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

retail ceos say they are getting crushed by rising prices. we're live in london with a look at the impact on global markets. and a stand still on the battlefield as russia's offensive appears to have stalled. could ukraine have the upper hand to regain territory? we are live in lviv with the latest. >> live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom." with rosemary church. >> good to have you with us. well, the high profile u.s. republican senate race in the key swing state of pennsylvania remains too close to call, and it will likely be days before a winner is announced. tv dr. mehmet oz holds an extremely narrow lead, some 1200 votes over former hedge fund executive dave mccormick. but former u.s. president donald trump, who endorsed oz, is

already urging him to declare victory.

last week and having 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 counting here in lancaster 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. >> earlier, i asked cnn political analyst ron brownstein who is likely to win this race once all the votes are counted. >> well, i think it's essentially impossible. we're not sure how many outstanding ballots there are. there may be more than we thought. the philadelphia inquirer said there may be 20,000 ballots to be counted. i think it's impossible to tell who has the upper hand.

mehmet oz 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 in 2000. and we could easily be in a situation where in a couple 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 democratic opponent josh shapiro

in november. is mastriano's loss a fait accompli do you think? and if so, 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 christian nationalists, he is someone who wants to ban abortions without exceptions for rape and incest at six weeks. pennsylvania is not alabama, you know. it's not mississippi. 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.

>> brownstein went on to say that even though some of trump's primary picks won and some lost, trumpism is consolidating its grip on the republican party. well, it may be another uncertain day on wall street after the dow dipped drastically on wednesday, shedding more than 1100 points, or 3.6%, its biggest loss since 2020. the s&p and nasdaq also down after retail giant target reported a stunning 52% drop in profit for the first quarter and amid fears of rising inflation. but the u.s. is not the only country struggling with rampant inflation. inflation in the uk has surged to 9%, its highest annual rate since 1982. and cnn's anna stewart is in london. she joins us now live. good morning to you, anna. good to see you. so after a dismal day on wall

street, how are markets in europe looking right now? >> not looking great, rosemary. this was the sharpest sell-off on wall street. it came after a bit of a rebound on tuesday. clearly that was a bear market rally, i e it wasn't very long lived. and i don't think we've hit the bottom of that big sell-off that we've been seeing. in asia they took wall street's lead. they were all lower earlier. i think the shanghai composite has made some gain since then. it's trading rather flat. europe also trading lower today. yesterday's sell-off was really sparked by an earnings report out of the retailer target. a 52% drop in profits for the first quarter really shocked the market there and also their reasons for it because they talked about supply chain issues. but they also talked about costs, high costs for labor, for fuel, for freight. also consumers spending less for nonessential items. so the big ticket items they are not buying right now as a result of inflation. and now for weeks and weeks,

months frankly, investors have been looking very anxious, wondering how baked in that is. there have been concerns more recently that the federal reserve in the u.s. isn't doing enough with interest rates to bring that down. and you now match those sort of fears and that anxiety with real impact of what we're teeing in terms of inflation for consumer spending, taking a big bite out of corporate profit because we saw a similar story from wall north the day before. and that will all drag on economic growth. so a miserable pitch in the markets today. the u.s. futures are also pointing lower. rosemary? >> thank you for that, anna stewart live from london. you have a great day. well, after years of official neutrality, two key countries in northern europe officially submit their applications to join nato, and they do it simultaneously. a live report from stockholm is straight ahead. plus, toeing the kremlin line once again. a former russian military

official appears to walk back his public critiques of the war in ukraine. we're back with that and more in just a moment.

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lactaid ice cream. well, leaders of finland and sweden will meet with u.s. president joe biden in the coming hours. the high-level visit comes one day after both countries formally applied to join nato, despite moscow's outspoken opposition. the white house called it a watershed moment in european security. the two nordic countries have been proudly neutral for many decades. but russia's invasion of ukraine has impelled both to seek the

enhanced security provided by nato. but all 30 nato members must agree on admitting any new nation to the alliance, and turkey has been the lone member to voice opposition to finland and sweden. president recep tayyip erdogan accused both countries of harboring kurdish separatists that turkey considers terrorists. he said he can't support nato membership for either until the issue is addressed. but president biden brushed off concerns turkey will end up blocking finland and sweden from joining nato. here's what he said on wednesday. >> both the leader of finland and sweden are coming to see me on thursday. i think we're going to be okay. >> you can convince turkey to accept their bid? >> i think -- i am not going to turkey, but i think we're going to be okay. >> so let's bring in cnn's nina dos santos. she joins us live from stockholm. great to see you, nina.

finland and sweden have now formally applied to join nato in a historic move. so what happens next? and what's the plan to appease turkey's many concerns and requests for concessions? >> rosemary, i think the immediate plan is to sit down and listen to what they have to say at the highest echelons of the nato alliance. and that means that we've had the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken meeting with his counterpart from turkey. just yesterday in new york we have this big meeting that joe biden is hosting at the white house in washington, d.c. obviously that will not include turkey. that will just be the leaders of sweden and finland. but it just shows how much support these two nations are getting from the most powerful member of the most powerful military alliance. having said that, turkey does have the second largest army in nato. it's a big defense provider as well, and it has a president who is quite keen on voicing his opinions on certain issues, grievances that he wants aired,

in particular those concerns he has about sweden's perceived sympathies from turkey's point of view to members of the kurdikurd ish diaspora, and he has accused them of harboring kurdish separatist groups that are deemed terrorist organizations by turkey and also some other parts of the world as well. and there is a thorny issue of an arms embargo that dates back to 2019 that sweden pushed for on some turkish material on equipment and so on and so forth. and the other issue that turkey probably wants to discuss is having been frozen out of a u.s. fighter jet program after it bought russia missile system. so these are the types of things that turkey also wants a seat around the table to negotiate on. obviously they viewed this as a big opportunity. it is a big moment for the geopolitics in this part of the world. and we can't rule out other

outliers inside the nato alliance might also start to talk about issues that they want to bring to the fore, perhaps in the balkan region as well. but they won't have as much sway as turkey. rosemary? >> a lot of background noise there. nina dos santos, you did great there competing with it. joining us live from stockholm. many thanks. well, coming up, ukraine's kalush orchestra received a hero's welcome when they returned home fresh off their eurovision win. how the folk rap group plans to give back to their war-torn nation. we'll take a look at that on the other side of the break. stay with us. through the challenges, the hurt, the doubt, the pain. no matter what, we go on. biofreeze. she's feeling the power of listerine. he's feeling it. yep, them too. it's an invigorating rush... ...zappingillions of germs in seconds. for that one-of-a-kind whoa... ...which leaves you feeling... ahhhhhhh

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a nato official says while the war between russia and ukraine is largely at a standstill, momentum has significantly shifted in favor of ukraine. the ukrainian military has been touting its progress and pushing the russians back and says it's retaken another settlement in the kharkiv region. this video shows a russian tank on fire in that region just eight miles, or 12 kilometers south of the russian border. it had been engaged in a firefight with ukrainian forces before crashing into a line of trees. further south in the luhansk region, ukraine says it's been blowing up more bridges to stop

russian forces from advancing. and cnn's suzanne malveaux joins me now from lviv in ukraine. good to see you, suzanne. nato says the war is at a stand still, but momentum favors ukraine. what is the latest on this and of course the situation overall on the ground? >> well, good morning. actually, when you listen to that nato official with that intelligence, it is not surprising necessarily because it is very much reflective of what we have been seeing and reporting on the ground, despite the fact that you have an amazing escalation over the last 24 hours, ukrainian military actually in their daily report saying that they have seen an increase in firepower in artillery, in aircraft and attacks throughout the country, cross-border skirmishes as well as heavy machinery that has actually been brought in to the theater here. nevertheless, the russians are taking hits.

they're taking losses. they're losing territory. ukrainian forces have been able to hold on to land that the russians have been trying to seize. there have been casualties on both sides here as just overnight there were four ukrainian citizens who were killed. but nevertheless, we do not see, according to this military official, that the russians have actually taken any significant territory over this period, despite this widespread escalation throughout the country. >> and suzanne, signs are pointing to this being a long war. so how are the ukrainian people dealing with this in keeping up morale? >> well, absolutely. this is impacting everyone throughout the country, as you can imagine. but all eyes have really been on mariupol, a symbol of resistance, of the spirit of the ukrainian people, of their fight. and there is a singing group who recently i met. they just came back just days ago after winning one of

europe's biggest musical competitions. and they have really captured a sense of the essence of this country in their national pride. ♪ >> reporter: ukraine's kalush orchestra returning to a hero welcome as winners of this year's prized eurovision song competition. the folk rap group greeted at the ukrainian border which servicemen and women bursting with pride. frontman oleg psyuk and his band launch into an impromptu version of their winning song, "stefania." saturday, the musicians won the annual song fest in the italian city of turin, beating out their main rivals, the uk and spain, riding a wave of popular support by voting viewers who skyrocketed them to the top. ♪ "stefania," initially written as

a tribute to the band leader's mother, turned into a rallying cry and tribute to the nation as ukraine battled against the invasion of its neighbor, russia. when i met them here in lviv, it took little prodding for them to launch into a jam session of their popular song. but kalush is keenly aware of the impact of the band's victory and what's at stake. what does this moment mean? this is so much more than a musical competition. >> translator: we decided to take part in it because there are attempts to destroy and kill our culture, and we took part in it to show that our culture is alive. it does exist, and it's very beautiful. >> reporter: the group was given special permission by the government to leave ukraine to perform. and despite competition rules forbidding overt political statements, the band was praised by many ukrainians for calling for the liberation of ukrainians and mariupol and inside the

steel plant of azovstal besieged by the russians. soldiers sheltering in the steel plant belted out the lyrics as shelling could be heard from above. ♪ residents of kalush, the hometown of the band, gushed. >> translator: with all my soul, all my love, i love my kalush. >> reporter: and president zelenskyy promised to bring the sinning contest to a liberated ukraine next year. now kalush is auctioning off its trophy and planning to tour europe to fund raise for the ukrainian soldiers and charitable foundations for ukraine. >> translator: people say ukraine is my mother and take it that way. that's why this song is now even called the anthem of war. but if it's called that, i would rather it to be the anthem of our victory.

[ applause ] >> a victory that is still elusive, but obviously giving hope to millions here in this country. these guys love to perform. they are just -- people go wild. they're magnetic when you see them. but they do understand this moment and what this song means. i asked the lead singer if he was out there and he was having fun. and obviously they love to perform, but his response was is that it's hard to have fun. the night before he was sleeping under the sound of explosions. and so they know the seriousness of this moment and what this song means to millions of people. they just want to spread that word, not only throughout the country, but the world to give them a sense of home and pride that they'll be able to get through this. >> yeah, just amazing sounds coming from them too. it's just extraordinary. the healing power of music,

right? suzanne malveaux bringing us that report from lviv. many thanks. well, eu lawmakers in brussels are debating how to bring suspected war criminals in ukraine to justice. the debate is under way now at the european parliament with a vote expected a few hours from now. also today, we are expecting testimony in kyiv from a russian soldier charged in the first war crimes trial since russia's invasion began. the 21-year-old has already pleaded guilty and could face life in prison. prosecutors say he killed a 62-year-old unarmed civilian, fearing the man could tell ukrainian troops the location of the soldiers' unit. and we'll be right back.

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russia says nearly a thousand ukrainian fighters have now surrendered at the azovstal steel plant in mariupol. this video from the russian defense ministry is said to show the moment some ukrainian forces turned themselves over. russia says most of them are being held in pretrial detention centers. ukrainian officials have been pushing for a prisoner exchange. meantime, russia claims a civilian has been killed in its

kersk region. and a former senior russian military officer appears to be reversing course on his public criticisms of the war. listen to what he says now after claiming things could get worse for moscow just days ago. >> translator: when people talk about ukraine acquiring the ability to counterattack, well, it's a big exaggeration. and as concerns the actions of our supreme command, there is every reason to believe that the implementation of these plans will in the very near future give ukraine an unpleasant surprise. >> clare sebastian joins me now live from london. good morning to you, clare. and what a stunning reversal coming from this russian colonel. but perhaps more stunning was the fact that he criticized russia's war on ukraine in the first place.

what more are you learning about this? >> yeah, rosemary, baffling, frankly, turn of events. it was extremely rare and very striking to hear the comments he made on russian state tv on monday night, criticizing the war, saying things could get worse for russia, urging people not to drink what he calls information tranquilizers, and saying that russia is sort of isolated in the world because of this conflict. then turning around and saying on wednesday that he thinks any sort of estimations of the ukrainian counterattack are exaggerated. he says there is no way ukraine could get supremacy in the black sea or aerial supremacy. he didn't recant what he was saying. it wasn't a systematic denial of everything he said, but you get the sense the two episodes could be connected, that perhaps he felt given the wave of international attention that his comments got on monday, that he had to sort of correct that pessimistic tone in the war. i think there were suggestions

after those comments on monday that it wasn't accidental, that perhaps this was part of a fairly subtle effort in russia to manage public expectations given the russian casualties, given the fact that making any major gains is extremely difficult and extremely slow. the fact that he has gone back on television and muted those remarks somehow, it's very does bar. it's unclear what his motivation is at this point. of course we're hearing from nato that no one in this conflict is expected the make any major gains over the next few weeks. but they believe the momentum is on the ukrainian side. >> all right. we'll continue to watch that of course. clare sebastian joining us live from london. many thanks. well, the united states has reopened its embassy in kyiv three months after closing it. ahead of russia's unprovoked invasion of ukraine. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken made the announcement saying the american flag was flying once again over the

embassy as its operations officially resumed. blinken also said in a statement that the u.s. will continue to support and stand with the ukrainian government and people as they defend their country. well, the latest now on the coronavirus pandemic in the united states. the cdc is reporting that nearly 1/3 of americans live in areas with medium to high levels of covid-19. and on wednesday, the agency urged those communities to mask up. take a listen. >> 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 levels in yellow, taking prevention measures based on their own risks, like avoiding crowds, wearing a mask, increasing their testing, especially before gathering with others indoors. >> dr. rochelle walensky also

says that even though cases are still much lower than during the omicron surge this past winter, the number of infections has tripled in just the last month. well, public health officials in the u.s. are investigating the first case of the rare and potentially serious monkeypox virus in the country this year. the virus was confirmed in a massachusetts man who had recently traveled to canada, and officials are now tracing his contacts. the cdc is also tracking multiple clusters of monkeypox reported in portugal, spain and the uk. and a cdc spokesperson told cnn that it's monitoring six more people for potential infection after they shared a flight with a british patient who tested positive for the virus. well thank you so much for joining us. i'm rosemary church. for our international viewers,

"inside africa" is next. for those in north america, i'll be back after the e break. do stay with us. and protect glasseses against cloudiness. the dishes aren't done without finish jet d dry 3 in 1.

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welcome back, everyone. well, new york's attorney general is launching an investigation into social media sites used by the suspect in saturday's racially motivated mass shooting in buffalo. that includes a communications app discord. and we have learned the alleged

gunman used that site to reveal his plan in a private chat room just 30 minutes before the attack. cnn's shimon prokupecz spoke with one survivor about the terrifying moments inside the supermarket when the suspect started shooting. did you think you were going to die when you were 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 come busting through the door, so there's an old oak table back there that i pull up to the door with one arm and barricaded the door. >> reporter: you grabbed customers? >> actually, i told the customers to get inside, 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 to 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 posts 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. do you remember seeing him in march? >> yes. he had on the same exact clothes.

them ugly green pants and them ugly -- that ugly green fatigues. >> reporter: and no one thought -- just no one thought anything of it or people did or? >> no, i didn't think nothing of it. i thought he was a 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 flew 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's 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. and everybody can go on about they -- go on about they lives knowing that justice was served, because he wanted to be an idiot. >> reporter: jerome 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. a new report is sounding the alarm on the climate crisis. the world meteorological organization says four key climate change indicators broke records last year. greenhouse gas concentrations, rising sea levels, and warmer and more acidic oceans. the wmo found the last seven

years were the earth's warmest on record and the worrell's oceans are being pushed to new heights. the report finds sea levels rose twice as fast in the nine years up to the end of 2021 than a decade earlier. 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. >> the global energy system is broken and bringing us ever closer to climate catastrophe. fossil fuels are dead ends environmentally and economically. the war in ukraine and its effects on energy prices is yet another wake-up call. the only sustainable future is the renewable one. we must enforce a solution that the renewable energy transition

before we incinerate. time is running out. >> earlier i spoke with andy shepherd, professor of earth observation at leads and i asked him what stood out to him in this report. >> we're really sure about that now and can tell people about it. 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 summit of the greenland 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 can head to our web page for more on the climate crisis, including how it's impacting the environment and people all around the globe. that's at cnn.com. officials in new mexico say the hermits peak calf canyon fire has now destroyed more than 300 homes and almost as many other structures. it's the largest fire on record in the state's history and has burned through more than 300,000 acres, or 122,000 hectares. strong winds and low humidity are fuelling the spread of the flames with conditions expected to last through friday. so far the fire is only a third contained. cnn meteorologist derek van dam joins me now to talk more on this. so derek, what more are you learning about this fire and of course the weather conditions playing into this. >> 100%, rosemary. you said it perfectly there. i've been following this wildfire for several weeks as we

reported on it, or at least the past seven days because this is such an interesting phenomenon to see how they combine, this hermits peak and calf canyon fire combined and now is the largest new mexico fire in the entire state's history. and some of these pictures are just astounding to see just how dry this is. think about the smoke in the atmosphere degrading the quality of the air. several ramifications not only being the largest fire in the state's history, but also the other impacts as well. there is the previous largest wildfire in the state's history set back in may of 2012. that was just shy of 3,000. we have just surpassed that. through the course of the day yesterday, you could see the actual smoke from the fire and that shading of red is where the fire has burned. there are 13 active wildfires across the entire country right now, burning over 450,000 acres. and that is set amongst the

backdrop of our ongoing drought. with the hermits peak fire with over 300,000 acres scorched, that is not good news. very dry conditions in place, gusty winds and the ongoing drought. that means critical weather for the firefighting efforts across the great basin, specifically into new mexico. there is the winds picking up, dying down overnight and refiring back up into the day on friday. and if you just look at the year to date totals we are far surpassed the ten-year average in terms of how much acreage we've burned and how many wildfires we typically see. to date this year alone we've burned nearly 1.5 million acres. we would normally see only 636,000 acres burned from the wildfire. going forward we have the projection from the climate prediction center of below average precipitation for the areas hardest hit by the wildfires. and then on top of that, the above average temperatures are set to continue for the following week. rosemary? >> all right, derek van dam,

thank you so much for keeping a close eye on that. appreciate it. u.s. women's soccer has scored a major victory in its fight for equal pay. after years of pressure from female players, the u.s. soccer federation announced a new deal wednesday, ensuring women will be paid the same as male players. it also makes the u.s. the first nation in the world to equalize world cup prize money. the landmark agreement also addresses issues such as child care, parental leave, mental health impairment, and equal quality of venues and field surfaces. the deal is set to run through 2028. and thank you so much for spending part of your day with me. i'm rosemary church. "cnn newsroom" continues next with max foster.

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a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the united states and around the world. just ahead on "cnn newsroom" -- >> inflation fears are fueling even most of chaos on wall street. >> we need to see inflation coming down. >> we meet during what is the greatest global food security crisis of our time. >> millions are already being threatened by hunger.