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Russia Attacks Multiple Targets in Odessa; Kherson Facing Relentless Shelling; European Council President Visits Odessa; NATO Forces Training in Black Sea; Wall Street Bounces after Three-Day Slide; Shanghai Intensifies Lockdown; German Foreign Minister Visits Bucha; Finland Poised to Join NATO; Warhol Portrait of Marilyn Monroe Breaks Sales Record. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired May 10, 2022 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): "Our children are all at war," she says. "My son is a prisoner. He comes back
and if I have gone, it is like I've abandoned him.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Russian shelling is unrelenting in the Kherson region. And escape is impossible for
some. Nick Paton Walsh shows us the nightmare.
And --
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On the face of it, this exercise has nothing to do with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But
we are not very far from Ukraine's borders at all.
GIOKOS (voice-over): Special forces from the United States, Romania and Britain are putting on a show of strength and strong cooperation in the
Black Sea. Fred Pleitgen shows us the drills. Plus --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I will never come back in Russia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, probably. Also (INAUDIBLE) because I don't want to die in Ukraine.
GIOKOS (voice-over): As Finland inches closer to applying for NATO membership, young Russians fleeing Putin's war welcome the safety of the
country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: I am Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi. Hello and welcome. This is CONNECT THE WORLD.
We start with heavy Russian bombardment in the southern port city of Odessa. This is what is left of a shopping mall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS (voice-over): In a missile attack that killed at least one person and injured several more, that along with a warehouse and two hotels among
the targets hit. The barrage that included three of Russia's new hypersonic missiles. Ukraine's president talked about the crushing economic impact of
these stepped-up Russian attacks on Odessa.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): President of the European Council, Charles Michel, visited Odessa and saw with his
own eyes what the Black Sea meant.
It is the first time in decades that normal trade traffic in Odessa is nonexistent. Usual harbor activities are absent. Odessa has not seen this
since the World War II times. Usual seafaring life is blocked by Russia, exactly by Russia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Meanwhile, in the Kharkiv region in Eastern Ukraine, newly- released drone video shows a Russian tank hit by Ukraine. That is after Russian forces fired on a convoy of civilians fleeing the area.
Ukrainian officials say that several civilians were killed in the attack. This happened a few days ago. They said that baby strollers and toys were
scattered through the wreckage. That is proof that children were in the convoy.
In the Kherson region along the southern Ukrainian coast, escape for some is impossible for some people. They are injuring relentless shelling as the
Russia's bogged down offensive drags on. Nick Paton Walsh shows us how some there are coping with this never ending nightmare.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALSH (voice-over): Both nothing and everything has changed here, the front lines have barely moved on the road to the southern city of Kherson,
the first Russia captured in the six weeks since we were last year.
But instead since than almost everything in between is being torn up by shelling, it literally does not stop, trapping people who physically cannot
flee in the churn of a brutal stalemate.
Here in the village of Shevchenko are two neighbors, both called Lyuba.
LYUBA, LOCAL RESIDENT (translated): This granny lives on the second floor. And she's learned quickly how to run.
WALSH: We move to the yard as the shell gets closer.
LYUBA: Oh, Lord, this is a nightmare.
WALSH: Leonid (ph) managed to get down to his wife's basement shelter. She's installed a plank on the way here to help him rest.
They used to get dressed up to go to bad, it was so cold down here but mentioned leaving she chuckles.
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LYUBA: I've got plans for tomorrow. Every day I go out, the goats are waiting for me. I'd sleep longer but there's shelling and the goats are
asking for food. They are my children of war. That's what I call them.
WALSH: Nights spent here are focused on hatred.
LYUBA: Russian soldiers are just following orders. Putin I would cut into four pieces and scatter the pieces around the world.
WALSH: Across the road is Valentina, alone. Shells also seem to just miss her.
VALENTINA, LOCAL RESIDENT (through translator): I was born in a time of war and will probably die in one. When I die, as my mother said, bury me in
the garden. So I can see what happens here. Lord, how much more?
WALSH: Overwhelmed yet hauntingly eloquent.
VALENTINA: Look at these torments. This house was smashed to clay. I'm left alone in four walls. Nothing anywhere. I cry to my dead husband to
rise up and see what's happening. Better to lie down at night and never get up. Neither see nor hear. Pity the people, the soldiers.
WALSH: It's not so much that life goes but that it has nowhere else to go.
These men selling cows milk, although that's not what Leonid has been drinking.
Hello to everyone, he says, 40 times a day and night they shell.
Barely a window is intact, shrapnel flying through the glass daily.
Yesterday was Svetlana's (ph) turn but she can't leave. She's waiting for her son to return from the war in Mariupol.
Our children are all at war she says, my son is a prisoner, if he comes back and I have gone, it's like I've abandoned him, we wait, hope, worry.
He is alive and we will live.
On the road out of here, the shrapnel rises, fiercely above the warm fields -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Astonishing to see the impacts on people's lives. We have Scott McLean connecting us now from Lviv in Western Ukraine.
Scott, looking at the latest attack in Odessa, it is clear that the aim is to cripple the country, cripple supply lines. President Zelenskyy mentioned
what that would mean for global grain supply as well.
Importantly, he also mentioned that Charles Michel was in Odessa. We have seen these attacks before from Russia that follow VIP visits or a political
persona from Western nations. We often see attacks on those cities or at least close by.
Can we read anything into this?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It is very clear at this point. Perhaps the Russians are trying to send a message. You are right, after the
delegation of the U.S. secretary of state and Secretary of Defense, there were attacks on the railroad; after the U.N. secretary general visited
Kyiv, minutes after he finished up his meeting with President Zelenskyy, there was a strike on Kyiv.
Now we have Charles Michel visiting Odessa. There were missile strikes there as well. Odessa is a city that has been hit relentlessly over the
past couple of weeks. Officials there were expecting a brand-new barrage of missiles on May 9th, Russia's victory day. Frankly, that is exactly what
they got with a new round of strikes hitting locations up and down the Black Sea coast.
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MCLEAN (voice-over): As darkness falls in Odessa, firefighters race to control the flames at a shopping mall in the northern part of the city. The
Ukrainian military says that it was hit by seven missiles. The sprawling shopping center, one of the largest in southern Ukraine, home to many well-
known international stores, was closed at the time because of a government imposed curfew in effect all day Monday.
It is not clear why it was targeted. Sunrise on Tuesday morning showed that the flames were extinguished and the sheer scale of the damage. Military
officials also say that one missile started fires at three warehouses. It torched more than 1,200 square meters. It caused extensive damage.
This is what is left of a seaside luxury hotel complex called the Grand Poutine (ph), which used to be frequented by Russian elites and is still
owned by a pro Russian businessman. Officials said no one was killed or injured.
It was one of two hotels hit. The second was on the south of the city in a seaside village. It was not far from an important bridge that has been hit
several times in recent weeks, the only road or rail connection between the southwest corner of Ukraine and the rest of the country.
All of this comes just as a European Council president Charles Michel was in the city to meet with the Ukrainian prime minister.
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ZELENSKYY (through translator): Despite the visit of the president of the European Council, Russian troops launched a missile strike on the Odessa
region. This is Russia's strategy toward Europe and it has always been like this, irrespective of the rhetoric of Moscow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLEAN (voice-over): Odessa has been a frequent target of Russian missiles in recent weeks, mostly hitting infrastructure but now increasingly
terrorizing residential areas, too.
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GENNADIY TRUKHANOV, ODESSA MAYOR (through translator): We worked all night to provide assistance for the people, all our unit (ph). Now housing and
communal services count the number of affected apartments. We will provide help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLEAN: It is unclear just what the Russians are trying to achieve here beyond sowing fear among the civilian population.
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MCLEAN: The Ukrainians say three of the missiles that hit the city were these pencil missiles. This was the only second time that the Russians used
this type of missile in combat. They are fired from fighter jets. It allows them to be fired from any different direction.
It makes it more difficult for air defense systems to pick these up and shoot them down. But what's really significant about this type of missile
is the fact that, well, it has a longer range and, frankly, they're bigger than your garden variety missile.
GIOKOS: Yes, and I'm glad you mentioned, that because I was looking at the fact that they've got these new hypersonic missiles.
The question is, how many of these missiles do they have?
They've been very selective in where they're using them. And I shudder to think if that curfew was not in place, what that would mean for the death
toll.
But you asked such an important question in your piece and you say, what is the Russians' strategy here?
If you look at how they've tried to cripple supply chains, it is really illuminating in terms of what they're trying to achieve in so many of the
industrial cities, particularly in the southeastern part of the country.
MCLEAN: Yes, you're absolutely right. Infrastructure has been a frequent target; oil supply, train lines have been a common target as well, trying
to make it more difficult for Ukrainians to move supplies, weapons, people, to the front lines.
We've also been seeing especially in the far northeastern parts of the country, according to the Ukrainians, that for the first time, it's been
the Russians, actually, that have been taking out bridges, trying to prevent the Ukrainians from moving forward.
Usually, we see it the opposite way around, where, when the Russians have advanced, especially in Kyiv, the Ukrainians have taken out their own
bridges to try to prevent the Russians from easily crossing these natural barriers, these natural waterways.
Now we're starting to see it's happening the other direction, as the Ukrainians launch a successful counteroffensive in the northeastern part of
the country. But you are right. It seems both sides have really homed in on hitting infrastructure, making it harder to supply the troops on the front
lines.
You even see the Ukrainians appearing to, though they don't own up to this themselves, but appearing to hit targets inside Russia as well -- weapons
depots, oil depots, things like -- that to make it harder, again, to get supplies to the Russian front line.
GIOKOS: Yes, and something that the White House has admitted. We showed you one of those water bridges the Russians have been building to try to
get from one part to the other. So it's been really interesting to see how they're using these supply lines and bridges and travel.
Scott, really good to see you, thank you so much for your insightful story.
Now not far from Odessa in the Black Sea, elite NATO troops are making a show of force. They are conducting an annual exercise that this year sends
a powerful message. Fred Pleitgen was out there.
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PLEITGEN (voice-over): On high alert in the Black Sea, U.S. Navy SEALs, Romanian and British special forces practice raiding an enemy ship, an
exercise that requires a lot of skill but also, strong cooperation, a member of the Romanian special forces tells me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) is very important, so all the teams can get on board of the ship in the exact time they should.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): These are among NATO's most elite units. They allowed us to film on the condition we would not reveal their identities.
The raid involves both fast, rigid inflatable boats, as well as a chopper, to land troops on the ship, search it and detain would-be enemy combatants.
This drill is part of a much larger special forces exercise called Trojan Footprint, involving some 30 countries, both NATO and non-NATO allies.
PLEITGEN: On the face of it, this exercise has nothing to do with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But we're not very far from Ukraine's borders at all.
And the U.S. has been very keen to strengthen the NATO alliance and show that it's committed to collective security here in Europe.
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PLEITGEN (voice-over): Romania directly borders Ukraine, where the war is raging, both on land and at sea.
The exercise took place not far from Snake Island, which the Russians raided in late February and are occupying. The Ukrainians, though, have
struck back, managing to hit the flagship Moskva cruiser and sink it.
It in the past few days, they released videos of their forces allegedly hitting both a Russian landing vessel and a Russian chopper unloading
troops on Snake Island.
The Russians, for their part, claim to have hit Ukrainian strike aircraft and a helicopter. Romanian forces telling us they recently had to destroy a
sea mine that floated here from Ukrainian waters. But the commander in charge of this drill says they keep the war next door off their minds and
focus on getting better.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's important on the level of training that we reach p .
PLEITGEN: But it is quite real right now, (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes, it is real and we are prepared for anything.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The U.S. says exercises like this one have become even more important since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, to strengthen the
NATO alliance and deter Moscow from aggressive moves against member countries.
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GIOKOS: That was Fred Pleitgen reporting from Riga, Latvia.
Still to come for the show, amid the pain of inflation and nerves over a volatile stock market, President Biden is gearing up to address the
American people.
Plus Shanghai is now requiring people who live anywhere near COVID patients to go into government quarantine. And we'll show you video that has sparked
outrage across Chinese social media.
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GIOKOS: Welcome back and we're watching another top story.
The nerve wracking volatility on global stock markets putting pressure on the major indices easing a bit today. That's after U.S. stocks fell to
their lowest levels in over a year on Monday. Soaring inflation is a big worry. And that's why in the next hour, the White House says President
Biden will deliver a speech about fighting it.
Taking a look at the markets right now, as you could see, basically, in the green, it's no surprise we've actually just seen huge losses last week. All
of that volatility on the markets, we've got CNN's Rahel Solomon joining us live from New York.
Inflation is always such a big worry, because it could cause stagflation. It's just incredibly deteriorates the ability of people to spend. And of
course, it could get out of control. And it just no surprise that's demands are easing, that we've seen, specifically, to try to pull the U.S. out of
the pandemic, that this is now the result.
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to be with. You in fact, as one analyst told me last week, inflation has a way of distorting good news.
That was in response to the jobs report. But yes, inflation creating so much uncertainty in the market.
[10:20:00]
SOLOMON: That's part of the reason we've been experiencing these wild swings in the volatility that we've been experiencing. The Nasdaq
particularly vulnerable, particularly volatile, up right now about 2 percent.
Eleni, I want to take you back to the last 4-5 days and give you a sense of the wild rollercoaster ride we've been on, if you've been tracking the
Nasdaq. Wednesday, the Nasdaq closed up 3.1 percent, so green. Thursday, it closed down, 4.9 percent. Friday, it closed down, under 1.4 percent.
And on Monday, it closed down 4.2 percent. So those tech measures essentially sensitive to rising rates. We heard from the U.S. Federal
Reserve last, week they're going to be raising the key interest rate half a percentage point.
Part of the reason why we have seen such a sell-off in tech names and the Fed is doing this, of course, to try to lower inflation, trying to lower
demand. It's part of the reason we're going to be hearing from U.S. President Joe Biden in about an hour's time about inflation.
We know we're going to get a key inflation report tomorrow, the consumer price index essentially a snapshot of what consumer goods are costing
compared to last year. The last reading was 8.5 percent. That was the fastest pace in 40 years. The expectation for tomorrow is 8.1 percent.
That could, perhaps, provide a positive catalyst for the market, some easing in inflation. So Eleni, this is not some sort of abstract economic
theory about prices. You feel it at the gas pump. Gas prices here in the U.S. are reaching record highs.
You feel it at the grocery store. And the president knows. This so we're going to hear from him in about an hour ahead of tomorrow's key inflation
report. But if it comes in a little bit softer than expected, that could provide another catalyst for some positive momentum in the markets.
GIOKOS: Absolutely. We'll be monitoring Joe Biden's speech and will be tapping into that as it happens. Rahel Solomon, thank you so much, always
good to see you.
Now Shanghai is issuing guidelines to community workers in charge of disinfecting homes. It's in response to online outrage that they had been
entering people's apartments without permission and damaging things in the process.
It comes as the city requires people who live anywhere near those who test positive for COVID to be sent into government quarantine. Residents in this
video, take a look, shared across Chinese social media, are arguing with police officers who showed up at their door.
CNN has reached out to the Shanghai municipal government for clarification and we are awaiting a response. We have not been able to identify the
people who took the video and did not learn if they were later taken into quarantine. Selina Wang is in southwestern China.
Selina, good to see you. Honestly, watching the footage, seeing how policy is becoming a lot more aggressive, it is astonishing to watch from where I
am.
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eleni, and people are outraged in Shanghai, I've spoken to countless people who feel like any semblance of
freedom they have left is been taken away. They're dealing with anxiety, insomnia.
People have been locked in their homes for more than a month and there is still no end in sight. In fact, the rules are only getting more extreme.
And that new policy you referenced earlier, they are now, in some cases, forcing entire apartment blocks out of their homes, sending them to
quarantine facilities, all because just one person in the building tested positive for COVID.
So this is happening in apartments where there are communal kitchens and bathrooms. But in apartments where the COVID positive cases are just
confined to their own room, they are still sending the entire floor that they live on, the floor above them and the floor below them, all to these
quarantine facilities.
So that is causing more clashes between residents and police. We can also know that there have been instances where residents have been forced to
give their keys away to health workers while they're stuck at quarantine facilities.
Those health workers, that come in with their full hazmat suits, spraying disinfectant all over their apartment, indiscriminately, over their
furniture, the couches, the bed, the clothes, people are very angry about this and there have been complaints online about how this is damaging their
property.
And so many people in Shanghai, Eleni, they aren't scared so much of actually getting COVID but they're scared of that positive test, that will
then send them away to these facilities, many of which we've talked about.
They're extremely rundown; they're in poor condition. And imagine thousands of beds crammed together, the lights on 24/7. Some of these quarantine
facilities were made so quickly that they don't even have beds. There's just wooden slats on the ground for people to sleep on.
And it's not just Shanghai. Across China, at least 31 cities are under some form of lockdown. That could be impacting 214 million people.
[10:25:00]
WANG: But despite the huge psychological, the economic toll this has had, China's supreme leader has doubled down on this policy. So local officials
across China are under pressure to adhere to zero COVID in a show of loyalty to the Communist Party. So we're not going to see these extreme
measures go away anytime soon, Eleni.
GIOKOS: Selina, thank you so much for that update.
Let's now get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appears poised to win the Philippines presidential election. Unofficial results show an apparent landslide. Crowds of people
protested against his expected win in Manila, citing election irregularities.
Marcos Jr. is the son of a former dictator, who was ousted decades ago in an uprising.
A senior security source says Sri Lanka's outgoing prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is now at an undisclosed location after he was rescued in a
military operation. Protesters tried to get into his private residence hours after he stepped down.
For weeks, protesters have been calling for the prime minister to resign over his handling of Sri Lanka's economic crisis.
The death toll in Friday's hotel explosion in Havana has now risen to 40, that's according to the country's public health ministry. A gas leak is
thought to have caused the blast at the Hotel Saratoga; 94 people were injured.
It's just what Vladimir Putin was trying to avert, another NATO country on his doorstep. Coming up, who's most likely joining the club and why it's
all Mr. Putin's fault.
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GIOKOS: Welcome back. I am Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD.
Russian forces have their sights set on the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. A barrage of cruise missiles has punished the city fired from Russian
planes, ships and submarines. Local officials reported at least one person was killed in attacks on a shopping mall and two hotels.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops continue to show strong resistance in Luhansk where Russian troops have been building makeshift river crossings. This
satellite photo shows one of three Russian platoon bridges blown up by Ukrainian forces.
After seeing the ruins of the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, German prime minister Annalena Baerbock says that the world owes it to the victims to investigate
the alleged war crimes committed by Russia.
[10:30:00]
GIOKOS: She also announced that the German embassy in Kyiv will be reopening soon.
The expansion of NATO that Vladimir Putin's war was meant to stop may have done the exact opposite. Finland's European affairs minister tells CNN his
country will very likely apply for membership for NATO.
The process would probably be quick and more than double the land border that Russia shares with NATO members. Nic Robertson is following the story
in Helsinki.
Nic, this has been such an important conversation, whether Finland and Sweden would make the formal application. They have always been ready from
a military perspective and are now finally applying.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: This has been a really swift path for the Finnish population. When Putin invaded Ukraine,
that really told them that Russia was no longer the stable country across the border that they had assumed it would be.
They have had historic concerns. But the shift in opinion here has been rapid. The government here is debating right now. The foreign affairs
committee will put their findings to parliament tomorrow. The president is going to speak about this on Thursday.
We went along the border with Russia to find out there how people are viewing what is happening.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Through the trees to the left, Russia; to the right, remote Finnish farmhouses. Through clearings, a glimpse of the
flimsy fence following much of the 1,300 kilometer/830 mile border that separates them.
ROBERTSON: It is quite remarkable how open the border appears to be. We are not allowed to cross the field. But on the other side of the field,
less than 100 meters away, it is a low, waist-high fence, a few wooden poles and some wire.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): For a clearer view of the border, you need to get above it.
ROBERTSON: From up here, you can really see just how fine the border is, tracing its way across the countryside.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): It looks calm. Yet below here, the biggest geopolitical realignment in a generation is taking place.
ROBERTSON: Other fences?
SIRKKU KORHONEN, FARM OWNER: (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Sirkku Korhonen is caught in it. Her farmland touches Russia.
KORHONEN: Our land is zero meters.
ROBERTSON: Your land is on the border.
KORHONEN: Yes.
ROBERTSON: How do you feel about that?
KORHONEN: Confused. It has been safe. But now it is different.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): For Finns, that change in feeling came fast.
Once tepid support for NATO rocketed as Russia invaded Ukraine, from one third to over two thirds in a matter of weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). Excellent choice because we need now protection. And it's the best available.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joining NATO would be that gate to us (ph) that no one will invade us.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Here in Finland's east, generations have grown, knowing that Russia can be a dangerous neighbor.
ROBERTSON: As local legend would have it, when the Russians arrived here 281 years ago and stormed the fort up the Hill, they spilled so much blood
this log was carried down the hill on it.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): World War II commemorations of Finnish dead from battling the Red Army are plentiful, too. Finland ultimately escaping
invasion by agreeing to be non-aligned.
At the last Finnish cafe before the Helsinki to Moscow transcontinental rail line crosses into Russia, security, not trade, is the top priority,
despite new E.U. sanctions on Russia harming business.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you know our common history with Russia, we were in a similar situation back in the '30s. And I think it would be really naive
and foolish of us to remain neutral when we have this much historical background to learn from.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): At the local ice hockey rink, many of the pros practicing sport Ukrainian flags on their helmets. Sympathies strong;
similarities easy to imagine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's (INAUDIBLE) to bring into mind at what could happen because we are so close.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Captain Koska Rantis (ph) focus: keep his team's head in the game. NATO membership, he says, should help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope it will bring more like (INAUDIBLE) a little bit relax and just try to enjoy our lives like we have been enjoying so far.
[10:35:00]
ROBERTSON (voice-over): At the official road crossing, one of the few places Russians can legally enter Finland, traffic is one-tenth what it was
two years ago and no apparent cross-border threat; the reverse, even. This young Russian seeking Finland's safety, an escape from Putin's war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I will never come back into Russia.
ROBERTSON: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, probably. I also am trying to avoid conscription because I don't want to die in Ukraine. That is not I like -- what I would
like to do.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): It may look like a flimsy fence. But in a few days, when Finland's parliament is expected to vote for NATO membership,
this wire and wood border could become part of a new Iron Curtain, keeping Vladimir Putin's ill intent at bay.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: And other NATO members are already reaching out to Finland. The British defense secretary was here last week. The British prime minister is
coming here tomorrow to meet with the Finnish president. And the message is likely to be, if you apply for NATO, we will support you through the
process.
They will make sure that it is a speedy process to come into NATO. They will also make sure that there are guarantees along the way if Russia
decides to take aggressive actions. They will have friends and allies that support them through that.
GIOKOS: Yes. We will be watching that parliamentary vote in Finland very closely. As you say, the appetite for neutrality is fast dissipating in
Finland. Thank you so much, good to see you.
History was made a short time ago in the British Parliament.
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CHARLES, PRINCE OF WALES: My lords, pray be seated.
GIOKOS (voice-over): For only the third time in her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II was unable to carry out the monarch's tradition of opening
Parliament. It fell to her son, Prince Charles, to read her speech. He outlined the U.K. government's agenda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: This comes as British prime minister Boris Johnson's government remains involved in the so-called party scandal. I want to bring in Nina
dos Santos, who is live outside of the Houses of Parliament.
It is this is significant day. We are in the shadow of the Partygate scandal.
More importantly, what was the messaging from the palace?
Are we now seeing the start of a transition period in terms of what we will see in the monarchy?
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNNMONEY EUROPE EDITOR: That is the big question. It is something that everybody is going to be looking out for in three weeks
time. The platinum jubilee celebration will kick off to mark the long tenure on the throne for Queen Elizabeth II.
Late in the day, we learned yesterday evening, that Buckingham Palace had taken this decision. The queen, based on what they call her suffering from
episodes of mobility issues, so the idea is that she is having some trouble with her mobility.
We have also seen her climb onto that big throne. There's a number of steps onto it. The House of Lords is a difficult place to navigate if you are 96
years old and suffering from some of these mobility issues. Perhaps that is why she pulled out.
She was entrusting her son, her heir, Prince Charles and his heir, Prince William, in this role of state councilors while representing on her behalf.
What was also very important was that the crown was brought in on a cushion to mark her authority in the room; 38 bills were presented and read by
Prince Charles.
They were designed to tackle the cost of living crisis, it is huge here in the U.K. There is also policing, climate change and support for Ukraine.
I'm just mentioning a few of the things on the legislative agenda.
For Boris Johnson, this was an opportunity to pivot away from the Partygate scandal that has been lingering for so long. As you said, the optics of the
monarch, not being present for the first time since 1963, that was last time she missed it, due to pregnancy, that will continue to raise some
questions in people's minds. Eleni?
GIOKOS: Thank you very much for that.
Still to come an iconic actress immortalized in an iconic portrait. Wait until you hear the price. If you have to ask how much, you can't afford it.
And English football club Liverpool are training very hard.
But will it be enough to clinch the Premier League title?
The details are coming up in the "WORLD SPORT" update.
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GIOKOS: One of Andy Warhol's iconic Marilyn Monroe portraits has just set a record as the most expensive 20th century artwork sold at auction. "Shot
Sage Blue Marilyn" could have been yours for the sum of $195 million. Christie's described it as "one of the rarest and most transcendent images
in existence."
It had previously been shown at several museums and galleries in New York, Paris and London. The previous record for a Warhol painting was $105
million almost a decade ago.
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