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POTUS' Health Status a Top Secret; Trump to Conduct Another Super Spreader Event; Coronavirus Surges in France; Fighting Reported Hours before Armenia- Azerbaijan Cease-Fire; Hurricane Delta Batters U.S. Gulf Coast; World Food Programme Honored with Nobel Peace Prize. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired October 10, 2020 - 03:00   ET

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

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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hi, welcome to CNN, I'm Robyn Curnow, live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

Just ahead, out of control; with the pandemic worsening around the globe, the U.S. president, who may still be infected with coronavirus, plots a risky move.

Plus cease-fire. Russia announced that Armenia and Azerbaijan agree to positive fighting for humanitarian purposes.

Battered again, residents across the U.S. Gulf Coast are reeling from a previous hurricane and again another punch.

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CURNOW: Great to have you along this hour.

So we begin with a new world record nobody wanted to set. For coronavirus cases around the globe. Now the World Health Organization confirmed more than 350,000 infections on Friday.

This map shows some of the hotspots in red. You can see that Europe has certainly been hard hit again. And cases are surging in India while the U.S. is averaging 46,000 new infections a day.

The U.S. president is scheduling public events again after his own bout with the virus but there is still a great deal we don't know about the state of his health. Some mixed messages from the White House and the president's comments to media outlets have only raised more questions like whether or not he has actually had a negative test.

Here is Jim Acosta with more on that -- Jim.

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): Keeping behind closed doors and away from reporters, President Trump is turning to a support network of conservative broadcasters to offer new details on his bout with COVID- 19, including an admission that his illness has been far worse than described by the White House.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was in not great shape. And we have a medicine that healed me, that fixed me. It's a great medicine. I mean, I feel better now than I did two weeks ago. It's crazy. And I recovered immediately, almost immediately. I might not have recovered at all from COVID.

ACOSTA: Contrast that with what White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters one week ago.

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The president does have mild symptoms.

ACOSTA: Mr. Trump also explained he's dealt with a lingering cough.

TRUMP: There's always that little -- that little lingering thing for a couple of days. But, no, I have -- I have -- my voice is now perfect.

ACOSTA: But hold on. That's not what the president's doctor, Sean Conley, stated Wednesday, when he said the president's been symptom- free for over 24 hours. Mr. Trump was coughing and having difficulty breathing at times during another softball session on FOX.

TRUMP: We had three debates with Hillary. And on, I think, the first debate, they...

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes.

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TRUMP: Excuse me. On the first debate, they oscillated the mic.

ACOSTA: One of two notable moments during the interview.

TRUMP: Well, I want them to vote, but I will say this. Absentee is OK, because absentee ballots -- excuse me -- absentee ballots are fine.

ACOSTA: Contrast the president's sudden candor about his sickness with what he said in a White House video on Monday, when he told Americans not to be afraid of the virus.

TRUMP: Now I'm better. And maybe I'm immune. I don't know. But don't let it dominate your lives.

ACOSTA: The nation's top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is dubbing the White House outbreak a superspreader.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The data speak for themselves. We had a super spreader event in the White House and it was in a situation where people were crowded together and were not wearing masks. So the data speak for themselves.

ACOSTA: Yet the White House continues to stonewall the public on when the president last tested negative for the virus, with one official refusing to answer that question six times in one interview.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just because he's president doesn't mean he shares every single detail of his entire life. But we do share enough information, certainly, for public health purposes. The fact of the matter is, there's a reason to share certain information.

ACOSTA: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has accused Mr. Trump of being in an altered state while on his medication, introduced a bill that would establish a commission to help enforce the U.S. Constitution's 25th Amendment that calls for executive branch power to be shifted to the vice president when the president is incapacitated.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: This is not about President Trump. He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents.

ACOSTA: The president is signaling he's ready to work with Pelosi on a massive new coronavirus relief bill, after ending stimulus talks earlier this week.

TRUMP: I would like to see a bigger stimulus package, frankly, than either the Democrats or the Republicans are offering. I'm going in the exact opposite now, OK?

ACOSTA: And we are learning the president is planning on hosting an event Saturday here at the White House, even as his he is recovering from the coronavirus. Other officials could be contagious the event is planned for the South Lawn.

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ACOSTA: And the president is expected to address the hundreds of attendees from a balcony -- Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

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CURNOW: Well, with me now to talk more about President Trump's medical condition is Dr. Esther Choo, professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University.

Doctor, lovely to see you again. I do want to ask you -- high -- I do want to ask you. The president said I'm either at the bottom of the scale or free -- virus free.

What does that mean from a medical standpoint?

Is there a scale of COVID-ness?

DR. ESTHER CHOO, OREGON HEALTH AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: I don't know what that means. We don't really great your emergence from a COVID disease but testing at the tail end of or partway through disease is not that we have well defined.

We are still going by symptomatology and testing, of course, has its limits so the idea that the White House has projected that there is this cluster of testing that can proof absolutely that the president is no longer contagious is one that medical experts are really puzzled over. We are curious to see what his doctor says tomorrow.

CURNOW: As reported, the timeline is just confused. The president says he is medication free. And it's unclear when he last tested negative.

What you make of the fact that the president will be going out to be giving talks, to giving a speech, giving rallies in the next few days and particularly because people will be coming to the White House?

CHOO: Really upsetting. I mean, it was astounding to begin with. And we had the clear White House superspreader event that was the nomination for Amy Coney Barrett, as the beginning of this whole White House outbreak.

And then clearly -- although we don't know the timeline very well -- there were multiple private events in close quarters in private homes when the president seems likely to have been spreading disease, whether or not they knew that he was testing positive at this point. But clearly scheduled events went on.

We don't know much about those events but each of those had the potential to be its own superspreader event. And then to go through all that and see that 3 dozen people have been tested positive from those events that are in close proximity to the White House and the president.

And to bookend with another super spreader event where people are going to be in close quarters with many of the White House staff, many of them whom would still be on a timeline to develop disease and test positive, it's just astounding. It's like a case study in how not to learn from a really devastating health event.

CURNOW: For a man who was in hospital a few days ago and based on his treatment, his age, his weight, would you still as a doctor recommend that he stay in bed?

What are the health interpretations here for the president pushing through and doing all of these events in the next few days?

CHOO: One of the things we told patients who are in this phase of disease -- again we don't know exactly where he is in the disease because the White House hasn't been very forthcoming about when he tested positive -- but he is still in a timeline in which we know people can go downhill, quickly.

And we advise the people to rest and take care of themselves and not try to overdo it, particularly if they have comorbidities. So someone who has tremendous responsibility on his shoulders, we all hope that he takes care of himself first and also that he set an example for other people who are sick with the illness to really contain their activities and try very hard to be a responsible citizen of the country and not spread disease to others by re-engaging in their usual activity.

CURNOW: Thank you very much for your expertise, Dr. Esther Choo, always good to speak to you.

CHOO: Thank you, Robyn.

CURNOW: Europe is facing a massive surge in COVID-19 cases. Right now it's the hardest region of the world. It's reporting more cases than Brazil, India or the U.S. The countries that you see here partly make up Europe's nearly 79,000 new cases. Each of them has the highest daily uptick since the epidemic began.

U.K. seeing soaring cases as well. It's announcing a new coronavirus restriction plan on Monday to try and limit the spread of the disease. New restrictions are rolling out in some regions in France. Melissa Bell joins me now live from Paris.

Hi, what can you tell us.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Robyn, so far, the 2 cities here in France that have been at maximum alert category that brings with it things like bars and cafes being shut, gyms being closed and social gatherings being limited, that was Paris and Marseille until now.

From today, four other cities into that category because they have reached levels of their incident rates.

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BELL: The proportion of COVID patients in ICUs is above 30 percent. All this clearly laid out by French authorities several weeks ago. And they now enter that category as well. So in cities like Lille (ph), for instance, from today those kind of restrictions will apply as well.

Take that as an example, local health authorities there are warning that already operations are going to have to be canceled. Emergency procedures are going to have been canceled to make way for COVID-19 patients.

And in that city in the north of France, the incident rate among the elderly is worrying, more than 15 percent. The national average is about 10 percent.

To see how bad this is nationally, Robyn, we saw another grim record last night, more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases identified over the 24 hours. It's a record. We haven't seen it in either in the first wave or the second wave so far.

And on the question of that positivity rate, to give you again an idea of how quickly things are progressing here in France, it is now 10.4 percent nationally. It was 5.4 percent just a few weeks ago.

CURNOW: So what next?

And how are people reacting to the possibility that life is going to get tougher in the lockdown?

BELL: Well, I think one of the interesting things about what's happening in Europe, when you mentioned how about this second wave is getting across the European region, we've seen several countries registering records. We've seen several countries imposing first restrictions this week and that is only likely to get worse.

Europe was part of the world where more or less governments had spoken with one voice, had imposed quick lockdowns, had been pretty firm on messaging. And the lockdowns had been widely respective. There hasn't been much pushback.

This time, as these decisions become more political, as they are made in a way that is more incremental and ad hoc, as authorities try as much as they can to keep the economies open and really push the thing to the limit and close things down and take restrictions little by little in order to try and help these health care systems stay afloat, what you are seeing is a lot more pushback, both from business owners who fear that this could be really the closure too far as they are concerned and local authorities -- local leaders really pushing back on nationwide guidelines and restrictions being imposed.

So it is a harder line for governments to set. But of course, as necessary, as it was the first time, because once again it is a question of ICUs across Europe being able to cope with that second wave and with the growing number of COVID-19 patients arriving.

Here in Paris, already we have an emergency plan for hospitals because they expect a flood of COVID-19 patients over the next days and weeks.

CURNOW: OK, thanks Melissa in Paris.

Coming up on CNN. Across the Florida Gulf Coast, a devastating hurricane season continues just weeks after a hurricane slammed Louisiana. Here comes tropical storm Delta.

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CURNOW: Welcome back, I'm Robyn Curnow.

South Korea says large-scale movements in the North indicated a massive military parade took place on Saturday morning. We are still waiting to see fresh images of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the military hardware that could have been on display.

North Korea watchers have been expecting the event to mark the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers Party.

And the cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan is set to begin less than an hour from now. The Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov mediated the first talks since fighting began in September over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Now the enclave is in Azerbaijan but it is populated and governed by ethnic Armenians. Lavrov says the countries have agreed to negotiate settling the conflict. Let's go to Nick Paton Walsh.

Nick, what can you tell us about any new developments here?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: What is important to realize this is just the very beginning. But it's a positive sign, frankly because this has been the worst fighting over this disputed region for decades.

Internationally recognized part as part of Azerbaijan but the fact controlled by ethnic Armenians. And we've seen hundreds of people die, many of them civilians, and intense shelling both of cities inside Azerbaijan proper but also civilian areas in the Nagorno-Karabakh itself.

What's supposed to happen about 40 minutes from now is a cease-fire. The guns will stop firing. We are getting reports that in -- often as we see before a cease-fire begins, there is an uptick of violence from both sides.

It seems that should stop in about 44 minutes to an hour. The exchange of dead bodies and the wounded and to also allow a general sense of negotiation to perhaps take hold to find a more permanent way through this.

Now they will be using it, seems, the negotiating mechanism that was around for the past years or so, to hammer a more permanent solution through this particular violence. But Azerbaijan certainly it seems has taken a bit of territory away from the Armenians. They created pictures of the troops in some villages they say they've captured recently.

But Russia here has stepped in. There were many questions. Russia traditionally backing Armenia as a security guarantor and it seems Azerbaijan getting a lot of rhetorical, possibly some accusing them of military support from Turkey.

There were many questions about where Moscow had been in all of this conflict. They've been calling for calm, calling for cessation of hostilities but they haven't stepped in militarily. Instead, this diplomatic move, summoning both Armenia and Azerbaijan's foreign ministers to Moscow yesterday. Talked through the night or until late last night.

And now we have this announcement. But we're not out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination. The cease-fire could be violated and still, of course, the exceptionally complicated matter of a longer term solution for Nagorno-Karabakh.

A very hard thing to fix if both sides believe they should have full control of it. That's yet to be worked out. But if we do see the violence stop here for a brief period of time, that may at least stop civilian deaths here. It may stop the conflict escalating further.

It was increasingly worrying frankly to see civilian areas being hit inside the mainland proper of both of these two countries, specifically Azerbaijan too. And that raised the possibility that Russia or Turkey overtly may be brought into this war.

Increasingly it seems, a battle for broader influence in this region, given the absence of U.S. statecraft and power over the past months or years, also, distracted by the U.S. election. So news certainly, to some degree but an awful lot more that needs to be done to make this a permanent lasting calm.

CURNOW: Nick Paton Walsh, thank, you live, in London. Thank you.

I want to take you to Nigeria, protesters marching against police brutality, gaining worldwide attention. Police used tear gas to disperse crowds on Friday in the capital. Protests across the country, starting off from a video circulating last week.

It reportedly showed members of a special anti-robbery squad fatally shooting a man and then driving off in his car. Nigeria's vice president, denouncing police violence but critics say police brutality has been an ongoing issue, particularly with this SARS unit. The hashtag #EndSARS was the most trending topic on Twitter on Friday.

After a brutal hurricane season, the U.S. Gulf Coast is enduring yet another beating, this time from tropical storm Delta. Take a look.

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CURNOW (voice-over): These are the howling winds of the storm as it hit Louisiana early on Friday. It was a hurricane, then just about an hour ago, was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moves inland.

But it is still bringing powerful wind and, rain to Louisiana. Several counties there, under flash flood emergency warnings, nearly half 1 million customers in 3 states, losing power.

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CURNOW: Thank you so much. Tough down there. They will make it, I know they will. Coming up, thank to you for that.

Coming up on CNN, on top of a global pandemic, millions around the world go to bed hungry every night. One organization, receiving for its fight for its end to world hunger. That's next.

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BERIT REISS-ANDERSEN, NORWEGIAN NOBEL COMMITTEE: In the face of the pandemic, the World Food Programme has demonstrated an impressive ability to intensify its efforts. As the organization itself has stated, until the day we have a vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos.

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CURNOW: The World Food Programme is being honored with the Nobel Peace Prize, for its fight to end world hunger. Right now, there is enough food being produced to feed the global population and, yet, there are still 690 million people around the world going to bed on an empty stomach.

Phil Black takes a closer look now, at the organization's accomplishments -- Phil.

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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No one picked this but no one is disputing the worthiness of the World Food Programme as a Nobel Peace Prize winner, especially this year.

In 2019, the organization helped 100 million hungry and starving people. In2020, that number expanded to 135 million, largely because of the pandemic and the organization warns that could expand further.

Its executive director, talking about a potential wave of famine around the world before this year is over. The Nobel Peace Prize committee, justifying its choice and awarding the prize, to an organization that combats hunger.

It drawing a clear link between hunger and war, saying they are often locked in a vicious cycle and you will never solve one without the other. The organization's executive director was in Niger, when he heard the news.

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DAVID BEASLEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WFP: This is the first time in my life I've been speechless. This is unbelievable. I'm talking about the most exciting point in time in your life, the Nobel Peace Prize.

It's because of the WFP family. They're out there, in the most difficult, complex places in the world, whether it is war, conflict, climate extremes, it doesn't matter. They are out there and they deserve this award. And wow, wow, wow, wow. I can't believe it.

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BLACK: The Nobel committee said through this choice, it wants to turn the eyes of the world onto the hungry. The World Food Programme is being honored for its work but also, its example. The committee made it clear, it is sending a message about the importance of countries working together to solve the really big problems.

In its opening comments, making its announcement in Oslo, it said the need for international solidarity and multilateral cooperation is as great as ever -- Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CURNOW: Thank you to Phil for that.

We have a bit of a celebration to commemorate. The music of the Beatles has outlived some of its most famous members. Just imagine what could have been if singer-songwriter John Lennon had lived to the age of 80.

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CURNOW (voice-over): Lennon was killed by a fan outside of his apartment in New York City 40 years ago. His former bandmate and friend Paul McCartney posted a tribute on Twitter on Friday. It would have been John Lennon's 80th birthday.

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CURNOW: And an honor that really, really takes the cake for the former star of the popular TV show "The Great British Bake Off," Mary Barry was made a dame in the queen's annual birthday honors. The 85-year old says she is overwhelmed after her 6-decade career as a food writer and broadcaster.

Of course, she says, it calls for a celebration with champagne, instead of her usual white one. Well done.

Thank you for watching CNN, I'm Robyn Curnow, "AFRICAN VOICES" starts right after the break. Enjoy.