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Alexei Navalny Blames Putin for his Poisoning; Tokyo Stock Market Halted Over Technical Glitch; U.S. Wildfires Claiming 41 People as it Travels to West Coast; China's Golden Week to Test Country's Tourist Industry; South Africa Reopens Borders to Low-Risk Tourists; No Sail Oder Extended for Cruise Ship Through October; Rocket Strike Iraqi Based Housing U.S. Troops; Trump's Repeated False Claims About Voting; Obama Makes Surprise Virtual Appearance At NBA Finals; Allies on Clean-up Mode; President Trump Reaps Ramifications; Airline Industry Pleading for Aid; Countries Implement Different Pandemic Rules; Children Can be Super-Spreaders. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired October 01, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. Welcome to all of our viewers joining us from all around the world. You're watching CNN. I'm Robin Curnow.

Just ahead on the show, the race for the White House is about a month away as the candidates are back on the campaign trail. The Trump White House is playing clean up after an ugly night of debating.

Plus, fingers point -- fingers-pointing at Putin, the Russia's opposition leader blamed his country's leader for his recent poisoning.

And then later, many global industries have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic but in China signs of recovery. We are live in Beijing.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Joe Biden are back on the campaign trail looking to bounce back from their chaotic presidential debate on Tuesday. Biden was in Pennsylvania and Ohio trying to gather support from the undecided voters he failed to impress, while Mr. Trump held a rally in Minnesota where he continued to attack his political rival.

The president also tried to claim victory for Tuesday's debate even though his allies have voiced concern about his performance. Some have called it aggressive and obnoxious. Others have taken issue with the fact that Mr. Trump failed to explicitly condemn white supremacy when asked to do so.

But despite these concerns the White House insists the president did a good job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't know who the Proud Boys are. I mean you have to give me a definition because I really don't know who they are. I can only say they have to stand down. Let law enforcement do their work.

HOGAN GIDLEY, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: He wants them to get out of the way. He wants them to not do the things they say they want to do. This is a reprehensible group. The president in the clip you just played when asked by Chris Wallace if he would condemn these groups. He said sure.

LARA TRUMP, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: If you heard at the beginning of that clip as Chris Wallace chime in, he said sure.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He was in very good spirits. He brought the fights that I think the American people wanted to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: But in Ohio Joe Biden denounced the president's debate performance calling it a national embarrassment. He attacked Mr. Trump for telling the far-right Proud Boys to, quote, stand back and stand by.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, ANCHOR, FOX NEWS: Are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacist and militia groups --

TRUMP: Sure.

WALLACE: -- and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence and a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha and as we've seen in Portland.

TRUMP: Sure, I'm willing to do that.

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: Are you prepared specifically -- well, go ahead, sir. Do it.

TRUMP: But I would say -- I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing. Not from the right wing.

WALLACE: So, what are you -- what are you saying --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: But you look, I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace.

WALLACE: Well, then do it, sir.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Say it. Do it. Say it.

TRUMP: You want to call them -- what do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me a name.

WALLACE: White supremacist and white --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Go ahead. Who would like me to condemn?

WALLACE: Proud Boys.

BIDEN: White supremacist and --

TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and standby. But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, somebody has got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not right-wing problem.

BIDEN: His own -- his own FBI --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Mr. Trump later tries to walk back his standby remark by telling the group to, quote, "stand down instead." Still, he once again failed to explicitly condemn white supremacist when spoke to -- when he spoke to reporters before his rally in Minnesota

Well, Jim Acosta was there, and this is what he reports. Jim?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: At a rally in Minnesota President Trump tried to declare victory at Tuesday night's presidential debate, despite the fact that some advisors inside his campaign say that he lost that match up with Democrat Joe Biden for his failure to condemn white supremacy.

During one moment at this rally in Minnesota the president falsely said that Joe Biden is going to cancel on the next two presidential debates. That is, despite the fact that the Biden campaign says the former vice president will be there.

Here's more with what the president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, Biden lost badly when his supporters are saying he should cancel the rest of the debates. Now I understand he is canceling the debate. Let's see what happens. I think that's not going to be a good move for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: At this rally in Minnesota the president falsely allege that Joe Biden would flood the state with refugees. That is one night after the president failed to condemn white supremacy at the presidential debate, it's a different night for the president but the same playbook.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Duluth, Minnesota. CURNOW: Well, Joe Biden isn't mincing his words about Donald Trump's performance in Tuesday's debate. The former vice president is hoping to capitalize on his momentum with a campaign swing through two important states.

Here is M.J. Lee.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well the day after a chaotic debate Joe Biden spent almost all day on a train making stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania, clearly trying to win over voters including rural white working-class voters in areas where Donald Trump outperformed very well back in 2016 when he was running against Hillary.

[03:05:06]

Now what the Biden campaign is signaling about how they feel like things went at this first debate is that they presented a clear contrast between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on the debate stage. They said that Donald Trump did not seem to have a clear message or lay out a clear vision for himself on that debate stage.

And they are emphasizing two things that they feel like Donald Trump failed to do on the debate stage. First is really talking in detail about the coronavirus pandemic and sort of addressing the pandemic's suffering and the suffering that people have seen across the country.

And then the second thing of course is, Donald Trump not saying on the debate stage that he disavowed the Proud Boys. Here is what Joe Biden had to say yesterday as he campaigned across Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: My message to the Proud Boys and every other white supremacist group is cease and desist. That's not who we are. This is not who we are as Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: There's something else that we heard Joe Biden is that he hopes that the debate commission can make sure that they are making some changes to ensure that they are fewer interruptions in future debates. Clearly, the commission agrees with that. They said that they are going to look to make some changes to make sure that future debates can be orderly.

Back to you.

CURNOW: Let's talk about the debate with CNN political analyst Patrick Healy. He is also the politics editor for the New York Times. Hi, Patrick.

PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Robyn.

CURNOW: So, should any of American have been surprised by what happened last night? In many ways, that was Mr. Trump's Twitter feed spoke in real time. HEALY: It's really true and his rallies as well. But I think from a lot of Americans they don't pay attention to his Twitter feed. They don't watch the rallies, you know, I think it's -- you can say that really the majority of Americans don't pay attention to these things as much as really political junkies and journalists do.

And I think there was real surprise among certainly a lot of the voters that we talked to who had a sense that you know, Trump's behavior was certainly abnormal. You know, not typical of presidents, but really shocked by just how much he was sort breaking the rules left and right the remarks that he was saying, things that he was saying with regard to white supremacy not accepting the results of the election.

So, as much as we have seen versions of this Trump for the last three and a half years, I think for a lot of voters and a lot of viewers this came as a real shock.

CURNOW: So toxic, divisive, chaotic, in many ways, though, that was the whole tone of the debate. And Joe Biden did pull down with that. When you look at the voter reaction was this about me the man really winning, and was this about voters perhaps turning off as well.

HEALY: I think it was hard for a lot of voters to watch this. And Joe Biden in a lot of ways stuck to his preparation and tried to bring certain, you know, normalcy to the debate. But time and again he was being talked over by President Trump with a real strategy of trying to trip up Joe Biden and sort of confuse him as much as he could.

And while Biden held largely steady. He was pulled down in some moments, I think where he'd referred to President Trump as a clown and a joke, you know, words that I think were probably sincere from Joe Biden, but you know, weren't the kind of presidential level of language that he really prefers.

So, I think for a lot of viewers and I don't want to sort of equate both sides here. I think President Trump was really beyond the pale in a lot of ways, but I think there were certainly moments when people felt like you know what these two guys are not delivering a really first-class debate.

CURNOW: Or and the question is, do they even speak for me whether you're a young person, whether you're a person of color, whether you are a woman. You know, essentially what you saw there with three old guys including the moderator there talking over each other and at each other. And I think you wonder what the impact that is has on voters who were perhaps undecided or hadn't yet registered or any of that.

Just be on outrage and there is so much of that these days. What is the most important takeaway now for you? I mean, obviously this happened last night. The messaging when it came to white supremacy, the concern about the election security. What do you think as you look forward was the one real takeaway?

[03:09:59] HEALY: I think -- I think there are three. One is about this president and the issues of race his inability to condemn white supremacy and to talk coherently about racism in this country, you know, is really sort of staggering. He is just unwilling and unable to do it and you have to ask why that is, why he's so incapable of condemning white supremacists in this country.

You know, the second is that it's become just increasingly clear that President Trump's main strategy in this last five weeks is to destabilize voting as much as possible to scare people about mail-in voting. He made this call to his supporters to go to polling sites to watch the balloting which, as sort of everyone knows is basically calling for supporters to go and intimidate people at the polling places.

So, he is looking to basically disrupt an election that probably will be one on the margins to try down -- to try to drive down votes, you know, as much as possible. And the third takeaway is just that this president does not have a real strategy to beat Joe Biden at this point.

CURNOW: OK, thank you very much. We'll talk about that again soon as the election. Thank you. Patrick Healy there.

HEALY: Thanks, Robyn.

CURNOW: The next debate will be between vice-presidential nominees Senator Kamala Harris for the Democrats and Republican Vice President Mike Pence. CNN's special coverage begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday on the U.S. East Coast. That's midnight Thursday in London, 3 a.m. in Abu Dhabi, and 7 a.m. in Hong Kong.

So, you may have missed it in the middle of all the shouting and the interrupting but the state of the U.S. economy got to mention in Tuesday night's debate with President Trump touting his four-year record and Joe Biden bashing it. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I've done more in -- in 47 months, I've done more than you've done in 47 years.

WALLACE: Mr. Vice President.

BIDEN: We inherited the worst recession short of depression in American history. I was asked to bring it back. We were able to have an economic recovery that created the jobs you're talking about. We handed him a booming economy. He blew it.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: It wasn't booming.

BIDEN: He blew it. He blew it.

TRUMP: It wasn't. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: The reality of the economic situation is about to hit home for thousands of U.S. airline staff. Tens of thousands of people will be furloughed today. The federal aid package that protected their paychecks expired just a few hours ago. American Airlines says it will begin to furlough 19,000 workers. United Airlines will do the same with more than 13,000 employees.

Thousands of layoffs are also looming at other airlines. But airline executives say they are prepared to recall workers if Congress approves an additional $25 million in grants to the financially battered industry.

John Defterios is watching all of this from Abu Dhabi. Hi, John. So, months of negotiations at Capitol Hill, but so far nothing, and so ordinary people are about to take a hit here.

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes. And most don't think there's a link between the stimulus package on Capitol Hill, Robyn, and what's taking place with the airlines. But they are directly linked. And the first package during the heat of the COVID-19 crisis $3 trillion sailed through but not during the final stretches of the election year, particularly when it's a presidential election year.

And that package is about half the size $1.5 trillion. And for the airlines we're talking about $25 billion for six months, as you suggested here, the airlines saying we are going ahead with the furlough. We'll reverse that decision if you give you -- give us some clarity.

And it's -- I tell you, after three months of negotiations it's been in short supply. Here is the CEO of American Airlines, Doug Parker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG PARKER, CEO, AMERICAN AIRLINES: The last thing we want to do is furlough employees. That's why we've been fighting so hard for them to come to an agreement.

So, anyway, hard for me to tell you until we hear -- until we know where they are, but certainly, there's a, you know, a clear and contrary path, as you know, we're not quite done yet but we will be done soon.

Of course, if it's -- if it's, you know, we're just worse. We need, you know, much more time to work and unclear as to whether that will be -- whether we can get something done or not. That's going to be -- that's going to be much worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEFTERIOIS: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said we close to a deal but we've heard that many times before. The airlines suggest that they get this for $25 billion over six months. It will be the last bailout they need, Robyn, but I don't see a strong recovery in 2021. Some are suggesting the industry won't recover until 2024.

CURNOW: Yes, I know you've told us that before, which of course sends chills down the spine of many people, not just in the airline industry, but there is sort of the global impact, the universal impact of, you know, jobs that attached to tourism in general.

[03:14:59]

DEFTERIOS: Yes, so it's a multiplier effect. No doubt about it. In fact, there is the air transport action group out of Geneva which kind of pull together an umbrella under an umbrella of different stakeholders in the industry. They are suggesting 46 million jobs are stake over the next year.

Robyn, the total global GDP drop of $1.8 trillion. Ten percent of those jobs of the 46 million are directly related to airlines, airspace companies and airports themselves. But the major chopping of these 26 million jobs in travel-related industries like hospitality, restaurants, and the like.

So, you can see the ripple effect that I'm talking about here, Robyn, and I don't see it clearing up very rapidly depending on the distribution of the vaccines which again, many people don't relate to economic recovery but they are too interchain. That's for sure. Robyn.

CURNOW: OK. John Defterios, thanks so much there in Abu Dhabi. Thanks, John.

So just ahead, some countries are reopening as others report record numbers of infections. We'll take you to Paris where new cases actually threatened to raise the city's alert status.

And then the death toll continues to climb from wildfires on the U.S. West Coast. Hot weather and dry conditions are making it harder and harder for firefighters to contain the blazes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CURNOW: Some countries we know around the world are re-opening after being hit by the coronavirus, while others are re-imposing restrictions as cases spikes.

So, China is celebrating a national holiday, and South Africa is opening its borders to some international travelers.

CNN is covering the effects of the pandemic around the world. Stay tuned for those stories later on this hour. But we know that in parts of the Middle East and Europe the situation is certainly much worse.

Part of northwestern Syria set a new daily infection record of more than a thousand cases. Spain's government has imposed new restrictions in Madrid that will limit gatherings of six people. And infections in Paris are on the rise with 34 percent of ICU beds now filled by COVID- 19 patients.

But if conditions don't improve Paris could be declared a zone of maximum alert.

Well, Melissa Bell joins me now with more on all of this from Paris. Melissa, hi. So, what does this maximum alert mean for the people of Paris?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it will mean that there will be fresh regulations or further tightening of regulations already tightened earlier this week, Robyn, and that we would then pass the (Inaudible) to the city like Marseille. Now in Marseille they've completely close restaurants and bars.

And if Paris, greater Paris, which has reached a number of the criterion that would make it pass (Ph) on to that category already it would -- you would see something similar. So further economic hardship and no doubt for the pushback from the business people unhappy with it.

[03:19:55]

So, those objective criteria the occupancy rates in ICU is one of them. The rate per hundred thousand people is another, and just to give you an idea of how bad things are in central Paris, that is now 450 per 100,000 people amongst the 20 to 30-year-old category.

They've really been the drivers of this second wave. We're expecting to hear later today from the French health minister and at this point that he tends to announce a further tightening. But I think that would be really badly taken.

Already we've seen push back restauranteurs, business owners. It's difficult to see how it can be avoided because it is once again, Robyn, a question of protecting ICUs and making sure that they continue to function.

CURNOW: Yes. I mean, how do you think this will play out. I think it's regulations, it's more lockdown. I mean, you do think that ordinary Parisians will support it or not?

BELL: Well, we've seen certainly business owners, from opposition politicians a great deal of pushback and protest about this, reluctance to accept these measures necessary because the economic recovery has been so fragile and they're afraid that it will slip away altogether.

I think one of the interesting things is how in the first wave because lockdowns were decided at a national level because the messaging from European governments was pretty clear because it was based on the science. There was a lot of explanation. People by and large accepted it.

This time the measures are coming in more incrementally, that it's more of a political decision because we feel less the urgency than we did in the first wave. But when you look at the figures the problem is, Robyn, that things are getting as bad in terms of ICUs in some region, it's simply that it is harder for people to take this time around for a number of different reasons. It's a more political decision, and it's something we've seen across

Europe in various cities. Pushback in Madrid, a divided parliamentary in United Kingdom, there is greater and greater resistance to the idea of having to lockdown the economy. And yet, once again, need to do so if the health system is to survive.

CURNOW: OK. There live in Paris Melissa Bell. Good to speak to you. Thank you.

So, India is issuing new guidelines to ease COVID restrictions, letting movie theaters operate at half capacity from mid-October and also allowing schools to reopen gradually. Now that as a new study published in the journal science offers more insight into the spread of COVID-19 in two states in India.

Researchers look at 85,000 cases and nearly 600,000 of their contacts. Few studies have done contact tracing on that scale. It also found children of all ages can contract the virus and spread it, and that a small number of people are responsible for spreading a vast majority of the new cases.

Despite claims from U.S. President Donald Trump that a vaccine is weeks away, the CDC says it likely won't happen until next year. The CEO of Moderna says the company hasn't been pressured by any country or government to speed up or slow down the development of a vaccine.

Meanwhile, drug maker AstraZeneca's vaccine trials are still on hold in the U.S. after a participant became seriously ill. When asked why the trial was still on hold the FDA commissioner said it was confidential. Regulators in Britain, Brazil, and South Africa have decided to resume their trials.

Well for more on all of this I'm joined by Dr. Darragh O'Carroll an emergency physician in Honolulu -- Honolulu, Hawaii. Doctor, lovely to see you again. We haven't spoken in a while. And I do want to get your take on how this -- how COVID is spread.

We're certainly having a better idea of it, and in particular who spread it and how many people are touched by that infection? I mean, the super-spreaders as they are called.

DARRAGH O'CARROLL, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Yes, this study added more to probably a data poor filled and, you know, basically in young children where, you knew that young children weren't suffering as terribly from the disease, but we knew that they were possibly transmitting it.

And this study shows that they're transmitting it just, you know, very, very efficiently to other children of the same age and if you combine that with, they're in schools with older teacher or with teachers who are adults, or if they're in schools and they're going back home. We do know that it's now this is adding to more data that this study is saying that it's a very high-risk procedure.

And so, other -- other ways that we should look at it as well is that we are seeing that that's happening here in the United States. Colleges are opening we're seeing increased rates in many of our schools. And so, it's a reason why we incorporate school closures into our data models. And so that's adding to the field.

And also, there is more and more evidence and it's shown that there's something called the 80 to 20 percent ruin (Ph). So, 80 percent of persons and in this large contact tracing study, which is very, you know, huge, huge study where you said almost 600,000 contacts, 85,000 actual cases.

Well, they found that roughly 70 percent of people don't transfer the disease at all to anybody else, but in this case, in the study 5 percent of people transferred it to 80 percent of the actual contacts.

[03:15:04]

So, in that sense, yes, it's this disease does spread into super- spreader events.

CURNOW: Yes. I mean, that's amazing if you think about it. Such a small number of people are responsible for spreading such a vast majority of these cases.

O'CARROLL: Yes. And then when you look at, you know, certain instances of, you know, people gathering. I know, you know, President Trump is still trying to have large in-person rallies and these sorts of people, you know, we don't really know exactly what person constitutes a super-spreader but we're getting a better idea.

It has something to do with the timing of when their viral load is peaking and when they're out doing that whatever activity it may be, whether it be seeking inquires, whether it be at a rally with a mask off and yelling, spreading, you know, of this virus out into the atmosphere. Not only just by droplets but we do know that a certain percentage of aerosols spread now.

And so, those sorts of activities timed with possibly the person's genetic predisposition to spreading the virus or possibly their immune system. All those things were going to come into a factor of why somebody become a super- spreader. But we do know that there is a smaller percentage of people who are spreading a larger percentage of the virus.

CURNOW: And also, let's just talk about this vaccine, and I know we've talked about it before and you probably get this question all the time in your emergency room. But you know there's a lot of expectation, political expectation when it's going to happen. A lot of the medical doctors are saying, you know, ease up, don't, you know, don't get your hopes up. I mean, the whole concept of this vaccine about managing expectations.

O'CARROLL: Absolutely. We definitely hope for a vaccine that is going to, you know, be -- that is going to work to be quite simple. That is going to portray efficacy. And what is going to need to happen is that it's going to need to work out, you know, at least set prevent, at least 70 percent of this disease. And so, what we don't want to do is we don't want to rush because we do know that there are certain things that vaccines can cause us to have worsening disease. When we try to make a vaccine against dengue it actually made the disease works. When we try to make a vaccine against a cat coronavirus it actually made that disease worse for cats.

I'm not saying that's happening here, but we need to make sure that the vaccines don't do that. And so, in order to be absolutely certain, we need adequate time, we need adequate persons to, you know, volunteer for the studies to get the roughly 30,000 patients in the phase three trials.

I know they are actively happening, but we don't know the complete safety data until the time has been, you know, has come through. And so, to rush any sort of vaccine is the absolute worst thing we should do. It shouldn't be more motivated by any sort of political timeline. It should only be motivated by a scientific rubric and medical safety profile, and that's the only way it should be released or recommended to the public.

CURNOW: OK. Thanks so much. Dr. Darragh O'Carroll, I really appreciate you joining us there from Hawaii. Thank you, sir.

O'CARROLL: You're welcome.

CURNOW: So, you're watching CNN Newsroom. Still to come, leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny blames Vladimir Putin for his poisoning in August. The details on that next.

Plus, fires in California are raging so fast that firefighters have to pitch their emergency shelters just to survive, all the way to help containment effort. That question and answer next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny blames the president the Russian President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning in his first interview since he became ill.

Navalny told the German magazine, Der Spiegel, he has no other theory than Mr. Putin being behind it. He described not feeling pain after his poisoning with a nerve agent that he said he knew he was dying. He promised to remain fearless. Der Speigel reported Navalny seemed energetic, but not yet in full command of his motor skills. Well, Russia has denied the allegation that it was involved.

But let us take you straight to Berlin, Fred Pleitgen is standing by. Fred hi. Certainly a very interesting interview and insight into what played out. What more can you tell us?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think you are absolutely right, Robyn. I think it certainly is very interesting. On the one had to actually for the first time get a feel of how Alexei Navalny is really doing. And then of course also the way that he recalls what exactly happened to him and who he believes was behind it.

Now, you just mention there, that's absolutely correct. That Der Spiegel says that Alexei Navalny was quite energetic actually, was even joking around as he came into their offices very early yesterday morning. But that he did still seem to have trouble with some of his motor skills.

In fact, they said that for a very long time. They didn't seem that this -- they didn't believe that this-- the man seemed like someone who had been poisoned with a chemical weapon because he was joking around and because he was so energetic, but he apparently he tried to pour himself a glass of water and had serious trouble doing that.

Of course, the Germans are saying that they are for sure know that he was poisoned with the chemical nerve agent Novichok which is of course a nerve agent that essentially prevents the brain from communicating with the nervous system. Of course, very difficult for people to get a lot of the nervous system back and to be able to get there motor skill back.

And then he did say according to Der Spiegel that he blames that Vladimir Putin for his poisoning, for he blames Vladimir Putin for the deed as he called and said that he does not have any other version of events.

He also -- as you mentioned described exactly how it felt, but of course he was on that plane and then later was brought to that hospital. He said he did not feel any pain but certainly he knew he was dying, he said. So, certainly some very interesting insight and really something that we are going to report a lot more about in the coming hours, Robyn.

CURNOW: Certainly, was there any indication on if and when he would go back to Russia?

PLEITGEN: Yes, well, that's certainly is the big question. That's certainly something where, you know, a lot of people have been not really speculating, but his organization has also said. Look, this man plans to go back to Russia.

Now, on the other hand, we have heard from the German doctors who were saying, look, he is doing very well considering what he was poisoned with according to the German government but it is a very long road to recovery.

Now one of the things that he said in that interview was that he believes that he still needs to be that fearless figure and he certainly says that he has no fear. That's a direct quote from the interview and Der Spiegel says that he said that he does wants to return to Russia. Of course, the big question is when you could that be the case.

How could that be the case very difficult circumstances there for him in Russia and certainly if we look back at some of the things that the hospital has been saying that was treating him when he was still in the hospital. They say that there could be quite a lengthy rehab before Alexei Navalny could seriously think about going back to the Russian Federation, Robyn.

CHURCH: OK. Thanks for that update. Fred Pleitgen there in Berlin. Thanks Fred.

So technical glitch has force Tokyo's stock exchange to stop trading and we are hearing about when it will resume. It's unclear though. Selina Wang joins me now from Hong Kong. So, Selina, hi. Let me get this straight, we know what caused it, we are just not so sure when they'll get back online. OK.

SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Robyn that's right, We have the Tokyo Stock exchange, confirming that this outage was due to a hardware issue and problem switching to a back device exchange did say that they are working on resolving the issue in order to get trading back up and running tomorrow. So that is a sigh of relief for investors. But Robyn, this does still mark the worst break down, this exchange has ever had.

[03:35:06]

There had been outages in the past, but they only impacted part of the trading day. The last major one being in 2005 when trading was halted for about 4.5 hours and that actually led to the resignation of the exchanges present at the time. Now what this outages means is that buying and selling of thousands of shares are frozen. The Japanese stock market is worth about some $6 trillion third largest in the world after the United States and China.

Now it is also a big deal that this could just be one day since investors have really been on high alert for any of these technical glitches, especially after that, on the cyber-attack in New Zealand that led to multiple day at outages, but it is a bit of a headache for investors.

Since this shutdown shuts down one of the only major Asia markets that were open today because of the national holiday. You have China, South Korea, Taiwan all closed and mainland markets are actually going to be close for multiple days because of Golden week.

Now, this also comes on the same day that investors were closely watching for an economic report from the Bank of Japan that showed some positive signs at the worst, it may be open may be over for Japan's economy but still sentiment is way below those pre-pandemic levels. And Robyn, when trading does resume tomorrow, analysts have said that there could be some pressure on sentiment and on stocks.

CURNOW: OK. Thanks for that update, Selina Wang there in Hong Kong. Thank you.

So, right now in the U.S. two wildfires are raging out of control in Northern California, burning through thousands of hectares, threatening the state wine country and forcing evacuations. A fourth person died on Wednesday, bringing the total from fires in the Western U.S. to 41.

Well, official say, two firefighters had to deploy emergency 10 shelters that reflect radiant heat to survive a fast-moving glazed, winds though are finally starting to die down, but in seasonally hot temperatures are still frustrating containment efforts.

Well, let's go straight to Pedram Javaheri, with more on all of these fires. It certainly hasn't been a great few months for the U.S. West Coast.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It has not. You know what, when you look at what's happened here just in the past couple of weeks in leading up to what is happening at this hour, 17,000 firefighters, Robyn on the ground at this hour fighting these flames and of course this is been continued for many weeks.

So, a lot of these firefighters, essentially going from one fire to another to another, and so on. So the historic run of extreme temperatures and widespread a wildfire activity certainly doesn't help what's happened across portions of the state of California.

But you have some motion here, I'll show you what's happening when it comes to excessive heat that has been in place in course. The temperatures here record territory yet again upwards of 30 million Californians under the heat advisories. He watches here in about 40 million people Cali California home.

So, again it speaks to the population densities along these regions that are feeling these extreme temperatures but to the north we go where we got these Zog fire, the glass fire as well, with little to no containment at this hour. And again, the prior weather here as far as the gusty winds, the very low humidity and the extreme temperatures as ripe as he gets to allow these fires to rapidly expand.

And then look at this numbers here. The top 10 largest fires as far as land consumed in California state history. Five of the top 103 occurred either in the month of August or into September. These are the fires that were active in the month of September. And you kind of see the perspective and the areas that are indicated in black. Those are all in the past 30 to 40 days and we've seen fires ignited and consuming the large amounts of land across the state of California.

Now temperatures, when you are talking 30 to 40s and then record territory, which are into the middle 40s on some of these spot really speaks to how significant of an event this is. 44 Degrees in Thermal California that broke a record, 41 in Paso Robles also coming in with record temperatures and then you'll notice in Redding California, not far from the Zog fire there were temperatures are forecast to at 40 degrees on the 1st of October should be close to 30 for this time.

So gain, a lot of these kind of goes together with what's happening in recent weeks and what is taking place here with over 73% of the Western United States now experiencing drought.

As far as the winds are concerned generally quitter conditions there Robyn, but you'll notice parts of northern California where these most recent fires are, you could still see gusty winds at least through Thursday into Friday and the beyond that, emissions are expected to improve.

Of course, the air quality always takes a hit across this region and across the Central Valley. The San Joaquin Valley smoke and haze are widespread in this region and because of the broad scope of what's happened here in the area of high pressure responsible for the heat now we are seeing a lot of the smoke as indicated in the green contours here, as far north.

[03:40:07]

It's not only Oregon and Washington State. But even on towards the Canadian border, Robyn. So this is a very wide reaching expansive event and of course the month of October now upon us and were still talking about the extreme temperatures and fire weather across this region.

CURNOW: We certainly are the new normal. This is global warming at play climate change very much play out there on the West Coast. Pedram, thanks so much.

So you're watching CNN, still to come. While COVID has paralyzed much of the global travel industry, the country where the virus originated is seeing a bounce back. We are live in China to find out why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CURNOW: Global week celebrations are testing China's travel industry. The eight day holiday marks China's founding a time when some might have gone abroad in a normal year, but we know 2020 is not normal. But the state of coronavirus globally has certainly more people exploring their own country because they believe China has COVID-19 under control. As David Culver, now reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The start of China's Golden week holiday celebrating the country's founding leading the crowd like this. Travelers wearing masks but standing shoulder to shoulder at the train station. This marks the first major travel holiday in China since the coronavirus outbreak began more than eight months ago which makes this the first major test of COVID-19 containment here.

Going back roughly to April we've seen significant easing of restrictions across China. Sure, there have been cluster outbreaks including one here in Beijing back in June, but many hear are more worried about the spread in other parts of the world. And so most mainland Chinese travelers are staying within China's borders for their holiday. They are in a bit more protected perhaps, but it makes you a crowded bubble.

From October first through the eighth, China Tourism Academy estimates there will be some 550 million domestic trips taken. That is nearly 70 percent of the trips taken at the same time last year, hotel bookings, however, are up 50 percent from 2019 and so too is same city and short distance travel, think staycation. Recent college graduates, Stephy Lu normally prefers to go abroad, but this year she is among the millions planning a trip to another part of China.

STEPHY LU, SHANGHAI RESIDENT: My main concern is the type of transportation. I want to make sure to stay in a familiar environment which is safer so that's to make sure there's not too many unfamiliar people mixed together.

CULVER: The last significant travel holiday here was the Chinese New Year and while Beijing's Tourism Bureau canceled all large-scale celebrations for the holiday. We were at the Beijing train station as people crowded in to head to their home towns, very few wearing masks, no immediate worries so it seemed.

Three days later, Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic went on lockdown and the streets of major cities like Shanghai went bear for weeks. This was the iconic bond in February, but gradually social life were resumed. In April, more people venturing out.

[03:45:12]

And just last weekend the nighttime crowd packed in most ditching the facemask. Major indoor events like this Beijing auto show. Also attracting crowds assigned that many who for weeks were shattered in their homes now feel increasingly comfortable that the virus will stay contained.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CULVER: The real test in all of this, Robyn is not to come during this Golden Week Holiday but in the days and weeks that followed. That's where we are going to see whether or not there's been any jump in numbers and higher reported cases because of all this traveling and of course that will then potentially lead to cluster outbreaks and then more lockdowns.

CURNOW: And we know how that goes here in the U.S. because we often see a peek after the holiday weekends here. So, I just want to understand, can everybody move where they want to go or they still serve local localized impositions or schedules?

CULVER: It's very much localized and hands-on jurisdictions and that's the way to contact the contact tracing has been as well. And, for example, in Shanghai major city there, 24 plus million people all the students there are under restrictions. They could technically leave during this holiday and travel with their parents elsewhere in the country. But once they return. They would then have to do two weeks quarantines.

So, you can imagine a lot of folks are saying that it is not worth it. We are not going to do that and just stick in the house for another two weeks. Let's just stay around Shanghai and we do something in the city and then get them back to their classes once the holiday ends.

CURNOW: OK. Thanks for that. David Culver there live in Beijing.

CULVER: All right, thanks Robyn.

CURNOW: Nice to have you. Thank you. So South Africa is reopening its borders to tourists from low-risk countries but vacationers and holidaymakers from COVID hotspots like the U.S. and the U.K. are still not allowed. Only (inaudible), Cape Town and Devon are expecting international flights. Well, for more on this, let's go to Eleni Giokos in (inaudible). Eleni, hi. Just explain to me, I mean the (inaudible) of who can be allowed in and who can't, but there's not really a lot of detail is there?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN MONEY AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, is really interesting. And I was looking view at you as a case study, because you're South African and I'm sure you've been wanting to come home and visit and as you said the U.S., the U.K. many European countries are deemed as hotspots and what that definition basically means is that you got high infection rates and high death rate than South Africa, then that would put the country on a hotspot category.

You've also got to remember that these lists could be changing every two weeks and we know we've seen a resurgence in numbers in some countries around the world. And of course this is going to influence the amount of people that can come into the country.

But for you specifically, Robyn, if you want to travel to South Africa for business, you'll be allowed to, if you're a diplomat, again you're allowed to (inaudible) you will not be able to travel from a hotspot country.

And for every single traveler, wanting to come to South Africa you will have to prove your COVID-19 negative status with a medical certificate, not older than 72 hours. Most African countries, the likes of China, the UAE deem medium and low risk. So, again, open for (inaudible) and the likes of business.

But Robyn, the big spenders here and the most important tourism markets force South Africa remained the U.K. most of Europe and the likes of the United States. And of course foreign currency earnings for tourism is really vital. All the industries that are connected to terrorism. That of course contributes around 10 percent to the country's GDP, had been negatively impacted over the past few months.

The national carrier is of course in business rescue. It's been under pressure. Some other carriers have also filed for business rescue that is being the collateral damage, because of the lockdown.

CHURCH: Yes, it certainly has so I will wait and see how things go. In the meantime, I'm just going to have to stick with Facetime with my mother and grandmother, but either way, hi to you all. Eleni, thanks so much.

(CROSSTALK)

Good to see you, bye. Bye.

So another tough break for the U.S. cruise ship industry, which has also lost billions of dollars due to the pandemic. Now, the Center for Diseases Control and Prevention is extending a no sail order for cruise ships through the end of October.

It impacts ships that carry at least 250 passengers and waters with U.S. jurisdiction. The CDC says recent outbreaks outside the U.S. on the ship shows continued spread of the virus and the threat to the U.S.

We are also learning the CDC director failed to convince the White House to extend the no sail order into next year, a move that would be devastating to the cruise ship industry.

And then also, another story we are following this hour. Several rockets were fired into the semiautonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq on Wednesday, U.S. officials said at least three hit an Iraqi base housing U.S. troops, but no injuries have been reported.

Kurdish officials say the attack came from an area controlled by Shia paramilitary force. This comes the same week as the Trump administration threatened to close the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, if attacks by Iran back militia continue.

[03:50:20]

Iraq's foreign minister says the closest closing the embassy would send the wrong message to ISIS and other extremists.

And still to come here at CNN. The president's repeated false claims during the debate about the validity of the election and his possible strategy. That's next.

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CURNOW: U.S. President Donald Trump is defending his debate performance on Tuesday despite widespread criticism from both Democrat and Republican. He's claiming he was the clear winner of this contest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By every measure we won the debate easily last night. I think he's very weak. He look weak. He was whining. Yes, we won the debate by almost every poll that I saw. If you look at the various polls. I looked at about six of them. We won every one of them. So, no, I don't mind debating him. I hear he wants to get out of the debates. I don't know. That's up to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: So despite Mr. Trump claims, most voters actually say Joe Biden was the winner of the debate. A new CNN poll shows six in 10 people vote for former vice president had a stronger performance and there are some who thinks Tuesday's debate have no winners at all. Here's how the top three cable U.S. networks described the night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you one

thing for sure, the American people lost tonight, because that was horrific.

BASH: You just took the words out of my mouth. You use high minded language, I'm just going to say it like it is. That was a shit show. And you know we're in cable, we can say that apologies for being, maybe a little bit crude, but that is really that the phrase that I'm getting more, you know, from people on both sides of the aisle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's something beyond fact checking that needs to happen here. This is the sort of thing that shouldn't happen. This sort of debate shouldn't happen in a democracy. Not one in which we decide in which we think that we choose between candidates based on them for posing competing sides of an argument. I just -- this is not the night (inaudible).

DONNA BRAZILE, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Yes, it was a hectic debate. Let's be honest. I wanted Chris to take command of the conversation because this is a very important moment in our country, with millions affected with the COVID virus, millions unemployed and yet the candidates couldn't seem to get their asses in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Well, President Trump use Tuesday's debate to continue to cause doubt on the legitimacy of the coming election, telling his supporters to quote, go into the polls and watch very carefully.

And as Pamela Brown now reports, that is leading to claims of voter intimidation. Pam?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump seemingly outlining at the debate, a three from strategy to win reelection. Disinformation.

TRUMP: It's a disaster.

BROWN: Intimidation.

TRUMP: Watch very carefully.

BROWN: And relying on realigned courts.

TRUMP: I think I'm counting on them to look at the ballots definitely.

BROWN: Trump calling on supporters to watch people at the polls, not always in an official capacity which Democrats fear could intimidate voters. Somebody in the Nevada Attorney General said will not be allowed in his state, warning in a tweet you will be prosecuted.

[03:55:02]

Trump also is magnifying minor mail-in ballot issues wrongly calling them --

TRUMP: -- fraud like you've never seen.

BROWN: Pointing to his allies being denied entering an early voting site in Pennsylvania which they rules don't allow and railing against mail-in voting with more misinformation.

TRUMP: Take a look at West Virginia, mailman selling the ballots. They are being sold. They are being dumped in rivers.

BROWN: A false claim, prompting West Virginia's Republican Secretary of State to clarify in a statement, a postal carrier altered absentee ballot applications not ballots.

TRUMP: This is a horrible thing for a country.

JOE BIDEN (D) 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is no evidence of that.

TRUMP: This is not going to end well.

BROWN: Trump also made clear his hope that pushing through his Supreme Court justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett will tip the scales at the High Court in his favor.

TRUMP: I hope we don't need them in terms of the election itself but for the balance I think so.

BROWN: And we've learned that more than 1.2 million Americans have already cast their ballots this year showing the intense interest and early voting this year compared to past elections, Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: So people working at these election polling stations are on the mind of a former U.S. president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am obviously not the main event tonight. But I want to come on to give a shout out for all the folks who are volunteering as poll workers and (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

OBAMA: You know, it can be a (inaudible) job. It's not one of those things you think about but it is absolutely vital for our democracy and I appreciate it and I hope all NBA fans will appreciate you, when they see those (inaudible) at the polling place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Barack Obama there making a surprise virtual appearance at a U.S. pro basketball finals game between L.A. Lakers and Miami Heat to take up the job of poll workers doing the job. So the basketball games are now being held close -- behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.

So that's the show for this hour. I'm Robyn Curnow. I will be back again at the top of the next hour. For more news, boy oh boy there's a lot of us to join me for that. Thanks a lot.

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