long or short, shall be devoted to your service. there is a motto which has been borne by many of my ancestors, a noble motto, i serve. an unwanted distinction. india now the world's second worst hit country in coronavirus. new numbers. live in new delhi this hour. also -- >> [ bleep ]. >> oh, my god. >> terrifying scenes of escape. some calling it hellish. california grapples with historic wildfires. and shocker on the court. see the move that has the biggest name in men's tennis out of the u.s. open. hello and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world.

i'm michael holmes. you're watching "cnn newsroom." eight months after the novel coronavirus was officially identified, the global number of infections from covid-19 now toppling 27 million. and despite international efforts to contain the pandemic, the virus keeps spreading at an alarming rate. in europe some countries reporting their most infections in months. india, meanwhile, now passing brazil as the country with the second highest number of confirmed cases in the world. only the u.s. has more. but now there's growing concern america's numbers could rise even further as the country prepares to celebrate the labor day holiday in the coming hours. let's get started by getting more on the growing outbreak in india.

cnn is live for us in new delhi. yeah, how concerning is this for the indian government? i mean, these numbers clearly going the wrong way. >> well, michael, the worry is here to stay for a while at least because we've just seen that surge in new infections on a daily basis go above 19,000 infections a day. that's worrying. but one of the reasons for that is also the aggressive testing that is taking place. as of this morning, india has almost tested 50 million samples and this is going to rise on a daily basis. the target being reaching about 1 million sample testing a day. so we've spoken with some doctors. we've tried to deconstruct the reasons, really, for this new surge across india when it comes to covid-19 numbers, bringing to number two on the list when it comes to maximum number of cases across the world. here's what they have to say. >> reporter: congested streets, crowded markets. india's exponential increase in covid-19 numbers has done little to deter people from venturing out.

>> people thought that once the numbers started to go down this was it. they had won the war impeaand everybody was out and everybody was, you know, was out there without wear a mask, without any social distancing, without any sanitizers. basically just abandon. >> reporter: while it took india 5 1/2 months to surpass 1 million cases, it's taken the country just 50 days to add more than 3 million infections. medical experts say one of the reasons for the big surge is aggressive testing. >> 1 million tests per day. be achieved that target much before the targeted date. >> reporter: an increase in case load has been reported from rural areas where the public health care system remains extremely poor. >> the pandemic is spreading in the rural area.

it is mainly affecting the seven states of the country which are responsible for nearly 75% of the cases. >> reporter: independent yeah's health agency as often quoted low fatalities to explain its numbers. the experts say this has made people complacent. >> i think it's because of the mixed messaging we're putting out. we're not telling people exactly what is going on. we are giving them half truths about recovery rates, but not telling the exact gravity of the situation. >> reporter: forced repeated lockdowns have led the government to relax restrictions. with malls, restaurants and temples already reopened, subway trains will be back on track for monday. another possible hazard in the times of covid. with the fastest growing case load in the world, india has now surpassed brazil's numbers, second only to the u.s. in covid-19 cases.

what we have to remember at this point also, michael, is that india has a huge population, 1.36 billion people in india, compared to 211 people in brazil. so we're going to see these numbers rise over the next few days and this remains a grim situation. back to you, michael. >> yes, important to keep that in mind, the population there. thank you so much. in new delhi for us. the united kingdom has recorded nearly 3,000 new infection within a 24-hour period. that's actually the heist daily increase since may. the case count standing at 350,000, but the death toll not keeping pace with cases. that's good news. only two deaths recorded in the uk. the number of tests has increased since may. much of north america celebrates labor day on monday, but holiday activities could increase the risk of exposure to

the coronavirus. new jersey was hit hard early on, but numbers have fallen in recent months. and state officials, they want to keep it that way. here's evan mcmorris-santoro. >> reporter: on friday new jersey governor phil murphy noted that this state had had six months since its first coronavirus case. six months where this state went from one of the worst stories of the pandemic to one of the best stories of the pandemic. then came this weekend. the big test of all the gains new jersey has made. murphy loosened rules on restaurants and movie theaters, allowing 25% capacity inside those places for the first time since the shutdowns back in march. i traveled across the state to see how things were going. at the movie theater, i met people who talked about sitting far apart from one another wearing a mask while watching the movie. they felt safe, but wonder if it was going to continue. here at asbury park, the beach had a strict limit how many

people on the beach. on the boardwalk we saw a lot of people not wearing masks. restaurants allowed 25% capacity of indoor dining. i spoke to a manager who said he hopes this works so he can add more and more people and get his business going back again, but murphy says if these experiments fail, if he sees the numbers go back up, new jersey will shut down once again. evan mcmorris-santoro, cnn, asbury park, new jersey. >> well, with 57 days to go until the u.s. election, one of the latest tell-all books about the president comes out this week. it is called "disloyal: a memoir." it is written by mr. trump's former personal attorney, michael cohen. among many things in the book, cohn calls mr. trump a racist. he writes before his kickoff announcement in 2016, mr. trump said this about minorities, quote, i will never get the hispanic vote, like the blacks, they're too stupid to vote for

trump. they're not my people, unquote. meanwhile, president trump and members of his administration are busy pushing back on that disparaging article published in "the atlantic." cnn's jeremy diamond with those details. >> reporter: well, with less than two months until election day, president trump just can't seem to shake this "atlantic" article that describes the president disparaging fallen service members during world war i during a 2018 trip to france. the president apparently referring to those fallen service members as sulkers and losers. a former senior administration official telling cnn that the president did, indeed, refer to those fallen service members in you'd and dispashlging terms. now, the pushback from the white house has been tremendous, perhaps greater than we have seen for any previous news story, and part of that, of course, is because veterans and the military are an important

part of the president's voting block. here is the pushback that we were seeing on sunday from two cabinet members. >> have you ever heard the president disparage u.s. service members or veterans? >> well, absolutely not. i would be offended, too, if i thought it was true. >> i think thisse president has enormous respect for the military and for the generals. i've been at the tank at the pentagon with him. i've been at 9/11 at the pentagon with him. this president respects and supports the u.s. military. >> now, the president has, of course, for his part, already denied this story vehemently. but his denials are complicated by some false statements that he has made as he has tried to make those denials. one of them is that he talked to first lady melania trump who he claimed was back in washington, d.c. when, in fact, she was on that trip to france with him in 2018. and then the second part of the president's denial was claiming that he had never referred to the late senator john mccain as a loser.

that claim is defied by the video evidence of the president referring to former senator john mccain in exactly those terms. and, of course, more broadly, the president back in 2015 had referred to senator john mccain as a loser and then went on to say that he liked people who weren't captured, saying that john mccain was not a hero, but, of course, that was also a broader denunciation, it seems, of prisoners of war, not all too dissimilar what we're hearing the president said during that trip to france. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. let's turn our attention to tennis now as one of the biggest names in the game has been disqualified from the u.s. open. world number one, novak djokovic, was defaulted from the tournament after hitting a lineswoman with a ball. cnn "world sport's" patrick snell is following the story now. he didn't mean it, but there's not much wiggle room in the rule book. >> quite right, michael. yes. this is a huge story, no question about it this monday. one we are fully focused on, and

huge disappointment for novak djokovic, the world's top ranked player, number one seed at the u.s. open. a player that was looking to go on and win career major 18 and get within two of the legendary roger federer. i have to say he has not covered himself in glory in this incident. just fallen 6-5 behind his opponent and in a moment of frustration, really, he was swatting the ball away from the court. unintentionally, though, it hits a female line judge in the sort of neck/throat area. she goes down in obvious distress. the rules officials get together and there's only one outcome here, michael. you referenced it with the rules. kind of like football, soccer. red card. if you're a player and you strike a ball and it hits an official, there's only one outcome here, and in this case it is out of the tournament for novak djokovic. huge disappointment for him. >> a lot of people thought he

would sort of show up at a news conference at the stadium. he did not. he headed off but he spoke later. >> yeah, he took to social media afterwards, and this is a player, of course, who has had a very controversial 2020. the ill-fated tour comes to mind, but this is what he said on social media. this whole situation has left me really sad and empty. i checked on the lines person and the tournament told me that thank god she's feeling okay. i'm extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. so unintended, so wrong. i'm not disclosing her name to respect her privacy. as for the disqualification, i need to go back within and work on my disappointment and turn this into a lesson for my growth and evolution as a player and a human being. i apologize to the u.s. open tournament and everyone associated for my behavior. i'm very grateful to my team and family for being my rock support and my fans for always being there with me. thank you and i'm so sorry the words there, michael, of novak djokovic. >> yeah.

just real quick, any other reaction? >> yeah, reaction has been coming in. this is a huge global talker. you can imagine what's going on on social media. the young canadian player, denis shapovalov, had his own controversy when he hit a ball into a chair umpire a few years back causing an eye injury to the aforementioned umpire. he was asked about it after his victory on sunday. i've been in that situation, so i know exactly how novak is feeling, he said. hopefully he can shake it off and move on. i hope he needs to grow and learn from this. and then a quick tweet from the legendary billie jean king as well. here are my thoughts on the novak djokovic default. first, i hope the line judge is okay. the rule is the rule. it is unfortunate for everyone involved, but in this specific situation, the default was the right call. michael, this is a developing story. we're following it every step of the way right through this monday and beyond.

>> all right. patrick, good to have you on the story, appreciate it. patrick snell there. and we will take a quick break on the program. when we come back, imagine being in this car, flames burning all around you as you try to escape a wildfire in california. why fire crews are struggling to contain these blazes. >> oh, my god. also when we come back, typho typhoon h typhoon haishen is packing a powerful punch now in south korea. a live report from the cnn weather center. you're watching cnn. but is it reliable? ah huh and secure! you should consider making a big deal about it! bigger? i said bigger! oh, big-bigger deal bigger than what i'm doing? it's not complicated. a 5g network needs a 5g device. now everyone including existing customers can get a free samsung galaxy note20 after trade-in. turns out, my body wash was the problem.

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raging wildfires, you see them there, creating a dire situation in california. more than 2 million acres have burned this year. the most ever. that's bigger than ten new york citys. picture that. and we still haven't even reached the critical months of october and november. have a look at this time lapse satellite video from the national weather service. really gives you a sense of how big the blaze called creek fire is. it's burned more than 45,000 acres in central california since friday. firefighters also battling severe heat this holiday weekend as they try to contain the blazes.

cnn's paul vercammen reports. >> reporter: michael, a horrifying, brutal weekend of fire and heat throughout california. let's begin northeast of fresno, california, the mammoth reservoir was evacuated because of the creek fire encircled campers at this reservoir. many of them were in fear for their lives, ate lot of them were air lifted, more than 200 of them, to safety in fresno. we know at least 20 were treated for injuries such as burns as well as broken bones. one woman recounting to us the moment where she was trying to drive away from walls of flame. >> oh, my god. >> holy [ bleep ]. >> just keep going. >> oh, my god. >> just keep going. >> go, go, go. >> just keep going. >> at the time, i was on a hike with just some hazy air that

became, you know, soon ash rain. we were wearing masks, but it was getting, you know, harder to breathe, harder to see. i would say between the time of 1:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., we could see that, you know, we needed to leave immediately. i think if we had stayed just ten minutes more, we might not have been so lucky. >> reporter: and these fires burning throughout southern california sending up huge pyro cumulus clouds that can have their own weather. in many instances the clouds from let's say the creek fire going way up, 8, 9 miles in the air, and the heat just oppressive in los angeles county. woodland hills to be specific. we set an all-time record high for an official station 121 degrees fahrenheit. and the concern among the firefighters in their community is that there is just no rest for them. we already broke the record for

most acres burned in california and we have the hot months of october and november ahead where the santa ana winds can come whipping through and cause a lot of fire danger. they are looking for some way to get some sort of break and rest from all these flames. reporting from venice, california, i'm paul vercammen. back to you now, michael. >> all right. paul, thanks. let's bring in meteorologist pedram javaheri now to discuss this further. what are you seeing there? >> yeah, michael, you know, this is i long duration event. unfortunately, of course, we've seen quite a bit of heat in recent months and, of course, now you're seeing the fires grow exponentially in the last couple of days, but upwards of 13 u.s. states dealing with these fire weather alerts. these are red flag warnings and the extreme heat advisories and warnings in place as well. in fact, some 80 large uncontained fires at this hour across the western united states. the creek fire, the satellite imagery really shows you the incredible size and scale of

this as all the smoke plume gets pushed up into the upper atmosphere and dispersed, but a 600% growth overnight in a 24-hour period speaks to the landscape across southern california and, again, the conditions that have been ripe for rapid fire development. the forecast going into monday afternoon. notice even into the deserts, somewhere in the low 100s this month of september, in fact, just about 15 days left before autumn officially gets under way. we're still talking 120s there in palm springs. los angeles, after highs into the 100s, dropping back down to 92 degrees and cooling off a little bit coming down tuesday afternoon in the 80s. we'll expect even snow showers coming in as a massive disruption to the jet stream, allowing the pattern to shift rather dramatically here. look at this. you bet you haven't seen a seven-day forecast like this very often. denver goes from 93 degrees down to 38 and then rapidly warms up

again by the latter portion of the week. really quickly want to touch on what's happened in recent hours, michael. typhoon haishen made landfall, 126 miles per hour. what's most impressive as the system falls apart, this the fifth storm in the last four weeks to impact portions of the korean peninsula and about 500,000 customers across portions of the ryuku islands and southern japan without power as the winds at category 3 equivalent there. quite a bit of damage left in place after so many weeks of tropical systems across the region, michael. >> yeah, certainly a lot of activity. pedram, good to see you. pedram javaheri. as pedram mentioned, actually, typhoon haishen currently lashing the korean peninsula. want to show you the scene in western japan where haishen battered the region with heavy wind and rain. this was earlier. this was just one of several storms to hit the region in several weeks. at one point, haishen was as

strong as a category 3 hurricane. four people missing after their homes were washed into a river. we're joined now by paula hancocks live from seoul. it has been an active season, to say the least. what's the situation there? >> reporter: well, that's right, michael. i mean, we're looking here at the fifth storm in the past four weeks that has made landfall in south korea. now the weather department telling us that usually you would have one or two that make landfall in that same period of time. so it just shows how active the season has been. this is also coming off the back of historic rainfall throughout the summer, the man soon season here in south korea was particularly devastating this summer. and also in north korea, of course. so what we're looking at this point is that storm still heading east along the eastern coast. now, we're in the capital, seoul, in the west of the country here, so, clearly,

you're not seeing much of the damage here, but a very different situation on the east coast. we know that the rainfall is significant. and, of course, given the fact that there has been so much rainfall over recent weeks, there is going to be concern of significant flooding. now, there are hopes that it won't be quite as bad as had been feared at one point because the storm did head a little bit further east, though it didn't have such an impact on land as it could have done, but it did hit about 9:00 this morning on the southeastern coast of south korea. but, of course, south korea is set up a lot better than north korea. to be able to deal with this kind of severe weather. we know that kim jong-un, the north korean leader, has been touring areas of the previous typhoon , just a matter of days ago, which had significant damage in north korea. so they are concerned, obviously, with what this new typhoon could bring. they don't need any more rainfall in north korea.

certainly agriculture industry is one of great concern, so close to -- to harvest, if they do have significant damage to crops then that could make food insecurity, which is already significant in north korea, even worse. so certainly that's one of the biggest concerns when it comes to the korean peninsula. that we have seen the east coast of south korea being hit particularly hard with the amount of rainfall. michael? >> all right. paula, thanks for that. paula hancocks live from seoul in south korea for us. and we will take a quick break. when we come back on "cnn newsroom," after several nights of tense clashes between police and protestors, we'll find out how city officials and civic leaders are bringing a sense of calm to rochester, new york. that's when we come back. first up is this french onion dip. i'm going to start the bidding at $5. thank you, sir. $6 over there! going once. going twice. sold! don't get mad get e*trade and get more than just trading

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and welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes. you are watching "cnn newsroom." protests against racial injustice and police brutality have been taking place all across the u.s., but on sunday, there was a welcomed sense of calm on the streets of rochester in new york. demonstrators marched for the public safety building in what was a dramatic change from the tensions gripping the city over the last few nights. protestors are demanding reform after a black man, daniel prude, died in police custody. and as cnn's polo sandoval reports, changes could be coming soon. >> reporter: five nights in a row, those demonstrations staying rather peaceful. it isn't until the very end that they take a tense and violent

turn with some protesters clashing with police. we do know that the mayor of the city as well as the police chief hoping to address some of concerns, specifically those that have to deal with mental health. daniel prude's family initially called authorities after he was experiencing a mental health episode for help to try to track him down. yesterday, authorities announcing initiatives to address mental health issue and police reform, including doubling the availability of mental health professionals and moving the family crisis intervention team from the police department to a separate city department. i can tell you, over the weekend, the new york state attorney general's office announced she plans to empanel a grand jury to take a closer look at this case. authorities here recommending that people allowing the investigation to run its course. here's what lovely warren had to say over the weekend. >> what truly matters is creating a city that is dedicated to protecting, serving

and lifting up the least among us. what will always pain me about the death of mr. daniel prude is our failure to do that. >> reporter: the demonstrations are likely to continue into the week. one of the many reasons why, local faith leaders going to be worki working to has church members serve as a buffer between the protesters and the police. hoping that the remainder of the protests remain peaceful. live now from los angeles via skype, he's a professor at the university of southern california school of public policy. good to see you, professor. i mean, one thing that you said. you said, quote, the combination of political speech and militias that encourage extremist views and fear of progressive change have all contributed to an us versus them narrative in the u.s. you know, we've seen black lives

matter protests turn violent, too, of course. the appearance of these militias. do you fear the mixture could erupt into election-related violence? >> i do think the mixture is going to lead to more violence. we've seen that over the last several weeks. as you've mentioned previously, militias and vigilantes coming out now to actually monitor these protests is actually an activity that is illegal in the united states. most people don't understand that they've conflated the second amendment to mean you can go out and form a militia. but militias only operate in the united states under the authority of the governor or the president of the united states. >> yeah, and the second amendment was meant to be against a tyrannical government, not your own fellow citizen. that's a whole other argument. the very fact that violence has become such a big campaign issue does it make the potential for violent protests on both sides

even worse, leading up to election day? >> well, yes, it has. and what's really unfortunate about this is we've normalized violence in this country so much in the last 3 1/2 years that it's become almost commonplace. brought about, if you will, and brought to light by social justice protests and protests against police brutality. unlike we've seen in a half a century. as a result of this, there have been a number of incidents that have been happening since george floyd was murdered that most people don't even know about. in fact, a center stood up a database two days after george floyd was murdered, and that's the center for the analysis of the radical right. and there have been 500 times where white vigilantes and far-right extremists have shown up to oppose black lives matter protests in the united states, often with tragic results. >> wow, that is a -- that is a big number. you probably saw it.

"the washington post" published an academic, if you like, gaming out of scenarios for the election, based on a biden win, a trump win, a close call. the results are, frankly, disturbing. i mean, they point to the potential for violence on the streets and that comes back to the president's sort of proactively casting doubt on the result of the election. he said he can only lose if it's rigged and what, you know, he might say to his supporters if he loses. is it alarmist to contemplate that scenario, you know, sort of post-election day, you know, violence on the streets? or do you think that's -- it is? >> michael, it's very alarmist to have that kind of outlook, if you will. what's happened, though, over the last few years is almost this self-fulfilling prophesy of a second civil war, and it comes about as a result of the demographics of the united states. we're going to be a minority majority by 2045. that's been interpreted by some segments here in the society as

white genocide is under way. what they call the great replacement of white people in their home countries by foreign nonwhite immigrants. so that's why you saw when the president ran for office, his number one item was immigration. and that resonated with a lot of people here who were concerned about this white genocide that they believe is taking place. so now we've come to an election where if, in fact, the president loses and it's rigged, you have people believing that the system and the government is rigged and that's the reason for the loss in 2020. >> and our thanks to erroll there, a professor at the university of southern california's soul pride school of public policy. after two political conventions unlike any the united states has seen before, a new cnn poll shows joe biden holding on to a consistent lead over donald trump. among registered voters, 51% backed biden and 43% support trump.

both candidates facing a tough time changing any minds. only 13% of registered voters say they have yet to make a choice or they could change their minds. roughly 85% say they're locked in on their choice for president. of course, the battleground states is where the real fight's going to be. it was the first major block bust tore hit the theaters since the start of the pandemic. how the suspense thriller "tenant" performed at the box office. we'll have that when we come back. >> time travel. >> no. yep, td ameritrade's got. free access to every platform. yeah, that too. i want to know what i'm paying upfront. yes, absolutely. now offering zero commissions on online trades.

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welcome back. hollywood released its major blockbuster in theaters since the start of the pandemic. >> all i have for you is a word. tenant. it will open the right doors. >> the mysterious time travel thriller "tenant" made a modest

$20 million at the u.s. box office. the film did much better worldwide, thanks to china reopening its movie theaters, raking in a total of nearly $150 million on opening weekend. >> as i understand it -- >> not all theaters open, of course. you've been watching "cnn newsroom." for our international viewers, "world sport" is up next. for everyone else, more news. stay with us. we'll be right back. i can't wiat to share at&t's big 5g news... (shouting through the glass) at&t has nationwide 5g? yup! and that's faster? faster, yea! but is it reliable? ah huh and secure! you should consider making a big deal about it! bigger? i said bigger! oh, big-bigger deal bigger than what i'm doing? it's not complicated. a 5g network needs a 5g device. now everyone including existing customers can get a free samsung galaxy note20 after trade-in. hold on one second... sure. okay... okay!

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democratic vice presidential nominee kamala harris seemingly walked back joe biden's call for a federal mask mandate in an exclusive interview with cnn. harris said the use of masks would not be legally enforced. instead, she said is it would be a standard. she didn't clarify how that would be put into effect. here's more of what she had to say. >> so, the biden/harris position on this is that leaders must lead. and one of the ways leaders lead is they set standards, and so what joe has been very clear about in his personal behavior, much less in what he is admonishing and requesting of

the american people is that we all make the sacrifice to wear a mask in the interest of love of our neighbor, in the interest of defeating or at least reducing the health risks and the number of deaths in america. so it's about a national standard. everyone should wear a mask. and here's the thing about this. none of us likes wearing a mask. nobody likes to wear a mask. >> right. but there's a difference between a standard -- >> but it's about sacrifice. >> right. there's a difference between a standard and a mandate. would it be a federal mandate under the biden/harris administration? >> it would be a standard. >> harris also accused president donald trump of politicizing the issue, making it harder to convince americans to put on a mask. and meanwhile, on that subject, new research from the brookings institute has attempted to answer why so many americans still refuse to wear masks. according to the study, the number one reason americans gave is that it is simply their right to not wear one.

with that, researchers concluded that american individualism could be causing significant health consequences across the country. other people also say they don't use masks because they don't want to be mistaken for criminals. in fact, that's the answer most men of color provided. professor gabriel sanches tuarye of the authors of that study. he joins me from albuquerque, new mexico. good to see you, sir. there were basic reasons, the number one being they're uncomfortable. the troubling statistic, 46% of americans don't wear masks because, quote, it's their right as an american not to. why -- did you find why was wearing a mask so political to the people you spoke with? >> yeah, i think unfortunately right now we're seeing that about 20% of the u.s. population refuses to wear a mask or cover their face in public, and those folks indicate, look, it's their right as an american, and unfortunately in the united states, we have a longstanding

history of that strong american value of individualism. sometimes becoming extreme and turning into rugged individualism, where folks basically say, look, if it's my right not to do so, even if it harms others, that's my right as an american and i'm going to move forward with that. which is an unfortunate reality. unfortunate to become very partisan here in the united states. >> yeah, exactly. as you say, it's been almost visceral championing of u.s. individualism throughout u.s. history that as you also point out, in this case it leads to significant health consequences for others. i mean, did you find the desire for individualism in 2020, this freedom of choice, outweighed what are literally life and death choices for fellow americans? >> that's the reality. you know, the other thing that we found is not only republicans who are self-identified at the individual level, but respondents who live in republican-governed states are less likely to wear a mask. so i think what's happening right now in the united states

is folks are essentially mapping this on to their partisanship. particularly if they support president trump, they're wearing it somewhat as a badge of honor, saying i'm basically telling you i'm not going to do this, even if it can potentially harm others. and i think that's very dangerous from the public health standpoint of this very dangerous pandemic here in the u.s. >> yeah, i mean, clearly it is. what does it say about those watching internationally. what does it say about the partisan divide in america today? i mean, there's always been political division, but it feels like it's never been this stark nor passionate, really. i mean, what -- did you get a hint of what got us here? >> yeah, absolutely. unfortunately, as political scientists have been tracking this for some time and we are more polarized right now in the united states based on partisanship than ever before in american history, and i think mask-wearing has essentially become the symbolism of this partisan divide as it relates to approach in the pandemic. when we ask folks are wearing masks, what's your primary motivation. as you would expect, the majority of folks are saying i

want to protect myself but also protect other americans. >> was there any conclusion on how best to change these attitudes in terms of, i don't know, effective messaging, convincing doubters and deniers they're hurting people? >> well, unfortunately, on some of the responses, you actually can make a difference. a sizeable segment, for example, indicated they don't have access to free masks. so public health experts, states can address that. but, unfortunately, if at the end of the day folks say either it's uncomfortable or it's my right as an american, i don't think there's a public health intervention that's going to work to make this happen quickly. and unfortunately lives are at stake and every day folks are not wearing a mask, it potentially infects a larger segment of the population. so that was unfortunately one of the conclusions that we had, is when you have a significant underlying ideology that's preventing a large part of the population from doing a very simple task, put a mask over your face to reduce the spread of covid-19, that's a difficult

challenge that speaks to the wiser schism. >> agreed. we haven't got much time, but i have to touch on this. the study found a convergence between masks and race. 67% men of color not wearing masks said they didn't want to be mistaken for a criminal. now. >> yeah, and i think that speaks to the intersection right now of covid-19 and the health pandemic, but also police brutality being the other significant issue in the country right now. key finding, however, is despite the fact that men of color recognize that they might be putting themselves at harm from security and police by wearing a mask in public, they're still more likely than white men to actually do so. so despite that discrimination and challenge, they're taking the right step and wearing a mask. >> it's a fascinating study and i urge people to read it. a real window into america in 2020. professor gabriel sanchez, thank you so much. >> thank you. well, china has imposed new visa restrictions on foreign journalists working for u.s. news outlets.

chinese officials tell cnn it's a reciprocal move for president donald trump's treatment of chinese journalists working in the u.s. kristie lu stout joins me now from hong kong with more. so what's the reasoning and what might be the effect? >> well, this is a big hurdle for u.s. media in china, for journalism as well, and it is yet another sign of the deteriorating relationship between the u.s. and china. now, look, a chinese media credential is usually good for a year, but when journalists from three u.s.-based media organizations, getty images, "wall street journal" and cnn, were asked last week to renew those credentials, they were told that those credentials would not be renewed. instead, they were given visas valid for around two months, due to last until right after the results of the u.s. presidential election coming up in november. now, among those affected, two non-u.s. citizens and one u.s. citizen i'm referring to our

colleague based in beijing, david culvert, in response to this visa restriction, cnn issued a statement. a cnn spokesperson writes, quote, one of our beijing-based journalists was issued a visa valid for two months instead of the usual 12. our presence on the ground in china remains unchanged and we're working with local authorities to ensure that continues. david culver was told by chinese officials that this visa was not due to his reporting but, rather, quote, it's a rip sip cal matter into donald trump's administration's treatment of chinese journalists inside the united states. earlier this year the trump administration decided to limit the stay to about 90 days for most chinese journalists in the united states. this was an issue that was brought up at the ministry of foreign affairs briefing on thursday. then the spokesperson said this. quote, the essence of the media issue between china and the u.s. is the u.s. political

persecution and suppression against the chinese media out of the cold war mentality and ideological bias. if the u.s. keeps moving further down the wrong path, china has no choice but to make a justifiable and necessary reaction to firmly up hold its legitimate rights, unquote. michael? >> yeah, we've got a minute or so left. i was just going to ask you, though. this is just the latest spat. i mean, where is this all headed? where could it head? >> yeah, the u.s. and china have been locked in this deteriorating cycle of tit for tat, and it's not just about journalist visas, it's also about trade, it's about technology, it's about diplomatic missions in each other's countries. it's about military maneuvering in the south china sea. the list goes on. where this goes next it depends on how the u.s. and how china respond next. now, for china, there's a lot of pressure internally to respond forcefully, but the calculation is being made inside beijing not to respond too forcefully or

they end up playing into the hands of the trump administration and its tough on china re-election bid. so for beijing, it's an issue of balance and coming up with a balanced response, which is what we have seen in the past with the diplomatic mission closures. as for donald trump and the united states and how it will respond next, that is anyone's guess. michael? >> yeah, no kidding. who knows. kristie lu stout in hong kong, appreciate it. thanks so much. >> thank you. now, also in hong kong, police using pepper spray to disperse protests. arrested nearly 300 of them. some were taken into custody for what authorities called unlawful assembly. misconduct in public places, also suspicion of attacking police officers. demonstrations were held after the government postponed local elections for at least a year, due to the pandemic. the opposition says the vote was push back for fear of pro-government parties adoing poorly.

some sad news from the world of sport. hall of fame baseball player lou brock has died. he plied 19 seasons, spent 16 of those with the st. louis cardinals. brock is 1 of 32 players with 3,000 or more hits and has the second highest number of stolen bases. the cardinals paid tribute to brock on twitter, saying our hearts or broken. lou brock was an amazing player and an outstanding person. he loved the game and all of cardinal nation. rest in peace. he was 81 years old. thanks for watching, everyone. i'm michael homes. kim brunhuber will be with you after a quick break. adventure.

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california firefighters face record-setting temperatures as they battle fast-moving wildfires. we'll get the latest from a fire official. india captures a dubious distinction when it comes to covid-19 cases. we're live in new delhi with the details. novak djokovic is apologizing after an incident that automatically knocked him out of the u.s. open. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta. welcome to you, our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber and this is "cnn newsroom."