tv CNN Newsroom Live CNN May 17, 2022 12:00am-1:00am PDT
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♪ ♪ hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world, you are watching cnn newsroom, and i'm rosemary church, coming up a mass shooting fueled by racism and hate was months in the making. the latest on the supermarket massacre in buffalo, as the community begins to mourn the loss of ten innocent lives. plus, the battle for azovstal is
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coming to an end and it's a high stakes election day in five u.s. states with donald trump's influence looming large over key primary races. we will take a look. this is cnn newsroom with rosemary church. >> thanks for joining us. u.s. president joe biden will travel to buffalo new york in the coming hours, where he will meet with families of the victims of saturday's racially motivated shooting. a white house official tells cnn, the president will make remarks in buffalo and condemn the shooting as terrorism motivated by a hateful and perverse ideology. and he is expected to call on americans to quote, give hate no safe harbor. this comes as we learn new
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details about the 18-year-old accused in the attack that killed ten people. brian todd has the latest. >> reporter: this was a straight up hate crime. pure evil. police revealing details about the planning that went in to the massacre of ten people in the buffalo store and how it could have been worse. >> he had plans had he gotten out of here, to continue the r rampage and shooting people and possibly going to another store. >> reporter: the 18-year-old is accused of killing people in the parking lot and in the store before surrendering to police. >> he was heavily armed. he had a helmet on and a camera that he was live streaming what he was doing. >> reporter: they obtained a statement that was posted online before the attack by the suspect. the document's authors said he
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was inspired after seeing the clip of a racially motivated attack in new zealand, where a gunman live streamed his murder of 51 people in two mosques. the great replacement theory has been posted, that the white race is dying out. >> the n-word was carved in to a weapon. he was bent on hate. >> reporter: there's photos of two other rifles that have writing on them, including the phrase white lives matter. heed is he chose the store based on the racial make up of the zip code and he was serious about carrying out the attack since january. >> the individual was here a few months ago in early march. >> reporter: he was buying ammo, and surplus military gear and mapped out the store to shoot all black people. a main gun, the bushmaster was bought from this store before it
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was illegally modified. he did not have any incident purchasing the weapon after an incident when he was a student, on the honor roll. >> the gun dealer was able to sell the weapon to the individual because there was no red flags that came up. >> reporter: a spokes person for the school district tells cnn, the suspect was interviewed by police after he made a reference to murder/suicide in a school project though there was no specific threat. >> we stated a facility, i'm not sure if it was a hospital or a mental health facility for a day and a half. >> reporter: the gunman's neighbors did not want to give their names. they are frustrated. >> something was missed. if he was flagged in high school, why didn't he get the mental health care he needed then. the system failed him that ca caused this tragedy. >> they say the shooter was quiet and seemed like a normal teenager. >> when we found out, i said i sure as hell hope he is not from
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this area. so, and then it turned out he was. and then, turns out he is living on my street. so we were all totally shocked about this whole thing. >> reporter: the suspect is currently in custody and on suicide watch. >> he is in a segregated unit aside from the rest of the general population and that's for his safety. >> reporter: the suspect has pleaded not guilty to first degree murder. law enforcement officials say prosecutors are working to bring possible federal charges against him in addition to state charges. they say the suspect's attorney has withdrawn a request for a mental health forensic examination to be performed on him. >> in another part of the country, a doctor who was killed in sunday's church shooting in southern california is being hailed for his bravery. the gunman opened fire in a taiwan church service, wounding five people and killing 52-year-old doctor john chang.
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he charged at the shooter giving others time to subdue him. the actions helped to save lives. they have identified the gunman as 68 david chou, a u.s. citizen born in chie that they believe the shooting was politically motivated and chou was upset between the tensions of china and taiwan. they don't feel he had connection to the church or the members. >> we are tracking new developments out of ukraine, ukraine said that they have been casualties from russian missile strikes on areas north and east of kviv and there are reports russian troops have tried to cross the border with heavy fighting east of the capital. meanwhile, ukraine said that combat operations in mariupol are over for troops holed up at the azovstal steel plant.
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more evacuations began monday, allowing 260 people to leave. well, elsewhere in ukraine, officials said earlier a military base had been targeted by russian missiles near the polish border. for the latest on the attacks there, and north of kviv, and azovstal, we are joined live from lviv in ukraine. good to see you, so what is the latest on all of it? >> reporter: rosemary, it was a very, very active night across the country here in ukraine. heavy series of military strikes and attacks from the russians and really, a very significant uptick when you compare it relatively to the weeks prior here. an active evening. if you just take a look around the country. we are talking north of kyiv, that is where ukrainian authorities say russian missiles struck in an area that is just 40 miles from the border of belarus.
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they say that there were many casualties that there's wounded and those dead, they do not know yet what the intended target was. but they will certainly getting more information and clearly going in to the areas to just see the kinds of loss and devastation to the ukrainians this morning. and then, here overnight, we were able to see and hear first hand some of the explosions that happened here. the sirens we heard from the hotel here, going off at about 12:25 just after midnight or so. everyone getting to the bunker to the basement for a while and it was about 20 minutes after that, that is when we started to hear for ourselves a series of explosions. some of them on the team were able to see the lights in the sky from the anti-aircraft defenses that were put in motion. it was about 1:15 in the morning local time here that the final all-clear had been done.
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it was not until this morning that we learned from ukrainian forces that the intended target, the target that was hit was a railway infrastructure here in lviv, so, military analysts when they take a look and they see what is going on here inside of the country, they believe that the reason you are seeing this uptick in the missile attacks as well as the cross-border fighting is because the russians are trying to really occupy these ukrainian forces and keep them from being deployed in the east so that they have things to fight and follow as opposed to really engage in the east where the russians want to make further progress. >> and there's been significant developments overnight in the battle for the steel plant in mariupol. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: well, yes, it's a very significant development. the question becomes and mariupol is a symbolic, strong symbol of ukrainian resistance.
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is it going to follod? are we going to see it collapse under the russian authorities and regime as the troops move in? it's the last stand here. that steel plant here of course of course, and hundreds and hundreds of ukrainian military soldier s had been wounded inside of that plant. no food, no water, no supplies for many, many weeks. left to die, and what we understand and it is, it is a different side that describes it differently. the ukrainians are calling it a victory as they actually took them out of that plant to area hospitals the russians calling it a victory on their side, it was some sort of political or diplomatic win as a result of negotiations. the question still remaining of course, there's still soldiers inside the area. there are still some ongoing talks. and where does that city, that town stand now that it looks
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like their military said they have completed that combat mission. rosemary? >> all right, joining us live, many thanks and take good care there. pnc well, russia's war is driving a change in european security. on monday, sweden announced that they are seeking nato membership. it would mark a major expansion of the nato alliance. but the plans are hitting roadblocks. turkey's president is doubling down on his objections, accusing finland and sweden of housing terrorist groups. nato leaders said that they are confident that turkey will not block the bids but it requires unanimous consent from all 30 nato states. meanwhile, putin said monday, that the expansion would not be an immediate threat but he warned that moving weapons to
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finnish or swedish territory would provoke a response and for more, we will bring in nina who joins us live. so, this is fascinating, isn't it? because in the first instance, we know that putin, part of the reason he went in and invaded ukraine was because he felt that nato was infringing and en encroaching on russian soil, now this will become a reality if it goes forward. but talk to us about turkey's attempt to block this, and of course, now, sweden joining behind finland to want to be a member of nato? talk to us about that process too? >> yeah, this is a huge political decision for a country like sweden and also, it's neighbor next door, finland, and it will redraw the security map in this part of europe where right on the baltic sea, which of course is an area that vladimir putin has a foothold
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in, with his enclave on the sea. which is only 200 kilometers away from sweden. it expands nato's border with russia, and it will have political ramifications going forward. sweden and finland are rich, and democratic countries, with big military might as well. but there's another country that has big military might that is being awkward. turkey reiterating concerns in stronger language about sweden and finland harboring individuals from the kurdish community. members of the pkk and other organizations, that he deems terrorists and he is trying exert political leverage over the talks.
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blinken had meetings with the turkish counterparts in berlin, and appeared to come out confident that he would be able to asuage turkey's concerns and then days later we have another statement from turkey. it's unclear where the negotiations are likely to go from here this week. we have got a delegation from sweden heading to meet with the turkish counterparts to talk them down from this rhetoric. turkey saying don't bother sending diplomats. he is clear that he is going to play hardball. it has not stopped sweden from proceeding and finland as well. i will give you an idea of what is happening here today. we have just seen in the last hour or so, the foreign secretary of sweden sign the petition for nato membership.
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they will have a vote perhaps as early as tomorrow. the finnish president will be addressing the parliament and then the media here along side the prime minister of sweden in stockholm. >> live from sweden, many thanks. a u.s. house republican with a long list of scandals and gaffes is seeking re-election. many in his party want him gone. but can the backing of donald trump give madison cawthorn a last minute boost? we will take a look. ihihoppy hour starting at $6 at 3pm only from ihop. download the app and join the rewawards program today. shipstatioion saves us so much time it makes it really easy and seamless pick an order print everything you need slap the label on ito the box and it's ready to go our cost for shiing, were cut in half just like th go to shipstation/tv and get 2 months free
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. later today, voters in five u.s. states will choose their candidates for november's mid term elections and one of the most closely watched is in north carolina, where a republican house freshman with a history of misconduct is at risk of losing his party's nomination. but as we report, he has a very powerful ally insisting on a second chance. >> reporter: the mountainous tree covered landscape of western carolina has become an ugly political battleground. >> cawthorn will lie about anything. >> reporter: as republicans wage a war on madison cawthorn. he faces off against seven gop challengers that cast him as absent, fame hungry. >> a lot of things he has done
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has aired in foreign countries and that goes back to a postpone national security issue. instead of talking about what lingerie our congressman might like to wear in his spare time, we need to be talking about inflation and really issues. >> reporter: republicans have rallied around the other candidates like state senate chuck edwards who has the backing of north carolina's most powerful players, including senator tom tillis. >> putin used cawthorn's claims. >> reporter: and the six figures that tillis has dropped on attack acts. >> i have not seen the swamp launch such an attack except for on donald trump. >> reporter: donald trump has stayed away from the race. but on the eve of the primary, trump posted on his truth social platform, rehashing cawthorn's background and adding recently he made foolish mistakes that i
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don't believe he will make again. let's give madison a second chance. and we found plenty of voters in cawthorn's hometown that plan to do that. >> i think he is a good kid. it's political. they are all trying to do what they can to make themselves look good and the opponent look bad. >> a lot of it is made up, f fabricated stuff. >> reporter: a lot of the fights over whether he shut down district offices, it's just too much drama. >> he is a nar-- >> reporter: a misstep that reached the district, his move late last year when new maps were drawn to leave it behind. >> i will be running for congress in the 13th congressional district. this move is not an abandonment. >> a lot of people took it that way. when he decided to leave and run in charlotte, he asked me to
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step in and run as the america first candidate. >> reporter: when the court redrew the maps, cawthorn came back. adding to the unpredictablity, is the voters that are not affiliated with either party and choose which primary race to participate in. more than 40% of all of the ballots that have been cast in the republican primary here in the district are from unaffiliated voters. adding to this, in north carolina, a candidate must get at least 30% of the vote during a primary in order to avoid another run off election. experts say it could bode well for congressman cawthorn as the fractured large field of republicans can get him the 30%. and last hour, i asked political analyst michael about the power of trump's support, and what he expected to happen
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in the race. >> in this race, you need a 30% threshold to win. ity i-- in a crowded race, and t is, a known candidate has an advantage and the trump endorsement may help. here's an example of trump endorsing someone who was thought to be a rising star in the republican party, but who has fallen from grace and who's support is disappearing faster than cup cakes in a pot party. he is -- he has had pictures of himself in lingerie and videos of him floating around. trump has picked an odd person to put his reputation on. it may help cawthorn. he may be able to pull it through. but it's a long shot. the republican establishment does not like this guy.
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>> and the polls are open in north carolina in just a few hours from now. still to come, one country stands in the way of the eu's plan to ban russian oil imports. the latest on the efforts and how russia's economy is fairing when we return. pods handles th. pack at your pace. store your things until you're ready. then we deliver to your new w home - across t town or across the country. pods, your personal moving and stotorage team.
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♪ ♪ welcome back everyone, well, russia may have avoided another blow to the economy, at least for now. eu leaders were unable to convince hungary to lift the veto of a proposed ban on russian oil imports which would be the group's harshest sanction yet. meanwhile, mcdonald's is closing and selling its more than 800 raunt restaurants in russia, making it one of the biggest brands to leave the country since the war began. good morning to you, claire. what impact will the departure of mcdonald's and other foreign businesses have on the economy. what is the impact of sanctions and limited oil import bans?
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>> let's take mcdocdonald's andd to it renault. together the two of the companies item employed more than 100,000 people. the most immediate concern to the russian authorities with exits like that is unemployment. what to do with all of the people. that's why you see the city of moscow, the mayor coming out, the city bought the shares of renault and turn it around and produce soviet cars. clearly an effort to prevent mass unemployment p you see other companies like ikea that continue to pay its staff in russia. they say they will continue to do that through august. but on the flip side, rosemary, the russian economy has shown resilience in the face of sanctions.
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the rubel is strongest against the dollar right now since before the pandemic and this is why the oil embargo is crucial. while they fail to reach agreement on that, russia is still making money from the energy exports. in fact, it's making more money from it because of the disruption to the market and the resulting higher prices. so this is why this issue is crucial, until they can reach agreement, the eu being the biggest customer for russian energy, the russian economy will still be able to afford this war in ukraine and cushion itself against the sanctions. >> what would it take to change the situation? when you look at it, it's just astounding that russia has been able to survive with those sorts of sanctions? >> yeah, look, i mean, so far, it's been able to survive largely due to the efforts of the russian cent ral bank.
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they manage to avoid collapse. things like import bans and risks are mounting every day p rosemary. live from london. thank you for that analysis. appreciate it. >> and well, there's a ten million dollar bounty on the head of a deputy leader of the taliban. the u.s. calls him a specially designated global terrorist, with blood on his hands and he has never spoken with a western journalist, or shown his face in a tv interview, until now. ay fills your space with fragrancece that's always fresh, never overpowering. air wick. connect to nature.
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well, now to a cnn exclusive, one of afghanistan's top leaders under taliban rule said they want good relations with the u.s. he is a deputy leader of the taliban. he has never spoken on camera with a western journalist until now. we sat down with him in kabul. >> reporter: i do have to ask you, that you are under personal sanctions by the united states which also has a multi-million dollar bounty on your head. this is what a top western
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official told me just before i got here. he said we are in a new world. the guy, that's you, has a huge amount of american blood on his hands. he has got in the taliban the tight estest ties and he was on the first to put women back to work in his ministry. we have seen his ministry take promising steps to contain terrorism to call it a paradox is an understatement. it's not just my opinion. it's the opinion of every single envoy who works on these issues. so, on the one hand, they belief you are a terrorist. i'm sorry to say, it's "they" who say that, and on the other hand, they think they can work with you. what do you say to that? >> translator: i would say it's a judgment they should make. i have mentioned this before
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that they have fought us intensely and in order to defend the country and ourselves, our response was the same. but the commitment and the form of governance in order to create secure afghanistan we send a positive message to the world and send a positive message to our nation. while the previous situation concealed our -- and currently, praise god, that the conditions of freedom, our conduct is being revealed gradually to the international community. and also, this is being revealed to certain circles within the country who are thinking negatively about us. >> you can watch part-2 of that exclusive interview with the
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shooting in buffalo, new york where ten innocent people were gunned down inside a supermarket. one of the victims of a brave security guard named aaron salter, we have the story. >> reporter: he died while trying save others, that's who knew him say he should be remembered. >> he was a strong individual. he was a warm individual. a real caring person. cared about the community. someone who devoted a lot of his life to public safety to keeping the community safe. >> buffalo's mayor byron brown new halfim for years, back when was a police officer. >> i remember meeting him through his parents, very warm people. they had a business in the community. and i saw him as a loving son.
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always trying take care of his parents. make sure his parents were okay. that's the kind of person that he was. he had a caring spirit, and a desire to take care of other people. that desire helped him rise through the ranks of the police department, and he eventually became a lieutenant, his love of community and law enforcement is one of the reasons he went to work as a security guard at the top supermarket after he retired from the force. saturday, armed only with a handgun, he engaged the shooter. >> he went down fighting. he went towards the gunfire and towards the fight. he shot the individual, and because of his armored plating and vest, it had no affect on him. >> law enforcement officials say it's clear that he saved many lives. >> my daughter was crouched in the front end for the entire shooting. >> his actions gave harris
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stanfield who works at the market with her daughter the time needed to take cover. >> everyone started running, i gapped my p ped -- i grabbed m and kept running. >> he never stopped being a police officer. >> i think he would want to be remembered as someone who cared about his community. who cared about his family. and someone that did his job and stood up when other people were in danger trying to keep others safe. >> salter was 55 years old, and even though he was not a police officer at the time of his death. due to his actions tlarks's a movement in buffalo to have a formal funeral as if he was a active duty police officer. killed in the line of douty. the mayor is behind it and
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waiting to hear from the family to do what is best. >> the united states is about to reach a devastating milestone. the country is less than 200 deaths away from reaching 1 million killed by the pandemic. that is according to johns hopkins university. meanwhile the u.s. food and drug administration is expected to authorize a booster doze of pfizer's covid vaccine for kids ages 5-11. as early as tuesday. this comes as the number of new cases among children grew 76% last week from two weeks prior, that is according to the american academy of pediatrics. and in is the fifth consecutive week in which child cases have increased. and now, kids make up about 18% of all the weekly reported cases in this country. the cdc also updated some of their travel guidelines and are
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now encouraging all domestic travelers to consider getting tested as close to their departure as possible. as well as getting tested after their travels. earlier, i spoke to dr. rodriguez, internal medicine specialist and bio researcher and i asked him about the nearly 1 million covid deaths in the u.s. >> well, rosemary, i any so, the number is staggering and tragic and unfortunately i think so many people have become numb to that number, it's more than world war ii, the korean war and the vietnam war put together almost by double. and one of the greatest failures that i think we have done is we have been too eager to drop our defenses, thinking it's over. and i'm not trying to be a downer, but it is far from over. as we see now, there's surges with the new variant. certain states are 25% higher
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this week than last. so, we can never, until it's completely gone, let our guard down. >> very true. and of course, good news, at last, for kids, ages 5-11 with the u.s. food and drug administration expected to authorize a booster shot of the pfizer covid vaccine. a meeting is scheduled today, once authorized how soon do you expect that booster to be made available to all of those kids and their parents who have been eagerly waiting for this added protection as new cases among children in the u.s. have been increasing significantly in the last five weeks or so? >> if true for course, it will be available in a couple of weeks of the fda and cdc approving it. i will put a plug in here, i have a 1-year-old niece-in-law, we need to move ahead and try to vaccinate those children under 5 years of age. it's great news for kids. great news. >> it is great for that age
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group. and as you say, there's a lot of parents, they can't do very much in their families with those young kiddies who were just so vulnerable at this time. how much longer do you think they will be waiting to get their kiddies the shots? >> i'm hoping, because the information is out there, it's been presented. they need to get more data. because nothing would be more tragic than to give an infant or child that age something that is detrimental to them. i'm hopeful that it will be in the next 3-6 months. if not sooner, god willing. >> and that was dr. rodriguez, sharing his perspective with me last hour. a new deal between baby formula maker abbott and the united states, could help solve the baby formula shortage. it could have products in the stores in 6-8 weeks time.
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abbott closed the michigan factory early this year, after investigators found bacterial contamination at the plant. but other alternatives are available. the american academy of pediatrics said that cow's milk may be an option for babies over six months old if infant formula continues to be unavailable. toddlers formula is also safe for a limited time for babies close to their first birthday. well, mean time, the white house said it's been working for weeks now to increase the supply of baby formula from both domestic and international sources, it's launched a new government website to help parents find formula. cnn's putting the resources to the test. >> reporter: last week the white house was not able to offer clear federal guidance on what exactly parents should do if they are unable to find baby formula and then on friday, the white house announced a new
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hhs.gov/formula website, they said it should provide resources for parents that are looking to get their hands on baby formula. so cnn decided to try to try it out, we called the 1-800 numbers and tried out the web chat sessions that we were recommends and this is what we found. when we tried the abbott's 1-800 hotline, this is the company behind the major recalls we were told they were not answering any questions by phone and they have set up a form where pediatrician can fax over a form along with the doctor's order to try to get formula to parents, it's unclear how long that would take. next, we tried wreckit, their number. this is the company behind enfamil and the hold was 72 minutes at the end of which a representative got on the phone and said they are sold out of everything and the third company we tried was gerber, we tried
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the chat functions and asked if they could recommend certain lines of formula that is similar to a line of similac formula and they said they are out of stock. one of the representatives saying my heart goes out to you in this time, trying to show empathy to parents looking for formula and on the gerber website, we saw that 16 of the 24 formula lines appear to be out of stock. so, it's worth noting that many of the representatives that we encountered were apologetic, they said the call times have been normal, it's been difficult for parents to get their hands on baby formula. so, this just gives us a little window in to the broad frustration that we are seeing and hearing about across the country during this nationwide baby formula shortage. back to you. >> thanks for. that and thank you for spending parted of your day with me. i'm rosemary church, cnn
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a warm welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm max foosster in london. just ahead -- >> he came into my home. >> this was pure evil. >> many more people would probably have been killed and injured if the buffalo police did not get to the scene. >> it is important that we win these primaries to have real republican
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