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Biden Transition Process Finally Begins; Millions Travel for Thanksgiving; Nigerian Army Admits to Live Rounds at Protest; France Reports Fewest Daily Cases Since September; Seoul Begins 'Emergency Period' with New Restrictions; Toronto Begins Four-Week Lockdown as Cases Surge; China Launches Probe to Collect Samples from the Moon; Biden's COVID-19 Team to Talk Soon with Counterparts in Current Administration; How Dark Money Propped up Phantom Candidates in Florida State Senate Races. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired November 24, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone. I'm Paula Newton. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

Ahead this hour, sources call it a blaring wakeup call for Donald Trump. After two weeks of delays, Joe Biden is finally allowed to begin his transition to the White House.

Another step forward in the search for a coronavirus vaccine. Why it might be easier for this candidate to make a global impact.

And an admission from the Nigerian army following a peaceful protest that ended in bloodshed.

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NEWTON: We begin with the closest thing to a concession we may ever see from Donald Trump.

The U.S. president late Monday authorized the head of the General Services Administration, Emily Murphy, to actually begin the transition to a Joe Biden administration.

No, it's not your imagination. It was supposed to happen within days, not weeks.

Here's what the president tweeted.

"In the best interest in of our country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols and have told my team to do the same."

Later though, this is significant, the president tweeted that his legal challenges were moving "full speed ahead," in his words and that he would never concede.

The incoming Biden team will now be able to coordinate with the current administration in areas, including the coronavirus response and, of course, national security. And a growing list of Republican senators are now acknowledging, for the very first time that, yes, Biden did actually win the election.

Meantime, Joe Biden has not been waiting for that formal announcement from the White House to put together his team. CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President-Elect Joe Biden's Cabinet is taking shape tonight, announcing his intention to nominate seasoned advisers from the Obama administration into new history-making roles.

Janet Yellen, former Federal Reserve chair, will be tapped next week as the Treasury Secretary nominee, CNN has learned, and would become the first woman to serve in the post.

QUESTION: Why are you going national security first?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because it's national security.

ZELENY: Before a virtual meeting with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Biden unveiling key members of his national security team, including Alejandro Mayorkas, who would become the first Latino to run the Department of Homeland Security, the agency tasked with the nation's immigration policy.

Avril Haines, a former deputy CIA director, who would become the first woman to lead the nation's intelligence community as director of national intelligence.

And John Kerry, the longtime senator and former secretary of state, to serve as an international climate czar, a new post underscoring Biden's commitment to fighting climate change.

The president-elect is wasting no time filling his team, expediting his announcements, in part, CNN has learned, because President Trump is still seeking to sabotage the outcome.

Biden making clear again today he is surrounding himself with experienced hands, many of whom he's worked with for years in the Senate and White House.

TONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: And now, on a personal note, it gives me particular pleasure to introduce a man who has been my mentor, my partner, my friend and the greatest public servant I know, the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden.

ZELENY (voice-over): That's Tony Blinken, a longtime adviser, now to be nominated as secretary of state; Jake Sullivan, another longtime aide, to be named as national security adviser and Linda Thomas- Greenfield, a veteran foreign service officer, who has served in posts around the world, to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Republicans were nearly silent about Biden's nominations, nearly all of which face Senate confirmation. When asked if he was concerned about the GOP putting up roadblocks to his team, he said this.

BIDEN: Are you kidding me?

ZELENY (voice-over): Former President Barack Obama praising Biden's pick, saying they send a signal to allies of strength and stability.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They are going to be greatly relieved and pleased to see people like Tony. There is going to be a lingering sense that America is still divided.

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OBAMA: Some of the shenanigans that are going on right now around the election, that is making the world question how reliable and steady the U.S. may be.

ZELENY: The Biden transition moving forward even faster now that they do have that ascertainment from the General Services Administration. That means the Trump administration finally signing off on transition funding and, more importantly, opening the doors to information.

Finally, three weeks after Election Day, the Biden transition in full force is, of course, well underway, already naming his cabinet picks -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

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NEWTON: Caroline Heldman is a Democratic strategist and associate professor of politics. She joins me now from Los Angeles.

Thanks so much for being here. We never think it's going to be a slow news day anymore, because the news just trails on. We certainly had a lot of it breaking today and obviously it has to do with the new administration coming in.

I mean, look, we have already have had "The West Wing" reunion that happened on TV a few weeks ago. This whole Biden team is really just looking like a lot of experienced, wiser, a little bit older, really old hands from the Obama administration.

Do you think that this is the winning team?

Or do you think some would have wished they would have gone for a bolder approach?

CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I am sure the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party would've wanted bolder choices. But at the end of the day, Joe Biden does not know whether the Democrats or the Republicans are going to control the Senate.

And so he is making some very centrist picks and it is clear that he is choosing expertise over big names.

It's clear that even though he has not been allowed to transition formally for 3 weeks, that he has been working hard. We normally don't see this many appointments this early on.

I think it is crucial that we get folks in place, because this transition has been so ragged. So I think Joe Biden is making some smart decisions here in terms of getting folks in the Senate. They are relatively boring picks, if I can say that. They are not controversial.

It's interesting to know, after four years of the Trump administration, no family members are being appointed to major positions.

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NEWTON: You did get that in there. It is true. We will see, as well, in terms of how he can forge this new cabinet, because, of course, as you just pointed out, there are many factions within the party that really are looking for a payback here in some way.

What struck me, though, is that so many of those people don't even need to be debriefed walking into these jobs.

Do you think this is what America needs right now?

Let's face it. A lot of these people have been living and breathing their new jobs for decades.

HELDMAN: I think it's good that we could hit the ground running. I think the last 4 years have taught us something very basic but profound about American politics, which is that expertise matters. So it matters a lot.

So I am comforted, regardless of political party, I am comforted by the expertise of his team. I think he is also making a really clear choice to have the most diverse cabinet in history in terms of race and gender and he is well on his way for doing that.

I think as you point out, Paula, there will be some folks, especially the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party, who will not be happy about these picks. But the fact that he set up a climate change czar, John Kerry, who got us into the Paris accord, really signals to young people that he is taking that quite seriously.

And if you look at the election, historic turnout for young voters and that was their number one issue for voting, climate crisis.

NEWTON: Good point. John Kerry now in that position. As you said, perhaps it might appease more of the progressive wing of the party.

There is something else though and they could very well still end up with a Senate that is run by the GOP, by the Republicans.

To that end, if you look at someone like Janet Yellen or even Alejandro Mayorkas, who will be in Homeland Security, do you think this will help to get that bipartisan approach perhaps jumpstarted again in Washington?

We have not seen it in such a long time.

HELDMAN: Well, I would hope that that would be the case but I hear that if Mitch McConnell is at the helm, what we have seen is that he profoundly changed the fabric of Washington in the way that the Congress works.

He had a scorched Earth approach to President Obama. And if you listen to his interview over the weekend, he actually spoke about this, said he would go to Republicans and say, if you do not like my plan, what is your plan?

If we can work here, we will implement your plan. It doesn't matter who comes up with it. And the response he got again and again was we are simply going to be oppositional.

So even John McCain talked about this before he passed, about how the rules of Washington had shifted. So I think that if Mitch McConnell is still in place and you have a supermajority on the Supreme Court, we will still see this entrenched partisanship in Washington, D.C.

NEWTON: Such a good point that you mentioned, there is still that supermajority now in the Supreme Court.

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NEWTON: It will also have a huge impact on politics over the next few years, perhaps decades. Caroline Heldman in Los Angeles, thank you so much for this. Really appreciate it.

HELDMAN: Thank you.

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NEWTON: The U.S. celebrates Thanksgiving this week and with it comes what is usually the country's busiest travel period of the year. The hope is that, with coronavirus gripping the country, people would stay home. But pleas, don't travel, please, from public health experts are not stopping Americans from packing those airports.

From Friday through Sunday, more than 3 million people passed through U.S. airport security checkpoints. I can assure you the lines were long. That is the most since the start of the pandemic. We are still a few days away from the holiday.

The U.S. meantime, has now recorded more than 12.4 million COVID cases and more than 257,000 deaths, both figures by far the highest in the world.

In a spot of good news, we could all use some, on Monday, AstraZeneca announced it has a highly effective vaccine. That is the third one so far. Experts say they still have questions for AstraZeneca about how effective and safe this vaccine actually is. They are calling the company to release more data from their trials. Anna Stewart has more on the drugmaker's announcement.

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ANDREW POLLARD, DIRECTOR, OXFORD UNIVERISTY VACCINE GROUP: We have a vaccine for the world. We have got a vaccine which is highly effective and it prevents severe disease and hospitalization.

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More good news on a COVID-19 vaccine. This one developed in the U.K. by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.

Early phase three result shows an overall efficacy rate of 70 percent and that is a fairly disappointing headline figure, particularly when you compare it to the early results from we got from Pfizer and Moderna.

However, we delve a little bit deeper into the data and you can see that for those participants, you had half a dose of the vaccine first and a full dose at least four weeks later. Protection was 90 percent.

PASCAL SORIOT, CEO, ASTRAZENECA: There is an appropriate dosage regiment, people will get a 90 percent protection. Importantly, no severe cases were seen in the hospitalization.

So it's a very, very effective vaccine. The good news, by the way about the regiment that works the best is that it only uses half the dose of vaccine for the first shot. So we can vaccinate more people faster.

STEWART: AstraZeneca had already planned to make 3 billion full doses next year, which is more than Pfizer and Moderna's projections for next year combined.

PAMELA CHENG, V.P. OPERATIONS, ASTRAZENECA: From the very beginning of this partnership with Oxford University, we wanted to have them place the capacity to manufacture a meaningful volume quickly. So that we could make a real difference in the fight against this pandemic.

STEWART: With 30 supply agreements and partner networks around the world, this vaccine would have huge global reach.

CHENG: We have a potential vaccine that could be easily distributed, stored and administered. We expect the vaccine as stable at normal refrigerated conditions at 228, which will significantly make the supply chain logistics much simpler and easier.

STEWART: This vaccine could be weld out and in lower and middle income countries. Places that may not have the necessary infrastructure for an ultra-cold vaccine, like the one being developed by Pfizer. And for that reason that this vaccine is approved, it could go a long way to ending the pandemic -- Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

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NEWTON: Dr. Murtaza Akhter is an emergency physician at Valleywise Health Medical Center. He is with me now from Phoenix.

Good to see you, Doctor. Before we get to the wider picture, there is a lot to discuss. I was so struck. I was looking at your comments from July here on CNN. Those five months ago or nearly five months ago, you were concerned about the spike in cases at the time in Arizona.

Now in reviewing the numbers, I see that, likely, you are concerned once again.

DR. MURTAZA AKHTER, VALLEYWISE HEALTH MEDICAL CENTER: Yes, that's exactly right. Now it is not just Arizona. I used to be a hot spot. The word hot spot does not mean anything anymore. Basically the whole country is getting blasted, with the exception of a couple of states, with a lot of COVID cases.

And you've seen hospitalizations and you've seen the cases and the deaths. I've been working in Pennsylvania for the last couple of weeks. And it's just as bad if not worse here.

It's really amazing and even in places that had it some are controlled are just spiking. It goes to show the virus does not care where you live or what state you are in. If you do not have good policies or you don't distance or wear masks, people will get infected. People will die.

NEWTON: As we were saying earlier, Thanksgiving travel and even if the airports themselves and the planes are not much of a risk, these people are going home to their loved ones.

AKHTER: Yes. That's exactly right.

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AKHTER: I can understand people who want to see their loved ones during this moment, to see them. But it's one Thanksgiving out of hundreds of them. And this is the one Thanksgiving to skip. I know it's hard on people.

But to infect loved ones, especially the elderly and the immunocompromised, is it worth the risk for one Thanksgiving?

Obviously I am biased but I would rather have people live to see multiple Thanksgivings instead of just having one and potentially not seeing another one again.

NEWTON: I will get on to the good news. But before I leave this topic, we have not touched 200,000 cases a day in the United States but likely this country is very close to there.

What's the worst fear at this point in time if you do have that spike that happened in Canada, for instance, after Thanksgiving and Halloween?

What happens this Christmas and Passover if you see not a second but a third wave in many areas of the country? AKHTER: Well, the simplest answer is dead people. The more cases there are and the colder the weather gets and the more people come indoors, the more cases there will be. The more people will die. It's just math.

I know it's just brutal to make it just math but a bunch of people are going to die. That's the worst case scenario for the patients.

From the hospital perspective, we are going to be so backed up with ICUs that are filled, with ERs that are backing up. There are only so many places you can put COVID-19 patients, that the care is going to diminish for everybody else.

We saw this happen when I was working last summer, everyone got delayed. That means worse outcomes. If you have a heart attack, you're in a car accident, if you're shot by bullet, you have a stroke or sepsis, have sepsis, sickle cell, the list goes on, all these diseases still exist.

Guess what?

Your care is going to be that much poorer when the whole hospital is backed up. That in and of itself can cause more deaths as well. That is really unfortunate.

NEWTON: We all have to hang on tight for the next few weeks to see what happens in this country.

Before I let you go, I do want to talk about that vaccine, especially the AstraZeneca one, because it does seem that, perhaps, it can be more easily distributed but also get people vaccinated.

But at the same time, a lot of doses, right, up to 3 billion?

AKHTER: Yes, that's the big perk of the AstraZeneca vaccine. I think people have gotten a high from the numbers that Pfizer and Moderna have come up with. All these numbers are amazing by the way and kudos to the scientists who produced this.

But the advantage of the AstraZeneca vaccine, even if it's a lower efficacy potentially, is that ultimately it may be more beneficial to more people, because it's cheaper, how it's more easily distributed, how it can be refrigerated as opposed to the other vaccines.

And remember there weren't even any major hospitalizations for the ones who got COVID-19. So the case rate wasn't as good as the other vaccines but maybe it may be pretty good.

So the advantage is here for third world countries, who may not have the refrigeration or the money, that AstraZeneca vaccine could be a game-changer for those countries in particular.

NEWTON: Absolutely and a reason why more people should be more careful in the next few months, because it's a small sacrifice for what we could see in the future. AKHTER: That's exactly right. I know we've been saying this for a

while but this time it really should be a, hopefully a short while. I may mean half a year but that really is short compared to a lifetime.

NEWTON: OK, Dr. Akhter, thank you again for your time.

AKHTER: Thanks for having me, Paula. Stay safe.

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NEWTON: Ahead here on NEWSROOM, fears a new security bill in France will make it harder to document police brutality.

Plus an admission from Nigerian army about a peaceful protest that took a violent turn in Lagos. The findings of the investigation. That's next.

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NEWTON: Israeli officials say prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had his first known meeting with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday. Riyadh says that never happened.

The U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo did stop in Saudi Arabia during his brief stop to meet the crown prince but the Israeli government has not commented on whether Mr. Netanyahu was there. And neither has Pompeo.

Now for weeks Nigerian military and police have denied allegations they killed peaceful protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos last month. Amnesty International said at least 12 people were killed.

Now the Nigerian army is admitting soldiers were given both live and blank bullets when they were sent to the scene, confirming the findings of a CNN investigation. Nima Elbagir has our update.

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NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is government CCTV footage from surveillance cameras overlooking Lekki Toll Gate.

Recorded without sound, it was shown as evidence in the judicial panel. You see soldiers approaching, firing shots here and here. We lined up the footage and it corroborates our previous reporting to show the first time we see and hear gunshots.

Notice the building to the right of your screen. Here is the same moment from that building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are releasing fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They shoot! They shoot! They shoot!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are releasing fire.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): CNN geolocated and verified the footage you see to mark the exact time and place.

Moments later, more CCTV footage: people alarmed. Here is the exact same moment from the other side of the gate. Shots can be heard.

But the CCTV doesn't capture everything. This is what it shows at the time we believe shots are fired towards the protesters. The surveillance camera pans away.

This is what you see on the ground. In videos obtained by CNN, it appears to show the army shooting into the crowd here and again, at the top of your screen, here.

At the judicial panel, the CCTV footage stops at around 8 o'clock. The Lekki Concession Company says this is because it was tampered with. What it doesn't show is this crucial moment where DJ Switch livestreams on Instagram after 8:00 p.m.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody look at this. These were the bullets that were falling. They were falling by our side everywhere. We are dodging bullets.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): CNN has verified that these bullet casings are from live ammunition. They are of mixed origin; some are Serbian, this one from 2005.

Former and current Nigerian military sources verified to us that these munitions are currently in use by the Nigerian army. At a hearing for the judicial panel of inquiry, the army made an admission.

BRIG. GEN. AHMED TAIWO, NIGERIAN ARMY: The soldiers would be given both live and blank bullets. In this particular case, we saw that this protest had been infiltrated by hoodlums.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): But eyewitnesses and families we spoke to say the ammunition used that night by Nigerian authorities was very real.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where I was shot. And the bullet went through my back.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Up until this point, the army had denied they had live bullets at all on that night. It confirms a key finding in our investigation: that there was live ammunition at the scene.

ELBAGIR: This admission is the latest in a series of constantly shifting narratives as to what happened on October 20th at Lekki Toll Gate. The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed (ph), said that the army fired blank ammunition into the air.

[00:25:00] ELBAGIR: He also dismissed CNN's investigation as "fake news and misinformation."

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Now in the aftermath of our reporting, both the United States and the United Kingdom are calling on Nigeria to ensure that its investigation is free and fair -- Nima Elbagir, CNN, London.

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NEWTON: Now the Nigerian government continues to dispute our reporting and threatened sanctions against CNN, even as its response to what happened continues to change.

As you just saw, the army has admitted to a judicial panel that live ammunition was carried by soldiers at Lekki toll gate on the night of October 20th. CNN reached out multiple times to the army and the police. Those requests were unanswered and police and state authorities decline to respond until after the conclusion of the inquiry. We continue to stand by our reporting.

Now to France, parliament will soon take up a controversial security bill, one that human rights groups say make it harder to document police brutality. Melissa Bell has. More

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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a protest about how future protests will be covered. Thousands gathered in Paris on Saturday to oppose global security bill currently before the French parliament.

Lawmakers voted on Friday to adopt the bill's controversial Article 24,which would ban the publication of images of police with the intent to cause them harm.

Critics fear that Article 24 would make covering protests like this one, as well as documenting police brutality much more difficult. Those in favor say it's necessary because of the targeting of police online during the Yellow Vest protests.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The broadcasting and capturing of images, whether by camera or by citizens on a phone, of police doing their jobs with their faces exposed, will still be possible. What will change is that any cause for violence or incitement of hatred that accompanies such pictures will be sanctioned by the law.

BELL: Overall the bill currently before the national assembly will make it easier for security forces to film ordinary citizens without their consent, from body cams and police drones, while punishing those who publish images of police likely to cause them harm with a year in jail and a $53,000 fine.

Critics say it would make France an exception amongst democracies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Citizens are asked to accept the possibility of being filmed under the pretext that they have nothing to fear if they have not done nothing (sic) wrong. At the same time exactly, the police refuses to be filmed, which is a right in every democracy in the world.

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BELL (voice-over): The French filmmaker David Dufresne says that his recent documentary about police brutality simply could not have been made if the law had been in place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking French).

DAVID DUFRESNE, FILM DIRECTOR (through translator): It would be like saying, after George Floyd, we're not going to allow the filming of the police. In France, we have a similar case, such as Chouviat.

The people who pass and see that there's a police check that look like it's going badly, none of them know what happens next, which is the death of this man. When they start filming it, it's because they understand that they must.

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BELL (voice-over): Cedric Chouviat died in January days after being pinned to the ground by police. It was these images, captured by passing motorists, that led to charges being brought against three of the policeman involved. All of them deny any wrongdoing.

As debate of the bill began in parliament last Tuesday, there were protests outside; 33 people were taken in for questioning, including one journalist released the next day without charge. After a vote at the national assembly, the bill will head to the French parliament in December -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

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NEWTON: One of the largest cities in North America goes back into lockdown as COVID cases continue to rise. I just returned from Toronto and I will tell you about the new measures that will affect everything from business to daily life.

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And you are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton.

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Almost a month after imposing a nationwide lockdown, France is seeing a significant decline in its coronavirus infection rate. Now, the country reported fewer than 4,500 new cases on Monday, the lowest number since late September.

And with hospital admissions also falling nationwide, French President Emmanuel Macron could soon begin to ease some of the country's restrictions. He's expected to address the nation in the coming hours. And meantime, in the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson says England's

nationwide lockdown could be lifted next week, but regional restrictions will still be in place. He told Parliament he plans to bring back the three-tiered containment system starting December 2.

Now the outbreak of the virus in Seoul, South Korea, has forced the city's acting mayor to declare an emergency period through the end of the year. The city will enforce new restrictions to try and prevent further infections, including the use of masks and all indoor facilities.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is live for us in Seoul.

Paula, good to see you. You know, it comes as a shock in many other places to even hear that they weren't wearing masks in South Korea all this time, and yet this virus is under control.

Is there anything different right now, because they've been very aggressive, right? They test, trace, isolate. They've been able to control the clusters in the past.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Paula, everyone was wearing a mask here with very few exceptions. What they've done now is just make it mandatory, so that if you're seen not wearing a mask indoors, you will be fined about $80, $85.

So the thing with South Korea and the concern about this wave, health officials are saying they think this is the third wave. They said that at the end of last.

And of course, the first wave was March/April, so you're coming into spring where people are outside more. The second wave was in August, where people are constantly outside.

But this wave, we are going into winter. So Korean winters, as you well know, can be pretty brutal and very cold. So there will be a lot more indoor gathering, which we know is not conducive to trying to stop the spread of this virus.

So what we now know is that South Korea is on a level-two tier system, which means that -- that clubs are closed, restaurants have to close after 9 p.m., unless it's takeout, and -- and also schools will have a third capacity.

But what health officials have decided to do on top of that until the end of the year, because these numbers are hovering around 300 still, is this emergency period where you'll have public transport being reduced, where you will have a suggestion that churches and religious services should go online.

Now, that's crucial, that it's only a suggestion at this point, because that has been the crux of a number of clusters in the -- in the recent months. But at this point, there are about 20 percent capacity.

So health officials have said that they are worried that this is a risky situation, that this third wave does have the potential to become bigger and more of a mass infection than the previous two -- Paula.

NEWTON: Well, I know you'll continue to watch it for us, Paula. Really appreciate the update, live for us in Seoul.

Now for the second time since the pandemic began, Canada's largest city has gone into a partial lockdown. Now, over the next four weeks, Toronto will limit indoor gatherings, enforce new rules for all nonessential businesses.

Now, the key caveat here is kids will remain in school, but some fear that the latest measures will really be too much of a sacrifice for the economy and really load others. Those who have been vulnerable and isolated for months now make it -- the burden even more difficult. Take a listen.

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NEWTON (voice-over): Its nickname is Toronto the good. Canada's largest city comes by it honestly. Toronto was so compliant, nearly everyone wearing masks, following doctors' orders, it crushed the COVID-19 curve in spring, a curve that public health officials say is spiking out of control now.

Daily cases have nearly doubled in a matter of weeks. ICUs are near capacity. And with 1,500 coronavirus deaths and counting in the city, officials say a second lockdown as strict as the first, save for keeping schools open, must be enforced to avoid a worst-case scenario.

DR. IRFAN DHALLA, VP, PHYSICIAN QUALITY, UNITY HEALTH TORONTO: We're in a lot of trouble, and so our public health officials and our elected leaders decided there really was no other choice but to take, you know, a big step back.

NEWTON: That step back means a return to lining up for groceries, shutting down all in-person dining, even outdoors. All nonessential, in-store shopping, salons, gyms now shut down for at least four weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's challenging, obviously, for us, but it's our, you know, societal obligation to do it.

NEWTON: That obligation extends to staying home and seeing no one other than those you live with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like Christmas, we may be in a controlled -- in a controlled part where families can get together for Christmas, but yes, it's -- it sucks for most of these people that are running these small businesses.

NEWTON: And it's not just business. The Raptors, Toronto's beloved NBA team, had to find a temporary home in Tampa, Florida, because of the health crisis. It's a measure of how seriously this city is taking this. We caught up

with Mayor John Tory, not at city hall but at home. Hunkering down for a second wave he says many cities underestimated.

MAYOR JOHN TORY, TORONTO: I think we, you know, didn't focus as hard as we now are very focused on the marginalized neighborhoods, where the virus spread and the positivity in the test rates has been, you know, much higher than in other parts of the population. And we're really focused on all that now. The lockdown will help us to get a greater grip on all this.

NEWTON: Protests against the lockdown and masks have been small but persistent. A reminder that the city's goodwill has its limits.

(on camera): There's no question a second lockdown will be tough here in Toronto. But what's been even tougher to think about are the consequences if it doesn't work.

(voice-over): The worry: fewer restrictions in other areas bordering the city, in some cases just a few blocks away, means people will move freely to shop, dine and get together. Only Toronto and one of its sprawling suburbs, Peel, is in lockdown.

Hothouse restaurant managers Adam Joe and Arif Ahmed used to employ 100 people. They were able to keep half on payroll, thanks to their large patio. Under lockdown, they'll have to scale back even further.

ADAM JOE, RESTAURANT MANAGER: I guess I would say, you know, a little crestfallen. You know, we had a lot of energy recently. I wouldn't say I was shocked.

NEWTON (on camera): Are you guys afraid of what will happen if it doesn't work?

ARIF AHMED, RESTAURANT MANAGER: Absolutely, but you don't really know how it's going to pan out on the other end? So it is -- it is, you know, scary.

NEWTON (voice-over): And so Toronto, one of the largest cities in North America, masks up, locks down and hopes this painful sacrifice will be enough to reopen in time for Christmas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Now one thing that's important to point out here, you know, I mention that the NBA, the Toronto Raptors, will be playing in Tampa Bay.

Think about this. The cases in Tampa Bay right now are much higher per capita than they are in trodden, but the approaches to this pandemic, as we have been saying at CNN here, have been so different right around the world.

OK, up next for us, China launches a probe to the moon. Why the country will join an exclusive club if this lunar mission is successful. That's ahead on CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:41:13]

NEWTON: And you are watching the takeoff of China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe. The unmanned craft is set to bring back the first samples from the moon in 40 years. The probe will spend two days on the lunar surface collecting rocks and soil to study here on earth.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is live this hour in Hong Kong with the details.

I mean, this is really the hope, right, when you're looking at that. And we all get excited when we see that kind of exploration, but this is really supposed to forge even further China's ambitions in space, right?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, and they have very big ambitions to eventually have a manned space station in 2022.

But today, what happened was very significant. It was 4:30 a.m. this morning when China successfully launched the Chang'e-5 robotic spacecraft. Its mission: to bring back these rock samples from the moon.

It has been 40 years since the Americans and the Soviets brought back samples for analysis. So if China succeeds with this, it will only be the third nation to do so.

Now, the Chang'e-5 mission is named after Chang'e, the legendary famous Chinese goddess of the moon. It has two objectives. One objective is to gain scientific knowledge, because it's through the sampling and the analysis that scientists will be able to gain a greater understanding about the history and the origins of the moon.

But there's also another objective, and that's to gain engineering expertise. Because it's through that process of sampling, collecting and returning those samples to earth that China will be able to gain this technical engineering know-how to further advance its space dreams.

Now, this entire mission is scheduled to take about 23 days. Those rock samples and the lunar surface material samples will return in a capsule due to land in China's inner Mongolia sometime in mid- December.

And before the launch, the media got to hear from the spokesman of the Chang'e-5 mission, and he addressed the challenge ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEI ZHAOYU, CHANG'E-5 MISSION SPOKESMAN (through translator): Compared to the circumlunar and moon landing explorations that we managed to implement, the biggest challenge of the sampling mission, I believe, is the work of moonscape sampling, moonscape take-off, rendezvous and docking of the lunar orbit, as well as the high-speed reentry to the earth. These parts are the biggest challenges that we care about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Now when Pei Zhaoyu was asked the question on whether China plans to put astronauts on the moon, he gave the following answer. He said, "Any further lunar exploration should be carried out by a combination of man and machine."

Back to you, Paula.

NEWTON: Going to be interesting to watch over the next few years and decades. Kristie, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.

And that is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton. WORLD SPORT starts right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)