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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 suspended using the astrazeneca covid vaccine out of concern about possible side effects, several asian countries aren't hesitating. the world health organization says the vaccine's benefits outweigh its risks and at least one asian leader is taking the w.h.o. at its word. >> reporter: to the sound of snapping cameras thailand's prime minister becomes the first person in the country to get astrazeneca's covid-19 vaccine. his shot in the arm kicks off its use across the nation. >> translator: i've been ready to get vaccinated for quite a while. i'm thankful for all the medical staff who have been working to get the vaccine for the thai people. today i'm boosting confidence in the vaccine for the general public. >> reporter: thailand is continuing astrazeneca's rollout after a brief pause following european reports of bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts found in a small number of those who received the vaccine. while it's been suspended in more than a dozen eu countries, most of asia seems to be deem tg safe. indonesia is the region's only nation to say astrazeneca's vaccine is currently suspended, but from thailand to india, south korea to australia, vaccination campaigns continue in the fight against coronavirus. >> in any large vaccine rollout we do expect to see unusual events and we monitor very closely and carefully for those, but this does not mean that an event that happens after vaccination has been given is indeed due to that vaccine. so we do always take it seriously, we do investigate, but in this situation i can absolutely say that i remain confident in the astrazeneca vaccine, that it's safe. >> reporter: astrazeneca meanwhile is doubling down on the safety of its vaccine. it says that of the 17 million people vaccinated in the eu and the uk so far, blood clots were, quote, much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population. the world health organization said in a statement wednesday that it believes, quote, the benefits of the astrazeneca vaccine outweigh its risks. that may be especially true in countries like india where covid deaths continue to rise. in a pandemic that's claimed more than 2.5 million lives worldwide. the u.s. intelligence community is warning the threat of domestic terrorism could rise in the coming year and a new report says racially or ethnically motivated extremists are likely to carry out mass killings against americans. brian todd has details. >> reporter: top u.s. security and intelligence officials are warning congress and the public of the threat posed by extremists including white supremacists like many who were at the capitol on january 6th attacking police and causing destruction. >> right now at this point in time domestic violent extremism the lone wolf, the loose affiliation of individuals following ideologies of hate and other ideologies of extremism, that are willing and able to take those ideologies and execute on them in unlawful, illegal, violent ways is our greatest threat in the homeland right now. >> reporter: that threat assessment ordered by the white house in january, was just produced by the department of homeland security, the director of national intelligence and the justice department. the assessment says racially motivated extremists and militias are the most likely groups to conduct mass casualty attacks against civilians, law enforcement or government personnel. fbi director christopher wray recently told senators this is a threat he has made a top priority since 2019. >> we, i, i elevated racially motivated violent extremism, the vast majority of which is of what you would call white supremacist violence, to our highest threat priority where it has stayed. >> reporter: and follow the capitol insurrection one anti-defamation league official told us some extremists may be more energized to become violent in the future. >> that will likely animate them moving forward. when you think your election is stolen, when you believe that you are the only thing to protect the american people from a tyrannical government, those are the types of narratives that inform people and frankly animate them to action. >> reporter: this comes the same day as the anti-defamation league is out with a new report says there were more incidence of white supremacist propaganda across the united states last year than it's ever recorded before. incidence of that propaganda nearly doubled from the number reported in 2019. the adl says there were an average of 14 of these incidents a day last year. >> these extremists have been able to penetrate the public conversation and they've moved really from the margins to the mainstream. >> reporter: the adl says their propaganda included distribution of racist, anti-submit tick and anti-lgbtq flyers, stickers, banners and posters across america. the adl's top executive says we shouldn't make the mistake that believing that propaganda itself isn't dangerous. >> it starts with propaganda and name calling, it escalates to harassment, it then extends to vandalism, it then amplifies into violence. >> reporter: this comes as there are new concerns about extremists including white supremacists being in the ranks of the u.s. military and law enforcement communities. in recent days a u.s. capitol police officer was suspended after anti-submit tick reading material was discovered near his work area. brian todd, cnn, washington. .the u.s. federal reserve sees signs of hope that we're turning the corner on the pandemic. it's dramatically increasing its forecast for economic growth this year while pledging to keep interest rates near zero. wall street responded with new record highs on wednesday. let's turn to john defterios in abu dhabi. "the new york times" put it something like this, if the economy turns into a giant party jerome powell promises not to take away the punchbowl rephrasing the old fed punchbowl metaphor. decode this for us. >> reporter: well, it's not easy to decode sometimes in this case, kim, because you want to kind of keep the markets guessing and keep them off balance. that's what "the new york times" is talking about, keep the punchbowl on the table, but jay powell has built up a lot of trust that he wants to be more transparent with the goals by the u.s. federal reserve and, therefore, the u.s. treasury department at the same time. goal number one is job creation. we still have better than 9 million jobs lost since the start of the pandemic, the unemployment rate at 6.2%, they want to get that down to 3.5% by 2023 so they will continue to buy bonds, keep the interest rates low and look for hard evidence when it comes to jobs. let's take a listen. >> we will want to see that the labor markets have moved -- labor market conditions have moved, you know -- have made substantial progress toward maximum employment and inflation has made substantial progress toward the 2% goal. that's what we're going to want to see. now, that obviously includes an element of judgment. >> reporter: and the judgment by investors here is continue buying because interest rates will remain low and they think inflation under control. we had the hong kong and tokyo lead the way in asia. u.s. futures are up across the board earlier, they turned south along with u.s. markets, nothing dramatic but the nasdaq futures are down better than .8%. >> is there an asterisk here? >> reporter: that's a great way to ask it and the asterisk is this, they're giving indications that will keep interest rates low until 2023, but underlined we're watching inflation. these are the two key players on that front, jay powell of the federal reserve, christine lagarde of the european bank. they have both said inn flugs will go up, the u.s. example of 2.4% to december, that's above the target but the ecb and federal reserve says it goes up and in early 2022 it comes back down again and that's why they're confident they can keep rates where they are. the but is if it goes up they're ready to act nd and that's the signal to the markets. >> all right. we'll see. thanks so much john defterios in abu dhabi. there is a new fight over an oil pipeline in the u.s. but is it already past the point of no return? we will show you when we come back. stay with us. when we started our business we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/now and get 2 months free. so you're a small business, shipstation. the #1 choice of online or a big one. you were thriving, but then... oh. ah. okay. plan, pivot. how do you bounce back? you don't, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. powered by the largest gig speed network in america. but is it secure? sure it's secure. and even if the power goes down, your connection doesn't. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business. 21 u.s. states led by texas and montana are suing the biden administration over one of the very first things the president did when he came into office. they're suing because he revoked the permit for a controversial pipeline project, the keystone xl pipeline, it would carry canadian crude oil into the u.s. president biden revoked the permit to help fight climate change. there's another pipe over pipelines under way, this one in minnesota. cnn's bill weir weeks with indigenous activists camping along the frozen mississippi river where parts of the new pipeline are supposed to cut through. >> reporter: way up north where the mighty mississippi is a twisty ribbon of ice this is the new front in an old fight. it is called en bridge line 3, a canadian pipeline set to run through the woods, wetlands of wild minnesota, setting up another natives versus goliath clash over energy, sovereignty and our life-threatening addiction to fossil fuel. >> so how much of this fight for you is about the immediate concerns of a leak that would spoil the water and land, and how much is it about stopping man made climate change? >> for me it's all the things at once. so it's the spills, right, which always happen with pipelines, it's the disruption itself of just the pipeline going into 800 wetlands and 200 bodies of water, then there's the climate change piece, the emissions of this, 50 coal fire plants, absolute instant. >> reporter: line 3 starts in the tar sands of albert at that where forests are replaced with open pits and toxic lakes so big you can see them from space. since it is scraped and steamed into a thick sludge, tar sand oil takes tremendous amounts of water and energy to push through a pipe and one study found line 3 will contribute as much planet warming pollution as 50 coal firepower plants. >> what is en bridge's position overall on the climate crisis. >> we agree, climate change is an issue, and, in fact, almost as our name implies, here, en bridge, we're very keen about trying to build a bridge to the energy future. >> so at what point in order to break this addiction do we say, do you know what, we're going to start with the worst -- we're going to start with the black tar heroin as we detox our way toward being clean. >> yeah, i mean, i think the real challenge here is that we have a demand for energy and the reality is even as we see great growth in renewables, we're still going to need some fossil fuel for years to come. >> reporter: after president biden pulled trump era permits and killed the keystone xl, those who lost the battle at standing rock found fresh hope. the tribes and their allies who failed to stop the dakota access oil from flowing, just watched the first native-american interior secretary get confirmed. now they pray that the president or a judge will stop line 3. but that's a much bigger ask. unlike keystone xl, which was starting from scratch, line 3 is a replacement and of the 340 miles that will cut through minnesota, 40% of it is already in the ground. to outrace a court or white house order en bridge is working as fast as the thawing ice and growing protests will allow. >> there will be over 130 people arrested in the last few months, there have been people crawling into the pipeline themselves, that have been chained to the machines. i mean, it's an all out struggle for mother earth that's happening here. >> we do respect everyone's view on the project. we respect safe protesting, what we don't want is individuals to become unsafe or trespass. and we ask our workers for deescalation. don't engage. because it goes back to safety, integrity and the last one, respect. >> reporter: the truth is that the carbon emissions aren't coming from pipelines, they're coming from cars. and so if you really wanted to go directly to the source, you could protest car dealerships, you could protest gas stations. when you compare a job on a pipeline compared to a job building turbines or solar panels or drilling for geothermal, does it pay the same? >> that's an excellent question. in minnesota because of the work we've done over the past few years our laborers working on the pipeline and our laborers working building wind turbines are making the exact same money. >> reporter: for one side of this fight it all comes down to supply and demand, while the other demands a supply of energy that doesn't come with thousand mile pipes, droughts, floods, fires and rising seas. it's a debate that will define the 2020s and beyond. bill weir, cnn, pal said, minnesota. one of the most popular old school video games finally debuts in japan as a life sized theme park after the pandemic caused many delays, we will take you live to super nintendo world right after the break. stay with us. rely on the experts at 1800petmeds for the same medications as the vet, but for less with fast free shipping. visit petmeds.com today. after several delays because of the pandemic super nintendo world at universal studios japan is now open. the amusement park is a bigger than life sized replicas of the company's most favorite games featuring characters like mario and yoshi. they promise an experience that can be found nowhere else in the world. our selena wang is in osaka in what is clearly the assignment of the day. so getting a whole bunch of people together during a pandemic always seems iffy. how are we trying to keep people safe there? >> reporter: well, kim, even with the mask wearing and the covid restrictions there is just so much energy and excitement here. the crowds have been pouring in all day. now, this park was supposed to open a year ago before the tokyo 2020 olympics, like the olympics, it was anticipated to drive a lot of economic growth and influx of tourists, but capacity here is limited on top of several other restrictions. but none of this, kim, is stopping the excitement that people are feeling today. here we go, entering super nintendo world through the warped pipe. follow me. and here we are a life size replica of nintendo's most popular games, you have yoshi's add venn it tour, bowser and peach's castle. after a nearly year long day because of covid-19 this theme park in universal studios japan is finally open to the public. we're getting a sneak peek before the big crowds come in. but this is how things look during covid, your temperature is taken at the entrance, hand sanitizer is everywhere, masks are required at all times except for in mask-free zones. so i can interact with mario and luigi but there are rules against touching. one of the few places where i can take my mask off are in this photo op area. on the ground there are markers to prove that i need to be a certain distance away from them. so i am being socially distanced from mario and luigi. park officials say this this all cost about half a billion dollars to construct and more than six years to develop. the gaming industry and nintendo especially got a big boost during the pandemic as people were playing nintendo games. the whole park is interactive, you can even compete against other people here and just like in the mario video games i got this power up band on my wrist and i can punch up on these blocks and i get points in the mario app on my phone. and this is what many fans are most excited about, kupa's challenge, a real life mario cart race through bowser's castle. i have to put on the augmented reality headset here, clip it in. all right. let's go. the augmented reality headset got a little getting used to, but i was racing through the kingdom, i'm not great at the video game version of mario cart, i think i might have fared slightly better in the real world version. for nintendo this is an important step, it's cashing in on the treasure trove of intellectual property and iconic characters here in the store and in the restaurant. we are here in the mushroom kingdom and mushroom themed food is everywhere. it looks like cartoon food but it's edible. she told me when i saw this i got emotional. it's not exaggerating to say that mario games raised me. this is all beyond my expectations, she told me, i feel like i'm in the mario world. i get worried about covid when i take off my mask to eat, she said, but the park is taking safety protocols so i feel safe. >> reporter: japan's borders are still closed so international travelers aren't allowed in the park yet but there are plans to open one in california, florida and singapore. mario creator says he wants the whole world to come visit when the pandemic is over. and, kim, this opening today is happening as the global theme park industry has been struggling. parks around the world are opening in a patchwork and, in fact, plans to open super nintendo world in atlanta have been delayed until 2025. earlier today i asked the ceo of universal studios japan what other games they plan to turn to life of nintendos. he didn't give specifics but said they are going to continue to invest in this park. kim? >> all right. our selena wang punching up for us in osaka, japan. appreciate it. gentleman pick will be returning to the so-called happiest place on earth. disneyland and its sister theme park the california adventure are both scheduled to reopen in anaheim with limited capacity on april 30th. they've been closed for more than a year because of the pandemic. new safety measures include mandatory masks, social distancing and a new ticketing system to help manage capacity. looks like fun. all right. thanks. that wraps this hour of cnn. i'm kim brunhuber. 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