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U.S. Warns Travel to China; Coronavirus Sends Tremor to Stock Markets; President Trump's Legal Defense Team Wraps up Their Counterargument; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Withdraws His Immunity; Violence in West Africa Keeping Children Off of School. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired January 28, 2020 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: China reports more coronavirus deaths, as it puts nearly 60 million people on lockdown amid the global spread.

Another day of arguments in the U.S. president's impeachment trial as a key figure comes back to haunt Mr. Trump's defense team.

And Palestinians burning Israeli and U.S. Flags in Gaza to protest against the White House's peace deal, which President Trump is set to reveal in the coming hours.

Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN Newsroom.

And we start with the Wuhan coronavirus in China where authorities are racing to contain the deadly and growing outbreak.

The country now reports more than 4,500 people have been infected and 106 have died. It also says people can spread the virus before showing symptoms, either through droplets or direct contact.

Now, that has many countries warning against traveling to Wuhan and the U.S. State Department is now urging Americans to reconsider going anywhere in China.

And in Hong Kong, medical workers are threatening to strike if the local government does not shut down its border with the mainland.

Over the weekend, people protested outside a proposed quarantine site in Hong Kong. The building was set on fire.

For the latest, CNN's David Culver is live in Beijing. He joins us now. David, those numbers are incredible. I mean, nearly 60 million people under lock down. What are the human rights and health implications of that and how are these evacuations being carried out?

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, tens of millions of people, Rosemary, within at least 15 cities. And you're right. this is a lockdown that prevents them not only from leaving that area in those cases, without special permission, but also heavily restricted travel within, in some cases, public transportation shut down altogether.

Now, part of the public health concern with this has been expressed from doctors who we have been in touch with who are within the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of all of this and they have depicted some pretty dire circumstances.

One doctor even telling us that they have contracted the coronavirus and at least a dozen of her colleagues likewise contracted it, some of them more seriously than others and that they are in intensive care so obviously not able to give medical treatment others to others. The others have been sent home on medication.

So that explains why the government is moving forward with the deployment of at least 6,000 military and civilian medical personnel. They have been deployed as of today. They are within the epicenter of all of this in the city of Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province and another thousand or so are on standby to go down.

So, they are clearly having to step up their reinforcements here but also, according to President Xi Jinping, there is a demand that he has put out there that these medical personnel are protected, that they are going in there as one nurse put it to us with some armor. Because initially she felt like she was going into battle without armor.

So now he is calling for the resources to be put in place and that means sending in thousands of protective suits, of gloves of other gear that they need. And we know that is also coming from other countries.

This is interesting because while we hear about some of the other countries trying to evacuate their citizens, the U.S. among them, the U.K. considering it, France, South Korea, Japan also moving forward with a charter flight, supposed to leave on Tuesday but that playing coming in is also bringing in much-needed medical supplies.

They are bringing in the goggles. They are bringing in the face mask, the hazmat suits and as they come in, they will bring that plane in, they were loaded up with about 200 passengers and it will depart. They have another 450 or so Japanese civilians who are looking likewise to get out and they are saying that they are trying to schedule, Rosemary, in the coming days more flights to assist with that.

CHURCH: It is a difficult situation, of course, containment very important here. David Culver bringing us the very latest from Beijing. Many thanks to you.

Well, estimating how many people could be infected presents a major challenge for health workers. A top U.S. doctor spoke earlier with CNN about measuring an outbreak like this.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS

DISEASES: Right now, the R.O. is felt to be somewhere between 1.5 and three, which is really, you know, higher than you would like it to be at all. You would like it to be less than one.

And when I say get it under control, I mean getting that interruption of person to person so that individuals either don't infect on a one to one basis or no one at all and that's going to take some serious public health mitigation activities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And we do want to look at how the financial markets are reacting to the spread of the virus. For more on that, CNN's Anna Stewart is live in London. Of course, Anna, markets do not like uncertainty and this is exactly what they are dealing with.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Exactly that. And we have seen the selloff continue into its second day, big selloff yesterday. A if you look at how Asia traded overnight, you can see the Nikkei, Japan's index down half a percent and actually that was down 2 percent on Monday, so big losses there.

The KOSPI in South Korea that actually reopen today, it has been on holiday, so it's playing a little bit of catch up there, you can see it down over 3 percent. No Chinese indices, they are all on holiday for the Chinese lunar New Year and it could be shut until next week. So, we'll wait to see any reaction there.

Now why are we seeing such a reaction this week? Because last week it was a lot more mixed. And I think two key developments over the weekend really put pressure on these stocks. Firstly, the idea that people can be infectious without having any symptoms at all, because that makes the spread much harder to control.

Also, the fact that the lunar New Year has been extended. What does that mean? Well, possibly more factories and shops being close, more travel restrictions, all of that has such a big impact on Chinese consumption and Chinese output.

And I am told we now have Europe's markets, they opened six minutes ago so we can bring to you so you see how they've opened. All slightly higher. Now, that is good news. They were down around 2 percent yesterday so they've already absorbed some losses, and U.S. features up also pointing higher for the open later today.

I think a lot at this stage is going to depend on what we see from the virus story, whether it spreads into new regions, new territories and how long china keep seizing areas under shut down and how big an impact that will have on Chinese GDP. And of course, whether a vaccine can be developed.

But as you know, so many stocks around the world not just within in China have huge exposure to China and to the region. So, any impact we see on this virus story will have a ripple effect throughout the markets. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right. Anna Stewart, thank you so much for keeping a close eye on all of that. I appreciate it.

I want to turn now to the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. The U.S. president's legal team will wrap up opening arguments in the day here but the claims in former national security adviser John Bolton's upcoming book draft could mean a much longer trial than Republicans were hoping for.

CNN's Phil Mattingly explains.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ostensibly, everything was about the White House presentation on Monday, their second day of presenting, the second day of three, kind of laying out their defense against the two articles of impeachment against the president.

But the reality was, all anybody was talking about particularly inside the Senate Republican conference was the new revelations about a manuscript from John Bolton, the former national security adviser saying explicitly that he heard from the president that U.S. assistance to Ukraine was in fact contingent on Ukraine launching investigations.

Now, senators were unsettled early in the morning, there is no question about that. Multiple people I spoke with confirmed that in fact Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was blindsided by the news, even though the White House have been the manuscript have been submitted to the White House, the White House never informed anybody in the Senate Republican conference which was a major problem.

However, McConnell made clear to his members in a closed-door launch before the proceedings for the day began to, quote, "take a deep breath." His point, don't make any rash decisions on whether or not to vote for witnesses until you've heard the entire White House presentation, until you've had an opportunity to ask questions of both sides, something that will occur after the White House presentation concludes.

The base line is this. If Democrats can bring four Republicans to their side on the idea of moving forward to subpoena witnesses and documents, that process will in fact move forward. But the White House has made clear that's not something they want.

McConnell has said the same, arguing that it will elongate the trial, it will set precedents that Senate Republicans will at some point regret in the future. And that argument for the moment has held. Two Republican Senators, Mitt Romney and Susan Collins both who have clear in the past they're open to witnesses, saying that they're even more firm in that position now.

But beyond those two, it's unclear who the other two maybe. Senators Lisa Murkowski definitely somebody who was in play but that fourth senator, that a crucial final senator that Democrats needed from the Republican side to move it forward, that is still up in the air.

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And base on what we heard after the White House presentation mostly it appears like McConnell has his troops back in line. Still, there are many days to go and obviously a lot of questions left. And as for the actual presentations themselves only one person even mentioned the Bolton revelations. That was Alan Dershowitz when he said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, TRUMP IMPEACHMENT ATTORNEY: If a president, any president, were to have done what the Times reported about the content of the Bolton manuscript, that would not constitute an impeachable offense.

Let me repeat, nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Obviously, there are plenty of Democratic senators who disagree with that assessment but the big question is, did it resonate with Republicans? More notably, did it resonate with enough Republicans so that the Democrats wouldn't have the votes to move forward on witnesses.

Again, we won't have a final answer to that question for at least another couple of days. That's obviously the most operative question at the moment when everybody is trying to figure out, but one that at least for the moment has no clear answers and for Republicans, especially who were unsettled by the Bolton revelations, that in and of itself for the White House and for Senate GOP leadership is a victory, again, at least for the moment.

Phil Mattingly, CNN, Capitol Hill.

CHURCH: We are just getting some breaking news into CNN.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is withdrawing his request for parliamentary immunity from prosecution on fraud and bribery charges. Charges he has consistently denied.

Let's go to Oren Liebermann, he joins us now live from Jerusalem. Oren, explain to us what is happening and what this all means exactly.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, just hours before Israel's parliament the Knesset was set to convene to consider whether to begin holding the hearings on Netanyahu's immunity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on his Facebook page just a few minutes ago, less than 15 minutes ago in fact, that he would be withdrawing his immunity request.

At this point it was obvious he was going to lose that vote and his parliamentary immunity would not be granted to him and that the prosecution would proceed. Instead of being seen to lose a vote, Netanyahu withdrew his request and attacked his political opponents writing this. "At this fateful hour for the people of Israel while I'm in the United

States on a historic mission to shape the final borders of Israel and safeguard our security for generations to come, another show in the immunity removal circus is set to begin. This is the continuation of a personal and obsessive hunt against me by the anyone but Bibi people."

So, we see him there continue that attack against the investigations against him, and attack against the corruption cases themselves. This with the final result that he has withdrawn his request for immunity. What is that practically mean?

Well, now that means Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit can file those charges officially against him, charges of bribery and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases and the prosecution of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can begin. The first time in Israel's 70- year history or so that the prosecution of a sitting prime minister in Israel will happen. That is unprecedented.

The timing of course no coincidence. First, of course, it becomes, or comes on the day the Knesset was set to convene to consider the immunity request and whether to hold those hearings, and then it comes hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will stand next to President Donald Trump for the unveiling of the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan here.

That news will certainly overshadowed this when it comes out and that will take over the headlines tomorrow but there is no doubt that this is a big moment as Netanyahu has chosen to withdraw his immunity request instead of risk of losing that vote and have it withdrawn, or, rather, have his immunity taken from him regardless.

CHURCH: Yes. And of course, we'll see what the outcome of that will be. You mentioned the Middle East plan being basically revealed, announced by President Trump in the coming hours. Of course, most people know the details of it and that Palestinians are not happy at all. It's seen as a political gift being handed to Netanyahu. Talk to us about that.

LIEBERMANN: That very much so. The Palestinians have outright rejected this. They haven't had contact with the Trump administration in more than two years ever since Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. They have called this not the deal of the century but the fraud or the hoax of the century.

Meanwhile, Hamas in Gaza has already called for protests today and tomorrow against the plan itself and expect we'll see some similar protests in the West Bank as well.

As for this being a political gift to Netanyahu, the Trump administration has tried to downplay that, pointing out that they invited Netanyahu's rival Benny Gantz yesterday to a meeting, a separate meeting in the White House where he was briefed on the details of the plan, but there is no doubt that it will be Netanyahu standing next to Trump when this plan is revealed later on today.

It will be Netanyahu who takes the headlines there as long as -- along with the details of the plan.

Why is this so good for Netanyahu? Well, now, he very much faces what may be a trial in the coming months, in a very difficult reelection campaign after he failed to form a government twice.

It's good for Trump because he's seen standing next to his loudest international cheerleader, someone who's never criticized him and someone who certainly helps him with the Evangelical vote in the United States.

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CHURCH: All right. Many thanks to Oren Liebermann bringing us up to date on that breaking news as well. I appreciate it.

We'll take a short break here. Still to come, basketball fans are still coming to terms with the sudden death of Kobe Bryant. Ahead, what the people of Los Angeles are doing to honor the Laker great.

Plus, growing violence in West Africa is driving children from school. A call from the U.N. to protect the rising generation when we return.

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CHURCH: The tributes continue after the death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant. In Los Angeles, all flags were lowered to half-staff to honor the Laker great who died Sunday along with his daughter in a helicopter crash.

Both were remembered in this mural by L.A. artist Jules Muck. She told CNN she started working on it as soon as she heard about their deaths. She said more people asked her to paint Bryant than anyone else.

The news of his death has also been felt far beyond Los Angeles. New York's Empire State Building was lit up in purple and gold of the colors of the L.A. Lakers, and around the world, Bryant's childhood friends are sharing their memories of him.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I knew about it from a dear friend who sent me a message. I immediately thought it was fake news and I immediate sent him an e-mail asking, tell me it's not true. Then I received a lot of phone calls and messages.

The biggest tragedy was knowing about the death of his daughter because when he came here five years ago, he came with his two daughters and the oldest was here in Italy with him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Kobe was that little guy who came here, we were 17 or 18 years old and he was 10. He had that grit that champions have, even when they are young, they show that strength, that tenacity to have success, and this was visible.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: Meantime, authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash. They are trying to determine a foggy conditions and low visibility played a role.

Well, a new report from UNICEF says more than eight million children in West Africa are not in school due to a surge in violence.

CNN's David McKenzie has been digging into this and joins us from Johannesburg with more. So, David, what more are you learning about this and what can be done to improve the plight of all these children impacted by this violence?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, a bishop I spoke to in the northern part of Burkina Faso said they risk having a lost generation. This is a striking report from UNICEF that paints a bleak picture of the rights and health and well-being of children in the Sahel in West Africa.

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Just take a look at this graph, showing the increase in attacks in Burkina Faso. Now, this country was long seen as an island of stability as countries like Mali and Niger saw increasing attacks.

Over the last few years you've seen this really dramatic spike in attacks, UNICEF and human rights watch and others say this is often directly at schools and school children, an attempt by extremist to destabilize that region.

There is also been an increasing, as you can imagine, a number of school closures. Thousands of kids are just not in school in Burkina Faso and in neighboring countries. Now, this is an issue for that country and a humanitarian disaster for those trying to help but it's also very worrying security threats.

Extremist groups we believe are trying to use Burkina Faso as a bridge from countries like Mali and Niger through into the coastal West African states including Ghana, Togo, and Benin. And this is all happening as the U.S., the Pentagon and others are at least hinting they might draw down the level of troops and the level of support to that region from a security standpoint in the coming months and years.

This is an under reported issue, it's an issue that is seeing not enough headlines but has a very huge human cost. Now what UNICEF and others are asking is that the government intervene to try and stabilize the situation.

Many people though, I have spoken to say the military solution isn't enough. The U.S. has been in that region fighting extremist for several years. The French have been there for even longer. And yet, these attacks on civilians and softer targets continue. They say that getting to the root cause, getting to issues of climate change and ethnic conflict and giving some hope to the children would be really the only answer.

But striking numbers for under reported story that could be spiraling out of control, Rosemary.

CHURCH: David McKenzie, many thanks to you for bringing us that live report from Johannesburg. A very disturbing report there.

Well, in a solemn day at a notorious death camp, the pleas from Holocaust survivors to remember. The ceremony at Auschwitz, that's ahead.

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CHURCH: There is an urgency among the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors on this solemn anniversary. They gathered at Auschwitz Monday to mark 75 years since the Nazi death camp was liberated.

Despite the horror of the atrocities then, there is a rising tide of anti-Semitism now, and survivors fear the lessons from their testimony will be forgotten when they are gone.

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ANDRZEJ DUDA, PRESIDENT OF POLAND (through translator): We are standing in front of the gate leading to the camp that claimed lives of the largest number of victims. The truth about the Holocaust must not die. The memory of Auschwitz must last so that such extermination is never repeated again.

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BATSHEVA DAGAN, AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR (through translator): One of the worst things that I went through at the very beginning, well, it is hard to say, actually what was more painful to me, whether it was the process of tattooing an ember on my arm or something else.

I believe, though, that was what the most hurtful for me was the loss of hair because the hair gave me a sense of belonging to womanhood and they were smooth. This hair was my own, and this criminal hand touched my hair, this crown of mine was taken away from me and I was turned into this pitiful sad creature.

STANISLAW ZALEWSKI, AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR (through translator): I remember naked women driven in trucks from the barracks to a gas chamber. I can hear them screaming. I can hear it in my subconscious.

I saw the suicide of prisoners who threw themselves on this electrified barbed wire fence.

MARIAN TURSKI, AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR (through translator): People who learned that I had been an inmate of Auschwitz would ask me, how do you think -- it must have been only in Germany or do you think it could've happened somewhere else? And then I told them, it can also happen in your country, in this land, when the civil rights are broken, when people do not obey the laws of minorities.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: A plea to remember there from Auschwitz survivors.

And thank you so much for your company, this 90 minutes, in fact. I'm Rosemary Church. Inside Africa is up next. But first, I will be back with a check of the headlines. You're watching CNN.

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CHURCH: Hello, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN news now.

We start with breaking news.

Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is withdrawing his request for parliamentary immunity from prosecution on charges of corruption. Charges he has repeatedly denied.

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