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. just ahead, pennsylvania cliff-hanger. with thousands of votes still to be counted, the republican primary for a critical u.s. senate seat remains too close to call. but former president donald trump is urging his preferred

candidate to declare victory any way. inflation jitters are turning into tremors on wall street. the dow has its worst day in nearly two years amid a crash in retail stocks. and a new report warns the world is coming closer to catastrophe as four key climate change indicators set new records. >> live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom," with rosemary church. >> good to have you with us. the fiercely contested republican senate primary in the key state of pennsylvania is likely to drag on for days while every last vote is tallied. it's a critical showdown that could affect which party controls the u.s. senate come november. tv personality doctor mehmet oz

is holding on to a very narrow lead over establishment republican dave mccormick. just over 1200 votes separate them. the race could go either way and a recount is looming. but former president donald trump doesn't want to wait. he encouraged mehmet oz to declare victory now. >> we can see the path ahead. we can see victory ahead. and it's all because of you. so thank you, pennsylvania. >> reporter: a fight to the minutes in the republican senate primary in pennsylvania. with thousands of votes still left to be counted. >> when it's this close, what else would you expect? everything about this campaign has been tight. >> reporter: the deadlock between former hedge fund executive david mccormick and celebrity dr. mehmet oz could trigger an automatic recount. >> we want to make sure we have integrity, veracity and

transparency. >> reporter: ballots remain to be counted across the state. in lancaster county about ballots were misprinted and are being remarked by hand in order to be scanned there would be an automatic recount if the margin is half a percentage or less. >> by next tuesday we have a good sense whether or not there will be an automatic recount. >> reporter: the two will see a nasty primary battle extended, but without kathy barnette, the commentator who saw a late surge but fell short of her rivals. >> i am so grateful. so do not be discouraged, but we have a country to save. >> reporter: all three candidates aligned themselves with donald trump, but it was oz who scored the coveted endorsement from the former president. >> do we love president trump, pennsylvania? >> reporter: even while votes were still being counted -- >> when all the votes are tallied, i am confident we will win. >> reporter: trump today encouraging oz to declare

victory. >> we're going to miss pat. let's be honest. >> reporter: the winner will face john fetterman who had a stroke last week and had a defibrillator implanted on election day. >> now you may have noticed i am not john fetterman, the next senator of our great state. >> reporter: the ballot county here in lan caster is over for now and will pick back up at 9:00 a.m. thursday. right around 4,000 ballots still remain to be counted, and officials expect to finish that count at some point thursday. athena jones, cnn, lancaster, pennsylvania. ron brownstein is a cnn senior political analyst and senior editor at the "atlantic," and he joins me now from los angeles. good to have you with us again. >> again, rosemary. good to be here. >> because, of course, since we talked 24 hours ago, we have all had time to digest the

consequences of tuesday's primary. but still unresolved is the pennsylvania gop senate primary race where trump endorsed candidate mehmet oz is struggling to stay ahead of dave mccormick. and now the former president is calling on oz to declare victory. what do you make of that? and do you expect or who do you expect to come out on top in the end? >> well, i think it's essentially impossible at this point looking at the outstanding ballots, and we're not even sure exactly how many outstanding ballot there are. are there even more than we thought? the philadelphia enquirer was told by state officials today there may be 20,000 mail ballots to be counted. i think it's impossible to tell who has the upper hand. republicans may be quickly sailing into very choppy waters here. it is entirely possible that trump's choice, dr. mehmet oz, who was ahead on election night may fall behind in the recount. and if that happens, i think there is every indication that trump will make the same sort of

baseless charges of fraud that he did in his own election. and we could easily be in a situation where in a couple of days the titular leader of the republican party is accusing the senate presumptive nominee if mccormick goes back ahead of being there because of fraud. this could get very ugly and unpredictable very quickly if oz does not stay ahead. >> all right that would certainly be extraordinary, wouldn't it? of course, i want to go to the gop gubernatorial race in pennsylvania now. and while donald trump's pick doug mastriano came out on top, that win has put a lot of republicans on edge, speaking out about the liability he poses and he has likely lost to shapiro in november. why did trump endorse this guy? and how did those actions impact trump's credibility going forward? >> well, first, i don't think in this environment with 65% of

americans saying they're losing ground economically because of inflation, and 75% saying the country is on the wrong track, you can't say that any republican candidate is, you know, inherently doomed. but having said that, if there is anyone with kind of one step over that abyss, it is doug mastriano, who is not only an election denier, not only someone who has trafficked with the qanon conspiracists and kyrgyzian nationalists, he is someone who wants to ban abortions without exceptions for rape and incest at six weeks. that is a very hard proposition to sell at a moment when the supreme court is going to make it less theoretical and more practical, potentially giving the states back the authority to do exactly that. so i think it's a very hard sell. and the fact that he won the nomination, even while there were so many doubts about his electability is a reflection of the changing composition of the republican primary electorate. in many ways the culture war themes and the outlandish

charges of election fraud that he raised are very much in tune with the base of the party. and i think trump decided that he wanted to get on this train because he knew the train was coming into the station. and it was more about identifying himself with a winner than getting mastriano. >> right. and of course some trump-endorsed candidates won, and some lost, including north carolina's madison cawthorn. and it puts trump's king maker skills in the spotlight. >> right. >> on that, a recent nbc news poll asked republican voters are you more of a supporter of the republican party or donald trump, and found that 58% of gop voters supported the party over trump compared to 38% back on election day 2020. those supporting donald trump over the party stood at 34% compared to election day 2020 at 54%. so what do those numbers tell

you? >> well, i think the clearest message out of the primaries this year is that trumpism is consolidating its grip on the republican party, even if trump's personal influence may be wavering. so it's not surprising to me that trump is winning some of these races and losing some of these races. that's about what you can expect. and it's tougher for anyone to oust incumbents, as we saw in idaho, last night with the governor of idaho, that trump could not beat. and again we'll see next week in georgia where his candidate to oust governor brian kemp is almost certainly going to lose. on the other hand, we are not seeing candidates anywhere running on redirecting the party away from the course that donald trump set. in fact, in many of these races, we're seeing all of these candidates competing among themselves to see who in effect can be the trumpiest. so kind of the bruising racial and economic ethnonationalism that trump has imprinted on the republican party, i think that is here to stay in the near

term. and what you have seen in the last few days looking at the results of these primaries, even though trump's personal record is kind of uneven, you're seeing the voices in the party that wanted a different direction basically throwing up their hands in despair and saying there is simply not a constituency in the republican party for changing direction, whether or not trump himself is the actual nominee in 2024. it is highly likely watching these primaries that it's going to be someone in his mold. >> yeah. still has the influence there. ron brownstein, many thanks for joining us. i appreciate it. >> thank you. a nato military official says momentum has significantly shifted in favor of ukraine. with the country's forces now on the offensive against russian troops in several areas. there is even talk of ukraine possibly being able to eventually retake crimea and the portions of the donbas controlled by pro-russian

separatists. but overall, nato believes the war right now is at a stand still, with neither side expected to make major gains in the coming weeks. meantime, ukraine says it has blown up more bridges over a strategic river in renewed efforts to prevent russian forces from advancing in the luhansk region. the ukrainian counter-offensive around the northern city of kharkiv has driven russian troops back to within ten miles or san francisco kilometers of the russian border. cnn's nick paton walsh is at the front line. >> reporter: every inch of respite from russian shelling here comes at grotesque costs. what once rained down on the second city of kharkiv now lands here .

>> keep the distance, okay? >> let's go with me, okay. >> reporter: ukraine declared here liberated over two weeks ago, but it's never simple. these tiny villages, which before the war were places you wouldn't notice driving through have now become the key battlegrounds to defend vital cities like kharkiv. while the fight to protect kharkiv still rages, with every step fast and cautious because of mines, russia's border is now just nine miles away. did you ever think you would be this close to russia in three months? >> yes and no. >> reporter: but russian troops

are even closer. that's in the forest across the field over this wall that they say frequently at night russian reconnaissance groups try and move in on the village. the next tiny hamlet is being fought over, and this is where kharkiv's defense cannot fail. the u.s.'s most effective gifts in some of ukraine's youngest hands. anton says he did not expect to be at war age 19. ever been scared, i asked? shelling here is a constant, even though everywhere seems to have already been hit. this is a homegrown defense. volunteer, software engineer, economists, funded mostly by our

guide, a farming millionaire. russia's brief occupation never planned to leave anything of value here. a van full of tvs for looting. >> they see we live better, and they do not even think that something is wrong with them, not with us, you know. they think that because america gives us everything for free, and they hate us for that. and they rob us and they kill us. >> reporter: men and women who have in three months learned courage only comes after knowing fear up close. >> the most was on the day of the war. i was at the medical center at one of the posts in kyiv. and he told us that russia special forces are going to come and try to attack us from behind. we were not trained to do this. we were not armed to do this.

that was basically the most scary moment for me. >> you survived. >> yes, we survived. everybody made it, and i think that is the moment that killed fear in me. >> reporter: here they hold back an enemy that slowly proving as inept as it is immoral, by placing incredible value on the smallest patches of their land. nick paton walsh, cnn, ukraine. still to come, a new report is sounding the alarm about the state of the global climate and the effects of climate change. we'll have the details for you after the short break. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪

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the report follows a u.n. climate assessment which warned the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions or face catastrophic climate changes. the u.n. secretary general says it's time to act. >> time is running out. to keep people alive and the worst impacts of the climate crisis, the world must act in this decade. the good news is that the lifeline is right in front of us. >> well, joining me now is andy shepherd, professor of earth observation at the university of leads and the director of the center for polar observation and modeling. thank you so much for being with us. >> good morning. >> so this new report from the world meteorological organization paints a pretty grim picture. planet earth breaking four new alarming climate records. what stood out to you in this report? and of course that conclusion that our only hope is to act now

or face the consequences? >> well, it is a grim picture, you're right. but i think from our perspective, it's really important that we're certain that the change is happening, and we can be sure of that now and tell people about it. so hopefully they can act. the things that stood out to me were some extreme events that happened in our weather systems, and they're driven by climate change. you see intense flooding in europe and china. we've seen increased forest fires in the u.s. and bleaching of corals in the oceans in the southern hemisphere. but we also saw some really, really strange things. we saw rainfall on the green land ice sheet for first time ever. these are all things that haven't happened before with this intensity. and it's really time to do something about that. >> you mention that because you were recently in greenland, weren't you, on a field campaign. what did you discover on that trip that could perhaps be useful in efforts to mitigate climate change?

>> one of the long-standing problems we've had is separating out the effects of weather from climate. and that's been a source of confusion and misinformation, actuallier for many decades through my career. and people have said what we're seeing is just part of the weather cycle. and we haven't had a satellite in space to monitor the polar ice sheets that can really do a good job of distinguishing between changes in snow and ice. and that's really weather and climate. so we're testing a new radar system that the european space agency will fly in space towards the end of this decade that will do that job for us for the first time. so it's really important that we can be sure about the changes that we see and when we tell people that they're related to climate, they can have confidence in that. >> yeah. very god point there. and of course this latest report highlights the four key climate indicators that broke records in 2021. greenhouse gas emissions, rising sea levels, warmer and more

acidic oceans. so mitigating climate change is critical, of course. and this report comes just after the u.n. offered a five-point plan from transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy. how quickly could that happen? and what role might high gas prices and of course russia's war in ukraine play in offering more incentive to global leaders to choose renewables over fossil fuels as they work to ban russian energy imports, for instance. >> yeah, that's a really good point. and it's a point well made. because i think people are aware now that there are real downsides to being independent on fossil fuels in a way we would not ever have if we depended on renewables. in my country in the uk, we did effectively transition away from using gas, coal, should i say about 30 years after the coal mines were closed by margaret thatcher in the 1980s, just for purely economic reasons. this was not related to economic

change there wasn't a really strong motive to do this. it just happened for financial reasons. and we now no longer use coal. we still have some dependence upon hydrocarbons, oil and gas as well. but it shows how quickly it can be done in several decades without a real urgent press. so i think it can be repeated around the world. we just need to shift i guess government and public opinion in the right direction away from being concerned about how it might affect individuals economically to thinking about the real costs that we're already paying for climate change. >> we certainly have many incentives before us to make that shift. we'll see if some global leaders do that. andy shepherd, many thanks for joining us. thank you. >> thank you. still to come, wall street had a very bad day on wednesday after a u.s. retail giant posted poor earnings. we will have a live report from hong kong on how markets in asia are doing today. that's next.

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i joined the district attorney's office to pursue justice for everyone. but like so many of my colleagues, i resigned in protest because chesa boudin interfered in every single case and failed to do his job. the office is absolutely in disarray right now. chesa dissolved my unit prosecuting car break-ins. now criminals flock to san francisco because there are no consequences. we can't wait. recall chesa boudin now. well, a dismal day for wall street as the roller coaster ride on the u.s. stock market continues. the dow tumbled wednesday more than 1100 points in its worst

trading day since june 2020. the s&p was down 4%, putting it on the precipice of bear market territory. and the nasdaq lost nearly 4.8%. the sell-off began after retail giant target reported a stunning 52% drop in profit for the first quarter, a day after walmart's stock posted the worst day since 1987. and cnn's chriskristie lu stoutn congress hong. good to see you, kristie. how are asian markets looking right now? >> they're really feeling that downward pressure, especially after u.s. shares posted its biggest daily decline in two years. investors are spooked by inflation and weak earnings, especially what we heard from target. this is the latest big box retailer to come out with really poor earnings results, saying

that its core lead profit fell a stunning 52%. it blamed two factors. it blamed inflation saying consumers are simply not buying as many nonessential goods as before. it also blamed the situation with the global supply chain. and all roads, of course, lead back to china. in fact, we heard from the u.s. treasury secretary janet yellen on wednesday, and she said china's zero covid policy may be playing a role in impeding the global supply chain. let's bring it up with the freshest data we have right now of what the asian trading day looks like at the moment. and it's been in the red all day. if we can bring up the dead, the seoul kospi is down, the unique day kaye down 1.9%. the shanghai composite relatively flat. the hang seng losing about 2.4%. i should add that in china there has been a lot of concern about the growth prospect of china's

tech industry, especially after ten sin that makes the we chat, reported zero revenue growth in the first quarter. also we're keeping an eye on u.s. futures to just get an inkling of what the trading day is going to look like on wall street in a few hours from now. earlier we were seeing a bit more positivity. but take a look right now. s&p features down, nasdaq losing 0.4. the dow futures down about 0.2%. markets have been hammered after the u.s. federal reserve had been giving out the signals that it would be regularly hiking interest rates by half a percentage point, all in a bit to tame inflation, which is at its highest level since the 1980s. but now we're hearing from various analysts, saying that they anticipate the fed to be more aggressive in its tightening going forward. in fact, they anticipate that they will be tightening or raising interest rates by three

quarters of 1% in june and july. this is from the head of global market research for nomura securities. we recognize fed speak has not endorsed a 75 point hike, but we believe the nature of fed forward guidance has changed. it has become more data dependent and nimble. could raise interest rates all the way up to 5%. and rosemary, that would be the highest level since 2006. back to you. >> yeah, amazing. kristie lu stout joining us live from hong kong. many thanks. >> you're welcome. still to come, as a shortage of baby formula worsens in the u.s., the president invokes a decades old act to try and alleviate some of the pressure. we'll have the details for you on the other side of the break.

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the u.s. government is taking a more direct approach to address the country's baby formula shortage. the house has introduced a pair of bills aimed at providing emergency funding for the fda and ensure families using government support programs can still buy formula. president biden also announced the government would be taking more control over the production of formula ingredients. cnn's arlette saenz as more from the white house. >> reporter: the president is invoking a major step as the white house has scrambled to try to address the issue, causing so much anxiety for american families. the production act is a 1950s era law that allows the federal government to have more control over industrial domestic production. and what the president is doing is he is directing suppliers to provide the resources needed to

manufacture formula. things like ingredients. additionally, the administration is starting operation fly formula. the president sending a letter to the secretaries of agriculture as well as health and human services, telling them to utilize commercial defense department planes to try to import formula product from overseas into the u.s. the fda earlier this week had already announced that they were making it easier for overseas companies to send their formula to the united states. but those approval processes are still under way. now this comes as the administration over the past two weeks has really been scrambling to try to address this crunch that american families are feeling with lack of access in some areas to baby formula. on thursday, fda commissioner robert caleb will be up on capitol hill testifying, talking about the oversight of infant formula as the administration still faces so many questions about how the shortage came to

be and the steps they are taking to alleviate it. now officials have said they expect the shortage to really begin to gradually improve over the course of the next few weeks. but they have yet to offer a definitive timeline of when things will get back to normal. arlette saenz, cnn, the white house. officials in new mexico say the hermits peak-of calf canyon fire has now destroyed more than 300 homes and almost as many other structures. it is the largest fire in state's history and has burned through more than 300,000 acres, or 122,000 hectares. low humidity and winds are fuelling the spread of the flames with the poor conditions expected to last through friday. so far the fire is only a third contained. for our international viewers, "world sport" is up next. for everyone here in the u.s. and canada, i'll be back with more news after a short break.

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>> reporter: did you think you were going to die in the break room and you're hearing all these gunshots? >> yes, i did. >> reporter: jerome bridges, an employee at the tops market was inside the store when the suspected gunman opened fire and ran for the break room. >> i thought to myself he might combusting through the door. so there is an old oak table back there i put to the door with one arm and barricaded the door. >> reporter: you grabbed customers? >> actually, i told the customers to get -- some customers to get inside the break room. i had to tell them to be quiet and just lay down on the ground because he was getting closer and closer to the back to the point where he was actually shooting at the displays. >> reporter: according to posts on social media, the 18-year-old suspected gunman publicly revealed his attack plans on the communication app discord shortly before the shooting on saturday.

in a statement before cnn, a spokesperson for discord says his online chat logs were visible to some people about 30 minutes before the shooting began. saying, quote, what we know at this time is that a private invite only server was created by the suspect to serve as a personal diary chat log. cnn analyzed the post shared on discord and other social media sites, revealing troubling warning signs from the alleged shooter. they show the suspect made three visits to the supermarket in buffalo in march doing reconnaissance and writing about the activity inside the store, including how many black and white people were inside. you remember seeing him in march? >> yes. he had on same exact clothes, them ugly green pants and the ugly green fatigues. >> reporter: and no one -- no one thought anything of it? or people did? >> no, i didn't think nothing of it. i thought he was lost shopper.

i didn't realize he was sitting up there scoping out the store. for something like this. >> reporter: days after the massacre, jerome bridges can't bring himself to remove his name tag. the buffalo, new york supermarket just a few blocks from his home was more than a job, he says. you still wear this? >> yes. because i'm going eventually if they do decide to open up the store, i'm going back. i'm not going to let nobody scare me. we're all family. >> reporter: you lost them. >> yes. >> reporter: tonight the new york state attorney general says she is launching an investigation into the social media companies used by the suspect to plan, promote, and stream his attack as authorities search for answers. >> he killed so many innocent people. every night i've been going in the house crying for hours and hours and hours. >> reporter: he could potentially face the death penalty. >> if he gets the death penalty, i will clap. i would be happy. then everybody could go on about

their lives knowing that justice was served because he wanted to be an idiot. >> reporter: jerome bridges tells us that his 15-year-old son was calling him on the day of the shooting while he was trapped inside that room, and that he was afraid to answer the phone because he thought the gunman would hear him. shimon prokupecz, cnn, buffalo, new york. the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention predicts both coronavirus deaths and new hospital admissions in the united states will likely increase over the next four weeks. and even though cases are still much lower than during the omicron surge this past winter, new infections have tripled in just the last month. the cdc says nearly a third of all americans now live in areas with medium to high levels of covid-19. on wednesday, the agency's director urged people in those

communities to mask up. >> reporter: in areas where community levels are high, everyone should be using prevention measures and wearing a mask in public indoor settings. in areas with medium covid-19 community levels in yellow, individuals should consider taking prevention measures based on their own risks, like avoiding crowds, wearing a mask, increasing their testing, especially before gathering with others indoors. >> the white house covid response coordinator is touting the roll-out of the antiviral drug paxlovid. dr. ashish jha says the u.s. has seen a fourfold increase in the use of the medication in the past month, with some 20,000 prescriptions being given out every day. well, the taliban have been chipping away at women's rights since they took over the country last august. they promised that girls would be allowed to go to secondary school, a promise that remains

unfulfilled. but some afghan girls whose right to an education has been snatched away by the taliban are finding other ways to assert their independence. cnn's christiane amanpour spoke to some of them. >> reporter: wednesday mourning in kabul, and we're going to girls school. through these plastic curtains and past prying eyes. yes, this fashion studio has become an alternate education facility since the taliban stopped girls from attending government high schools. 17-year-old roxar wanted to be a doctor. now she is learning to be a dressmaker. "we're feeling very bad," she tells us. "girls are not able to go to school, staying home, doing nothing. we hope that this will change our life so we can be self-sufficient, have a profession, learn, earn money to support otherses and our families." neda wanted to be a professional soccer player.

you're 17. you've never known the taliban government. did you ever imagine that this would happen to you, that you would be prevented from going to school? "no, never. we tried our best for our future, but it's a dark one now because we're kept away from our schools." nagina hafezi started this fashion business with her four sisters four years ago. today she is running the resistance. when the taliban slammed the door in their faces, she opened hers up to high school girls, aiming to have them sufficiently trained to earn a living and support themselves within six to 12 months. she does this for 120 girls and women across three locations. you're helping them, but they all want to be doctors or an athlete, you know, professionals. they want to good on to university. how do you feel about them having to be embroiderers or dress makers? >> translator: this is very upsetting, says nagina. when someone is following their

own dreams, it's very good. it's different when they're forced into something else, and it's a bad feeling, because most of these girls wanted to go to university, become a doctor, a teacher, an engineer. it's very difficult for them, and i know they can't do any other work. so at least they can learn the dress making profession for their future. for the record, the powerful deputy taliban leader told me that girls public high schools would open again soon, and that of course women have the right to work, within the islamic framework. but 26 years ago, i had the same conversations about the same issues when the taliban was first in charge. >> a lot of people want to know what you're going to do about the women issue. what about women's education, girls' education, women working, widows who have no other way to support themselves? >> i know that especially in western news media it's the propaganda that we are against women education, which is not right, not correct.

>> but the girls can't go to school. we've been to schools here that are all closed. >> we have just told them for the time being they should not come to office and school so in that time we can come out with some sort of solution. >> reporter: even the youngest understands something is not right. 10-year-old aziza complains about having to stay home all day. "we just do housework, cleaning, baking bread, and sweeping the floors," she says. >> i love my work. it's my right to work, and i need to work because i got education in this country, and the government spent money on me, and even my family, and i want to express myself to my society. >> reporter: brave then, brave now. only now, after more than two decades of progress for their wives, their daughter, and their family incomes, so many more afghan men support them. haji noor ama tells us not even 1% of afghan people are against

women working. we don't want our people to grow up as if we're in a jungle. we want people to have culture, knowledge. we need food and work. back at the design studio, these classes are not only open to high school students but to older women who are suddenly out of work, like 30-year-old rabia, who is a teacher. "we feel sufficienocated, she s. why can't we live freely, move freely? whatever work we do, they put barriers in our way. they can't reach our goals in life. we're always afraid, whether the previous government or the taliban's emirate regime." she comes here to retrain, and like many of the other mothers and wives to have some kind of social look like this woman who wanted to become a soccer player. when i'm really upset, my husband says i should come here so at least i can meet others.

my husband is so kind. we're all sisters here. christiane amanpour, cnn, kabul, afghanistan. >> and thank you so much for your company. i'm rosemary church. i'll be back with more news after short break. you're watching cnn. another crazy day? of course—you're a cio in 2022. but you're ready. because you've got the next generation in global secure networking from comcast business, with fully integrated security solutions all in one place. so you're covered. on-premise and in the cloud. you can run things the way you want—your team, ours or a mix of both. with the nation's largest ip network. from the most innovative company. bring on today with unbeatable business solutions from comcast business. powering possibilities™.

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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. just ahead, a cliff-hanger in pennsylvania as the election primary continues to unfold. but how much weight did president trump's endorsement carry? and the dow sees its biggest loss in nearly two years after