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Fourteen American Evacuees From Japan Test Positive; U.N.: 900,000 Syrians Displaced Since December; Flooding Strikes Parts Of The U.K.; Americans Evacuated from Japan Quarantined Again in U.S.; Facebook Facing Increased Regulation. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired February 18, 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, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Studio seven at CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. And ahead this hour, nearly half of China now on lockdown as authorities go to new links to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The United Nations calls it the biggest humanitarian horror story of this century. Almost one million people forced from their homes in Syria's latest violence. And Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pledging $10 billion to fight climate change, but even some of these own employees say the world's richest man still has done enough.

And we begin this hour in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Chinese health officials are saying that a hospital director in that city has died from the virus. The global death toll is now jumped to more than 1,800. Right now, half of China's population, 718 million people are under travel restrictions because of the outbreak. And officials are monitoring people who bought fever medicine since January. China also says more than 12,000 patients, and this is important, have recovered and being discharged from hospitals.

Meanwhile, CNN has just learned that 160 Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan in the first week of February and quarantine in California will be released on Tuesday. And 14 of the cruise ship passengers evacuated from Japan have been sent to medical facilities after testing positive for the virus. They were flying back to the U.S. Monday morning.

Now CNN's Matt Rivers joins me now from Tokyo to talk about these developments. First of all, what do we know about the disembarkation, if you like, process as it stands?

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, we expect, Michael, this process to begin sometime during the day on the 19th. What Japanese health officials are saying is that they will be testing every single person on board the Diamond Princess before they are going to be allowed off and out of that quarantine and just kind of allowed to go free in Japan in both Yokohama and potentially Tokyo as well. What officials are saying though, is that it takes a couple of days to

get those test results back. They believed to have testing procedures basically done by today, but then it could take several days after that for the results to come back. So what officials are saying is that the people who qualify, that basically the people who are not tested positive, the people who qualify to get off the ship will be allowed to do so between the 19th and the 21st.

The one caveat to that is even if your test comes back negative, but the person who you are sharing a cabin with comes back positive, well, then they're going to keep that person on board the ship for a longer quarantine period. Not clear at least as of now from health officials how long that person is going to be kept onboard the ship.

So this process of disembarkation that passengers had been waiting for some time now, Michael, does look like it's going to move forward sometime during the day on the 19th. And it will last for the next several days. But not everyone is going to qualify. I mean, we still see the number of cases being reported go up. I mean, it was just last night here in Japan that we reported an increase of 99 additional cases.

That was the largest day to day increase in terms of the number of positive diagnoses on the ship since the quarantine began. So that could certainly continue to go up, Michael, and that will affect not only the people who tested positive, but also the people staying in the same cabins as those people who get that diagnosis.

HOLMES: Yes, yes. A lot of questions about whether it was wise to keep everyone together from the beginning. Who then remains on board the ship?

RIVERS: Well, so there are about -- there are several dozen Americans that remain after those evacuation flights took the majority of Americans off the plane Sunday into Monday morning. But there's a whole bunch of other nationalities of people on board. There's Japanese people that remain on board. There's Australians, there's Italians, there's Canadians, there's a number of different nationalities that remain on board.

We know the Canadians, Italians, and the Australians are planning on evacuating their citizens. We don't know the schedule at this point. We don't know whether that's going to happen before passengers are a led off the ship or after in some capacity. We're told that embassies are getting in touch directly with their nationals on board the ship.

But there's a whole bunch of people that remain on board, Michael, and they're, you know, desperately, you know, waiting to hear from officials, did they test positive or not? And how soon can they get off the ship after what's been just a miserable process for those people on board.

[01:05:16]

HOLMES: Goodness. Absolutely. Matt, thank you very much, reporting all throughout this. Matt Rivers there. All right, now Syria's president says his forces' recent rapid gains against the rebels are a prelude to the end of the country's nine-year war. The Syrian army says now that it has taken control of dozens of towns in Aleppo's northwestern region and forces are pushing into Idlib province.

Russian airstrikes hit near the Turkish border forcing two hospitals to close according to staff. President Bashar al-Assad says the conflict isn't over yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASHAR AL-ASSAD, PRESIDENT OF SYRIA (through translator): We are fully aware that this liberation does not mean the end of war, nor the collapse of schemes, nor the demise of terrorism, nor does it mean that the enemies have surrendered, but it certainly means rubbing their noses in the dirt as a prelude for complete defeat sooner or later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The U.N. says nearly 900,000 civilians have been displaced since December, most of them women and children. One U.N. official said the humanitarian crisis has reached a horrifying new level.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK LOWCOCK, UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL, UNITED NATION: If this goes on, what we're going to see is Idlib, that part of Northwest in Syria turned into the world's biggest pile of rubble-strewn with the corpses of a million children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: A dire situation there. Now, Barbara Walter joins us from San Diego. She's a political science professor at the University of California San Diego, also an expert on international security with an emphasis civil wars, so the perfect person to speak with.

Professor, I mean, it's hard to get your head around nearly a million people displaced in a couple of months. It almost defies belief. Our own Arwa Damon said there are no good options for the population as the enclave disintegrates. What's your assessment of what's unfolding?

BARBARA WALTER, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO: With a complete humanitarian disaster, Assad has consciously been targeting and killing civilians in the area with the objective of depopulating the area. It's true that there is almost a million civilians, almost half of them are children, and there's no place for them to go. So essentially, they're sitting up.

Normally they would go across the border into Turkey. That's where four million Syrian refugees have already gone. The Turkish government has closed that border.

HOLMES: Yes, in the -- in the short term, a lot of these people are telling CNN they would prefer some sort of Turkish protectorate in that part of the region. And then as you point out, Turkey, has upped its military presence, hundreds of armored vehicles and tanks, they have taken casualties as well. How does that complicate the battlefield?

WALTER: Well, Turkey has a very good incentive to try to create a safe haven, a protectorate for the civilians. Its greatest concern is that it gets overloaded with refugees, and this actually destabilizes Turkey. So Erdogan is going to do everything possible to try to keep them out of his country. And that means creating some sort of protectorate. That's not going to be easy, because it's basically Turkey against Assad, against the Russians with help from Iran.

HOLMES: Yes, just even saying that line is a little bit scary in a geopolitical sense. I mean, how realistically the possibility of full- blown conflict between Turkey, a NATO member, and the Assad regime with the Russians perhaps being dragged in to support their proxies. That's a frightening thing. How possible is it?

WALTER: I don't think it's that likely. I think if NATO it had more teeth at the moment, Turkey might be a little more emboldened. But NATO right now is essentially leaderless with Trump, President Trump not showing much interest in taking leading role there and none of the Europeans have been up. So even though Turkey is a member of NATO, NATO as an organization right now is quite weak.

HOLMES: Turkish officials made this point. They've been moaning for months. They cannot handle a new influx of refugees. But you know, this regime offensive, it could potentially push three million people across the border into a nation that as you say, hosts four million Syrian refugees or met already. I mean, what is that process look like?

[01:10:03]

WALTER: Well, I think the most immediate negative effect is probably not that bad from a U.S. perspective. I think the person who has the most to fear from this is President Erdogan because having that many refugees is not particularly popular in Turkey and amongst his constituents. So he's probably going to take the blame most immediately from having refugees like that before anything worse happened.

HOLMES: I wonder what your thoughts are on, you know, what responsibility, if any, the U.S. has to bear for what's happening in that northern area of the country where not so long ago the U.S. patrolled and the area was largely peaceful. I mean, did that sort of drop any dominoes, that withdrawal?

WALTER: This has everything to do with us withdrawal starting back in October. The U.S. withdrew almost all of its soldiers by the beginning of November. And that basically cleared the way for Assad to make rapid military advances. That's exactly what he did.

HOLMES: Yes. And Turkey to displace Kurds as well. It's a busy part of the world. Barbara Walter, Professor, thank you so much. I appreciate your expertise.

WALTER: It's my pleasure.

HOLMES: OK, the number of former U.S. Justice Department officials demanding the Attorney General's resignation nearly doubled on Monday. Bill Barr, accused of politicizing the Justice Department. The latest instance his intervention in a high profile case involving one of President Donald Trump's close friends. Kaitlan Collins with an update.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL, UNITED STATES: Thank you, Mr. President.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Attorney General Bill Barr is now facing more scrutiny after a week that strained his relationship with the Justice Department rank and file and an interview that threatened to upend his standing with the President.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: I know people who are trying to bully Bill Barr out of his job.

COLLINS: More than 2,000 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials are calling on him to resign after he intervened to reduce Roger Stone's sentencing recommendation. Officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations have signed an open letter calling Barr's actions unheard of and outrageous, including the deputy attorney general from George H.W. Bush's White House.

Stone is a close confidant of Trump's and is set to be sentenced to this week after he was convicted on seven counts including lying to Congress and witness tampering. Barr denied talking about the case with the President.

BARR: I have not discussed the Roger Stone case at the White House.

COLLINS: But comments like this from Trump have done little to combat allegations of political influence.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Roger Stone was treated horribly. I want to thank the Justice Department.

COLLINS: Trump is spending President's Day behind closed doors after a weekend in Florida where he headlined the priciest fundraiser of his presidency at the home of billionaire Nelson Peltz and activist grand marshal at the Daytona 500.

TRUMP: Gentlemen, start your engines.

COLLINS: His campaign manager was forced to delete his tweet after he posted a photo of Air Force One flying over the racetrack from when President George W. Bush visited in 2004. Brad Parscale later tweeted a photo of Trump's Air Force One arrival in Daytona. Trump ended the weekend in Washington attending the wedding of his senior advisors, Stephen Miller and Vice President Pence's press secretary Katie Waldman at his hotel in Washington. Now in that open letter that those now over 2,000 attorneys have

signed. They say they welcome to what Bill Barr said when he criticized the president for getting involved in Justice Department matters. But they said that that wasn't enough and that in their opinion, actions speak louder than words that we should note so far the Justice Department has not commented on that letter. Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: We'll take a short break. When we come back, floodwaters are keeping emergency services busy in the U.K. Is the situation about to get even worse? We'll check the forecast and see if more rain could be on the way. And the world's richest man putting his money where his mouth is in the fight against climate change. We'll explain how Amazon chief Jeff Bezos' $10 billion donation might deliver some results even some of his own workers though not convinced. We'll have that when we come back.

[01:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGIST: Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri with you for CNN weather watch. And the eastern third of the U.S. where the active weather is confined to when it comes to some wintry weather to the north and rain showers across portions of the South and Central States.

And in Chicago in particular, look at this. We get a taste of wintry temperatures. We haven't had much of those in recent months, highs minus five where two is the average for this time of year. Just like that, on Friday revert back to what is normal for this time of year, by Saturday and Sunday climb above that. And as is the case continuing what has been a historic start here to the winter season in the past several months across portions of the United States.

And notice to the south, some to wet weather as well across parts of the Southern United States from Atlanta back westward just north of Montgomery, Alabama. There's some heavy rainfall expected where some flooding once again remains a concern. Highs in Denver one, in Dallas 13 degrees. A very warm afternoon slated across portions of Southern California 24 degrees and partly cloudy conditions.

Winnipeg that's where the coolest temperatures are slated for about 17 below for an afternoon high. Into Havana, Cuba, how about a taste of almost summer-like warmth coming in 33 degrees across the region. NASA a little more manageable down to 27 there with partly cloudy conditions and shift the attention into South America there where (INAUDIBLE) expecting highs to be into the 30s, Paranam also around 30 degrees.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: American racecar driver has been hospitalized after getting into a dramatic crash at the Daytona 500. It happened in the final lap of the event in Florida. Ryan Newman was actually in first place when he gets clipped crashes into the wall. His car flipping several times and flying into the air. when you see it in slow motion, you can see just how dramatic it was. Then another car crashes into him.

T.V. commentators say he was taken to hospital after being taken out of the vehicle. A statement from Newman's racing team says he's currently in a serious condition but does not have life-threatening injuries which is both incredible and good news.

Turning now to the U.K., which is still grappling with the fallout of a severe winter storm. Storm Dennis had prompted a record-breaking number of flood warnings across Britain as workers rescue residents by boat in waist-deep water. Dennis struck Britain nearly a week after another storm Ciara wreaked havoc leaving thousands without electricity. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us with more. Any good news on the meteorological horizon?

JAVAHERI: You know, in the immediate forecast, yes. So we're talking about Tuesday. It looks like the low and quieter day. And unfortunately, Wednesday into Thursday, additional wet weather is expected here. And of course, you noted Ciara was a storm we dealt with about eight-nine days ago and you bring this particular storm in Dennis here and of course very similar in the amount of rain they produce, the wind gusts also tremendous.

We know across the South Wales Valleys across this region, water levels and those rivers as the highest we've seen in four decades. It really speaks to the intensity, the rarity of such a storm, and of course, nearly 500 properties, taking on some water. You know, the U.K. in the past few years has allocated billions of dollars in weather emergencies. But moving forward, they've actually increased that to over $6.5 billion.

[01:20:24]

In the past five years, that number was closer to $3 billion. So kind of see the response here by the government dealing with the severe weather we've experienced in recent years and of course moving forward. But images look as such across this region, flood alerts upwards of nearly 500 of them in place across the U.K. when you consider the warnings and alerts, and nine of which considered severe at this hour.

So looking forward to the into Wednesday, notice we have quite a bit of coverage here as far as at least some of the lower risk in place. There are some medium-risk going into Tuesday across the Wales region, also the Midlands area. And the biggest concern here is the amount of water that has already come down that has increased the groundwater supply right above the water table.

So any additional rainfall becomes surface flooding, and that is really what's most concerning at this hour because so many rivers, so many tributaries dealing with flooding at this hour, Michael. So the last thing they want to see is additional wet weather. But of course, the calendar says it's the middle of February so plenty of storms still over the next several months across this region. HOLMES: Yes. The world is changing. Pedram Javaheri, thank you so

much.

JAVAHERI: Thanks.

HOLMES: All right, the world's richest man putting a portion of his vast wealth behind the fight against climate change. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pledging $10 billion to create a fund to support climate change scientists, activists, and organizations. The Bezos Earth Fund will be giving out grants this northern summer. Bezos wants to work with others to explore new ways of fighting climate change saying this. "We can save Earth. It's going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation-states, global organizations and individuals."

And Bill McKibben joins us now. He's an environmentalist and the founder of climate campaign group 350.org. He's also the author of the book Earth. You see there on your screen now. Always good to see you, sir. Now, given the urgency of the climate situation, how would $10 billion best be used if you were spending it?

BILL MCKIBBEN, FOUNDER, 350.ORG: Well, I mean, look, first of all, let's say, it's probably not the best thing in the world that we've set up a planet where a few people end up with all the money. That being the case, I'm glad that Mr. Bezos is spending some of it on earth instead of just on outer space. And I think that the places that it's most important to spend it are in standing up to the fossil fuel industry. They're the ones who are driving this crisis now.

We don't know if you will, because Amazon continues to partner with the big oil companies in the hunt for more oil and gas. Their web services are a crucial part of their kind of cloud computing, of what the big oil companies are doing. But if he's serious about reining in climate change, the place it's going to come is if we stand up to these guys.

HOLMES: And to that point, he is, of course, facing a climate rebellion from within. You know, the group of employees Amazon for Life on Twitter, they -- you call them one of the truly effective groups of workers on the planet. And you quote them underneath. You know, they're saying, basically, great, Jeff Bezos, thanks for the money. But they also asking hard questions and we'll put it up for people to read.

They saying things like, when is Amazon going to stop helping oil and gas companies ravage the earth? Stop funding climate-denying think tanks. They call him complicit in the acceleration of the climate crisis, and he has promised changes. But you know, they're saying, well, thanks for the 10 billion, but there's a lot of questions at home.

MCKIBBEN: Let's hope that their work among others is in the process of converting him on this issue. Look, I'm willing to accept the fact that people looking at the mess that we're now in, watching the pictures that you've been showing from Australia for the past month, I'm willing to accept the fact that people who haven't been very involved in this in the past are beginning to get scared. And so it's, you know, good work from people like Amazon employees for climate action that are beginning to push this debate.

We'll see. It's quite true that we need every hand on board, but we need to make sure that those guys are really willing to take on -- well, take on the other rich people who are keeping us on the path world.

HOLMES: And yes. I mean, to that point, I mean, do you think even with Bezos giving some of his own money, do you think there's a message out there now, a feeling that people can't rely on government. There are so many governments around the world. You mentioned Australia. That's one, the U.S. as well, that continued to promote fossil fuels and in fact, demean climate activism. Is there a feeling -- growing feeling that if governments want to do it, we'll have to do it ourselves, be it private citizens, or Jeff Bezos or whoever?

[01:25:20]

MCKIBBEN: Well, I think that there is -- I mean, look, I mean, Jeff Bezos has managed to make sure that Amazon didn't pay any federal tax last year. So that's a reminder of one of the reasons that the federal government isn't doing very much about the tax that we're in. But yes, look, we're going to have to build movements because governments aren't doing the things that they're supposed to be doing. And those movements are going to have to make it inconvenient for the most powerful industries on our planet.

We really are reaching one of those moments where you line up on one side or the other. That's why people are pushing the big banks so hard to stop lending the fossil fuel industry. It's why so many institutions are divesting their holdings from the fossil fuel industry. We're at the moment of truth now. And so I guess in that moment, it's good that as many people as possible are beginning to throw down.

HOLMES: You know, it's interesting you mentioned the Australian bush fires, you got glaciers melting, I mean, this bomb cyclone in the U.K., the second biggest ever in the North Atlantic. You've been warning of the perils of climate change for years now, and must have been, of course, frustrated by the inaction. Are you more confident now or less that catastrophic consequences can be averted, or at least mitigate it in a meaningful sense.

MCKIBBEN: Well, clearly catastrophic consequences can't be averted. I mean, look, ask the people who ended up standing on the beach in New South Wales and Victoria because the ocean was the only way they could get out of the forest fire. The question now is not whether we can stop climate change, it's whether we can stop it short of the point where it just destroys civilizations.

And I'm afraid that's an open question. I mean, if we're going to do it, we're going to have to move faster than we've ever moved before. We've only left ourselves. The scientists tell us a decade or so, to make huge strides. We better get on it and on it fast.

HOLMES: Bill McKibben, always a pleasure to have you on. Sir, thank you so much.

MCKIBBEN: Back to you. Thanks.

HOLMES: We're going to take a short break. When we come back, Americans exposed to the coronavirus on a cruise ship in Japan. They're back in the U.S. but their journey back home felt like they were trading one old deal for another. We'll have the details after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:31:13]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM

I'm Michael Holmes with the headlines.

The U.N. says the humanitarian crisis in Syria is reaching a horrifying new level. 900,000 Syrians have fled their home since December as Syrian forces make rapid advances in Aleppo. President Bashar al-Assad said the war is not over but the games, he said, are a prelude to the rebels' eventual defeat.

The world's richest man putting a portion of his vast wealth behind the fight against climate change. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pledging $10 billion to create a fund to support scientists, activists and organizations. The Bezos Earth Fund, as it will be called, will begin giving out grants in the next few months.

The coronavirus has now killed more than 1,800 people worldwide, including a hospital director in Wuhan, China -- the epicenter of the outbreak. At least 73,000 cases have been recorded globally now. Most of them in China. And nearly half the country's population or about 780 million people are still facing travel restrictions.

Now, the 14 Americans who tested positive for the virus on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship are now being treated in the United States. More than 300 Americans were flown back to California and Texas on Monday where they will wait 14 more days in quarantine.

CNN's Will Ripley has more now on their long journey home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT; Daybreak in Yokohama, Japan. The final day on the Diamond Princess for more than 300 Americans evacuated by the U.S. government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a converted cargo 747. So there is less insulation than a regular passenger jet. So bring some American layers to stay warm.

RIPLEY: American health officials try to prepare passengers for a long, uncomfortable journey -- a journey Karey Maniscalco (ph) from Utah is reluctant to take. She and her husband already endured nearly two weeks of quarantine on the cruise ship. KAREY MANISCALCO, EVACUATED CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER: I didn't like that

answer.

RIPLEY: Now, they are about to do it all over again at a California military base.

MANISCALCO: They have sent over a dozen emails assuring us that there would not be an additional quarantine. And they just told us that we would be re-quarantined for 14 more days. I've just lost a whole month of my life.

RIPLEY: She is angry at the U.S. government, angry they waited so long to evacuate the American passengers.

Others, like Gay Courter (ph) from Florida are grateful.

GAY COURTER, EVACUATED CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER: : I want to go somewhere where I can feel safe. I just want to thank President Trump and the U.S. government. There has been a lot of silence on this. And now we know the silence has been putting together a brilliant plan.

RIPLEY: Executing that plan will take nearly ten hours even though the airport is just a 20-minute drive from the ship.

Once they get on, there is no getting off, not even to go to the bathroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The best I can do is go found out where a bathroom is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So find out.

RIPLEY: As the hours drag on, this health worker tries to break the tension.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you call a witch on the beach?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A sandwich.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you are.

RIPLEY: Passengers are beginning to feel like the joke is on them.

MANISCALCO: We are just waiting. I don't really know what we are waiting for, but we are waiting indefinitely.

[01:34:45]

RIPLEY: Finally, they are allowed off the bus -- and on to the tarmac, boarding two converted 747 cargo planes. The cabin, best described as barebones. No windows, makeshift toilets, temporary seats.

MANISCALCO: This is first class, baby. First class.

RIPLEY: Lack of luxury aside, Maniscalco feels anxious.

MANISCALCO: It is not good conditions. No one on here has had their temperature taken by the federal government or any government for that matter.

So we are all in really close, tight quarters. Everybody is sitting next to each other. I have a girl sitting here in just a minute. It seems dangerous and not safe.

RIPLEY: The U.S. government says they are safe, even though 14 passengers who tested positive for coronavirus are allowed on the flight, all showing no symptoms. They are put in a specialized containment area, isolated from the other passengers.

Just after daybreak, both planes finally take off -- a long sleepless night followed by a ten-hour flight.

Now, they have arrived in California and Texas. One ordeal ends, another begins.

Will Ripley, CNN -- Yokohama, Japan.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ] HOLMES: Now the virus has also affected the world supply of iPhones. A shortage of workers has limited the number of devices that Apple can make and sell. It says the top priority is quote, "the health and well-being of Apple employees". The tech giant makes most iPhones in China where its factories have been shut down as the coronavirus spread.

But Apple retail stores across the country are slowly starting to reopen. The company says the supply disruption should be temporary, but it still expects to miss its quarterly revenue goals.

We're going to take a short break again now. But we'll have more news in just a moment.

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HOLMES: Just days before European Union officials plan to unveil new rules regarding big tech firms and data, Facebook boss, Mark Zuckerberg is publicly asking for more governance. He says more regulations will benefit everyone in the long run.

CNN's Nina Dos Santos with more from Brussels.

[01:39:51]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg spent part of the day on Monday in Brussels meeting with three powerful E.U. commissioners who'll have a big say on the legislative horizon that his company is going to be facing in this vital market in the years to come. Well, during that meeting, he was informed that the E.U. is looking into privacy issues, as well as trying to understand how Facebook could take more responsibility for the type of content that its platforms deliver, to try and curtail things like hate speech, also disinformation and public health, and also the realm of politics.

Vera Jourova, the E.U.'s transparency and values commissioner was one of those who met with Mark Zuckerberg. She spoke to CNN just before heading in to that crucial meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VERA JOUROVA, E.U. TRANSPARENCY AND VALUES COMMISSIONER: I am sure that the business model Facebook uses for selling books cannot be used for selling the political ideas or political actors. That is why I also want to speak about the protection of the elections.

I want to protect European voters against the mechanisms of algorithms which is what chased (ph) them him into the bubble and do not give them the free possibility to make a free choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOS SANTOS: These meetings are very different types of meetings, the receptions that Mark Zuckerberg has had in years gone by. There were not television cameras present. And all we've had afterwards was something of a terse statement saying that they had had discussions.

Very different pictures to 2018, when Zuckerberg was publicly grilled by hundreds of European parliamentarians angry at the lack of transparency over what was done with citizens data online.

While privacy concerns are still part of the discussion that the E.U. is having with Facebook, they're also trying to combat all sorts of other issues and will do so with a series of new laws that are going to be presented in draft proposal form this week, before probably being implemented later on in the year.

The message to Facebook is that it has to follow them, otherwise, it could face potentially financial sanctions.

Either way though, both sides know they have to get this balance right for the large number of people who log on to Facebook in this part of the world every single day.

To put this into context, the E.U. has 445 million citizens or thereabout. Facebook has around about 307 million daily active users in this part of the world as per its latest annual report.

Nina Dos Santos, CNN -- Brussels.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: There you have it.

Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. "WORLD SPORT" starts after the break.

You'll see Rosemary Church in about 15 minutes.

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("CNN WORLD SPORT")

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