[Church:] Coronavirus cases are surging across Europe, and some countries are now looking to curfews to help curb the spread. France has just surpassed 1 million total COVID-19 cases according to Johns Hopkins University. It is the 7th country to pass that mark. Ireland has just imposed Europe's toughest lock down and is set to remain there for at least six weeks. People are encouraged to stay home unless they're essential workers and they can't have gatherings in homes and gardens. But schools will stay open. In Germany, the country's Center for Disease Control is reporting a record high number of daily cases. That number just shy of 11,300. In Italy, a new curfew is set to begin at midnight on Saturday in the region surrounding the city of Rome. And for more on the situation across Europe, let's turn now to Scott McLean. He joins us live from Berlin. Good to see you, Scott. So, each European country struggling to come up with its own approach to containing this virus. What's the latest on that?
[Scott Mclean, Cnn Correspondent:] Hey, Rosemary. So, we'll start in Germany where the health minister just tested positive for the virus, the same day that this country recorded a new record in daily confirmed cases, smashing the old record by more than 40 percent. You mentioned France hitting that 1 million confirmed cases mark. Spain also hit that mark yesterday as well. And I want to show you a chart that shows you the situation in Europe. You can see that Europe has surpassed the United States in new daily confirmed cases per million people, and you can see that trajectory really shows no signs of slowing down. But it gets even worse than that, once you add on Belgium, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, all of which are dwarfing the U.S. and Europe. Belgium and the Czech Republic are reporting five times more new cases per capita than the United States. The Czech Republic, in fact, has more new cases per capita than any other major country on earth. And here's why the situation in the Czech Republic is particularly scary. Most countries saw a high death toll early on in this pandemic in the first wave and their second wave, well, they may be seeing a lot of cases, not a lot of deaths. That's not true in the Czech Republic where deaths have really started to skyrocket, and hospitalizations are following as well. The government is setting up a field hospital in Prague. They expected to have about 500 beds in it. They're also bringing in doctors from the U.S. National Guard. The Czech Prime Minister was really praised for his handling of the situation in the first wave, but he's taken a lot of criticism as of late. Earlier this week one of his own cabinet ministers called him a moron on a hot mic. She was caught on a hot mic. He hasn't responded because he has much bigger fish to fry. After an emergency session of Parliament yesterday he conceded that the current measures in place simply were not working and he apologized for not acting sooner. So, starting today, the Czech Republic will go back into something that you might describe as a lock down. There will be only essential businesses that will be allowed to open, and there will be severe restrictions on movement as well. And Rosemary, I want to share with you one other pretty remarkable statistic. If you went to the Czech Republic today, one in every 85 people there would officially be infected with the virus right now. The official number or the true number, I should say, is likely much, much higher because more than one out of every four people being tested for the virus is actually turning up positive.
[Church:] That is very high. Scott McLean joining us live from Berlin. Many thanks. Well, in a break with the past, Pope Francis has declared support for civil unions of same sex couples, but the church's position on marriage between a man and a woman is unchanged. CNN's Delia Gallagher is joining us from Rome. She joins us now live. Good to see you, Delia. So, the Pope's now supporting same sex unions, but this will of course anger some Catholics. What are they saying?
[Delia Gallagher, Cnn Vatican Correspondent:] Well, that's right, Rosemary, because the Pope's comments about legalizing same sex unions are a departure from the teaching of his predecessors, John Paul II and Pope Benedict the XVI who were against the legalization of same sex unions. Now the Pope's comments came during a film documentary which was premiered yesterday in Rome. Let's take a look at what he said during that film, according to the Catholic news agency. The Pope said homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They're children of God and have a right to a family. All What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. And we should say, Rosemary, that in interviews in the past, the Pope has shown himself to be open to the legalization of the same sex unions. But this is the first time as Pope that he has directly come out in support of it. When he was Archbishop in Buenos Aires, for example, b he argued for same-sex unions to be legalized instead of same-sex marriage. So, the Pope in the past has made a distinction between marriage as between a man and a woman, but legal protection for gay and lesbian couples. Of course, this has been met with both praise but also, some criticism inside Catholic circles because of the change that this represents, Rosemary, in the past teachings. We should emphasize that these are comments from a film. So, we don't yet have any official document from the Pope or the Vatican. We'll see if that's coming Rosemary. All right, we shall indeed. Delia Gallagher joining us live from Rome. Many thanks. Well, in a time when the truth is under assault and facts are questioned, we want to mark the passing of one of truth's greatest champions. James Randi, the dazzling magician who became one of the great myth busters of our time has died. The Amazing Randi was 92 years old. In a career that spanned seven decades, Randi began as an escape artist and trickster, but soon turned to debunking the paranormal, religious deception and so-called magic. In 2004, he conjured this observation about ghosts in a conversation with CNN's Anderson Cooper.
[Anderson Cooper, Cnn Anchor:] You're open to the possibility of there being ghosts, yes?
[James Randi, Magician And Myth Buster:] Well, absolutely, yes. I'm also open to the possibility that major Richard Nixon is alive and well and living in Argentina. I don't think it's very likely, nor do I think that ghosts are very likely.
[Church:] The Canadian born Randi was awarded a MacArthur genius grant for his investigative work, but he always enjoyed performing magic too. He once told "The New York Times" the difference between them and me is I admit I'm a charlatan. And we'll be right back.