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controversial oil pipeline is firing people up. live from cnn headquarters in atlanta welcome to all of you watching here in the united states, canada and around the world, i'm kim brunhuber, this is "cnn newsroom." ♪ new details are emerging about the deadly shootings at three massage partners here in metro atlanta. the 21-year-old suspect accused of killing eight people on tuesday is now in jail facing eight counts of murder, police say it's too early to know a motive. six of the victims were asian although officials say the violence may not have been racially motivated. president biden spoke about the tragedy. >> i'm very concerned because, as you know, i've been speaking about the brutality against asian-americans for the last couple months and i think it is very, very troubling, but i'm making no connection at this moment to the motivation of the killer, i'm waiting for an answer from -- as the investigation proceeds, from the fbi and from the justice department. and that's -- so i will have more to say when the investigation is completed. >> cnn's natasha chen is following the latest on the invest investigation. >> do you have a description of him, ma'am? >> reporter: that quiet plea came from a woman hiding in one of three spas in the atlanta area where by the end of tuesday night eight people were dead and one injured. the killing spree in which most of the victims were asian-american women happened in the span of just a few hours. the suspect told investigators he had no racial motivation, but that he targeted what he felt were temptations. a former roommate told cnn he was deeply religious and felt tortured and distraught by his sexual addiction. another roommate said he had spent time in rehab for sex addiction and spent time in a transition house. law enforcement sources told cnn the suspect purchased the gun he used this week. one source said nothing in his background would have prevented the purchase. at 5:00 p.m. tuesday night cherokee county deputies were called to the young's massage about 50 miles north of atlanta. four people died at that location. an hour later 911 dispatch received calls from spas across from one another. >> is it a male or female? >> [ inaudible ]. >> they have a gun he said? >> reporter: they found three asian women found at the gold spa. ten minutes later this call resulted in first responders finding one asian woman dead there. >> some guy came in and shoot the gun, so everybody heard the gunshots and some ladies got hurt, i think so. everybody's scared so they're hiding. >> reporter: police said the suspect's family called in to help identify him from surveillance images. they tracked him cellphone 150 miles south of atlanta in crisp county state troopers intercepted him. investigators believe he was headed to florida to make similar attacks. while the suspect told investigators this attack was prompted by his sexual addiction -- >> i am taking that with a grain of salt. this is a man who murdered eight people in cold blood, so it's very difficult to believe what he says. i will leave it up to the prosecutors to determine what other appropriate charges may be warranted as it relates to hate crimes, but it's very difficult to ignore that the asian community is once again been targeted. >> reporter: whether or not this is called a hate crime, the asian-american community says the fear is real. >> i think there is an enormous amount of fear and anxiety particularly in that this crime that was not necessarily committed based on race at least based on what we know so far but that it was six asian-american women shot and killed yesterday in light of the broader context where we've seen a spike in discrimination, hate and violence against asian-americans across this country. >> reporter: the mayor of houston has asked police to increase patrols near homes and businesses in houston's asian-american community. similar resources are being dee cloid in seattle and new york city. in atlanta people continue to come to the spa building upon memorials for the women who went to work on tuesday never knowing that they would never return home to their families. natasha chen, cnn, atlanta. there was a seoul survivor of the shootings, a 30-year-old man, he was hit by a bullet outside one of the massage parlours north of the city. in a heartbreaking interview his daughter says she's anxious for him to come home and recover. >> i don't really know what to do. i try to calm myself down. when we called over there they told us that he was very lucky. he is a really good father, i don't want him to go. >> her father is still in the hospital and is said to be in stable condition. america's top infectious disease expert says real world data show that covid vaccines are working to slow the pandemic. during a white house coronavirus briefing on wednesday dr. anthony fauci pointed to the success of israel's vaccination program. he said the pfizer vaccine administered there has been up to 94% effective but getting enough doses out to americans is still a challenge, especially with the rise of new variants. we get the latest from cnn's alexandra field. >> reporter: the urgency to get as many people vaccinated as possible is growing as the cdc officially labels five strains of the virus already detected in the u.s. as variants of concern, meaning they could be more transmissible and perhaps less treatable. >> we are in a race to stop transmission and the emergence of variants that spread more easily has made that even more challenging. >> reporter: president joe biden now pushing more americans to get their shots. >> i just don't understand this sort of macho thing about i'm not going to get the vaccine, i have a right as an american, my freedom to not do it. why don't you be a patriot and o protect other people. >> reporter: a slow down of vaccinations in europe with 16 countries pausing their use of the astrazeneca vaccine, citing concerns over a small number of reported blood clots, despite no known link between the clots and the vaccine. the world health organization said the benefits of the vaccine outweigh any risks. dr. anthony fauci taking a similar position. >> the actual incidence of the clotting is not more than you would expect in the population in the absence of vaccine. so that's why they are insisting that the concern is not founded on the reality of what's gone on. >> reporter: astrazeneca has not yet applied for manual use authorization here in the u.s. some promising news on the vaccination front, an israeli study not yet peer reviewed showed vaccinated pregnant w women -- 22% of the u.s. population nearly 74 million people have received one vaccine dose already. 12% of the population nearly 40 million people are fully vaccinated. but there are worrying signs of the possibility of another surge. >> it's going to be a close call. we are vaccinating really well, that's the good news. these variants are spreading pretty quickly across the country, that's the bad news. >> reporter: nationally new cases remain down overall, but 14 states are reporting a week tweak increase of nor than 12%, delaware, montana and alabama posting gains of more than 30% with michigan leading the way, cases there up a whopping 53% since last week. >> i do think the next six to eight weeks could be rough. >> reporter: spring breakers are flooding beaches and bars in some cities, that's worrying to health officials, combined with st. patrick's day parties. the cdc hasn't issued updated travel guidance for people who are fully vaccinated. >> we're revisiting the travel question. >> there's already a new record stretch of air travel during the pandemic. according to the tsa more than 7 million people flying in the last six days. >> reporter: and while we can expect new guidance on travel from the cdc, the cdc is also saying that they should soon be putting out new guidance for schools. they're currently looking at studies that show the effectiveness of reducing physical distancing from six feet to three feet. it could go a long way toward president biden's goal of getting the majority of schools back open. in new york, alexandra field, cnn. we're now learning the biden administration is considering sending some doses of the astrazeneca vaccine to mexico and canada. the vaccine is still going through clinical trials in the u.s. and the company hasn't yet applied for emergency use authorization. that means tens of millions of doses are stockpiled waiting for approval. both countries have made a request for doses and mexico says an agreement to get them could come as soon as friday. later today european drug regulators will announce the results of an emergency review of the astrazeneca vaccine. so for the latest from europe, let's bring in cnn's jim bittermann outside of pairing and cyril vanier. jim, what are we expecting to hear and regardless of what they say you can't help but wonder if the image has already been done. >> reporter: it certainly looks that way. in fact, the european medicine agency is expected to approve astrazeneca because of incidents of blood clots are just not high enough as dr. fauci indicated there. so as a consequence the suspension has had the unforeseen -- also of spreading the idea that astrazeneca is somehow inadequate. in a poll taken right after the announcement of the suspension on monday 20% of the french said they have no faith in the astrazeneca vaccine. so as a consequence that skepticism and there's already been a lot of skepticism about vaccines in france, is something that's likely to build here and it's at a time when cases are spiking. overnight tuesday they were 29,000 new cases in this country and overnight last night 38,000 new ones. so it is a growing problem, they're depending on vaccines like astrazeneca to combat it and if the public is skeptical about it that's a whole other story, kim. >> absolutely right. cyril, let's go to you now. so the uk's vaccine rollout has been held up as a success story, especially when you compare it to what's happening in the eu and now just like the eu getting hit by a supply issue here. what's going on? >> reporter: >> cyril might not be able to hear us. cyril, can you hear us? >> reporter: i apologize, the audio dropped. but i can see you with a slight delay. i am going to address, however, your question about vaccine delays here in the uk and what has happened is that a letter was sent by the government to the state-run health service announcing that the supply of vaccines in the uk was going to be, quote, severely constrained starting at the end of this month and that, therefore, no new appointments should be made for the month of april. ironically, this comes as the uk has been doing extremely well with its vaccination rollout so far, it's been a huge success, and today we found out -- yesterday we found out that 25 million people, adults, had been vaccinated, that is almost half of the british adult population, making it one of the fastest and most successful vaccine rollouts in the world on par with countries like israel. it's already had a tremendous effect because three months ago the uk was deep into a third wave with almost 60,000 new infections a day. that number now down to 5,000. that progress is the result of a strict lockdown for the last three months as well as a speedy vaccination campaign. it's worth noting that 90% of people here who are deemed extremely vulnerable to covid had been vaccinated and that the government still believes it can meet its target of offering a dose of either pfizer or astrazeneca to all over 50s by mid-april. really what's going to happen is now for the under 50s there's going to be a delay in vaccination starting next month. >> got it. all right. thank you so much. glad you were able to hear us in the end. cyril vanier in london and jim bidder man near paris. a severe weather outbreak targets several states. the u.s. and south korea are reaffirming their goal to denuclearize the korean peninsula. why the u.s. is calling on china to help. a live report next. stay with us. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen... painful. emerge tremfyant™ with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. tremfya® is also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™ janssen can help you explore cost support options. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken and defense secretary lloyd austin met a short time ago with south koreas president. it's their last stop that's mainly focused on china and south korea. the top u.s. official says china could play a kritel role in achieving denuclearization on the peninsula. >> beijing has an interest, a clear self-interest, in helping to pursue the denuclearization of the dprk because it is a source of instability, it's a source of danger and obviously a threat to us and our partners, but china has a real interest in helping to deal with this. it also has an obligation under the u.n. security council resolutions to implement fully the sanctions that the international community has agreed. >> let's bring in cnn's paula hancocks who is in seoul. paula, what's the latest? bring us up to speed here. >> reporter: well, kim, secretary blinken and secretary austin have just met with the south korean president moon jae-in to talk about north korea but also clearly about china. what we've seen over the past couple of days really is secretary blinken has a bit of a balancing act. he has been quite condemning of china, criticizing what he calls the acting more repressively at home, more aggressively abroad, but then as you heard secretary blinken speaking there he also knows that the u.s. needs china if they are to try and stop the nuclear missile program of north korea. one other thing that we haven't really heard when it comes to north korea recently was secretary blinken talking about the human rights record. this has been pushed to one side in recent years, so that's something that they're looking at once again. now, we did hear the president moon jae-in saying that he welcomes the return of diplomacy and alliances when he met with the two vips, something that joe biden, the president, was hoping was going to be on his first day of becoming president, to reinvigorate those alliances around the world which he believed that the previous administration had let go. now, secretary blinken will be leaving and heading to alaska where he will be meeting with his chinese counterpart. this is the first time of such a high level contact between the u.s. and china since president biden took control so it will be very interesting to hear what they say and what is decided. there are three meetings over an afternoon and evening and then the next morning, although we have already heard from the chinese ambassador to the u.s. saying that he doesn't have high expectations for the meeting, but hopes that they can at least meet halfway. kim? >> that china meeting promises to be as fraught as it is fascinating. thanks so much, paula hancocks, in seoul, south korea. appreciate it. police say they've arrested a man just outside vice president kamala harris' official residence. washington, d.c. police say they've charged a 31-year-old man from san antonio, texas, and they've recovered a rifle and unregistered ammunition from his car. a secret service official says none of the people they were guarding were at the residence when this happened. severe weather has swept across several southeast states wednesday with terrifying moments caught on tape. watch this. >> oh, boy. >> damage has been reported across alabama. officials will be determining just how many storms may have produced tornadoes and it wasn't just alabama, tornadoes believed to have caused this damage in neighboring mississippi. pedram, frightening stuff and i'm hoping it doesn't swing through this way. what's the latest? >> yeah, kim, i was just looking at that carefully here in the last few minutes and good news is the atmosphere for portions of the state of georgia as this system approaches the state of georgia is stabilizing a little bit. as you noted, showed the video, it has had a history of producing violent storms and tornadoes. the initial estimates bring down at least 21 reports of tornadoes, that number will be fine tuned within the next few hours. at least 50-plus severe wind gusts which at times we are talking about near hurricane force gusts reported with these storms and of course widespread large damaging hail in place. climatologically you begin to see the rapid rise, the numbers going up to 78 tornadoes for the month of march up to 100 more to 178 for the month of april on average and almost another 100 more going into the month of may as well. so here is what we're looking at here with tornado watches still in effect through 7:00 in the morning local time, includes portions of western georgia, southern alabama and the western periphery of the panhandle of florida. this line of storms still unstable enough to produce lightning strikes, but no tornado warnings at this hour. we do expect with the after noon heating as the system migrates farther towards the east we have the severe weather threat return especially around coastal regions of the carolinas, a level four on a scale of 1 to 5, serious concern continues this afternoon. >> we will be following it. thanks so much. you are watching "cnn newsroom." coming up, we've been hearing about concerns in europe over the astrazeneca vaccine but asian countries aren't sharing those worries. we will show you how their vaccine rollouts are going. plus the u.s. fed predict an economic boom for this year but it will come with higher prices. the forecast and wall street's reaction ahead. - grammarly business helps my company build higher performing sales teams. since simon's team started using grammarly business to sharpen their writing, we've closed more deals. learn more at grammarly.com/business. it's moving day. and while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours? ...delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. welcome back to all of you watching here in the u.s., canada and around the world, i'm kim brunhuber and you're watching "cnn newsroom." even though many european nations have sus