and jury selection starts today in the trial of a former police officer accused of killing george floyd. his death sparked a summer of protest in the united states . good to have you with us. the duke and duchess of sussex are revealing many stunning claims about their relationship with britain's royal family. the overarching message in harry and meghan's tell-all interview with oprah winfrey was that they didn't feel supported. meghan says life as a member of the royal family had become so isolating and lonely for her that she contemplated suicide. >> i just didn't want to be alive anymore, and that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. but we had to go to this event. and i remember him thinking i don't think you can go. and i remember saying i can't be left alone. >> because you were afraid of what you might do to yourself? >> and we went, and -- >> so sorry to hear that. >> and that picture, if you zoom in, what i see is how tightly his knuckles are gripped around mine. you can see the whites of our knuckles. because we are smiling and doing our job. >> and another stunning revelation, harry and meghan say there were questions about what color their son archie's skin might be before he was born, but the couple would not reveal who discussed it. >> and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he is born. >> what? >> and -- >> who -- who is having that conversation? with you? >> what? >> so -- >> there is a -- hold up. >> several conversations. >> well, buckingham palace has not yet commented on the interview. cnn's anna stewart joins us from outside windsor castle with more. good to see you, anna. this bombshell interview lived up to expectations it would lift the lid on the british monarchy with damning reflations of racism directed to baby archie and meghan contemplating suicide, serious allegations. how damaging is this? and how are the newspapers responding to all of this? >> this is hugely damaging to the royal family. and i think it will take them some time to really wade through that entire interview for the palace to formulate a plan to what they're going to the and what they're going to say. usually they have something of a no comment policy, but i would expect them to comment on what were some really serious allegations. meghan saying she felt suicidal at times, that she asked the institution for help but received none. also, this suggestion there was a conversation between prince harry and a member of the royal family, unnamed, about how concerns of how dark the skin of their unborn child might be. absolutely extraordinary claims. we also, rosemary, got an insight into the relationship prince harry has with the rest of the royal family, a fraught relationship with his brother prince william and his father, prince charles. take a listen to this part. >> when we were in canada, i had three conversations with my grandmother, and two conversations with my father before he stopped taking my calls. and i said can you put this all in writing, what your plan is? >> so clearly prince harry also feels somewhat isolated there. interestingly, both prince harry and meghan both had lots of great things to say about her majesty the queen, and harry says he speaks more to her now than he has done in years. in terms of how the tabloids are reacting to it, it's quite interesting. they've put out several editions overnight. several had an edition halfway through the interview and released additional ones at 3:00 a.m. i can show you some of them. there have been so many editions through the night. daily mail, meghan accuses palace of racism. they asked how dark archie's skin would be, and the sun is going with meg, i felt suicidal. these are tabloid papers that the duke and duchess have taken issue with many times in the past, often with legal battles. meghan has been victorious and won against the mail on sunday. they're going to profit from these insights from this interview, from this publicity, but at least from the couple's point of view, they are able to control the narrative, at least for today. rosemary? >> indeed. anna stewart joining us live from windsor. many thanks for that. so let's bring in cnn royal commentator, kate williams. she joins us from london. thank you so much for talking with us. >> germany. >> and of course, in this shocking tell-all interview, meghan reveals she felt suicidal. the royal family had concerns about archie's skin color, denied him a title and security and so much more. what was your reaction to this bombshell interview? >> well, in was, as you say, a bombshell interview. it was their truth, their story, and it was a story we hadn't heard. and we realized how many falsehoods, how many false stories have been spread, particularly about meghan, but also about the couple. and really, you have a situation in which one of the early revelations that they were actually secretly married before the royal wedding fell by the wayside because so much was talked about. oprah began with a wonderful wedding pictures. and it really showed us what has happened here. we have this fantastic wedding with all the covering at cnn, a beautiful day, and i personally was really hoping that the racist coverage we had seen before the wedding was going to stop. now it actually got worse. and this wonderful wedding, the biracial, the black woman in the family, it looked like the future modernizing, it is now a crisis for the royal family because there are serious allegations just as you and anna was saying, the serious allegations that meghan felt suicidal while she was pregnant in a very painful mirroring diana felt suicidal when she was pregnant with harry and no one would help her. meghan longed for treatment. she was told you can't, it will make the institution look bad. at the sim time suffering this, there are conversations going on in which archie was not to be given a title of prince because he hasn't got the title of prince, he wouldn't get security which of course was terrifying for them. racist memes were circulating about archie even before he was born. and there was this royal family member who asked about archie's skin color. and these are really very serious. this was a couple who told their story, and it was one of being completely unsupported in the royal family. harry said if we had support, we would still be there. ie, they wouldn't have stepped back. so if they had the support, and that was both emotional support for them, support for meghan and her mental health, but particularly support against the british press, the british tabloids who harry was desperately defending meghan, but no one was, as he put it, call the dogs off, stop attacking her. we saw this unfair coverage that other royal women have done from closing car doors to eating avocados to wearing one-strap dresses, that was fine for other women but meghan was a tacked for. really it was made clear that harry and meghan felt they did everything they could to stay inside the royal family, and it was impossible. so these are the questions where was the support? what about meghan's mental health, what about these question, these racist questions about archie. and really, how were -- how were they treated? and the fact was everyone was so excited. it was the future of the royal family, and in less than two years they had to flee. and clearly in this interview, they explained why. and it was shocking and very moving and they were obviously very brave to tell their story and to speak out in the way they did. >> and that's the big question, isn't it? because this is such a repeat situation to what happened to the late princess diana. and they're going to need to address this. the royal family will need to put out some sort of response because these allegations are so serious. it's not usually their way. but how would they do that? would they simply deny, which is obviously an option? or will they explain? >> well, what we will see is a situation in which i think they'll have to think about this. no one knew what was going to be in the interview. no early copies were released. so they didn't know. and we had last week a lot of stories about meghan, a lot of story, sometimes 40, 50 stories on individual news site, and some of these are coming from palace sources. there was the sudden allegations that meghan had -- that was kamgs saying that hitting back for what meghan would say. but really, she didn't have that much to say about individual palace staff. this is a bigger question. and i think the royal family really are going to are to engage with this. they do speak back. they have issued statements, the statement issued in support of prince andrew saying he was at a loss to explain jeffrey epstein's lifestyle, which is a strange way of putting jeffrey epstein's criminal activities and statements put out in support of many members in the royal family. and i think that there will have to be a question of a statement, perhaps a letter. harry and meghan were very careful throughout. they heaped praise on the queen. but other members of the royal family, it wasn't quite so clear. and i think certainly people are asking these questions is clearly harry and meghan suffered very greatly, and this has got to be answered for. and the model of the royal family, the working mod of the royal family was really i think a disaster for them. >> yeah. >> i think we will see the royal family making answer through sources, and i think there may be some kind of statement made in the next few weeks, but not immediately, because this is something that i think they were not expecting. >> this will certainly dominate the front pages of the paper for a few days to come, if maybe not even weeks. we'll see whether pressure is brought to bear for some sort of royal response. kate williams, many thanks for joining us. appreciate it. well, here in the united states, as falling covid case numbers begin to plateau, health experts are worried about the spread of the variant first identified in the uk. it's already reached at least 46 states and the u.s. capitol. one infectious disease expert says the strain is increasing exponentially and the country is probably on the tipping point of another surge. despite that threat, governors in several states are easing restrictions, including mask wearing and reopening restaurants. and with less than 10% of the population fully vaccinated, top health officials are wary of the rollbacks saying case numbers need to come down further before states can begin to reopen. >> reporter: over the past week and a half or so, we've seen that decline has now done this, essentially starting to plateau. and historically, if you look back at the different surges we've had, when they come down and then start to plateau at a very high level, plateauing at a level of 60 to 70,000 new cases per day is not an acceptable level. that is really very high. >> dr. larry brilliant is an epidemiologist. he joins me now from mill valley in california. thank you, doctor, for talking with us and future all that you do. >> thank you, rosemary. thanks for having me on. irs absolutely. of course we know the race to vaccinate is intensifying in the united states with 2.4 million shots administered since saturday. but at the same time we are seeing lots of super spreader events with spring break and easter still to come. as well we're seeing texas and mississippi lifting mask mandates and covid restrictions and variants also in the mix there. so where do you see all of this going? could it contribute to a forth wave of covid? >> it's a race. you mentioned texas and florida and spring break and easter and memorial day, and i'll add fourth of july, all on one side of the equation. on the other side, it's only a year since this novel virus jumped from a bat to a human being, and we're already in the middle of a huge roll-out of almost magical vaccines. and there is a lot to be grateful for. we will, kind of get the numbers up in the united states and the uk. i'm really about the rest of the world. i do think that there is the risk of a fourth wave. last year around this time we were plateauing. this time we're plateauing. we're still going into an easier holiday season. because it's summerish and people are outdoors. but last year we were clobbered by memorial day and fourth of july poor behavior. if that happens, and the variants play an important part, we'll see a fourth wave now. in addition, we have to really protect ourselves against that happening in the fall. we have the vaccines on our side. we have a better administration. we're getting better at a loft things. but it's going to be a close call, this race we're in. >> yeah, we have to learn our lessons. each time we've been through this, we keep going through the same thing. so as more people become confident about taking the covid vaccine, "the wall street journal" is reporting that russian intelligence agencies have launched an online disinformation campaign to undermine public confidence in western vaccines being used in the u.s. and in europe and elsewhere. what is your advice to people who might be influenced by this disinformation? >> what i would say to people who get caught up in it is we have three great vaccines. we used to say at google that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. these vaccines are indistinguishable from magic. they're good. they're safe. they will keep you out of the icu, out of the hospital, and out of the morgue. we shouldn't be deterred by the kind of craziness that's coming from russia right now. >> such an important message. and doctor, big picture. where do you see this fight against covid-19 going in the united states and globally in the next three to six months? >> i'm a little worried. not that the biden administration is underperforming. they're overperforming. i'm a little concerned that we bought into this idea that when we get a vaccine, it will be rainbows and unicorns and then we'll hit herd immunity, and all will be well. but we will not get to herd immunity. at least not mathematical immunity in the united states. we certainly won't get to it in the world. there is going to be three, four billion people in the world who will not get a vaccine, or not get sufficient of the two vaccines if that's the case for two or three years. that's going to be hundreds of millions of more cases, more mutations, more variants. more variants are concerned. we haven't yet seen a syrian variant of concern. we haven't yet seen one from zimbabwe or broken countries. i'm worried that we will get ricochetting back to us variants that will overwhelm the vaccines. and i would say to my friends all over the world, this is the one time in my life we're being selfish and being generous and being moral and ethical and smart are all the same thing. we have to get enough vaccine to every country in the world so that none of them have the circumstances that create these variants and especially these scariants. because if they're scary in one place, they're scary in all places. >> so important. let's hope that happens. dr. larry brilliant, always great to get your guidance on all things medical. many thanks. >> thank you again for having me. you are watching "cnn newsroom." still to come, new york governor andrew cuomo is speaking out after lawmakers called for his resignation. the new allegations against him. that's just ahead. plus, justice for george floyd. we will get the latest from minneapolis with the murder trial about to begin for the ex-cop accused in floyd's death. but, when grease and limescale build up, it's not as hygienic as you think. use finish dishwasher cleaner its dual-action formula tackles grease and limescale. finish. clean dishwasher. clean dishes. introducing the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it's the most comfortable, 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unappropriate conduct. >> there is some legislators who suggest that i resign because of accusations that are made against me. the -- i was elected by the people of the state. i wasn't elected by politicians. i'm not going resign because of allegations. anybody has the ability to make an allegation in democracy, and that's great. but it's then the credibility of the allegation, no, there is no way i resign. >> the state's senate majority leader is among key democrats calling for cuomo's resignation, despite his vow to stay in office. she told cnn in a statement, quote, new york is still in the mitsubishi of this pandemic and is still facing societal, health and economic impacts of it. we need to governor without daily distraction. for the good of the state governor, cuomo must resign. at least four women accuse cuomo of behavior ranging from sexual harassment to unwanted advances. the latest is former staffer anna lis. she tells "the wall street journal" that the governor, quote, asked her if she had a boyfriend, called her sweetheart, touched her on her lower back at a reception, and once kissed her hand when she rose from her desk. cnn has reached out to liss for comment. governor cuomo has apologized for making people feel uncomfortable, but denies toughing people inappropriately. jury selection begin just hours from now in the trial of the ex-police officer accused of murdering george floyd. officials in minneapolis expect to see more protests during the trial. cnn's omar jimenez looks at how they're preparing inside and outside the courtroom. >> no justice, no peace. >> derrick chauvin seen kneeling on the neck of george floyd for nearly eight excruciating minutes. he is standing trial for unintentional second degree murder and second manslaughter. the first carrying a weight up to 40 years in prison if convicted. his family remains at the center of it all, balancing grief at wait of a trial. including closing the intersection where some of floyd's final moments played out, leaving it as a central grieving point as it was in the immediate aftermath of his death. >> we fully expect our minneapolis residents to engage in the time honored tradition of their first amendment rights and speech. we want to make sure that that right to protest is protected in every way, shape and form. >> but what some protests over the summer devolved into is still fresh on the minds of city officials. it's why they say to expect an increase law enforcement presence over the next weeks, even months with up to 2,000 national guard prepared to respond. >> we cannot allow for any sorts of unlawful activity. not to mention the physical barriers going up around the government center where the trial will be taking place. then there is covid-19 protocol. chauvin will be the only of the four former officers on trial this spring with judge peter kayhill citing physical limitations of the courtroom make it impossible to comply with covid-19 physical restrictions in a joint trial involving all four defendants beginning march 8th, 2021. given the number of lawyers and support personnel, the parties have now advised the court are expected to be present during the trial. the judge says it's the largest courtroom they have. tied to that, only one member of the chauvin family and one member of the floyd family will be allowed in the courtroom at a time. a decision the floyd family called disappointing. >> the video is enough. there is nothing else to talk about. you can make a judgment off of that, because chauvin showed you he was the judge, the jury and executioner all at once, right then and there when he took my brother's soul from his body. >> reporter: and with jury selection beginning march 8th, opening statements weeks later, a country watches as a test of police accountability gets under way, which many see as a major step toward justice for george floyd. >> cnn's omar jimenez with that report. with the nearly $2 trillion u.s. stimulus bill still has some hurdles before it's a done deal. michigans of americans are waiting for relief. so why did one democratic senator hold up his own party's bill? plus schools in england are reopening. we will have a live report and hear from students who are going back to the classroom for the first time in months. we're back in just a moment. first time in months. welcome back, everyone. our top story this hour, the duke and duchess of sussex making some shocking claims about the british royal family in a tell-all interview with oprah winfrey. their overarching message, that they stepped back from their senior roles because they didn't feel supported by the royals. at one point, meghan said life had become so isolating and lonely for her inside the family that she contemplated suicide. meghan also claims her son archie was denied a royal title and security. >> but the idea of our son not being safe and also the idea of the first member of color in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be. >> meghan's story of her rude awakening to life in the british royal family is one many have heard before, specifically, from the late diana princess of wales. cnn's richard quest discusses some of the parallels between the two. >> this is diana redux. this is diana who -- meghan admits she wasn't helped when she came into the family. she wasn't told anything about protocol or how to handle anything. that's what happened with diana. meghan admits that self-harming was very much on her mind. that's what happened with diana. diana threw herself down the stairs. diana suffered from bulimia. and so we end up with a situation where you turn around and say has this family learned nothing? and i think the key to this is what meghan said right at the beginning. it dawned on her after she was the family that this isn't just a family of celebrities. this isn't just a famous family. this is an institution. >> so far no reaction from buckingham palace. well, england is one step closer to getting back to prepandemic normality. school is now back in session. it is the first of several stages as officials gradually ease restrictions. prime minister boris johnson attributes the, quote, determination of every person in this country for the progress. >> the 8th of march is the first big step of the road map -- that we hope is a road map to freedom. and it's made possible by the roll-out of the vaccination program. >> isa soares is atom tallis school in london. good to see you. what has been the reaction to schools reopening in england and what are all the students saying about it? >> very good morning to you. it is 8:30 here in london. people now starting to make their way to school. many of them no doubt excited to be coming back after two months of home schooling. parents, perhaps some of them put w a teardrop in their eyes and some of them probably quite euphoric to be done with home schooling to be completely honest with you. but i'm here in the media class. i've got two students from year 13. i want to get a sense what it's like to be them here after two months of lockdown. i've got catherine and i've got poppy. catherine, let me start with you. how are you feeling being back after two months of being home schooled? >> it's quite like a weird feeling. like you're excited, you're nervous. it's kind of a mixture of both, but i've missed all my friends. i'm excited more than anything. so, yeah. >> happy to be back. what with you, poppy? of course you're coming back and school structure is very different in terms of one-way corridor, hand sanitizers, you can see masks. but you also have testing. talk to us about that. >> we are getting tested twice a week, which i guess it's a necessary kind of thing, because obviously we want to be -- we want to stay in school this time. we want this to be the last lockdown wave. but it's quite uncomfortable. we have to put it up our nose and on our tonsils. yeah, it's -- we're going to get used to it. >> do you think you'll feel used to it? i know you've had your covid-19 test. you had it yesterday you saying to me, on friday. but then you're going to have to do your own test back home about two or three weeks. how do you feel about doing your own covid testing? >> it's a weird feeling because as i said, you're touching your tonsils and everything. i'm a bit apprehensive if that makes sense because obviously you have to make sure you do it properly, because that could be jeopardizing someone else's health. so i'm a bit nervous on that part. but for the most part i'm doing my part. so i'm nervous because i want to do it properly. but at the same time me doing this test could potentially save somebody. it's weighing the options. >> and being the first time seeing friends and school and wanting to hug them almost and not being able to. that feeling too, poppy? >> i still haven't gotten over that still going in to hug people. almost a year into when the lockdown was put in place. but, you know, it's always in the back of your mind. but it's going to be -- i've seen a few of my friends already, and it's really exciting. it's really odd almost, you know. it's been quite uncertain for the last couple of months. it's nice to see them again. i'm hoping it lasts. >> i think everyone, i think the feeling for parents and peeps and teachers is hoping that it lasts. let's talk about home schooling. do you feel at all, katherine, that you have fallen behind in your studies? we're talking about two months of lockdown. we've been over a year now with covid-19. this is your last year of secondary school. how damaging do you think things have been for your studies? >> i don't think it's been damaging at all because we have a team lesson, and they're very engaging. for me, i'm easily distracted. so some things they do like my social teacher, for example, she has color background. so you're always engaged with her because you're seeing color. and they make sure that if you don't understand something, sorry, that they go over it multiple times. and they always email you the resource sheets. so it's not like you're falling behind. it's just they want to make sure you're engaged so they know that you're paying attention. so obviously if -- make sure you pay attention, but talking to you on the microphone, they say okay, i haven't heard from you in a while, catherine, can you make sure you're still here. constantly saying are you here, you see what i'm doing? >> making sure to draw you, in to keep your attention all the time. >> yeah. >> catherine, poppy, thanks very much. a sense excitement to be back, but also hoping that it lasts this time around. we've been here before when schools were open and then quickly closed. but like you heard from boris johnson, this is part of his slow but cautious road map out of lockdown. and like him, they too are hoping it stays. rosemary? >> they clearly are determined to make this work this time around. isa soares, many things. great to hear from those two young women. well, americans could start seeing fresh stimulus checks arrive as soon as this week. that's if the house approves the senate's version of the relief package on tuesday as expected, and then it's quickly signed by president joe biden. ron brownstein is a cnn senior political analyst and senior editor for the "atlantic." he joins me now from los angeles. great to have you with us. >> hi, rosemary. >> so president biden's covid relief package cleared the senate without any republican support saturday. now it's heading back to the house for a vote tuesday. how likely is it that it will pass this week? and how imperative is it that this gets done, and done fast? >> i think it will pass. and it is kind of extraordinary. if you compare this to the economic plans that bill clinton put forward in his first year in 1993, barack obama in 2009, even george w. bush in 2001, this is probably passing much closer to the original design than any of those. there was just enormous drama, widespread defection in the democratic party in '93 and '09. bush was forced to cut his tax plan by a quarter big, 25% because of defections from a few republicans. and here for all the kind of maneuvering and minute-by-minute focus that we had, many the end joe biden proposed a $1.9 trillion which is extraordinary package, and the congress is going to pass a $1.9 trillion package. it really is a statement of how both imperative the need, but also how much the democratic party is holding together at least at the outset of his presidency. >> yeah. and at the same time, how does this all look for republicans who didn't get on board with helping people? they don't feel much of the pain that other americans are feeling during this pandemic, so they can't begin to understand what people are going through. how much of a barrier is that disconnect for a party already struggling with its own identity? >> to me the most interesting part of the republican response so to this is what didn't happen. if you look back at the earlier examples that i mentioned, clinton in '93, obama in '09, the initial economic plan was part of a backlash that republicans were able to generate against the new administration, basically arguing that it was big government gone crazy, spending gone crazy. none of that happened. what was happening last week as the congress was approving a $1.9 trillion spending plan, the lead republican in the house was reading dr. suess on twitter and complaining that he was a victim of cancel culture. and it basically to me underscores the extent to which big government have lost a lot of their sting, particularly against the backdrop of this pandemic and all the economic and social strain that it is created. republicans i think, it's not that they're doomed in 2022, but i think it is pretty clear from these last few weeks they still haven't found a clear line of argument that they want to pursue against this biden administration. >> right. and while all this is happening, republicans are working hard at the federal and state level to reduce access to voting and seemed to have the supreme court on board. how much of these proposed voting changes and limitations are necessary? and how much of it is about blocking the voting rights of black americans and other democratic voters? >> look, i think if you look at this in its totality, 43 states with legislation introduced, several that are moving very aggressively, this is the most sustained widespread and aggressive attack on americans' right to vote since the passage of the voting rights act in 1965 ended the jim gcrow laws in the segregated south. other than what the democrats do on covid, have i written and strongly believe the most important choice they face are whether they are willing to curtail or end the filibuster in the senate in order to pass a nationwide base lynn of voting rights. because without it, it is pretty clear that the red states are going to take extraordinary steps to reduce access to the ballot, particularly for younger and nonwhite voters, rooting all of this in former trump's discredited claims of fraud. the house of representatives has already passed a very comprehensive bill guaranteeing americans access to the ballot in a lot of different ways, early voting, mail voting, automatic voter registration. there are almost certainly 50 votes for that in the nsenate. the question is whether they'll will be willing to roll back the filibuster. something happened today in the u.s. joe manchin, the most conservatives of the democrats suggested very clearly that he would be open to at least reforming the fill buster in a way this could allow the democrats to pass more of their agenda than seemed possible a week ago when mitch mcconnell filibusters were kind of lining up like ships coming into party. >> we'll see where all of that goes. ron brownstein, always a pleasure to chat with you. many thanks. >> thanks for having me. still ahead, pope francis leaves iraq after a remarkable visit. what the historic trip accomplished. we'll take a look at that in a live report. lements— neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. wanna build a gaming business that breaks the internet? that means working night and day... ...and delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. your books are all set. so you can finally give john some attention. trusted experts. guaranteed accurate books. intuit quickbooks live. all of that extra toilet paper was a good idea, but now you've flushed it all. and it's building up in your septic tank. but monthly usage of rid-x is scientifically proven to break down waste. maintain your septic tank with rid-x. well, right now pope francis is returning home from iraq after saying farewell at baghdad international airport just a short time ago. it was the first ever papal visit to the country, and there were some heartfelt moments over the past four days such as on sunday when the pope visited a church that isis had tried to destroy in a northern christian town near mosul. ben wedeman has been following the visit from irbil. ben, the hope has left iraq. what all did he achieve on this visit? and were all the risks wto it in the end? >> it was definitely worth it i think, rosemary. in terms of what it achieved, many the short-term what it really achieved was that it shows that iraq is not the country that many people believe of constant violence and bloodshed. his four-day trip went off without a single hitch. everywhere he went, he was met by enthusiastic crowds, happy to see the sort of papal visit that so many other countries see without any incident. and therefore think about it. i was looking it up this morning. the median age in iraq is 21. you would have to be more than 40 to have actually experienced life in iraq without war, without terrorism, without sanctions, without general instability and uncertainty in your life. and to see this visit come off without any problems along the way is quite spectacular. now his two main missions on this trip was one, excuse me, to build bridges with the muslim world. he was successful in that in the sense that he did -- was able to have a rare private meeting with the grand ayatollah al sistani, one of the leading authorities of shia islam there has been some criticism that he did not spend an equal amount of focus and time with representatives of sunni islam. that's perhaps the one thing that might not have gone down completely well with everybody here in iraq. the other part of his mission was to express support and solidarity with iraq's dwindling christian community which back in 2003 was around 1.5 million. now perhaps 300,000. in that he was wildly successful. it was a huge ego boost for a community that like the yazidis, like many muslims as well suffered intensely over the last few decades. now question is will people start, christians start to return to iraq? that's not necessarily sure. in fact it's unlikely given the circumstances. but it was an opportunity for all iraqis regardless of their religions to enjoy four days of very happy, upbeat coverage on television after decades of bad news. rosemary? >> indeed. it's good to hear it was a success. there was a little bit of concern in the lead up to it. but many thanks to ben wedeman joining us there. and we'll be right back. rely on the experts at 1800petmeds for the same medications as the vet, but for less with fast free shipping. visit petmeds.com today. welcome back, everyone. well , swiss applies to nearly all public places including shop, restaurants, transport, walking on the streets and in the countryside. the only exceptions are places of worship and other sacred sites. and for those with health or safety reasons. the controversial proposal narrowly passed with just over 51% support. many religious, civic and government organizations have criticized the proposal which will now be law. they're calling it anti-muslim. well, hundreds of migrants who have been stuck in limbo in a squalid mexican camp near the u.s. border finally have a chance at a new life. under donald trump's policies, they had to stay in mexico before they were allowed immigration hearings in the u.s. but under president biden, many of their claims are now being processed. stefano poseban has the details. >> reporter: camping in matamoros, mexico meters away from the u.s. southern border has been taken down in a clear departure from trump era policies on immigration. under those policies, hundreds of migrants would have to wait in mexico for the confirmation hearing to know whether there will be allowed entry into the united states. a spokesperson for the department of homeland security told cnn that the last remaining migrants in the camp were being relocated to more secure locations in partnership with international ngos, and that other 25,000 migrants are still waiting to know whether they will be allowed entry into the united states. this is the same migrant camp that democratic lawmakers had previously visited, condemning the trump administration handling of immigration, which included kicking families of families, including women and children back into the camp and the poor conditions there. for cnn, this bogota. >> and thanks for joining us. i'm rosemary church. i'll be back with more news in just a moment. do stay with us. with mucinex nightshift you've got powerful relief from your worst nighttime cold and flu symptoms. so grab nightshift to fight your symptoms, get your zzz's... and get back to your rhythm. feel the power. beat the symptoms fast. see every delivery... every yikes... and even every awwwwwwww... wait, where was i? introducing self protection from xfinity. designed to put you in control. with real-time notification and a week of uninterrupted recording... all powered by reliable, secure wifi from xfinity. gotta respect his determinatio. it's easy and affordable to get started. get self protection for $10 a month. hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states. just ahead, a stunning interview as harry and meghan drop bombshell after bombshell in their highly anticipated sitdown with oprah winfrey. a top health official says the united states is in the eye of the hurricane with the coronaviru