just oversaw sickening colonial atrocities in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
All of this sparked by the death of George Floyd and what's going on in the U.S.
Is this moment different and, if so, why?
WEST: Well, now we're in the history of the American empire, as one death generated this kind of shaking of the foundation of the empire. I mean,
over 10,000 people arrested, over 150 cities on fire, countries all around the world responding in a variety of different ways.
But keep in mind, Hala, one day toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein, there was a transfer of power. That was after a revolution; which is to say the
American invasion and occupation, that would lead to half a million precious Iraqis killed.
Now what we're seeing now is symbolic overthrows of these statues but on the ground the structures and institutions are still in place. White
supremacy has in no way been overthrown even, though these monuments are being pushed out.
White supremacy is more vicious than ever. It's rooted in the predatory capitalism. It has imperial tentacles all around the world.
We should never forget, when we see these funerals, the precious brothers and sisters in the States, similarly so are the families of the U.S. drones
that are dropped on innocent people. They have funerals, too.
GORANI: Yes. Can I -- you say that white supremacy has not been overthrown. That goes without saying; we're talking about decades and
centuries of inequality.
Some of the statistics are absolutely staggering. The net worth of white families in 2016 in the United States, $171,000. The net worth of a typical
black family in the United States, $17,000.
What I found most interesting, even when a black and a white family earn the same amount, their wealth is lower because they don't inherit as much
generation to generation. And the black family hasn't benefited from the structures and institutions that support white families.
How do you undo decades and centuries of that type of inequality?
WEST: Only a nonviolent revolution would do it. Martin Luther King Jr. understood this. It has to be a massive transformation that results in the
redistribution of wealth, of power, of resources and of dignity. So we need a massive investment in poor black communities.
What is massive investment?
[10:15:00]
WEST: Overwhelming concern about ensuring that resources go in when it comes to education, the highest level; jobs with a living wage; health
care; decent housing, all of these are ways in which massive resources are required in order for black people to live lives in decency and dignity.
We should keep in mind, really on a blue note and a low note, that the great Marcus Garvey used to say, as long as black people are in the United
States, they will live lives of ruin and disaster, the masses, not the middle classes, not the exceptional Negroes who are -- who gain access to
professional positions and often become thoroughly accommodated to the status quo.
He was talking about the masses of black people. And he has not been proven wrong and he led the largest mass movement among black people to leave the
United States. I don't agree with his conclusion but his challenge is crucial. That's another sign that white supremacy still reigns, even given
the overthrow of these monuments.
GORANI: Can I ask you?
I mean, I don't know personally the answer to this.
But why has this death of this black man had the impact that it's had, when you have had, in the past, horrific instances of innocent black men killed
by authority figures?
Why is this one the one that tipped, do you think, people into the streets in these big mass numbers?
WEST: It's an profound question. I don't think we have an answer to that question. The same would hold with Emmett Till or Rosa Parks. We're not
sure why certain catalytic moments take off in the way in which they do. It has something to do with the pandemic; something to do with neo-fascist
leadership in the White House with Trump; something to do with the neo- liberal response to the neo-liberalism of Trump led by Biden and Obama and Clinton and Pelosi and others.
It had something to do with the hard work of activists. Some of us have been at this for 50 years. You know how many funerals we have gone through?
Do you know how many times we have heard Al Sharpton talk about, we shall have justice?
And it's never delivered. It's never delivered. It becomes a PR frenzy, it becomes a cycle. It becomes a catharsis. And we're right back where we were
before.
So that it looks as if this could be a turning point. I really do believe something has happened but I don't think we can fully explain it. There's a
mystery and unpredictability in history.
GORANI: Cornel West, thank you very much for joining us. Great having your perspective as always.
WEST: Thank you.
GORANI: Coming up later on CNN -- all right, thank you -- a special edition of "AMANPOUR" Tonight at 5:00 pm Eastern, 10:00 pm In London. She
will be joined by v journalism broadcaster Bill Moyers, who served in the Johnson administration at the height of the civil rights movement in the
United States.
And global reaction also on this day from the U.K., where protests continue and lessons from South Africa's history confronting racism with journalists
and authors Afua Hirsch and Eusebius McKaiser.
Still ahead on CNN, the debate over controversial statues is back in the spotlight. We'll hear from one group demanding a statue's removal from a
famous university campus in Oxford.
Later, contact tracing might shed new light on who is and who is not spreading the virus. You'll want to stay tuned for that.
Remember what we have been told about asymptomatic carriers?
We might have to think again. We'll be right back.
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[10:20:00]
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GORANI: From California, to Sydney, anti-racism demonstrations are gripping the world in the wake of George Floyd's death. Protesters are
raising their voices to stand in solidarity with each other, while highlighting the systemic racism in their own countries. Here's a quick
look at the movement sweeping the globe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: White supremacy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George Floyd.
K.C. COLEMAN, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: I am protesting because I am a biracial woman, I have faced racism in my life, as an ex police officer I
face racism and now it's time for a change.
I experienced racism on a daily basis, if I go into a certain store and I am looked at and I am automatically assumed of someone who is going to
shoplift. It's an everyday life being a black American in America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your foot off my neck. Get your foot off my neck.
STEDROY CABEY, ACTOR: I came because it is necessary. And I have to take a stand. I have to stand along with my brothers and my sisters for change.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want change.
CABEY: As a black man it feels like your skin is a weapon, it feels like for some reason they feel like you're a threat and you don't understand it
why.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Black lives matter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Black men you will find yourselves (inaudible) and certain black people, starts (inaudible) serving them with dignity. It
starts with you.
JULIUS MALEMA, ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS: The Americans were with us during the apartheid and during the apartheid movement in the USA and we
were led by our own black Americans. And it was a difficult period. It is important that we need to pay solidarity with them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We have our own George Floyd too, we need to pay attention to this. For every brother, who has been killed by
the police, because of violence from the Brazilian police, a piece of us goes when someone dies.
COLEMAN: We are finally united as one so change is definitely coming and I'm feeling extremely positive about the change.
PROTESTERS: No justice, no peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, the fight against racism is now bringing down symbols of past transgressions in the United States and Europe. A few days ago, the
governor of Virginia announced plans to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee, a Confederate Army commander. A circuit court judge has blocked that removal
from the state capital.
And in Jacksonville, Florida, a Confederate statue has been removed without warning in the middle of the night. The statue stood in Jacksonville's
Hemming Park since 1899.
Officials in Antwerp, Belgium, have taken down the statue of King Leopold II. He has a very dark legacy in history. He exploited what was Belgian
Congo, it's now the DRC. His leadership in Belgium colonized land in what is now the DRC and also Rwanda and Burundi for more than 80 years.
We are talking about the severing of hands, forced labor, about epidemic, disease, millions of deaths, the training of child soldiers, you name it.
That was the legacy of King Leopold II and protesters were having none of it. So authorities removed one big statue.
And remember this scene over the weekend, statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader, it was taken down by protesters and tossed right into
the harbor.
[10:25:00]
GORANI: After witnessing the demonstrations this weekend, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has launched a commission to review statues, street
names and murals and street art. The commission plans to focus on creating greater representation of diversity in public landmarks.
At Oxford University here in England, there's a renewed push for the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes. In the late 1800s, he helped to build
Britain's colonial empire in Southern Africa.
The group Rhodes Must Fall Oxford tweeted, "There's no place for statues that venerate vile anti-black racists in South Africa, the U.S., Bristol or
Oxford."
You may have may not heard of Cecil Rhodes but you have heard of the Rhodes scholarship, De Beers, the diamond mining company. He founded that. Now an
organizer of Rhodes Must Fall Oxford, Simphiwe Laura Stewart is joining me now via Skype from a protest for the statue's removal, from Oxford
University.
Thank you for joining us. First of all, I can -- I'm looking at the picture now. You're in the middle of the protest, I understand.
What is your hope with regard to this statue at Oxford University?
SIMPHIWE LAURA STEWART, RHODES MUST FALL OXFORD: Well, the final -- with regard to the statue here at Oxford, is that it, of course, no longer sits
in a position where it's adorning a public building, that is against the values of democracy and empathy of black lives that are espoused by town
and gown in Oxford.
So our final hope is really that that statue comes to a different home, where it can be interrogated and negotiated with in more democratic fashion
than it is right now.
As it stands, it's on a prominent building, on (INAUDIBLE) street in Oxford. It is looking down on both town and gown and so our hope as Rhodes
Must Fall Oxford, it can come to a different place where we can interact with it in a more democratic fashion.
GORANI: And where would you want it to be?
Where would you want that statue to go?
STEWART: Well, I think that that's up for negotiation. You know, we are not here to have a one-sided conversation. We are here to renew a
conversation that we attempted to have with the central university, the central university administration, Oriole (ph) College.
And previously we have been -- the movement as it was has been stifled by people with more access to power and wealth and influence than this
movement has had.
But of course, we are not outnumbered. We have just been outorganized. So now we have an opportunity to reopen that dialogue. This protest is our way
of democratizing that conversation.
We're happy to have proposals to (INAUDIBLE). There's a (INAUDIBLE) museum across the street from the Rhodes House in Oxford. That is an ideal
potential location for this type of symbolism, where people can go and interact with the statue more freely than where it is right now.
GORANI: What do you say to people who say we are judging these historical figures by the standards that we now -- by the -- you know, anti-racism
values that we hold today that didn't exist at the time and that this is part of, in the end, English history.
How do you respond to that?
STEWART: I would respond by asking them the same question.
First, what are your values?
What are the values that you say define British society and British history?
And if those values are racism or white supremacy, I would say you're outnumbered in the largest civil rights movement in world history, saying
those are not our values. In fact, the communities that were enslaved, the communities that were colonized in the time of Rhodes, certainly did not
uphold the values that supposedly define British history.
So we think there's a critical mass of British people and of communities around the world, student movements, youth movements in South America,
Black Lives Matter movements across the United States and U.K. and in London and Belgium, who are saying this is not who we are.
So this is not a critical reflection of our history, of our shared history. In fact, it's a (INAUDIBLE) reflection of history because Rhodes, as it
stands, does not represent a contextualized history. So we are in fact collectively miseducated and misinformed about who Rhodes is.
And we're asking Oriole College (ph) and the university to educate us, to engage in an academic discussion that is (INAUDIBLE) textbook (ph).
GORANI: All right. Simphiwe Laura Stewart, one of the organizers of Rhodes Must Fall Oxford, joining us live from Oxford, thank you so much for
sharing your thoughts with us.
STEWART: Thanks for having me.
GORANI: She's taking part in this demonstration.
[10:30:00]
GORANI: Thank you, outside of Oxford.
As you can see, we are covering a movement that's gone way beyond the borders of the United States.
The U.K. has only one-fifth of the U.S. population but its coronavirus death toll is nearly half of it. We'll look at the latest coronavirus
headlines after the break.
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GORANI: The World Health Organization is now slightly clarifying some earlier guidance on the spread of COVID-19. Now Monday, the WHO stated data
from contact tracing that shows people with asymptomatic infections rarely pass on the virus to others.
And everyone thought, what?
We thought they were infectious. So it seemed to contradict earlier guidance. However, just a short time ago, during a live Q&A session, the
WHO's technical lead for coronavirus response cautioned that that statement shouldn't change policies because there are still a lot of unknowns.
She says more research needs to be done on how asymptomatic and presymptomatic people transmit the virus.
All right. That's not clear to me.
Anyway, in the U.S., states are focused on reopening even though many of them have failed to meet CDC guidelines. Over the past two weeks, at least
22 states have seen an increase in cases of more than 10 percent. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. ROSA DELAURO (D-CT): This is the Lake of the Ozarks. Look at these folks.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That was Memorial Day weekend in Osage Beach, Missouri, after the federal government first
implemented their guidelines to slow the spread.
TRUMP: We're announcing new guidelines for every American to follow.
GUPTA (voice-over): Now when that decision was made, fewer than 80 people had died in this country and less than 5,000 were infected from
coronavirus.
The study published in the journal "Nature," estimates 60 million infections were avoided in the United States because of those stay at home
orders. But as the U.S. approached more than 50,000 deaths and 900,000 infections, some states started to reopen.
And if you just look at Georgia, cases have now more than doubled since Governor Kemp made this announcement on April 20th. They're now at more
than 52,000 cases.
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): Today we're announcing plans to incrementally and safely reopen.
GUPTA (voice-over): Today, all 50 states are in some phase of reopening.
DELAURO: This is the photo from last week's SpaceX launch, people gathered on the bridge.
[10:35:00]
DELAURO: Would you put yourself in these types of situations?
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: I think the really important thing of all of this, as you pointed out, is that not
just to the individuals but to the risks that they're putting the individuals they go home --
(CROSSTALK)
DELAURO: And that's what's happening.
GUPTA (voice-over): Social justice protesters have also filled the streets, shoulder to shoulder all across the country, for the past 10 days.
PROTESTERS: Enough is enough, enough is enough.
GUPTA (voice-over): All of it fueling even more concern about the continued spread of the pandemic.
One person who visited the Lake of the Ozarks did test positive for COVID- 19.
The question being, did that person set off a chain reaction?
By tracking anonymous cell phone data from one of the most popular party spots that weekend, the data analysis company Tectonix was able to track
those same cellphones and potentially the virus to St. Louis, Kansas City and Omaha.
In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 12 cases have been traced back to a single person who spent time at the Jersey Shore over the past two weeks.
As players are coming back to train, school testing is finding positive cases. Three football players from the Auburn University team in Alabama
tested positive.
While they are now isolated, the question is, were they caught in time before spreading it to anyone else?
An Oklahoma State football player posted on Twitter, "After attending a protest in Tulsa and being well protective of myself, I have tested
positive for COVID-19."
DR. MANISHA JUTHANI, YALE MEDICINE: Mass group settings like that are extremely difficult to potentially contact trace with, because you don't
necessarily know the people that you have been around.
GUPTA (voice-over): States like Illinois, Connecticut and New York have been able to keep case counts headed down. Others like Utah, North Carolina
and Arizona, they are trending upward, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The governor of Arizona says it's to be expected.
GOV. DOUG DUCEY (R-AZ): The more we test, the more cases that we're going to have.
GUPTA (voice-over): But keep in mind it's not just the new infections that are rising. So are hospitalizations. In six of the states with the largest
increase in cases, hospitalizations have also climbed.
JUTHANI: So many different events were happening all around the same time and teasing that out is very, very challenging. So it's hard to make sense
of the data completely. What we can easily say is that the virus is still out there.
GUPTA (voice-over): As a country, the picture is still concerning. Overall, the number of coronavirus cases are still doubling every two
months and the case count is approaching close to 2 million and over 110,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. We have may have
reopened. But we still need to act like each of us could be carrying the virus.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Dr. Sanjay Gupta there.
The last few days have been somewhat bittersweet on Wall Street. Economists declared on Monday that the U.S. is officially in a recession, so that's
the bitter part.
But if you're lucky enough to be invested in stocks, if you have the liquidity to that, the sweet spot is stocks have soared. They have in fact
erased all of this year's losses even though we're in the middle of the pandemic and a recession now.
That's because the economy is starting to show signs of life. Jobs are coming back. People are starting to travel again.
The U.S. markets began the day lower. Take a look at the Dow Jones industrial average, still lower by 1 percent at 27,283. And the Nasdaq a
tick lower and the SNP about 1 percent down. Alison Kosik has some perspective.
It seems like the investors are grabbing on to any piece of positive news or interpret any piece of news in a positive light because there's
liquidity that they want to put into the market.
I mean, what are experts and economists saying about why stocks continue to rise, despite the environment being negative?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's very good question and I think you answered part of that right now. I think part is psychological,
where investors are, you know, forward looking.
The stock market has been known to be forward looking, meaning you're seeing investors buy into the belief that things will get better. Also,
they are seeing small green shoots in the economy. Very small, of course. Where you saw the job numbers a little bit better.
So you're seeing investors accentuate the positive that things can bounce back a lot faster than they first thought when the pandemic was really
taking hold in February and March.
The other is more concrete, as you mentioned. This is driven by the Fed liquidity.
[10:40:00]
KOSIK: Lots of support measures by the central bank, who pump trillions into the economy, into the financial markets to prop up the economy, to
keep it from crashing. You know, this includes asset buying. This includes buying up or extending loans to small businesses to prop them up as well.
Then you cannot forget what was done from Congress, $1 trillion stimulus package and more stimulus from both the Fed and the government are expected
as well. That is helping to lift the spirits in the market.
One more explanation for the rally we have been seeing, on a popularity of a relatively small number of companies -- the response is disproportionate
amount of gain. Look at Tesla, its shares are rocketing. Even Elon Musk had tweeted he thought the price was too high.
So you're also seeing investors pile into companies that have done better than others during the coronavirus pandemic. We talk about Amazon and
pharmaceutical companies.
Of course the big question here is, how sustainable is this rally going to be as the stimulus measures kind of peter out?
Then, of course, investors will look for the Fed and look to Congress to unfurl another stimulus package as well -- Hala.
GORANI: All right, thanks very much, Alison Kosik, accentuating the positive; whether it's hope, there is life in the market. Thanks very much.
In the U.K. officials say the coronavirus has taken the lives of more than 50,000 people so far. That is huge. That is a huge number. This country had
weeks to prepare, remember, because other countries, Italy, Spain, Southern Europe, they had to deal with the pandemic before the U.K.
The U.K. knew it was coming. And this grim milestone comes as people in London return to the streets under fewer lockdown restrictions. The
statistics officers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland say the numbers cover into late May. The U.K. has the most cases in Europe and
nearly half of the U.S. death toll, even though its population is only one- fifth of the U.S.
CNN's Scott McLean has more.
On a positive note, the number of deaths has decreased dramatically in the last few weeks. But still, the overall death toll is pretty shocking.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Hala. Back in March, the head of the National Health Service said the U.K. would do well
if its death toll stayed below 20,000. Today it's more than 50,000. That's according to the Office for National Statistics.
It's much bigger than the number being cited by health officials in this country because it also includes deaths that were outside of medical
environments and care homes and also includes deaths that were diagnosed as coronavirus related postmortem.
Now it does not include any deaths reported in the month of June so the numbers will go up dramatically in the coming weeks.
In comparison to the United States, the U.K. pales in comparison. But once you factor in population size, the U.K. has actually fared much worse
through this. There are plenty of critics here, who have lots to say about the U.K. government's approach, it was too slow to act, its lockdown was
not strict enough and they did not ramp up testing capabilities quickly enough.
The U.K. have managed to increase testing substantially but it's still a far cry from the goal that Boris Johnson set out, to do 200,000 tests a day
by the end of May. Yesterday they did less than 140,000.
I have to tell you, I spent two months of this pandemic covering the situation in Spain and the lockdown there. And the lockdown here is like
night and day. In Spain, you could not leave your house. You couldn't leave your hotel without a pretty good chance that you would be stopped by the
police.
Here, walk through any city park and you'll see people flouting social distancing rules, flouting the rules on public gatherings. And so it really
could not be more different. It doesn't seem like police are taking a very active approach to enforcement here.
GORANI: And also what's interesting about the situation in the U.K. is all of these measures that you would have expected at the beginning of the
pandemic inexplicably are coming into effect at pretty much the tail end.
In Europe there's a 14-day mandatory quarantine for people traveling to the U.K. and it started only yesterday.
Is there a sense that, you know, potentially that contributed to this very high number?
And now that lockdown measures are being loosened, what about travel?
Is the summer tourism season kind of a write-off for the hospitality industry in this country?
[10:45:00]
MCLEAN: Sure. So critics of the U.K. government will say, look, if you were going to stop people from coming into the country or make them
quarantine when they got here, you should have done it at the beginning of this outbreak.
The government's argument though has been, it wouldn't have made much of a difference at the height of the outbreak because there was so much
transmission within the country anyway.
As of yesterday as you said, people arriving in the U.K., citizens or otherwise, with very few exceptions, will have to quarantine for two weeks.
But what is really odd about this is the enforcement mechanism.
The government will not be doing in-person spot checks. It will only be having a private company, that they have contracted, call people to ensure
that they are actually in the place that they're supposed to be.
It's not clear how a phone call is going to do that but they say they'll only follow up in person if there a suspicion they're not actually
following the guidelines. The U.K. has one of the highest per capita death rates in all of Europe, save only for Sweden, who didn't have much of a
lockdown at all.
So even if there are these so-called travel corridors so Brits can go on holiday and come back without quarantining, it's not clear which countries
might accept them -- Hala.
GORANI: Scott McLean, thanks very much.
Still ahead, Britain's Prince Andrew, once again under scrutiny over his connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Why the U.S. is
demanding to speak with the royal -- next.
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GORANI: Well, Britain's Prince Andrew doesn't want this particular type of attention. He's back in the spotlight over his controversial relationship
with the convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
U.S. prosecutors are requesting an interview with the royal in connection to the alleged sex trafficking ring once operated by Epstein, according to
a person familiar with the matter. Now the prince's legal team is pushing back. Max Foster is live in Windsor, England, with more.
What's been the reaction from the prince -- the prince's team then to this request?
MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's specifically the prince's team we are hearing from, his lawyers, not Buckingham Palace. Buckingham
Palace are not actually getting involved in this.
I think -- I haven't spoken to them about this but I suspect they don't want a situation where you have the British monarchy versus the U.S.
Justice Department.
The government (INAUDIBLE) in the U.S. So the prince's lawyers are dealing with this and they refute what they're hearing from the U.S. attorney and
the Southern District of New York leading the Epstein investigation.
They refute the idea that they have not been cooperating, saying over -- since the start of the year, they have offered to cooperate three times and
that actually this is just a publicity stunt for the U.S. Justice Department.
Nevertheless, we heard from attorney general William Barr, saying this is not about extradition, it's about asking questions. So I don't think we'll
end up with Prince Andrew in a U.S. court.
[10:50:00]
FOSTER: But we could potentially see him in a U.K. court if the U.K. government does go ahead with this request from the U.S. to get involved
effectively and try to get Prince Andrew to pick up on the U.S. legal process.
GORANI: OK, Max, thanks very much for the update.
Coming up, the Black Lives Matter movement is sparking meaningful conversations in newsrooms. Around the United States and the world,
conversations about race and entitlement and privilege leading to some very high profile resignations. We'll talk about the impact in the media
industry with Brian Stelter -- next.
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GORANI: Well, like the #MeToo movement, the Black Lives Matter movement is reshaping newsrooms, as fresh debate over racial biases removes several of
the very high-profile editorial heads from positions of power.
"Bon Appetit" editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport is the latest to resign after a photo of him in brownface sparked outrage in the public and among staffers
in the Conde Nast owned food magazine. He's one of four top editors from various publications who have stepped down in recent days.
They include "The New York Times" op-ed editor James Bennet; "Refinery29's" editor in chief, Christene Barberich and "The Philadelphia Inquirer's" top
editor, Stan Wischnowski.
Once again the media industry is at a pivotal moment.
Could this be a modern reckoning within the industry over race?
Our chief media correspondent Brian Stelter joins us live from New York.
So that question is being asked, just like #MeToo, the BLM movement is causing a huge shakeup in newsrooms around the country. Tell us about the
impact so far because it's only been a few weeks and yet we're seeing huge changes.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: We are, in a different of different media companies and this is because of a glaring lack of
diversity that has -- it's really been a shadow over the news business for decades now.
You know, there's been so many reports, so many studies and yet not much changes. Newsrooms in America are not as diverse as the populations they
cover. You know, it is hard to point to examples of real great strong integration at the top of major media companies.
So what we're seeing in recent days are staffers, rank and file employees, speaking out and calling for change. There's been different versions of
this, "The Philadelphia Inquirer," the top editor stepped down, because of an insensitive headline but also because of the broader concerns of lack of
diversity in the newsroom.
"Bon Appetit," the editor, Adam Rapoport, basically admitted to not focusing enough on inclusiveness. He said, "From an extremely ill advised
Halloween costume 16 years ago to my blind spots as an editor, I have not championed an inclusive vision and ultimately it's been at the expense of
'Bon Appetit' staff and readers. They all deserve better."
So that's striking to hear from, you know, a white male editor-in-chief, saying I fell down on the job, I did not focus on diversity and inclusivism
enough. And he's stepping down as a result.
I suspect we might see more of this. It is all coming from staffers, newsroom and magazine staffers, book industry staffers, who are agitating
for change.
GORANI: And the Axios CEO said something interesting yesterday.
[10:55:00]
GORANI: Speaking to employees, "Your rights to free speech, press and protest. If you're arrested or meet harm while exercising these rights,
Axios will stand behind you and use the Family Fund to cover your bail or assist with medical bills.
So that's also a very interesting development.
STELTER: The old view was if you work for a newsroom, you do not go to a protest unless you were there to cover it and you make clear that you were
there only to report on it and not to be a part of the movement.
Whether that's for a conservative issue or liberal issue. Now we're seeing a different approach. This is Axios, a relatively new digital newsroom. But
we're starting to see this at other outlets as well.
Journalists' bosses saying, we understand; you have a life outside your work and you want to speak out for certain rights. This gets to the issue
of what is the civil right, a human right versus politics.
I don't think they should be campaigning for certain candidates, that's inappropriate. That actually hurts trust of the audience.
But there are civil rights issues and human rights issues that are being debated and discussed right now that are being called, you know, being
focused on right now. And I suppose what Axios is saying reporters are people, too.
GORANI: Yes. Exactly. I wonder if that's going to change things, not, for instance, the Black Lives Matter movement or anti-war protests.
If you have clear opinions on, I don't know, policy, decision, legislation, will there now be tolerance for journalists to go ahead and express these
views publicly?
STELTER: I think some but not others. This is part of a broader shift. We're in a much more polarized news environment, where folks can get news
that seems like it's coming from the Right, the Left, different colors, different outlets. We are seeing these changes as a result of the Internet.
I think this is more in that line.
GORANI: All right. It will be certainly very interesting to see how newsrooms and, especially the leadership in news and media organizations,
will hopefully diversify as a result of all this. Brian Stelter, thank you so much as always.
Thank you for joining us this hour on CNN International. I'm Hala Gorani in London. Up next, Kate Bolduan with "AT THIS HOUR."
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