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U.S. Coronavirus Infections are Rising in at Least 37 States; How Masks Can Help Prevent Spread of COVID-19; Wales Enters Fire Break Lockdown to Slow Virus; China's Xinjiang Region Conducting Mass Testing; Putin Defends Hunter Biden Against Trump's Claims; Tropical Storm Zeta Strengthens in the Caribbean; Scientists Remove the First Murder Hornet Nest in United States; WH Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Admits WH Strategy is not to Mitigate Spread of COVID but Develop Therapies and Vaccine as U.S. Infections Surge; Pence Will Not Quarantine Despite Outbreak Among Aides; Pre-Election Voting Surpasses 2016 Early Ballots; France's Coronavirus Daily Cases are Rising Despite Strict Restrictions; President Lukashenko Defies Ultimatum to Step Down; France Recalls Ambassador to Turkey After Erdogan Comments. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 26, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: As coronavirus cases surge across dozens of U.S. states, a White House official makes a comment that has some people wondering whether the Trump administration is signalling defeat.
Plus, France's COVID-19 daily cases are skyrocketing despite strict restrictions. So, are those lockdown measures really working? We are live in Paris.
And later, millions of people are being tested in Northwest China after just one asymptomatic case was reported.
Hi, from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to you, our viewers here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."
With just over a week to go before Election Day in the U.S. now, a startling admission from the Trump administration: Despite surging coronavirus cases and more than 225,000 dead, the White House chief of staff says there is only so much that can be done to contain the pandemic.
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MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Here's what we have to do. We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics, and other mitigation efforts --
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Why aren't we going to get control of the pandemic?
MEADOWS: Because it is a contagious virus just like the flu.
TAPPER: Why not make efforts to contain it?
MEADOWS: Well, we are making efforts to contain it.
TAPPER: By running all over the country not wearing a mask? That is what the vice president is doing.
MEADOWS: We can get in to the back and forth. Let me just say this, is what we need to do is make sure that we have the proper mitigation factors, whether therapies or vaccines or treatments, to make sure that people don't die from this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: He also wouldn't discuss the extent of the outbreak around the vice president. Mike Pence spent Sunday campaigning. His office says he tested negative for the virus and won't change the schedule.
At least five members of the vice president's inner circle have now tested positive for COVID-19. And just to be clear, according to CDC guidelines, Mr. Pence should be in quarantine. But here's what President Donald Trump said when asked whether the head of his Coronavirus Task Force should the campaign trail after exposure.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have to ask him. He is doing very well, good crowds, very socially distanced. He's doing very well. Thank you.
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BRUNHUBER: Here is White House correspondent John Harwood with more on all of this.
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JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Events on Sunday encapsulated the dilemma facing President Trump and his campaign with just over a week to go before Election Day. The president was campaigning in both Maine and New Hampshire, insisting we are rounding the corner on the pandemic, appearing without masks or social distancing, getting very close to voters.
But reality intruded with a major outbreak of coronavirus with people close to the vice president, including his chief of staff, Marc Short, as well as his body man, the one who travels most closely with Mike Pence.
Now, despite that, the White House continued to have Mike Pence out on the campaign trail. He disregarded CDC guidelines. He did not quarantine himself. The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, confessed in a conversation with Jake Tapper that we can't control the pandemic. We are simply waiting for therapeutics and a vaccine.
The challenge, of course, is for the president, the coronavirus pandemic is the number one issue for voters and they have a harsh judgment of the president's handling of it.
Nevertheless, he is pressing on. He ended the evening on Sunday with a trick or treat Halloween event at the White House. The president is appearing without a mask. However, he was not handing out the candy itself. That was done by White House staffers who were wearing masks and gloves in a different location.
John Harwood, CNN, the White House.
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BRUNHUBER: Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris was back on the campaign trail this weekend. She had to cancel all travel a week ago after two people in her orbit tested positive for the coronavirus.
Sunday, in the battleground state of Michigan, Harris criticized the vice president for ignoring the advice of his own health experts and refusing to quarantine. She attacks the Trump administration for its handling of the pandemic.
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SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): They are admitting defeat. I have been saying that and Joe Biden has been saying that since the beginning.
[03:05:00]
HARRIS: This is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of America. And he went on to say you can't control it like the flu. And yet again, they're suggesting to the American people that this is like the flu when we have known from the beginning and they knew since January that it is five times more deadly than the flu.
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BRUNHUBER: Harris made several campaign stops in Michigan, and here's why. Michigan has traditionally been a blue state. President Trump was the first Republican to win there since 1988, but he won by a razor- thin margin, a fewer than 11,000 votes. Michigan is home to the block of blue-collar workers that delivered the election to conservative Ronald Reagan in the 80s.
The number of Americans casting their ballots early shows how energized voters are this year. Already more than 59 million people have voted across the country. That is more than all of the pre- election voting back in 2016. It is shattering records in several states, including New York. On Sunday, more than 100,000 people voted on the second day of early voting in New York City, a number that broke record set on Saturday.
President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, is expected to be confirmed to the high court later today. Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to advance Barrett toward tonight's likely final confirmation vote despite objections from Democrats, of course.
She is set to fill the seat of the late justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month. Democrats have blasted President Trump and Republicans for moving forward with Barrett's nomination so close to the election.
A source tells CNN that after the final vote, President Trump is expected to host a swearing-in ceremony at the White House during an outdoor ceremony.
All right, so, for more on the U.S. presidential race, let's bring in Inderjeet Parmar. He is a professor of International Politics at City, University of London and a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. Thank you very much for joining us.
I want to start with the administration's response to COVID. On one hand, we have the president saying, you know, we are handling it, we are rounding the corner and so on, but then we have the chief of staff, as we reported there, saying we are not going to control the pandemic.
So, forget about the public health merits of this. As a campaign strategy, what is the thinking here on one hand projecting confidence, on the other resignation, like, you know, it's almost gone, even if it isn't, there is nothing we can do?
INDERJEET PARMAR, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, CITY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Well, I think one message is just purely for the people that President Trump may be speaking to at the moment when he's on the campaign trail where he thinks it serves his interests to say it's getting under control or rounding the corner.
The other one is really more consistent with the strategy of herd immunity, which this administration has followed pretty much from the beginning.
Without a vaccine, herd immunity basically is an admission that you are not going to do anything effective about the coronavirus pandemic. You're just going to let it run its course. And that actually is consistent with the Trump strategy from the very beginning.
They have a view that science is unimportant, is not useful. They are not following guidelines by the CDC and so on. I think they thought probably that this thing was going to largely affect blue states and they did everything in their power in effect to carry that on. And to, you know, and send some their supporters to liberate Michigan, liberate Virginia, and so on and so forth. That encouraged a lot of right-wing people.
So I think they are doubling down on their electoral strategy. It's to stick with the big, big message that you don't need to wear a mask, you don't need to social distance, and this will run its course. The government has no law. At a time when you're running for the president, it is an abdication of leadership to most people, I think.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. On the issue of leadership, I mean, you've written that the pandemic is awful and deadly as it was. So, just in purely political terms, was an opportunity for the president to unite the country and not having done that will cost him at the polls. So you wrote that in July. So, now, we are at the end of October. Any reason to change your mind?
PARMAR: Not really. I think the president has -- there is a kind of -- there is a political electoral strategy, which is I think they thought it would just be a problem for democratic states and democratic cities like New York and so on.
But I think underneath it all was a philosophy, which is that there is a deep state -- that the deep state is made up of civil servants, public officials and so on, and that that is untrustworthy, that it is not going to be very efficient for him doing anything. In fact, the administration is against the deep state.
I think that underlying viewpoint has not changed one little bit. There are investigations done by other publications like Vanity Fair into the behavior of Jared Kushner all the way from March, when lots number of private companies offered a plan to build ventilators, PPE and distribution and so on was rejected by Kushner.
[03:10:08]
PARMAR: I think we have seen a very consistent strategy. It is an anti- government strategy. I think that right now, I think President Trump is actually trying to just galvanize his own support to turnout. And second thing is I think he is relying on the contested election in order to have any chance of remaining in office.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Let's delve into the campaign here with so few days to go. Democrats have their eyes on a number of traditionally red states. This week, Biden is coming here to Georgia where no Democrats have won since Clinton in '92. Kamala Harris is going to Texas. Do they have a shot? Should they be focusing more effort on the conventional swing states like Pennsylvania, Florida, and so on?
PARMAR: I think they have paid a lot of attention unlike candidate Clinton in 2016 to those states. I think they are edging in the lead or strongly in the lead in some of them at the national level.
I think they are trying to make inroads in Senate seats, congressional seats and so on, as well, which is to say that they're looking for a unified government following this particular election, that is that is the presidency, the Senate and, of course, the House.
And I think that will then really cement the possibilities of a progressive agenda, which many in the Democratic Party are supporting and are urging Harris and Biden to implement after this election is over.
BRUNHUBER: All right. We will have to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us, Professor Inderjeet Parmar. We appreciate it.
PARMAR: Thank you very much.
BRUNHUBER: As COVID-19 cases rise across many parts of the world, here in the U.S., no fewer than 58,000 Americans have tested positive every single day for the past week. That number has even topped 80,000, setting a new daily record.
Not a single state is currently trending in the right direction and the U.S. continues to lead the world with the most recorded cases across the Atlantic.
Spain's prime minister declared a new state of emergency on Sunday. It includes nighttime curfew and travel restrictions until May of next year.
France reported over 52,000 new cases on Sunday, breaking its daily record for the fourth day in a row. Country's positivity rate is more than doubled the U.S.
Let's go to CNN's Melissa Bell live from Paris. Melissa, it was that positivity rate that struck me. I read that it was seven percent a month ago. Now, it is 17 percent.
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: It has been a massive rise, really exponential rises that we have seen. When you look at those nationwide figures, you are quite right, the positivity rate, also the number of new cases above 52,000 yesterday, all-time record here in France.
And still those localized concerns here in the greater Paris region, where now it's 65 percent of ICU beds taken up by COVID-19 patients, that is a massive rise over the course of the last six weeks or so.
That, of course, is what authorities are looking out to see whether further restrictions are going to be needed. For the time being, the restrictions that have been brought and put in place here, the curfews for instance that applied to a large part of the country, simply haven't managed to bring the figures down.
What the regional head of the health authority here in the greater Paris region says is this week is crucial. By Tuesday or Wednesday, if they are now starting to see a change in those figures, you are going to have to see a further tightening of restrictions, things like for instance bringing earlier, bringing down the beginning of the daily curfew.
Things like that are going to be considered. Everything that might stop short of a second lockdown, but that would allow the figures to be brought -- to accepted levels. For the time being, that balance has not yet been found.
BRUNHUBER: So, more restrictions perhaps on the way there. Thank you so much, Melissa Bell, in Paris.
Coming up -- Nigeria's police chief says, enough is enough, and deploys the country's entire police force to try and stop the ongoing violence there.
Also ahead, France recalls its ambassador to Turkey after what it called unacceptable comments by the Turkish president about his French counterpart. The details are in a live report from Istanbul. Stay with us.
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[03:15:00]
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Authorities used teargas and stun grenades on thousands of protesters in Belarus Sunday. Nearly 150 people were arrested. President Alexander Lukashenko is ignoring an ultimatum from the opposition to step down or face a national strike on Monday.
The opposition leader is calling on Belarusians to block roads, close businesses, and boycott government services. The protests have been going on for 11 weeks, following a presidential election. The opposition claims was rigged.
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BRUNHUBER: Nigeria's chief of police chief has deployed the country's entire police force to deal with the ongoing unrest there. Africa's most populous nation has seen the worst violence in decades, with widespread looting and destruction. Protests are calling for an end to police brutality.
It began earlier this month and started with calls for a police unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad to be disbanded over claims of kidnapping, harassment, and extortion.
CNN's Eleni Giokos joins us now live. Eleni, many Nigerians are wondering which will be worse, the unrest or the police crackdown. What's the latest?
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, exactly right. Look, you've got curfews across various states in the country, in Lagos in particular. It started 8 p.m. and ends at 6 a.m. You've been to Lagos. You know it's a city that never sleeps. Usually, you have traffic all hours of the day, even in the early hours of the morning.
So it goes to show just the extent that the governor is taking to try and curb the violence that we have seen. We have seen attacks, vandalism of not only public infrastructure but also privates.
[03:20:03]
GIOKOS: And, of course, what we have also seen on the ground is just this general discontent. We see disgruntled views. I was looking at some of the headlines coming through from Nigeria today. The business (INAUDIBLE) says a generation without a future explodes in Nigeria's protests.
Now, what you've seen is these underlying issues bubbling under the surface for a very long time. Now, the End SARS campaign was a fight against police brutality. What we saw is, you know, every part of the social spectrum joining in that fight. So you saw executives, business people, government officials and others participate in violence over the past couple of weeks.
And then you saw a curfew what was instated last week, Tuesday. That resulted in men dressed in military uniform opening fire on peaceful protests. Now, this was a big trigger for what we've seen over the past few weeks where you've seen incredible violence coming through in many parts of the country.
Now, there has been a chorus of voices out of Nigeria. The business people, you've seen religious leaders, you've seen governors from around the country calling for calm and trying to unify the country.
But the one voice that Nigerians wanted to hear from was President Muhammadu Buhari that addressed the nation on Friday that many say he lost the opportunity to sympathize with the victims of the Lekki Tollgate shooting.
Now, this was a really big turning point from many Nigerians that feel uneasy, that feel scared, that feel numb, that feel that police again are suing brute force to try and deal with the situation.
President Buhari, of course, was talking about an investigation that is currently underway to try and figure out who gave the orders to the military. Was that the military? We know the military has been denying that they were involved in what transpired on Tuesday in an affluent area in Lagos.
In the meantime, the economic fallout has been quite immense. You've seen the looting of warehouses across the country, food that was destined to feed people during the pandemic, medical warehouses, as well.
So the issues are actually ongoing, but from what I am hearing on the ground here, Kim, is that there is still uneasiness and there is discontent and big worry about what's to come.
BRUNHUBER: All right. A story we will be following closely. Thank you so much, Eleni Giokos, in Johannesburg. We appreciate that.
Coming up, in the next hour, human rights activist Rinu Oduala will join me live to talk about the unrest and her own experience standing up to police in Nigeria.
Well, now, to growing tensions between France and Turkey. France is recalling its ambassador over comments the Turkish president made about French President Emmanuel Macron. Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested Mr. Macron needed -- quote -- "some sort of mental treatment over his attitude towards Muslims in France."
It comes after Mr. Macron vowed to crack down on radical Islamism after a French teacher was beheaded. In class, the teacher had used controversial caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammed from the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
CNN's senior international correspondent Arwa Damon has more now from Istanbul. Arwa, what is behind this? How far do you think this fight will go?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It could potentially go quite far, Kim, because there have been tensions between Macron and Erdogan for quite some time now. But these latest comments, this back and forth is centered around, according to some analysts, political gain for both presidents.
Now, as you outlined there, the backdrop of all of this was the brutal beheading of the French professor that showed the very controversial cartoons of Prophet Muhammad and then commemorating the life of Samuel Paty.
France did, on some government buildings, broadcast those very same caricatures, vowing to crack down on Muslim radical groups. But there is widespread concern that this kind of rhetoric and these kinds of actions are just going to further exacerbate tensions with the Muslim world.
That does, in fact, seem to have been the case. You have the comments that came out from Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was not mincing any sort of words, as he directly addressed President Emmanuel Macron. Here's what he had to say.
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RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY (through translator): Macron needs some sort of mental treatment. What else is there to say about a head of state who doesn't believe in the freedom of religion and behaves this way against the millions of people of different faiths living in his own country?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAMON: Now, it is hardly the first time that Turkey and France have traded barbed comments, especially over recent Turkish exploration in the eastern Mediterranean and then, of course, over the warfare that is taking place in Libya, but this is really pitting two NATO allies against one another.
But Kim, it is also worth talking about what is happening between France and Turkey against the context of the broader Muslim and Arab world and how they are reacting to what has taken place in France.
[03:25:00] DAMON: No one, of course, is condoning this brutal beheading. Many are, in fact, condemning it, but they are condoning and standing in opposition to how they believe France has reacted.
You have a number of Muslims in Arab countries that are calling for the boycott of French goods. You also have, in some countries, protests that have emerged against France, the burning of the French flag. In France itself, there have been a handful of attacks against its Muslim population.
And so there are these broader, wider spread concerns that as the situation does potentially escalate, it could further exacerbate tensions between France and the Muslim world, and also, of course, between France and Turkey.
BRUNHUBER: Very worrisome. All right, appreciate the analysis, Arwa Damon, in Istanbul.
British Special Forces stormed an oil tanker in the English Channel Sunday night following reports of a hijacking. Authorities say stowaways made threats to the crew. Seven suspects have been detained and the crew is said to be safe.
The Liberian flight vessel left from Nigeria and was expected to arrive in the port of Southampton. Instead, it made several zigzag maneuvers off the Isle of Wight in a possible attempt to alert authorities.
Coronavirus numbers are rising across the U.S. and the Trump administration's handoff approach seems to have backfired. But one doctor says we could get numbers back in line if people wore masks.
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TAPPER: Why not make efforts to contain it?
MEADOWS: Well, we are making efforts to contain it.
TAPPER: By running all over the country not wearing a mask?
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to you, our viewers in the United States, Canada, and around the world. I am Kim Brunhuber and you're watching "CNN Newsroom."
With a little more than a week before Election Day, Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in North Carolina Sunday, the day after news emerged that several of his staffers tested positive for COVID-19. He and his boss spent the weekend campaigning for reelection. Vice president says he tested negative for the virus and won't quarantine. White House chief of staff says Pence is adhering to safety protocols on the campaign trail.
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MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I could tell you that what he is doing is wearing a mask, socially distancing. And when he goes up to speak, he will take the mask off, put it back on. But he is wearing a mask as it relates to this particular thing because the doctors have advised him to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: It is an alarming trend in the U.S. Coronavirus infections are rising in at least 37 states and not a single state is heading in the right direction.
A track (ph) by Johns Hopkins University shows there were more than 60,000 people diagnosed with the virus on Sunday. It is, of course, a high number but it is a sizable decrease from the more than 83,000 new cases reported both on Saturday and Friday.
This past week, Kentucky has hit a record for its highest number of new cases in the weeks since the pandemic began.
Let's talk about this with Dr. Chris Leffler. He's an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Thank you so much for being with us today.
I want to ask you. You know, we know masks work to reduce transmission. There are some protective effects for the people wearing it, but mainly we know overall if people wear masks, it stops transmission.
The question I had is about mask mandates. What happens when governments force everybody to wear a mask? And the reason I want to explore this with you is that we had, you know, Dr. Fauci said the other day, it may be time to consider a mask mandate.
And then we had the former FDA commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, just wrote a piece, saying, it is time to consider a limited temporary national mask mandate. He made that point again yesterday on TV. Listen to this.
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SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER COMMISSIONER, FDA: There are things that we can do to slow the spread. I mean a national mask mandate can be put into place. It doesn't need to be backed up with fines or stringent enforcement.
We have other requirements that we expect of a civil society that we enforce with, you know, political jawboning leadership. We give people warnings at first. So, I think masks are one thing that we could be doing.
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BRUNHUBER: I want to speak with you, doctor. You were a co-author of a study looking at that very question. Do mask mandates work? When did you find?
CHRISTOPHER LEFFLER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, VCU MEDICAL CENTER: We did find that it helps the countries where governments recommended that the public wear masks. Within 20 days of the onset of their outbreak, they had mortality by May 9th of just 1.5 per million, whereas the countries that did not recommend masks had a mortality of over 200 per million on average such as the United States, which was at 240 per million.
And so I think a mandate from the government, whether it is nationally or whether you did it by 50 states, each making their own mandate, either way, it's the government communicating to people how important it is to really wear the mask. I think it can help lower both infection and mortality.
BRUNHUBER: All right. So, some might hear this and wonder, OK, maybe your study did a control for certain variables, maybe it was an outlier, but there have been several other studies done, as well, some are comparing different countries, others comparing different states and when they introduced mask mandates.
So, let's say we were to throw at your study, would your conclusions still stand?
LEFFLER: I think so. The when you are looking at with other states was a study in health affairs. They found that the states that implemented masks or mask mandates quicker also had lower infection rates. And you mentioned controlling for factors. We controlled for lockdowns, temperature, obesity of the population, age of the population, all sorts of variables were controlled in our -- in our study.
BRUNHUBER: So given the increased number of cases that we are seeing, given the fact that we are going to have to spend more time indoors with the bad weather and so on, do you think there should be a federal mask mandate?
LEFFLER: Well, again, whether it is -- whether it is done nationally or whether you have 50 states doing it one way or another, I think it's -- it's a good idea for the government to require it.
BRUNHUBER: Well, clearly, there is, you know, zero support for this idea from the current administration. The president and his aides have access to all of this evidence that you are talking about, yet they are, you know, continued to be lukewarm about mask wearing, certainly not setting a good example in public and often mocking people who do wear masks.
[03:35:04]
BRUNHUBER: You know, just yesterday, here was national security adviser Robert O'Brien. Listen to this.
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ROBERT O'BRIEN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Ultimately, the only thing that's gonna stop this virus, there is no magic way, masks won't do it alone, more ventilators won't do it alone, what will is a vaccine. We are on track to have a vaccine for Americans in less than a year. It is really incredible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: So, instead of, you know, hammering to home that what we can do is wear masks, they're putting their hopes on a vaccine. You know, experts, including the one I had on yesterday, have made a point that a vaccine won't be a magic, you know, potion that will in O'Brien's words -- quote -- "stop the virus."
So, how frustrating is it for you when you are trying to tell Americans we have proof that if we do this, you know, relatively simple thing, there is less chance of dying, more chance of going back to, you know, whatever normal might be sooner, but those at the top won't listen?
LEFFLER: Well, I think that we have really come a long way compared to when I first started working on this in March. There is much more acceptance both among the scientific community, as well as in the public.
So I think we are making progress and we still have a little way to go to get everybody on board with wearing masks, but I think we have come a long way and I am optimistic about the future in terms of getting people to do this.
The nice thing about masks is something we can do today or we can do tomorrow. So, we don't have to wait months and months and months. It is something we can do right now.
BRUNHUBER: Let's hope if the federal administration is not listening, at least the governors and mayors are listening.
Thank you so much, Dr. Chris Leffler. We appreciate you joining us.
LEFFLER: Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
BRUNHUBER: All right. In Wales, mixed emotions over a new fire break lockdown. It just went into effect this weekend. It is set to last two weeks in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19.
Let's talk more about this with CNN's Nina Dos Santos. Nina, what has been the response so far?
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The response has been, as you said, decidedly mixed. I spent the last weekends traveling in various parts of Wales from the big capital city, Cardiff, which is home to many international students, very cosmopolitan place to some of the more remote Welsh villages in the mountains of Northwest Wales.
And whoever you speak to, they more or less tell you one of two tales. Some people say, well, this national lockdown, which doesn't quite close down Wales's borders but effectively tells everybody that they have a legal obligation to stay at home to control the virus, but a different strategy to the one just a few months down the road in England, some people say that's a good thing, they need it, (inaudible) lockdown to control the virus in its tracks.
But there are lots of people, in particular the business community and also the hospitality community sector, which is very, very hardly hit by this, very, very present in Wales, they think they are against this. They say they do not have enough support and that this probably won't work, it will have to be extended longer than two few weeks.
In the meantime, this is what the roads look like in rush hour in this small town of Halewood (ph) just a couple of miles into Wales over the border from the big industrial heartland of northwest in England. There are a few cars.
The rules still stipulate that you can go to work if you can't work from home and you have an essential job. You can still go shopping for essential food items and medicine. But otherwise, this part of the U.K. has very different set of restrictions to other parts like Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.
Quick question of whether or not this is working, well, it has been in place for three days so far. Public health Wales say they have seen a drop off in cases, but they are still identifying more than 1,000 COVID cases in this part of the U.K. every single day. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: All right. We appreciate it. Thank you so much, Nina Dos Santos.
China says it's taking no chances with COVID. Why millions of people are being tested in the country's Xinjiang region. We will have that, next.
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[03:40:00]
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BRUNHUBER: Health officials in China's western region of Xinjiang say they are in the process of testing the 4.7 million people for COVID. That's after a single asymptomatic case was reported in Kashgar City on Saturday. Authorities say that so far, the mass testing has identified 137 additional asymptomatic cases.
CNN's Steven Jiang joins me now from Beijing. So the bad news, Steven, you know, the first detective case in over a week from mainland China. The good news, the incredible scope of testing that they're able to marshal to get it under control.
STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: That's right, Kim. You know, from the Chinese officials' perspective, this is a tried and true method that has really worked well to contain several localized outbreaks in this country in recent months. That's why in this instance in Kashgar, as soon as they found the first case on Saturday, they launched the same process again, you know, extensive contact tracing, mass testing, and locking down four towns in the region once they identified these 138 asymptomatic cases you just mentioned.
This testing process is ongoing because they are going to test in nearly five million people. They are more than halfway done, but the whole process is going to be completed by Tuesday.
Now, the Beijing government is also sending experts to the region to help them conduct even more epidemiological investigations because there are several baffling aspects about this latest cluster of cases.
The initial patient, a teenage village girl and her family, they had never left town since January. They have no known contacts with previous cases. So they really need to do more investigations to find out what really happened in Xinjiang.
But still, the kind of swift and drastic response is why officials say they are confident they are able to contain this latest cluster very quickly, as well.
But coincidentally, the Chinese leadership is also meeting here in Beijing starting today behind closed doors to chart the course for the country's economy and other policies for the next five years.
This is a regular occurrence but with added importance this year because of the ongoing pandemic and Beijing's worsening relations with Washington.
We don't know a lot of details, but we know they are going to emphasize increasingly domestic consumption, domestic investments as the growth engine for this economy, and reducing its reliance on Washington.
They are also going to emphasize more on self-reliance to not be choked by the U.S., for example, when the Washington administration tried to restrict export of technologies. But still, the message is very clear.
[03:44:53]
JIANG: The fact they're able to -- the leadership is able to sit down here and talk about the next five years where many other governments around the world can barely plan for the next five days, the Chinese government is trying to really taut the superiority of their political system, how the top-down approach of Beijing really has worked well for at least the Chinese people. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: Interesting stuff. All right, thank you so much, Steven Jiang, in Beijing. Appreciate it.
The Australian state of Victoria will ease COVID-19 restrictions after reporting no new cases for the first time in more than four months. From Wednesday, the city of Melbourne will move out of lockdown, with residents allowed to leave their homes. All retail shops, restaurants, cafes, and pubs will also be allowed to reopen. Victoria's premier is urging people to stay vigilant, saying, until a vaccine comes, there is no normal, there is only COVID normal.
Tropical storm Zeta has its sights set on the Yucatan Peninsula. Up next, our meteorologist's updates us on the storm's latest track. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Russian President Vladimir Putin isn't going along with one of President Trump's campaign attacks on Joe Biden's son.
[03:50:00]
BRUNHUBER: In an interview on state television, Mr. Putin said he doesn't see anything criminal on Hunter Biden's past business ties with Ukraine or Russia despite President Trump's insinuations.
Mr. Putin also dismissed The New York Times report that Russia paid the Taliban to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. He said several high-ranking U.S. officials were unable to corroborate the report.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen joins us now from Moscow. What are we to make of this? Is Putin, you know, covering his bases should Biden win?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, there might be a little bit of that.
But on the whole, one of the things that the Russians have said is they understand that no matter who is going to win the election, coming up obviously very shortly, they are going to have to win, they are going to have to deal and work with any sort of new administration that comes into office, whether the president is going to be continued to be Donald Trump or whether it's going to be Joe Biden.
It has been quite interesting because we have seen some comments come out of the Kremlin, that in the past couple of weeks where, for instance, Vladimir Putin said yes, on the one hand, of course, he has very good relations with President Trump. He likes some of the things that he is hearing and seeing from President Trump.
But on the other hand, he also said that for instance, as far as arms control and the future of arms control treaties between these two big nuclear powers is concerned, he also likes some of things that he is hearing from the camp around Joe Biden.
So certainly, we've seen a little bit of that happening over the past couple of weeks. One of the things very remarkable, though, is the fact that he is now talking about the possible business dealings of Hunter Biden, kind of positioning himself in that, as well.
He was talking about alleged dealings President Trump brought up in the last presidential debate between Joe Biden and President Trump, talking about alleged dealings here in Moscow with the wife of the former mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, Vladimir Putin there saying, look, he really has no knowledge of any of that.
And then he took on especially these comments about Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine and said that he saw nothing illegal about that. Let us listen into what Vladimir Putin had to say.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): Yes, Ukraine indeed had business or maybe still has business there. This is nothing to do with us. This is a matter of Americans and Ukrainians.
Yes, there is at least one known company that he was basically running and it looks like he make good money. But I don't see anything criminal here. At least we don't know anything about this. Yeah, he worked for a company that was producing oil and gas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: So we have Vladimir Putin commenting on all the alleged business dealings of Hunter Biden in Ukraine with some pretty remarkable comments, I would say.
You know, Kim, you also mentioned some of the things that he said about Afghanistan where he tried to shoot down that notion about the Russians allegedly paying bounties to the Taliban to harm Americans in Afghanistan.
I think one of the interesting things that he said there, as well, is that contrary to what some people have been saying, some people here in Russia have been saying, he actually believes that a security presence by the United States in Afghanistan does also have good things for Russia as well, because he believes that there could be big instability if and when the United States leaves that country. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: Interesting. All right, thank you so much, Fred Pleitgen, in Moscow.
Parts of Mexico are now under a hurricane warning as tropical storm Zeta churns closer to the Yucatan Peninsula. Zeta is expected to strengthen into a hurricane and could make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast later this week.
For more details, let us bring in CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri. What is the latest?
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Kim, you know, it was just less than three weeks ago when we had Hurricane Delta make landfall across the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. That was a Category Two.
Now, just since then, we've had several storms, of course, totalling out 27 for the entire hurricane season, which ties the most on record for the Atlantic hurricane season, of course, 21 of them being official hurricanes that are named, six of them now being in Greek alphabet, which is our backup list of names.
Here we go. Zeta is next in line. This is a very well-structured storm system in an area frankly that's rather conducive here for maintaining intensity, even strengthening the storm on approach here towards the Yucatan of Mexico.
We think landfall sometime Monday evening across portions near Cozumel, potentially near Cancun. The storm could be a Category One as it makes landfall along this region and then re-emerges once again over the Gulf of Mexico.
The concern moving forward is typically storms in the gulf rather intensify quickly here. But we do know it is late in the season. Water temperature is a little bit cooler now. So, we do expect the intensity if anything to be weaker on approach.
But the model variability here is rather significant. In fact, look at the American model on the left side of your screen, saying potentially a stronger storm on approach towards Southeastern Louisiana, not far from New Orleans.
On the right side of your screen, the European model brings it in much later in the day, possibly as a weaker storm. We will watch this carefully here and see what plays out.
[03:54:57]
JAVAHERI: But typically, when you get late into the season, the forecast guidance and, of course, the steering environment and the atmosphere of the water temperatures, all of them really weakened and change rather significantly at this time of year.
So, what we do know will play out here on Wednesday afternoon and evening is going to be a significant amount of rainfall in areas that have been very hard hit.
Now, speaking of areas that have been hard hit in recent weeks, we got to look into portions of the Western Pacific. We got a trio of systems, remnants of Saudel, which is storm that made landfall in the last couple of days across Vietnam, Molave, and another system behind it developing over the coming couple of days.
But Molave, that is equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane. That made landfall near San Miguel in the Philippines, forecasts now to move over the South China Sea, potentially strengthen just a little bit, get up maybe even to a strong Category 1 and approach areas of Vietnam yet again later on by the middle portion of this week.
Now, Vietnam has had Linfa in early October, Saudel in the last couple of days, and now Molave making landfall potentially in the next couple of days, so, much like the United States or Mexico that have seen numerous storms in recent weeks. That is what Vietnam is dealing with and what is climatologically the wettest time of year, September, October, and November, so certainly a lot of people on alert here, Kim, for another round of heavy rainfall in the tropical system.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, a lot to watch for there. Thank you so much, meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
Attempts to remove the first nest of Asian giant hornets in the U.S. seemed to have worked. Scientists used radio trackers to find the so- called murder hornet in a nest in Northwest Washington.
Experts then vacuumed the hornets out of the nest so they can be studies. The specie is called murder hornet because of how aggressive and efficient they are in killing their prey.
Scientists have been trying to locate the nest since last December after they were first sighted in the U.S.
This wraps this hour of "CNN Newsroom." I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in just a moment with more news. Please do stick with us.
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