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Pope Francis' Christmas Message; UPS Delays

Aired December 25, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD CNN ANCHOR: Pope Francis also focused a large part of his message on peace, asking Jesus to inspire peace in warring factions around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS, LEADER OF CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): God is peace. Let us ask him to help us to be peacemakers each day in our life, in our families, in our cities and nations, in the whole world. Let us allow ourselves to be moved by God's goodness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: While the ceremonies involved a lot of pomp and circumstance, as Erin McLaughlin shows us, the pope kept his Christmas message simple and to the point.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As you can see, they're streaming into St. Peter's Square, people from all over the world, pilgrims and atheists, men, women, and children of a multitude of religious flooding the square to hear what Pope Francis has to say to the world on Christmas Day.

POPE FRANCIS (through translator): God is peace. Let us ask him to help us to be peacemakers each day.

MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): What did you think of the pope's message?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it was wonderful. It was beautiful, very touching, and I felt even like crying. He's a very humble person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really don't know if humanity will be listening, but he's strong to say this.

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): His message delivered in Italian, and even though not everyone here understands exactly what is saying, they're here to see him and to experience history.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, it was wonderful to be in such a large crowd. People were nice. We were trying to communicate with each other, but we were all from many different countries. People were happy to be here and calm about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a great moment just to see him speak to all the people. It's a lovely day here in Rome. Great experience.

MCLAUGHLIN (on camera): His message to the world one of peace. He asked for prayer for the victims of conflict in places like Syria and the South Sudan. It was a message that really seemed to resonate here in the square. The excitement and energy was palpable, an illustration of the power of Pope Francis.

Erin McLaughlin, CNN, the Vatican.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: A tradition dating back more than 50 years. Queen Elizabeth II's Christmas message was broadcast on British television.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUEEN ELIZABETH II, UNITED KINGDOM: I hope you will have time to pause for moments of quiet reflection. As the man in the plaster cast discovered, the results can sometimes be surprising.

For Christians, as for all people of faith, reflection, meditation, and prayer help us to renew ourselves in God's love as we strive daily to become better people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Recently in the U.K., an alternative Christmas message was also broadcast. This year, NSA leaker Edward Snowden delivered his. He compared government spying to the classic novel "1984," saying today's Big Brother is far worse than anything author George Orwell could have imagined.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDWARD SNOWDEN, LEAKED DETAILS OF U.S. SURVEILLANCE: A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. He will never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. And that's a problem, because privacy matters. Privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The American charged with espionage for exposing U.S. surveillance programs says he dreams of a world where governments can't see everything all of the time.

The Obama administration again has extended the deadline for a federally backed health coverage. Officials say this new extension is intended for people who couldn't sign up due to the well-known Web site problems.

Republican opponents of the health care law say the move is another sign that the administration is desperate to pump up sagging enrollment. Insurers are quoted as saying the repeated extensions pose serious threats to their planning. With us from Los Angeles, Andy Dean at America Now radio.

Andy, the White House says they had a surge of visitors yesterday, close to two million, in fact, to the health care we site. They said the site held up and they also say that they're turning things around. You disagree still?

ANDY DEAN, SYNDICATED RADIO HOST: Well, I guess to answer that question we have to look at the context of history.

And that's over the past few months, over five million people have lost their health insurance in the individual marketplace. All these people have lost their coverage, so they have to go somewhere to find that coverage that was taken from them by the government.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Well, it's still not clear, though. It hasn't really been confirmed that those losses are all because of the government or because of this health care plan, because we know some insurers are going to be dropping people anyway, regardless of whether this plan were in place, but continue with your point.

DEAN: Right. Well, there's a minimum essentials package and even the Obama administration will admit the 10 parts of the minimum essentials package included in the individual marketplace has forced a lot of these people off their plans, because catastrophe plans like I had are no longer viable in the Obama marketplace.

I was one of those five million who was thrown off my coverage. And, so, yes, there are a lot of people that are going to check out this Web site and people need coverage. But to me, a perfect analogy would be, imagine if the government said, hey, to five million people, you have to move out of your homes and then all of a sudden, the government is going to start selling homes on an open exchange.

If they forced five million people out of their homes, they're going to need a home somewhere.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: But if the White House is saying now we're going to extended the deadline, so if you want to make that comparison, instead of the deadline being today you move out of your home, instead it means it's going to be off by a few weeks. You're buying some time. And that's what this extension is all about for the health care sign- up.

Do you think that's helpful in any way to see if it really could work?

DEAN: I think that's correct. You are buying time, but the underlying issue is cost. For myself, I had a catastrophe plan. And now in the Obama exchanges my plan is three times more expensive.

Whether I buy it on December 25 or on January 31, the underlying cost of what I'm buying has skyrocketed. That's going to devastate the middle class and everybody in the individual marketplace.

WHITFIELD: If by the end of March, this administration is unable to sign up seven million, which has been the goal, what do you suppose should happen next?

DEAN: Right. Well, Fredricka, I think the real number to look at is how many people had health insurance at the beginning of 2013 vs. how many will have health insurance the beginning of 2014 and at the beginning of 2015?

And my guess is as time goes on less and less people in America will have health coverage and that to me is the Obamacare paradox. If less people are covered after all this government intervention, it's clear that the program will have failed.

WHITFIELD: And then what? Because it is law.

DEAN: Well, then it will be up to the 2016 election. If Hillary steps in, what I think will happen is, there will be a government option. We will be more like England. We will have a two-tier system, that people in the lower to middle class will have to wait for care, but it may be free if you can wait long enough and you don't die.

And then the wealthy will have more options and more choices and more doctors, because the doctors that were treating the middle class don't want to deal with government bureaucracies. So, there will be an all- cash pay type.

WHITFIELD: Do you see any redeeming qualities about this new law, that millions have been able to sign up, that some people who were unable to get insurance before are now covered?

DEAN: Sure. I guess it just depends where you sit, right? If you're qualified for Medicaid, a million more people are now able to get Medicaid. For those people, they're getting something they never had before. There are some winners, but to me it's the middle class that are the biggest losers.

Yes, the bottom 5 percent or 10 percent on Medicaid, they're getting those extensions and getting that coverage. They're getting something they never had before. They're winners. The top 3 percent to 5 percent are winners because they're going to have more doctors that are going straight to cash pay.

It's going to be the middle 80 percent that are paying double their current premium and that will have less access. To me, those are the losers. It's going to the middle class.

WHITFIELD: Andy Dean, thanks so much for your time. Happy holidays.

DEAN: Thanks so much. Merry Christmas. You, too. Appreciate it.

WHITFIELD: OK.

All right, for those celebrating Christmas, it must be most difficult when a family member is stationed overseas. Well, now some holiday messages from them to their loved ones back here at home. These are soldiers from 287 Bravo Company, 10th Mountain Division. They spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to say merry Christmas to everyone back home in the states, especially to my lovely wife, Kim (ph), and our two daughters, Sarah (ph) and Rachel (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Merry Christmas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I miss most about home is the small things, friends, family, my girlfriend, and just the small things you take for granted, day-to-day things, showers on a daily basis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being deployed for the holiday season is definitely difficult, but it's good to have soldiers and friends here.

The Army is one big family, so just having that camaraderie amongst ourselves, it really helps us get through the holiday season. And obviously we do miss our families back home and wish we could be there with them. But being here isn't all that bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And all of us here at CNN would like to thank you. We're grateful to you and your families for your continued service.

All right. Did you get to open all of your presents today? Well, some UPS customers are screaming no. That's because the shipping company couldn't make all of its Christmas deliveries on time, and now they're responding to people who are still waiting for their presents from Santa.

We will tell you what the company is saying.

For those of you that did get your presents, well, there's probably at least maybe one that you might not be fond of. It's not too early to talk about this just yet, is it? What you need to know before you return your unwanted gift this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. My name is Major Leslie Lattimore Warfield (ph) serving the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division located at Bagram, Afghanistan.

I would like to wish my husband, Major Herbert Warfield (ph), and my eight children, Avery (ph), Latasia (ph), Antoinette (ph), Darius (ph), Jessica (ph), Krista (ph), Elijah (ph), and Laila (ph), a very merry Christmas and a wonderful happy new year and I look forward to seeing you soon. I love you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: OK. The price of a U.S. stamp is going up by 3 cents. It will now cost 49 cents to mail a first-class letter. The Postal Commission approved the rate hike yesterday to offset massive losses incurred during the 2008 recession. The increase takes effect January 26. Until then, you can stock up on those 46 cent forever stamps to save a few pennies.

All right, UPS, meantime, angered scores of customers this Christmas Day because many of their packages didn't get to their destinations on time. Some are still at the warehouse waiting to be shipped and delivered by Santa. UPS blames it on a volume backlog. They had more packages than they could actually handle.

So, now what?

CNN's Margaret Conley is live for us now in New York with some answers and a response from UPS.

So, Margaret, how did this happen?

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, UPS, they're off today for Christmas. They decided to not call in their drivers to work the holiday today, but they will be back first thing tomorrow for deliveries.

UPS did say they're sorry. Here is more from their statement. "UPS is experiencing heavy holiday volume and making every effort to get packages to their destination. However, the volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity of our network immediately preceding Christmas, so some shipments were delayed."

Now, to give you a sense of how many packages UPS handles, they projected to deliver over 132 million packages just last week. That's their peak week. The Delays will impact at least that many customers, and here's how some of them are reacting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't tell you how many countless hours we have spent on the phone dealing with this issue with people in Memphis, and they're still blaming it on the ice storm, which was two-and-a-half weeks ago. It's terribly disappointing because we ordered these things on December 1. They can't find them, because there's 1,000 packages on pallets in there, and they can't find our packet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got to the phone line after waiting for about an hour, and they said it hasn't been processed yet. And...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been there since the 8th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONLEY: Now, people are also venting on Twitter and Facebook.

In response, we're seeing comments from UPS workers themselves. One said they all work really hard and people just have too high expectations.

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. How did UPS manage to underestimate the volume of deliveries this time of year?

CONLEY: Right.

Fred, we have seen delays in past years in UPS, but those were generally caused by weather or technical glitches, but this seems different. It's a backlog. We talked to a UPS spokesperson and she said that some of the factors in addition to the weather in some states was that the time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas was shorter this year and she also said that more people are shopping online.

WHITFIELD: And those online retailers, they have to be upset, too, because it means customers are going to take it out on them, not UPS necessarily.

CONLEY: That's right. The online retailers, and also small business owners, we're hearing that they are complaining. They're putting their comments up on Facebook because they rely on the supplies from UPS.

But some companies, they are offering help. Amazon alerted customers to what they say is -- quote -- "the failure of the UPS transportation network." Amazon is going to refund shipping some charges and give out gift cards.

And for those waiting for UPS deliveries, know that UPS Workers will be out there first thing tomorrow morning Thursday making the rounds.

WHITFIELD: OK. So just Christmas is going to be stretched out a little bit in some households.

CONLEY: It's a good thing, right?

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Right. All right, Margaret Conley, thanks so much. Merry Christmas.

CONLEY: Merry Christmas.

WHITFIELD: All right, perhaps you received a gift on time, but it's not the one that you wanted, it's not the perfect fit.

Mind those return policies.

Karin Caifa has tips.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARIN CAIFA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not over at the malls yet. After the holiday shopping rush comes the holiday return dash. Not every gift is a perfect fit, and stores understand that. Still, many retailers have adopted stiffer return policies that many consumers encounter only once per year. Return fraud can be costly for stores, to the tune of almost $9 billion per year, according to the National Retail Federation.

Of that total, stores will lose an estimated $3.39 billion just during the holiday season. It's become even more crucial for consumers to read the fine print on a gift receipt before heading to the store.

"Consumer Reports" suggests looking for the length of the return window and whether holiday gifts get an extension. Certain items carry a restocking fee common for electronics, and be mindful that some things like video games and movies can't be returned once opened.

Kiplinger's Personal Finance also reminds returning shoppers to bring their state-issued I.D. to the store. A retailer may ask for it, especially if you don't have a receipt. It's just one step stores are taking to identify repeat return offenders.

For Consumer Watch, I'm Karin Caifa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up, 2013 was a big year for tech, from Snapchat to the SmartWatch.

New gadgets and apps were a huge part of our lives. So the big question, now what? We're giving a preview of the amazing gadgets of next year. You don't want to miss it.

And another stranded cruise ship, but this one is stuck in ice -- what rescuers are going to get passengers out next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Police in the Chinese border town are trying to figure out just who created this. A huge underground tunnel, they say, was used for smuggling. They discovered the entrance to the tunnel covered by beer boxes.

From one end to the other, the tunnel stretches nearly 130 feet long, inside, a system of pulleys and ropes which police say were used for smuggling. Chinese authorities are still investigating the case.

And happening right now in the frozen Antarctic, a race to rescue a stranded ship reportedly with dozens of passengers on board. These pictures were tweeted out by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. It is coordinating the search for the Russian-flagged vessel.

Jennifer Gray is in studio with more on this.

Jennifer, exactly where is this part of Antarctic?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, they're way down in Antarctica. We will zoom down on exactly where they are. It's a research vessel. This is a station they left. And where they're stranded now is about 100 nautical miles east of their starting location. Now, there are about 74 people on board the vessel. Seems like they're pretty comfortable. This is a huge vessel.

Three ships with icebreaking capability have been called to respond to the ship, but it looks like the closest ship is at least two sailing days away. So they're going to be stuck in the ice for a couple of days. Their spirits seem high, though. They have been tweeting a little bit from the vessel.

And one gentleman on board, if we have that graphic, said they are all good. They feel like they're stranded like sailors of old, is what he said. So they are keeping high spirits and it looks like they're going to be OK for a couple days, if everything can go as planned and they can get rescued in the next two days.

WHITFIELD: Well, it's good they're optimistic about it all, but they really have a pretty good sense of the region and where they are. So they knew that this was a possibility, right?

GRAY: Yes. Actually, it is a research vessel. The vessel is capable of navigating through the ice.

You have to remember that in the Southern Hemisphere, they're experiencing their summer. And so you think of Antarctica, man, they must be cold, but really temperatures, while they're on the vessel, a lot of areas in the U.S. are actually colder than Antarctica right now. So, temperatures are hovering right around freezing for the next three days or so.

As long as they can keep their spirits high, they will be good to go.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and hopefully that rescue team gets there in about two days. And that way they will keep their smiles. Any longer than that, probably no smiles.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: All right, Jennifer Gray, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

GRAY: All right.

WHITFIELD: All right, a British code breaker who deciphered messages during World War II has received a royal pardon, nearly 60 years after he committed suicide. Alan Turing was best known for developing a code breaking device that deciphered messages encoded by German machines. His work is considered by many to have saved thousands of lives.

Paul Mason from ITN has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL MASON, ITN REPORTER (voice-over): Alan Turing led the team that cracked Enigma, the coding machine at the heart of the Nazi war effort. Turing, who had designed a computer on paper as early as 1936, built and programmed a vast calculator at the ultra-secret Bletchley Park H.Q.

Its achievement was measured in lives.

SUE BLACK, FOUNDER AND CEO, SAVVIFY: It's been said that 11 million people a year were dying during the Second World War, so the work that was done there shortened the war by two years, so that's 22 million lives that were saved.

CONLEY: After the war, he worked on the first computers. While engineers were still struggling to make electronics work, Turing began developing artificial intelligence. And in secret, he was still working for GCHQ.

But Turing was gay, and though a gay life existed underground in the '50s, it was illegal. Convicted of gross indecency, he avoided prison by agreeing to so-called chemical castration. He committed suicide in 1954, eating a cyanide-poisoned apple.

PETER TATCHELL, HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER: It was a crime for him and 50,000 other gay and bisexual men, but, sadly, they are not getting a pardon. He is. The law should not be selective.

CONLEY (on camera): Turing was hounded to his death for doing something millions of people now do legally and openly. In the process, Britain lost a war hero and one of its greatest minds.

(voice-over): The man who made computing possible is finally and officially no longer a criminal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And our thanks to reporter Paul Mason from ITN on that incredible story.

All right, coming up next, if you're unwrapping some new gadgets today, well, just wait until you see what next year brings. Our experts give us their predictions for the hottest tech trends of 2014.

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