♪ today is a great day for america. in our long battle with the coronavirus. >> it appears to be a major turning point in the pandemic, u.s. health officials say generally fully vaccinated americans no longer need to wear face masks. it's a very different situation in japan where there's growing pressure to cancel the olympics. and the death toll in gaza passes 100 as fighting intensifies between israel and hamas. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, welcome to all of

you watching here in the united states, canada and around the world, i'm kim brunhuber, this is "cnn newsroom." ♪ here in the u.s. the latest covid-19 guidance is sparking hope that the beginning of the end of the pandemic is finally here. the cdc announced thursday that fully vaccinated people can now ditch their masks in most cases, both indoors and outdoors, it's the biggest step toward normalcy that the u.s. has taken in more than a year. president joe biden celebrated the news at the white house and called on vaccinated americans to take off their masks and smile. >> if you're fully vaccinated and can take your mask off, you've earned the right to do something that americans are known for all around the world,

greeting others with a smile. with a smile. so it's a good day for the country. >> mask guidance opens up a path to wider reopening of workplaces as well as schools, but while a return to pre-pandemic life might seem within striking distance, many challenges remain including the task of getting more people vaccinated. cnn's nick watt reports. >> reporter: we're turning a corner, nearing the light at tunnel's end, pick your cliché, it's happening. average new infections a day here halved in the past four weeks which helped the cdc make that call. no more masks for the vaccinated, inside or out. reaction from a new york park. >> i am so happy. i couldn't wait. >> reporter: to a chicago restaurant. >> well, it's really exciting. >> reporter: to the senate floor in d.c. senator ernst there pointing to her bare face. vaccines are key to our current optimistic trajectory.

hesitancy, ohio about to throw a lot of money at the problem. >> only the united states where we have this massive surplus of vaccines, life-saving vaccines, do we have to bribe people to take them. >> reporter: a shot in ohio will soon get you a ticket to a weekly draw and the prize for teens, a four-year free ride at a state college, for adults, a million bucks. >> i know people are going to say, hey, dewine has lost his mind, you know, this is a waste, but what i think is a waste, to have the vaccine that can save people's lives and to have someone die of the covid because they did not get vaccinated. >> reporter: widespread rollout of pfizer's vaccine in 12 to 15 year olds begins making more things possible for them. >> going to school, doing track, meeting new people. so, yeah. >> are you a social kind of guy? >> i hope so. >> reporter: so school for all

in the fall. >> i believe the school should be open five days full blast just the way it was before. >> reporter: but here is a weird wrinkle, one new york yankee and seven support and coaching staff already vaccinated with johnson & johnson have tested positive for covid-19. >> it's been a little bit hectic, but everyone is handling it well. >> reporter: only one has symptoms, such break through infections are very rare. >> six of the seven are asymptomatic. >> reporter: so evidence at least the vaccine works really well at stopping severe disease. now, in the u.s. you do still need to wear a mask if you're on an airplane and white house officials also said, listen, it's still a personal choice and if you see somebody on the street wearing a mask, don't give them side eye, they're allowed to. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. and dr. anthony fauci spoke with cnn shortly after the new guidance came out from the cdc

thursday. he says that while it's too early to declare victory against the virus, the new rules are significant. listen to this. >> i think this is a very important step in the direction of trying to get back to some degree of normality because this is something that everyone has had on their mind. you know, i'm vaccinated, when can i start doing things a little bit more in the normal trend? and being able to go around without a mask indoors as well as outdoors is really a big step in that direction. so i wouldn't want to declare victory prematurely, but i'm saying this is clearly a step in the direction that we want to go. >> do you think that places such as grocery stores, pharmacies, whatever, should allow vaccinated people to come in and shop without masks? >> oh, yes. absolutely. i mean, that's really the whole point that we're talking about, that vaccinated people -- if you look at the data and people have

asked the cdc, well, what's changed? why the change in the recommendations? well, the data that's accumulated now is that clearly the infections are going down, they're averaging about 36,000 a day right now, which has gone down about a third. as you mentioned, 58% of people have at least one shot of a vaccine and greater than 40% are fully vaccinated. so the situation has changed. >> but mask requirements aren't going anywhere for those using any form of public transportation in the u.s. the transportation security administration says the current mask mandate will stay in place until september 13th. that applies to planes, trains, buses and boats. the airline industry's top lobbying group confirms that carriers will keep enforcing the requirement for now, but there's also concern that relaxing mask rules elsewhere could lead to more fights over masks on planes where they're still required. the number of reports of unruly

passengers has already increased in recent months. and a programming note for our viewers here in the u.s. and canada, be sure to join dr. sanjay gupta for the new cnn film "race for the vaccine." that's this saturday night at 9:00 eastern only here on cnn. sources are now telling cnn that colonial pipeline has paid a ransom to cyber criminals who attacked its systems this week triggering gas shortages in about a dozen eastern states. u.s. president joe biden says the gasoline crisis should end over the next few days now that the pipeline is fully operational. pete muntean has more from washington. >> don't panic, number one. >> reporter: that is the message from president joe biden who says gas stations should return to normal by this weekend, but what federal officials are calling a supply crunch can still be seen at gas stations up and down the east coast. >> i know seeing lines at the pumps or gas stations with no

gas can be extremely stressful, but this is a temporary situation. >> reporter: admittedly not my best planning. >> reporter: driving on a nearly empty tank in alexandria, virginia, we passed at least two stations without gas. the latest data from gas buddy says 52% of all stations in virginia are now sold out. in north carolina 68% of stations are now offline. conditions are improving in the atlanta area, where at one point 73% of stations were without gas. >> how hard is it to find gas around here right now? >> very difficult. this is the first gas station i have seen in the last couple of hours with gas. >> it was bound to happen. just like when you say it's going to snow, people run to the store to get groceries. doing the same thing with the gas. >> got to top it off. >> reporter: federal officials stress the end is in sight. colonial says it's making substantial progress in restarting its pipeline, but experts say fuel leaving refineries travels at pipeline

speeds of only 3 to 5 miles per hour, fuel must then reach terminals like this one before going to stations for delivery. >> people need to know the gas is flowing. >> reporter: energy secretary jennifer granholm says it is not like flipping on a switch and is urging against hoarding gasoline. >> people will start to see normalcy in the next couple of days, hopefully by the end of the weekend. the consumer won't even know that the shortage exists anymore. >> reporter: though security experts stress this attack is anything but normal, calling it a wake-up call when it comes to critical infrastructure. >> that is an authentic emergency. i know of no bigger attack on our energy system in u.s. history. >> reporter: pete muntean, cnn, washington. now to the middle east and the worsening violence between israel and hamas. gaza has come under heavy fire from israeli war planes and now tanks and artillery. the military says it's not a

ground incursion and no troops are inside gaza. palestinians report 119 people have been killed by the israeli bombardment, still israel says it's going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. meanwhile, hamas militants continue to fire rockets into israel claiming seven lives. a u.n. security council meeting to discuss the conflict has been put off until sunday. so it's just past 11:00 a.m. in tel aviv where journalist elliott gotkine is live this hour. bring us up to speed on the latest developments and give us an idea, if you can, of what's likely to happen next. >> reporter: well, you talked about the artillery and tank fire being used by the idf firing into gaza, kim. they say that they fired about 50 rounds last night trying to hit this network of labyrinth

tunnels that hamas operates under the ground, they call it the metro and they're trying to hit that and they have hit that again this morning trying to attack underground launch sites. in addition to that the idf says that a drone that was flown into israel from the gaza strip was taken down by the iron dome missile defense system. what happens next? well, the possibility, the option of a ground incursion is still on the table, there were thoughts as you say that this might have begun yesterday but that was swiftly clarified by the idf. a couple of reasons why it may not happen imminently, one is israel doesn't have the firepower down there to carry out a successful ground operation at least according to analysts, 9,000 reservists have been called up but they are not all down there, so that's one reason from the military side. politically it can also be quite complicated, going into gaza will inevitably result in casualties on the israeli side and that is something that prime

minister benjamin netanyahu who is clinging to office by the skin of his teeth will not do lightly. it looks now since yesterday that the opposition is unlikely to be able to form a governing coalition. netanyahu already failed to do so. that increases the prospects of fresh elections, which means netanyahu will be incredibly mindful of doing anything that could adversely impact his popularity. now separately, tensions have continued between israeli arabs and israeli jews across israel. in jafa is soldier was attacked last night, suffered a fractured skull, his condition in hospital is said to be stable. driving here in morning i witnessed someone throwing a rock into a car window, this is along the main beach front in tel aviv, i didn't catch a look at the assailant, but i understood that the people in the car who were only lightly injured were israeli jews. president rivlin has called for an end to the madness, prime

minister netanyahu they've been talking about tightening the curfew in the central city of lod which has seen perhaps the worst violence to far and said that the perpetrators of mob violence will suffer severe punishment. in terms of hopes for any ceasefire, reports say that the egyptian delegation that came to gaza yesterday has returned, the israelis said they don't want a ceasefire right now and on sunday the u.n. security council is due to meet to discuss this situation. >> thanks for bringing us up to speed. we will stay on this story. elliott gotkine in tel aviv. appreciate it. some republicans are now insisting the january 6th insurrection wasn't a big deal, but don't tell that to one of the officers who was severely beaten that day. >> peddling that [ bleep ] is an assault on every officer that fought to defend the capitol. >> coming up after the break, a closer look at what some republicans are now saying about

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the deadly riot at the u.s. capitol on january 6th played out on live television for all the world to see. the facts, well, they really shouldn't be in dispute, but just four months later there is a disturbing trend among some republican lawmakers to pretend it either didn't happen or to portray it as a benign event. we get more from cnn's ryan nobles. >> reporter: some republicans on capitol hill are attempting to rewrite history and their leaders aren't doing much to stop it. >> i look at the rioters that came in, those people should be held accountable to the rule of law and that's exactly what's happened. >> but what about the members that are saying this? >> reporter: during a contentious hearing wednesday several house republicans downplayed the violence and chaos on january 6th, even defending the rioters and explaining away their motivation. >> there was no insurrection and to call it an insurrection in my

opinion is a boldfaced lie. if you didn't know the tv footage was a video from january 6th you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit. >> outright propaganda and lies are being used to unleash the national security state against law abiding u.s. citizens, especially trump voters. >> it was trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not trump supporters who were taking the lives of others. >> reporter: andrew clyde was among those congressmen who attempted to paint over the problems on january 6th. despite video like this from the body cam of a front line d.c. police officer showing the moment he was attacked by pro-trump rioters. congressman clyde refused to take back his claims during an event honoring police officers this morning. >> think about what you just said. you didn't take what i said in context at all. >> so can you explain it? >> reporter: this all comes against the backdrop of the gop booth liz cheney from leadership

in part because republicans were angry she kept speaking out about donald trump's lies about the election. >> we all have been put here in this moment by history and history is going to judge us. >> reporter: despite her demotion cheney has no plans to fade into the background. her likely replacement, representative elise stefanik is a staunch defender of trump, but cheney promised to do everything she can to prevent the former president from being the party's nominee in 2024 and even opened the door to him being criminally charged. >> any president who did what we know this former president did has got to be investigated criminally. >> reporter: meanwhile, in the halls of congress the tension between republicans and democrats continues to boil. >> antifa, blm riots and she is a chicken. >> reporter: congresswoman marjorie taylor greene confronting alexandria ocasio-cortez screaming at her right outside the house chamber and demanding she participate in a debate.

ocasio-cortez would not engage. but house speaker nancy pelosi argued greene should be if you know initialed for her actions. >> their own caucus should exercise some discipline is not the word, respectable behavior standard for them, but it could be that this would rise to the level of an ethics complaint. >> reporter: taylor green saying -- >> no, she doesn't need to file ethics violations, that's reacting like a child. adults are able to debate policy. >> reporter: the incident follows a pattern leading members like ocasio-cortez and adam kinzinger to speak additional security for their personal safety. ocasio-cortez said she did not want to engage taylor greene but she was cornered by reporters as she left the house chamber and said this about her interaction about the congresswoman from georgia, she said, quote, i used to work as a bartender, these are the kinds of people that i threw out of bars all the time. a sign that these tensions

between republicans and democrats in the house of representatives are not going anywhere. ryan nobles, cnn, on capitol hill. and ryan nobles' report included graphic footage of a washington police officer as he was attacked on the capitol steps. well, that officer, michael fanone, was seriously injured in the attack and is now suffering posttraumatic stress disorder. here is his reaction to one republican describing the riot as a normal tourist visit. listen to this. >> i'm not interested in getting into like political squabbles, i'm not a politician, i'm not an elected official, i don't expect anybody to give two [ bleep ] about my opinions, but i will say this, you know, those are l lies. and peddling that [ bleep ] is an assault on every officer that fought to defend the capitol. an audit of arizona's 2020

presidential election is on hold for a week to make way for high school graduations at the sports arena where the ballots are being scrutinized. as cnn's kim la reports, it's a scene that rifles the carnival being held next door. >> reporter: we are getting the first look ourselves at the next act in the replay of the big lie, the 2020 election was stolen. so this is the press box and that's the floor. the counting floor of yet another talley of the nearly 2.1 million ballots in maricopa county from a distance and they're keeping reporters so far away that i have to use binoculars to see. it looks like a ballot review, but look harder and the ballots are on a lazy susan, zooming by ballot counters. this guy in a cowboy hat walking around with what appears to be some type of cellphone jammer and then there is this light machine with multiple cameras.

ken bennett fired by the republican controlled arizona senate to help run this ballot review explains why they're using it. >> microscopic cameras can zoom in on person parts of the ballot to make sure where the ovals are filled in there is a compression instead of the ovals being filled in by a xerox machine. >> reporter: is there a concern that ballots were xeroxed? >> there's always concern that we want to make sure that every ballot came from an eligible registered voter in maricopa county as opposed to somebody trying to introduce unauthorized ballots. >> reporter: that's a conspiracy theory, that ballots were somehow snuck in leading to donald trump's defeat in the state last year. these types of lies resonated with ballot counters like eloise flag. >> i hope that we can come to a point where we're happy with the results and truth is told. >> reporter: we talked to her as workers arrived outside the coliseum to count ballots, their cars covered with bumper stickers supporting trump and

logos for conspiracy websites. >> do you think that donald trump won arizona? >> yes, i do. i think that donald trump won the election. firm believer. >> reporter: these workers didn't want to talk unless -- >> i would like to hear you guys talk about hunter biden. >> they made us sign a nondisclosure. >> reporter: workers were told not to tell the public anything. remember the guy in the cowboy hat? he jumped in to tell this worker to ignore us. he works for cyber ninjas, the tech company fired by arizona senate republicans to conduct this third ballot review or as lisa shackett calls it -- >> it was complete theater. >> reporter: with no training shackett got fired for two days, here she is on the floor as an observer. she is retired, a democrat, and worried about lack of training or consistent protocol with ballots. >> the effort here is to uncover a fraud and if they can't uncover it then they are going to create the fraud.

>> from the counting process it is not a normal recount process. it is definitely not an audit process. >> reporter: ryan is an expert this election technology, he is on the floor brought in by the arizona secretary of state to obviously cyber ninja's ballot count. he is a registered independent and has been fired by both republicans and democrats to help safeguard dozens upon dozens of state and federal elections. >> i mean, there's ballots, there's people counting, but the process in which they are utilizing at least on the counting floor is nothing that is in an election environment. >> reporter: a show that the maricopa county sheriff does not want to be a part of. >> to be reckless and to give away something of this capacity into the hands of a complete stranger is not going to happen while i am the sheriff. >> reporter: why is the sheriff involved? another conspiracy this audit is chasing, the cyber ninjas want county reuters to see if hackers

rigged the election. the sheriff refuses to hand over the reuters saying the entire county's electronic security and law enforcement technology is at stake. >> when you have individuals who assume a conspiracy and then try to create the reality behind t it's extremely dangerous. >> reporter: is that what's happening here? >> that is what's happening here. there's assumptions without any factual information to justify that. >> reporter: and this bizarre ride is not over. the ballot counting is paused. what is going to happen to those 2.1 million ballots? they have to leave the coliseum because high school graduations next week. the ballots will travel from the coliseum across where i'm standing, this is a crazy times carnival that runs through saturday, the ballots are heading there to that green building. now, the cyber ninjas, arizona senate republican representatives, say that that building will be secured, monitored 24 hours with security and that it will be temperature controlled. a couple of problems, the wall

of that green building that's closest to the carnival has a couple of restrooms that carnivalgoers currently use and the heat. it's summertime, the fairgrounds' website says that that building should not be used in the summer because of the high temperatures and here we are talking about paper ballots. coming up on "cnn newsroom," all smiles at the white house as many includes the u.s. president start following the new cdc guidelines on masks with an immediate effect. growing anger in japan that the olympic games are still set to take place in the middle of a dangerous pandemic. how people are trying to stop them from happening ahead. stay with us.

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states, canada and around the world, i'm kim brunhuber. you're watching "cnn newsroom." it's a major shift in how the u.s. is fighting covid-19 with the cdc announcing that americans who are fully vaccinated can now ditch the masks in most cases both outdoors and indoors. president joe biden celebrated calling it a great day for americans as the new guidance was put into effect immediately. cnn's kaitlan collins has more. >> it's a good day for the country. >> reporter: for the fully vaccinated, the masks are coming off. >> i think it's a great milestone. a great day. >> reporter: president biden touting new cdc guidance that vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or social distance, even if they are

inside. >> if you are fully vaccinated you no longer need to wear a mask. >> reporter: the president framing the new guidance as an ince incentive. >> get vaccinated or wear a mask until you do. >> reporter: modeling the new guidance moments after it was issued, biden entered the rose garden sans mask. cdc director ratial walensky announced the milestone that many have been waiting for. >> we have all longed for this moment. if you are fully vaccinated you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. >> reporter: biden was meeting with a group of republican senators in the oval office when the news broke and all shed their masks accordingly. >> we had our masks off. >> reporter: moments later the white house told staffers who were fully vaccinated they can also take off their mask while on the complex. the good news spreading throughout washington quickly.

lawmakers seen grinning as they removed their masks on the senate floor. the new cdc guidance does come with some caveats. >> if you develop symptoms you should put your mask back on and get tested right away. >> reporter: dr. walensky says those who are fully vaccinated still need to wear a mask while on a flight. >> so does this mean vaccinated people can take their mask off on an airplane? >> we still have the requirement to wear masks when you travel on buses, trains and other forms of public transportation. >> reporter: now, when it comes to ending these mask mandates house speaker nancy pelosi told cnn earlier today she is not ending the one on the house floor just yet pointing to how some of those lawmakers are not yet vaccinated saying they are not sure exactly which ones are and which ones aren't. which is going to be a bigger question facing all americans as they navigate these next few weeks with this new guidance, kaitlan collins, cnn, the white house. the military battle between israel and hamas isn't the only

crisis boiling over in the middle east right now. inside israel cities and towns where arab and jewish neighbors have lived side-by-side for decades are erupting in violence, cnn's hadas gold has an update from jerusalem. >> reporter: as hamas and the israeli military wage battle in the skies over israel and gaza, tensions are escalating with the israeli government down playing the prospect of an immediate ceasefire. >> if we have a ceasefire right now hamas will gain -- or they will get to its goal and its objective of hitting israel and not paying a price. we will attack the hamas infrastructure. >> reporter: back on the ground an alarming level of rage spilling into the streets beyond jerusalem. mob violence spreading through mixed arab and jewish cities like lod. >> i saw death, death.

do you know what death is? people jumping at me with stones, throwing stones at me. >> reporter: arab citizens attacking a man they think is jewish, jewish citizens attacking someone they believe is arab. the communal violence reaching such a fevered pitch israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu angrily warning rogue vigilantes to stop or face dire consequences. >> translator: i do not care at all if your blood a boiling, it's boiling, it is not interesting. you cannot take the law into your own hands, you cannot come and take a simple arab citizen and try to lynch him just as we cannot see arab citizens doing this to jewish citizens. this will not stand. >> reporter: police getting reinforcements on horse box, in cities like lod to quell the unrest. as sirens ring constantly, a warning from above of incoming rocket fire. the iron dome stopping 90% of the more than 1,800 rockets fired into israel thus far

according to the israeli military. with israeli air strikes targeting hamas and islamic jihad militants in gaza the casualty count rising with each exchange. the threat in the sky so grave that many western airlines have canceled flights to tel aviv. and on a new front, hamas release ago slick propaganda video launching what it says are suicide drones. drones that israeli forces say they have shot down. diplomatic efforts under way overseas with nations weighing in on the conflict and urging calm. while in tel aviv and elsewhere signs popping up urging peaceful co-existence. >> translator: we need to live here together, coexistence. we need to be together, partners, to be partners for each other. >> reporter: in the meantime the barrage of rockets ongoing. while along the israeli/gaza

border tanks in position take aim and fire. hadas gold, cnn, jerusalem. a staggering 24 million confirmed coronavirus cases have now been reported in india since the pandemic began. nearly 5 million of those posted just this month. meanwhile, vaccines are in short supply. india's government says it's securing an additional 2 billion doses by the end of the year but until then at least one state is turning to the global covax program for help. cnn's senior international correspondent sam kiley joins me now live from delhi. sam, this is a surprising development, a state turning to the international community for vaccines given that india is the world leader in vaccine production. >> reporter: and the biggest contributor to the covax vaccine campaign, kim, but this was a campaign that was launched last year in order to get vaccines into the veins of people, some

of the poorest in the word, and india was a very generous contributor to that. prime minister narendra modi at the time was criticized for prioritizing others over his own nation but the assumption in this country was twofold, first, that they would continue to produce enough vaccinations for their own consumption and perhaps that they were already reaching some kind of level of herd immunity and that's certainly led to him declaring victory over the whole pandemic. in january this year a couple of months later and we started to see this catastrophic second surge, which has also managed we're told by epidemiologists to bypass even the natural immunity that people who had been infected in the past might have got. many doctors here seeing people being reinfected. so as a consequence of all this one state at least is now applying to the covax system in order to get ahold of vaccines because they are a bit cheaper through covax, but nationally this country has only managed to

so far vaccinate 2.8%, rising to 3 as we speak, kim, of population, whilst the numbers of people being infected continue to rise, as does indeed the death toll. both the infection numbers for some 350,000, 360,000 a day and a daily death toll of around 4,000, both of those are considered underestimates. no conspiracy at work there, it's just a factor of this country, a lot of people will die unrecorded or their cause of death will not be recorded as covid. so things are actually worse here even than they look in terms of the numbers, kim. >> sam kiley in delhi, appreciate it. hundreds of thousands of people are demanding the cancellation of the tokyo olympics. their petition is going straight to the hands of officials. we will talk about whether it could make a difference. and a little later -- >> i was in my early 20s, i was a case of like just i don't want

this job. >> yeah. >> i don't want to be here, i don't want to be doing this. look what it did to my mum? prince harry opening up even more in a podcast about his royal upbringing and the troubles it caused him. we will take a look at that. stay with us. you can sell your policy, evenea term policy, for an imimmediae cash payment. call coventry direrect to learn more. we thout we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supppplement our income. our friends sold their policy to help pay for their medical bills and that got me thinking. maybe selling our policy could help with our retirement. i'm skeptical, so i did some research and called coventry direct. they explained life insurance is a valuable asset that can be sold. we learned that we can sell all of our policy or keep part of it with no future payments, who knew? we sold our policy. now we can relax and enjoy our retirement as we had planned. if you have one hundred thousand dollars or more of life insurance you may qualify to sell your policy.

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oo fm rae ofelblops and abt r sttg the tokyo olympics are supposed to kick off in just over two months, but public pressure to cancel the games is growing as coronavirus cases spike in japan. hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition to scrap the games, but the olympic committee says they will go on for now. blake essig is in tokyo. every time we talk it seems that the headwinds against the tokyo olympics gets stiffer and stiffer. in the tease before the commercials i promised we would find out whether that petition could make a difference, so will it? >> reporter: you know, kim, let's be honest, probably not, but you're absolutely right, as we get closer to seems more and

more people are speaking out. earlier today a petition with more than 352,000 signatures collected just this past week calling for the games to be canceled was submitted in-person to tokyo's metropolitan government and by email to the ioc. recently tennis super sayers naomi osaka, schick corey cast doubt that the games should take place it's not just these host cities canceling, it's also olympic teams. most recently usa track and field. they canceled their july training camp saying they don't see an end in sight to the pandemic and expressed concern for the safety of athletes. local governors will also come out and said that they will not free up hospital bed space for athletes and just yesterday the head of the medical doctor's union in japan which consists of 130 doctors, said the tokyo olympics should not be held. he went on to say that having people from all over the world

could make tokyo a place where the virus continues to develop and vary and spread and even without spectators a safe and secure games isn't possible. all that being said, the international olympic committee it's full steam ahead, they remain committed to hold these games on schedule this summer. as for the current covid-19 situation here in japan, it continues to get worse. cases are on the rise, the number of severe cases has, again, set a new record. japan's prime minister within the next two hours is expected to announce if six prefectures will be added to the list under a full or partial state emergency order. if they do that the total number of prefectures with some sort of countermeasures put p. put in place will be up to 19. the voices continue to come out day after day and according to the ioc and other organizers it doesn't seem to matter, they are

moving forward with these games as scheduled. >> come what may. we will keep following that. thanks so much blake essig in tokyo. major league baseball and health officials are closely monitoring the new york yankees after eight members of the organization tested positive for the coronavirus. cnn's miguel marquez explains why their cases are raising so many questions. >> reporter: these are all individuals the yankees says had received the johnson & johnson vaccine, which is a one-dose vaccine, it's supposed to be 66% or so effective against getting the virus, but that does leave a pretty big window, about 30%, that you could still get it, but the important part is it doesn't make you that sick and it certainly doesn't kill you and that seems to be the case with all of these different individuals. it does raise some questions, though, about how they got it and who they got it from and what were the circumstances in which they got the virus. were they in an enclosed space?

were they with somebody who had in the been vaccinated and had coronavirus and passed it on to them, or was it somebody who was vaccinated and give to it to them? obviously if it's that last scenario that somebody was vaccinated and gave it to people who were vaccinated, that would be a great concern. this is called essentially a breakthrough cases because they became positive even though they were vaccinated. now, keep in mind as well the yankees, unlike the rest of us, major league baseball and professional sports do a lot more testing as well so they may have just caught more cases as well. the department of health and new york state wants more information from the yankees to figure out exactly where they got the virus from and how they picked it up. back to you. still ahead on "cnn newsroom" -- >> the first time that meghan and i met up for her to come and stay with me we met up in a supermarket in london,

pretending as though we didn't know each other. >> prince harry gives us a new glimpse into his royal romance with meghan and shares more about why he withdrew from the royal family. we will hear from him in a new interview. stay with us. pretty taxing. i was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. and, uh, i found cerebral. cerebral is an app that combines medication management and behavioral care all in one nice package. i signed up, i got the video call, i got the pills shipped to me. normal therapy costs about three times as much as cerebral. getting this type of care online, it really is a life saver. join today for just $30 at getcerebral.com.

call a vital piece of america's infrastructure will stand empty for now after inspectors found a crack in the structure. the bridge on interstate 40 usually carries 45,000 vehicles a day and links memphis, tennessee, with eastern arkansas. trucks are being rerouted to another bridge but ships and barges on the mississippi river are at a standstill. temporary repairs could take two months. tennessee's governor says people should be reassured that the safety inspections worked. we're getting more insight into what led prince harry to leave his native britain and move to the u.s. with his life and young son. the duke of sussex spoke on a podcast where he talked about confronting his personal pain. adds max foster reports he's once again, tracing those issues back to his royal upbringing. >> reporter: just when you thought prince harry couldn't lift the lid on british royal life any further comes this

analysis of the pain he suffered as he grew up. >> i don't think we should be pointing the finger or blaming anybody, but certainly when it comes to parenting if i have experiencing some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, i'm going to make sure that i break that cycle so that i don't pass it on, basically. >> reporter: appearing on actor damages shepherd's podcast called armchair expert the duke of sussex spoke of genetic pain, something he says he inherited from prince charles and something he says he is coming to terms with this therapy. >> i never saw it or knew about it and suddenly i started piecing it togtd to go, okay, this is where he went to school, this is what happened, i know this bit about his life. i also know that's expected to his parents. >> yeah. >> so that means that he's treating me the way that he was treated. >> exactly. >> which means how can i change that for my own kids? well, here i am. i've now moved my whole family to the u.s.

well, that wasn't the plan. do you know what i mean? >> exactly. >> but sometimes you have to make decisions and put your family thirt and your mental health first. >> reporter: harry puts his wild partying days down to childhood trauma, joking about being photographed playing naked billiards. he compared royal life to a mixture between you truman show and a zoo. >> it's the job, get on with t in my early 20s i was a case of i don't want this job, i don't want to be here, i don't want to be doing this, look what it did to my mum. how am i going to settle down, have a wife and flame when i know it's going to happen again. >> reporter: harry recalls going on a secret supermarket run in the early stages of his relationship with meghan. >> i think the first time that meghan and i met up for her to come and stay with me we met up in a supermarket in london, pretending as though we didn't know each other. texting each other from the other side of the aisle. people looking at me giving me weird looks and coming up and

saying hi, whatever. >> reporter: they've since married, relocated to los angeles and had one child with another on the way. >> so living here now i can actually like lift my head and actually i feel different, my shoulders have dropped, so has hers and you walk around looking free. i get to take archie on the back of my bicycle. i would have never had the chance to do that. >> prince harry haunted by his past but now rebuilding his future, max foster, cnn. england. that perhaps this hour of "cnn newsroom." i'm kim brunhuber. "early start" is next.

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welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world, this is "early start." i'm laura jarrett. >> good friday morning. i'm christine romans. it's may 14th. it's 5:00 a.m. in new york. all right. the good news this morning, fully vaccinated you can take off the mask. it's a turning point in the pandemic. the cdc says if you've been fully vaccinated against covid-19 you don't have to wear that mask inside, you don't have to wear social distancing -- or don't have to practice social distancing, you don't have to wear it outside, either. there are some excepti