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Supreme Court Blocks New York COVID Limits on Religious Groups; Europe Rolls Out New Measures in Push to Rescue Christmas; 1,200 Americans Died From Coronavirus On Thanksgiving Day; After Three Weeks Of Silence, Trump Speaks; President Elect Thanks Americans For Making Sacrifices On Thanksgiving; Conservative Court Votes To Lift Religious Gathering Restrictions In New York; Maradona laid to rest, nation's outpouring of sorrow. Aired 1-1:45a ET

Aired November 27, 2020 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[01:00:00]

MICHAEL HOLMES, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: The holiday season has officially begun. But things will look much different this year as many countries see increases in coronavirus cases.

Despite the staggering spike in virus numbers and deaths, President Donald Trump continues to focus on himself and the election results. We'll take a look at his falsehood-ridden news conference.

Also, the Argentine football legend, Diego Maradona, laid to rest. We are live in Buenos Aires with the details.

Hello everyone. I'm Michael Holmes, this is CNN NEWSROOM.

Hello, everybody. It has been a Thanksgiving unlike any other here in the U.S. as the country struggles to get a handle on the coronavirus pandemic.

And we want you to stop and think about the people directly affected.

Almost 1,200 Americans died of COVID-19 on Thursday alone. And more than 90,000 others spent the holidays away from their families in the hospital.

It is the 17th straight day of record hospitalizations.

Data from Johns Hopkins University shows cases are still on the rise in about half the U.S. states and 107,000 people were diagnosed with the virus in just the past day.

President Elect Joe Biden spent the day making video calls to frontline workers including nurses and firefighters, who he praised as the heroes of this crisis. And he posted this message on social media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know this isn't the way many of us hoped we'd spend the holiday.

We know that a small act of staying home is a gift to our fellow Americans.

Yes, it's a personal sacrifice that each of our families can make and should make to save somebody else's life but it's also a shared sacrifice for the entire country.

A statement of common purpose that says we care about one another and we're all in this together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: President Trump held a video conference with members of the U.S. military thanking them for their service and sacrifice. And he couldn't, of course, help but include some praise for himself and a shot at the media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Once again, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. You're doing an incredible job, and your country is doing well.

We just set a record in the stock market, over 30,000 in the Dhow Jones industrial average. Over 30,000, think of that. Nobody ever thought we would hit that during a pandemic.

The whole world is suffering this tremendous pandemic, not just us, the world. You wouldn't know that to listen to the news reports but the whole world is suffering. And we are rounding the curve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: We'll hear more from Donald Trump's question and answer session coming up later in the show.

Well, as the numbers we mentioned earlier show, the U.S. is not rounding the curve, as the president says, but the president's deception didn't stop there.

He continued to make baseless claims about election fraud and Joe Biden's victory.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president has not taken a question in over three weeks since the date of the election.

And he broke that streak on Thanksgiving, finally taking questions from reporters after he held a call with members of the military.

And as he spoke to us, he repeated his accusations of widespread fraud in the elections, something his attorneys have been saying, without evidence, for weeks now.

And the president really hammered it home, repeating it, talking about the secretaries of state in Georgia, criticizing those officials there and in other states.

And also saying that if the electoral college certifies Joe Biden's win in a matter of weeks, as they are scheduled to do, he says that would be making a mistake.

He also criticized that Biden is moving ahead with transitioning to the presidency by picking people who are going to be in his cabinet. And he wouldn't say whether or not he's going to attend Biden's inauguration as, of course is the precedent for past presidents, in January.

He talked about whether or not he would concede once his win is certified. He would not say that, despite being asked multiple times would he concede once the win has been certified. The president would not say, yes, that he would.

[01:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's going to be a very hard thing to concede because we know there was massive fraud.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: But --

TRUMP: So as to whether or not I can get this apparatus moving this quickly -- because time isn't on our side, everything else is on our side, facts are on our side.

This was a massive fraud. This should never take place in this country, we're like a third world country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: One thing he did say is that he would leave the White House, he said, of course I would, of course should January come and push come to shove. As there have been these theories about whether or not he'd actually leave the White House.

One thing he did say is he is going to be leaving the White House on Saturday, he says, to go campaign in Georgia ahead of that runoff that, of course, is going to determine which party controls the senate.

And it's just really notable -- I can't stress enough -- the president has had such a quiet period in his presidency where he has not taken questions and, of course, now after three weeks he broke that streak.

And we'll see if that continues with these baseless allegations about fraud.

COLLINS (Voice Over): Kaitlin Collins, CNN, the White House. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Joining me now is CNN national security analyst, Samantha Vinograd. Always a pleasure to see you, Sam.

Now I want to talk to you about this latest move. There's several high profile of the defense policy board, as it's called, removed by the Trump Administration.

But what it is, is another purge of long-standing foreign policy experts, national security establishment figures, in what are at the final days of the administration.

What is the aim of doing this? Is it to mess with Joe Biden and his ability to effectively govern?

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, whether motivated by spite or some sense of self-protection, Trump's engaged in a range of potentially dangerous policy moves.

The so-called purge of the defense policy board seems largely motivated by spite. There was no reason to remove these experts in national security.

But, Michael, let's not forget, we have other dangerous personnel moves to consider.

On the one hand, President Trump has immediately terminated several senior officials at the Pentagon, at USAID, at the Department of Energy, at the National Climate Assessment and elsewhere.

When President Trump immediately terminates a senior official, that means there is no hand over of their institutional knowledge to their successor nor can those outgoing officials really participate in the transition process with President Elect Biden's team.

That means that balls could be dropped, there could be gaps in institutional knowledge.

At the same time, President Trump is also installing loyalists in key positions in the last weeks of his presidency. We have people who have served as Trump's political acolytes in very senior policymaking roles.

And I'm deeply concerned that that could, in some cases, lead these loyalists to do things like not meet their statutory obligations when it comes to preserving presidential records or fully transitioning information at these government agencies to the Biden transition team.

HOLMES: Yes.

VINOGRAD: So I'm worried about the big picture, personnel wise.

HOLMES: Yes. The so-called burrowing, as it's called. Effectively, what can Joe Biden do to reverse decisions like that? VINOGRAD: Well, we have two different phenomena under way. We have

the fact that Trump is putting political loyalists as political appointees in several roles in the last few weeks in his administration.

And then we have the so-called burrowing effect in which President Trump is taking political appointees and making them protected civil servants.

Someone like Michael Ellis who served at the White House, he was a controversial figure. Turning him into a -- really, a career government official at the national security agency.

This risks the politicization of the career cadre of the U.S. government, it should not be a political entity. Career service individuals serve their successive administrations and are non- partisan.

In terms of what Joe Biden can do, there are certain protections that civil servants or career officials are afforded.

Now President Trump did issue an executive order back in October that created a whole new class of government employees.

President Elect Biden could choose to revoke that executive order with a new executive order of his own if he agrees that President Trump's moves are dangerous.

HOLMES: Right, right. Yes, it's worrying, that politicization. I wanted to ask you too while we've got you what your take is on the Biden cabinet nominees so far and perhaps the cleanup they'll have to do when confirmed.

How much the administration will need to undo and how difficult that might be?

VINOGRAD: Well, I served with several of the individuals currently nominated for key positions; Avril Haines, Tony Blinken, Jake Sullivan. And these are real experts, Michael.

They have deep experience working in government and I never heard any of these individuals mention politics or even talk about their party affiliation.

They focused on the policy work at hand, and really excelled of the Obama Administration, in relationships with congress, in relationships with foreign counterparts.

[01:10:00]

HOLMES: Yes. It does seem like a deep and experienced bench, that's for sure.

Out of time -- Samantha Vinograd, good to see you. Thank you.

VINOGRAD: Thanks, Michael. HOLMES: Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths all soaring in the U.S.

But millions of Americans still ignored warnings not to travel over Thanksgiving. And now, health experts are worried about what comes next.

CNN's Alexandra Field reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: Let's have a parade.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (Voice Over): A Thanksgiving like no other.

The annual Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade made for TV only on a closed set. Families across the country are being encouraged to get together on screen only.

DR. CHRIS PERNELL, FATHER DIED OF COVID-19: I did my phone calls last night to friends who I heard were going to travel. And I pleaded with them, please, stay home, be safe so that you can enjoy your loved ones in the future.

I don't want anyone to experience what my family has gone through and what my sister is still going through in her fight to recover.

FIELD: Last week the CDC advised people not to travel for the holiday. Since then, 5.9 million people boarded a plane. The CDC now projects that by December 19th, America will have suffered between 294,000 to 321,000 deaths.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE: What we're seeing is the entire mid-section of the country, screaming high levels.

And unfortunately, now 2,000 deaths per day is going to be the new normal, we'll probably head to 3,000 deaths per day.

FIELD: Deaths are now at levels unseen since May. Hospitalizations smashing records every day.

In red-hot Texas, there's a rash of new restrictions in places like El Paso and San Antonio. Along with the deployment of the National Guard and 1,500 medical professionals.

California is coming closer and closer to the full-blown stay-at-home orders of last March.

Pennsylvania banned bars from serving alcohol on one of the biggest party nights of the year, the night before Thanksgiving. Despite some pushback.

ROBERT PANICO, RESTAURANT OWNER: So there's a lot of oppression on one industry, and one industry alone. And it seems to be the bar and the restaurant industry.

FIELD: So for those who are going to gather today, this advice.

DR. ESTHER CHOO, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: Try to layer on everything you can to keep your family members and all of their friends and family safe.

So lots of mask wearing, keeping gatherings short, keeping ventilation good with windows open.

FIELD: This year, there may be fewer turkeys on tables across the country.

KYLE WAIDE, PRESIDENT, ATLANTA COMMUNITY FOOD BANK: The pandemic has led to what we think is the greatest domestic hunger crisis in our country in nearly a century.

FIELD: And this year there are too many families in mourning. Too many clinging desperately to hope. And some celebrating answered prayers.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Inaudible) amazing. Of course, especially on today to give thanks.

FIELD: Another precious life saved by health care heroes.

CROWD: (Applause)

FIELD: Once wildly cheered for their bravery and their sacrifice. Heroes who we can still do more for this Thanksgiving Day.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: If you want to cheer your healthcare worker, put a mask and stay home.

FIELD (Voice Over): In New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And joining me now is epidemiologist and CNN medical analyst, Dr. Larry Brilliant. Good to see you, Doctor.

Let's talk about Thanksgiving. How concerned are you about post- Thanksgiving surges adding to what is already a surge in hospitalizations and deaths?

DR. LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hello, Michael. And Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

I'm very concerned. And it's not just post-Thanksgiving, it's Black Friday and then the run up to Christmas and then New Year's. This is our holiday season. And every day from now on can add to the toll.

What I'm most worried about is the virus is now seated in every county in the United States, every city in the United States.

Our hospitals are almost full to capacity. In some communities, they are full to capacity, there's no rooms in the ICU.

The people who will be sick from heart attacks, need cancer treatment, emergency pregnancies, they're going to have difficulty getting into a crowded hospital. So I'm am worried about the excess deaths.

I'm worried about the knock on effects of these increasing waves that will come from Black Friday and Christmas and New Year's. And they don't end on January 20th. This is something that will go on until perhaps the end of January, as the vaccines come on.

So Michael, I think it's a tale of two cities, the best of times and the worst of times. It's the worst of times because of this acceleration, it's the best of times because later on the spring when the vaccines come in full force, we'll be able to get on top of this terrible disease.

HOLMES: It really strikes home when you talk about the filling hospitals and so on. And when it comes to those increasing cases and hospitalizations.

[01:15:00]

A lot of doctors have been saying you can add regular beds, perhaps, but you can't manufacture ICU nurses or doctors or respiratory therapists and so on. How worried are you about not so much beds, but qualified staff?

BRILLIANT: Yes. It's always all about people, it's always about your team, it's always about your staff.

It's not just their ability to show up for work, it's they get sick to from COVID. And they get sick in their hearts when they watch so many patients that they lose.

I have a friend in Los Angeles who works in a wonderful hospital. He's seen 250 COVID cases and he's lost more than half of them.

What does that do to a doctor or a nurse who comes to work every day and has to see this?

And if you remember, in the spring in Detroit and in Manhattan when we saw these mobile refrigerator vans, mobile hearses take bodies away, for a doctor, that's a failure. What does that do to morale in the hospital?

So I'm very worried about that. It's not just beds, it's the people.

HOLMES: Morale -- and it's a very important point. The toll on the healthcare workers, mentally and physically. It has been incessant for months. There are breaking points, one imagines.

BRILLIANT: And it's the discontinuity that they feel from what they -- their real lived experience, going into hospitals, seeing patients get sick, putting them on respirators, seeing, perhaps, them die. Seeing how much their families mourn them, and how hard it is.

And then to come back and be told, oh, well, we're rounding the corner, this is a fraud, it's a hoax. It's that lack of support.

So I was really encouraged to hear President Elect Biden lauding them as heroes. They need our support, our love, much more so than ever before now.

HOLMES: I wish we had more time, we don't unfortunately. Dr. Larry Brilliant, always a pleasure. Important messages there in your words. Thank you.

BRILLIANT: Michael, nice to see you again.

HOLMES: Good to see you.

The international soccer legend and World Cup winner, Diego Maradona, was laid to rest in his home country of Argentina. More tributes are pouring in.

We'll discuss after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:20:00]

(CNN HIGHLIGHT)

STEVE KAUFER, CEO, TRIPADVISOR: The biggest trend is certainly to move and stay closer to home.

So it's the road trip, it's going to outdoor places like beaches but also hiking and other activities, where you're not with a lot of other people in a city center.

If the country is doing well, keeping your overall case load down, they're going to be a more natural destination.

When it comes to making a traveler feel safe, it's about how can that traveler get information about both the destination as well as the hotels and the restaurants care.

We really do encourage every one -- certainly all the locations that are looking to attract the domestic tourism industry to play it really, really safely. Put on the masks, set the very clear guidelines so that none of these

upcoming vacations turn any location into a (inaudible).

HOLMES: Welcome back. The coronavirus may have changed how Americans celebrate Thanksgiving but it wasn't able to take away one holiday tradition. Watching football.

With fewer fans and more masks, the Houston Texans defeated the Detroit Lions 41 to 25 -- not even close, really. And the Washington football team beat the Dallas Cowboys, 41 to 16.

But the virus did intercept the NFL's primetime matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers. The league was forced to postpone that game to Sunday after multiple people within the Ravens organization positive for the virus.

Argentina's Diego Maradona was laid to rest a few hours ago. The legendary soccer player died at the age of 60 after a heart attack.

He was buried just outside of Buenos Aires after lying in honor at the presidential palace. Many of his fans said one last goodbye as a hearse went through town.

Journalist Diego Laje joins me now live from Buenos Aires province.

I know you are there and you saw a lot of the scenes, they must have been extraordinary and it shows what Maradona meant to Argentines. How did the day unfold?

DIEGO LAJE, JOURNALIST: Michael, this was a historic day in Argentina.

It had the intensity that very few days have in the history of a country, in the history of a population.

I'm standing in front of the gates of the cemetery that Diego Maradona crossed, probably marking his passage into -- from man into legend.

Now this place here just outside of Buenos Aires, 35 kilometers away from the presidential palace will be a place of pilgrimage.

And so much so, that despite the fact that it's 3:22 am on Friday here -- it's the middle of the night, there is riot police, there's police waiting, there are control measures. There's a whole set of people waiting for the sun to rise and maybe people to converge on this place, Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Diego Laje, thank you so much, appreciate it. Certainly a sad day for football around the world. Appreciate it.

We're going to take a quick break.

When we come back, here on CNN NEWSROOM.

Despite the coronavirus surging across the United States, the Supreme Court strikes down New York's coronavirus restrictions which included religious gatherings. The reason why coming up.

[01:25:00]

HOLMES: Welcome back. The U.S. Supreme Court is siding with religious groups in its latest ruling. It decided New York can't enforce coronavirus restrictions which impact attendance at houses of worship.

The five-four ruling is a first glimpse at the impact President Donald Trump's newly appointed justice, Amy Coney Barrett, could have on future decisions.

CNN's Jessica Schneider reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This ruling against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID restrictions on houses of worship is our first glimpse at how consequential the president's pick of Amy Coney Barrett will be for the future of the court.

Here she was crucial in giving the conservatives the five-four majority since the Chief Justice, John Roberts, once again sided with the liberals as he had this summer when Justice Ginsburg was still on the court and when they actually sided five-four against houses of worship who were fighting these restrictions.

So now it's the flip side of what we're seeing here.

But this late night decision on the eve of Thanksgiving, it was a very stark reminder of the split we will see on consequential cases moving forward.

And as such, we saw some unusually critical language like this from Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

She said -- "Justices of this court play a deadly game in second guessing the expert judgment of health officials about the environments in which a contagious virus now infecting a million Americans each week, spreads most easily."

But yet the unsigned opinion from the majority conservative justices, it seemed to punch back when they wrote this.

Saying -- "Members of this Court are not public health experts and we should the judgment of those with special expertise and responsibility in this area. But even in a pandemic, the constitution cannot be put away and forgotten."

So the conservative justices there really seizing on the religious liberties the constitution affords in this case.

And for the first time, Justice Amy Coney Barrett being that key vote to side with the churches who challenged these restrictions on how many people could actually worship at any given time.

These were restrictions that were put in place by the New York governor. And this really could be a glimpse of what's to come on a court that is now solidly conservative for the first time, legal experts say, since before World War II.

Now New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, he was criticized for putting these restrictions into effect. So now the religious institutions affected in New York are celebrating this as a big win.

[01:29:49]

But Governor Cuomo pointed out that the restrictions had already ended. So there was really no reason for the court to even step-in in this case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): It's irrelevant from any practical impact because the zone that they were talking about has already been moot. It expired last week. So I think this was really just an opportunity for the court to express its philosophy in politics.

I fully respect religion and if there's a time in life when we need it, the time is now. But we want to make sure we keep people safe at the same time. And that's the balance we're trying to hit, especially through this holiday season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: And this is a battle that comes right at the holidays as we continue to see this new court where the Chief Justice John Roberts is now the swing vote. And we see how he's able to handle a court that is now solidly conservative.

Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Harry Litman is a former U.S. attorney. He is now the host of the "Talking Feds" podcast and joins me now this hour from La Jolla in California.

Good to see you sir. We saw in this case the new make up of the court in terms of Trump appointed justices having an effect. Is this a sign of the future perhaps in the wake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death and her replacement by Amy Coney Barrett?

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: It certainly looks like it. So this is the first instance where the new five (ph) really asserted their power. Chief justice Roberts who had always been at the center of the court in the last few terms was dissenting, along with the three more liberal justices.

And it was a kind of ruling that it's clear the court wouldn't have done before and involves a special kind of embrace of "free exercise" (ph) rights and a sort of elevation of them above other rights that really did seem to announce that the new five are here, and they are strong and they're going to be issuing a number of opinions that are different from how it would've been before and will really change society.

HOLMES: Yes. How does a ruling like this impact the abilities of the states to set their own coronavirus mitigation rules? I mean does it have an impact further than the immediate church ruling and what signal does that send on future so-called religious liberty cases?

LITMAN: Yes. So the first part of your question, it does send the signal that states can't just do what they want. And understand what New York did here. It did not in any way single out religion or religious services. It rather had expert testimony saying religious services, spectator sports, movies and the like are gatherings where people tend to stay awhile and talk and mingle as opposed to other kinds of gatherings say, liquor stores and casinos.

And the court, instead of deferring to that judgment, took it upon themselves to say well, you are treating them different from other things, and why would you do that?

So it definitely weakens the ability of state actors to decide these regulations. And yes it certainly augurs a strong solicitude for in particular free-exercise rights going forward.

Because there are constitutional rights on all sides of these regulations. They restrict certain First Amendment activities, certain rights of association but the court really plucked out the free exercise issue and decided to give it its own sort of factual spin and strike it down on that basis, after as you say, twice having declined to do so under Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

HOLMES: Yes it's such an important point. The regulations were not singling out the churches. This judgment does.

It's interesting Justice Sonia Sotomayor, she dissented and it was interesting. I'll just read part of her dissent. She said there, "Justices of this court play a deadly game in second guessing the expert judgment of health officials about the environment in which a contagious virus now infecting a million Americans each week, spreads most easily."

I mean she also went on to say she fears that granting the application would, quote, "exacerbates the nation's suffering".

I mean something like this, this sort of quote-unquote protecting churches on gatherings, it could end up being a situation where a judicial ruling leads to people getting sick or dying.

[01:35:02]

LITMAN: I mean it's really true. It sounds alarmist but we know of a few instances in which large congregations became super spreader events. And really, who are these five new justices to take it on themselves to say what sorts of gatherings will impose these dangers.

They for their own reasons said not religion, that's more like a liquor store when New York had said, no I'm sorry that's more like spectator sports. It has always been a matter of deference to those authorities, and for good reason.

Justice Gorsuch, Justice Barrett -- they have no special expertise about what spreads and what doesn't. And if they're wrong -- you're right, people are going to die.

HOLMES: Great analysis as always, Harry Litman. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much.

LITMAN: Thank you.

HOLMES: Quick break now here on the program. When we come back, coronavirus cases rising in California and that state, trying to deal with a shortage of ICU beds. We'll talk about that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Let's take a look at some of the countries fighting the biggest coronavirus outbreaks.

Just to recap -- almost 61 million cases are being reported around the world. The U.S. far in the lead, of course, with the number of cases and deaths.

Germany though has now hit the one million plus mark for total cases, along with a new record for the number of deaths in a single day.

Russia also shattering one of its records, this time for new daily cases. Moscow the worst hit city there, and the mayor extending coronavirus measures until January 15.

And we're seeing tighter coronavirus restrictions now in Europe; the hope is that tougher rules might now mean a more relaxed Christmas later.

CNN's Melissa Bell is in Paris for us.

[01:40:03]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Here in Europe, several of those countries that have been in partial lockdown for several weeks looking now at how the next few weeks are going to pan out.

So here in France, we know that the partial lockdown will be lifted from the 15th of December if that target of no more than 5,000 new cases a day has been met. That was announced by the French President on Wednesday.

Today we heard from the French Prime Minister who announced not only fresh measures for those businesses struggling as a result of the crisis, but also the fact that he believed that 5,000 target would be met and that that partial lockdown would be lifted on people's movements beyond the 15th of December although ski resorts will be closed he said over the Christmas period.

Over in the United Kingdom, another announcement there of a regionalized system so England will have a strengthened tier system beyond December 2nd when the lockdown, the partial lockdown comes to an end.

And that will mean most of England being in the second tier including London, that really brings with it a lot of restrictions.

Over in Germany as well, Angela Merkel had tried and failed last week after failing to get a majority to strengthen the partial lockdown restrictions there.

Today she announced that they would be slightly strengthened but mostly lengthened. That is that they will last now until the beginning of next year with just a slight lifting of some of those restrictions over the Christmas period to allow families in groups of about 10 to get together.

Melissa Bell, CNN -- Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: I'm Michael Holmes.

For our international viewers "WORLD SPORT" is up next. For those of you here in the United States, when we come back, Donald Trump goes on a tear, rejecting reality, peddling more false claims about the election.

We'll be right back.

[01:41:38]

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(CNN WORLD SPORT)