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Assassinated Iranian Nuclear Scientist to Be Buried Monday; COVID Cases Climb in Japan, South Korea; European Countries Evaluate Lockdown Measures; Trump Spouts False Claims in First Interview Since Election; Biden to Name Three Women to Economic Team; Ethiopia to Open Humanitarian Corridors; 'World's Loneliest Elephant' Gets New Home Thanks to Cher. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired November 30, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Iran says it has new leads on who assassinated its top nuclear scientist as his funeral begins in the coming hours.

[00:00:29]

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris name an all-female communications team, while Donald Trump lies, and lies some more, in a TV interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHER, SINGER (singing): All wishes will come smiling through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And, a lonely elephant gets a serenade from Cher before boarding a plane for a new, and happier, life.

Hello and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes.

Welcome everyone. Iran's top early nuclear scientist, brazenly assassinated on Friday, is expected to be laid to rest in the coming hours. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed just east of Tehran, in an apparent ambush over the weekend, his body taken to several revered Muslim shrines for prayers and blessings. He was considered one of the masterminds of Iran's nuclear program.

Now, the semi-official Fars news agency says Fakhrizadeh was shot outside his car by an automatic, remote-controlled machine gun, fired from another car nearby. And then that car exploded. That's what Fars says. CNN has not been able to independently confirm that series of events.

Iran has accused Israel, though, of orchestrating the attack, and its intelligence ministry says it has several leads. Iranian officials vowing revenge.

No comment so far from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The attack has put Iran's nuclear capability back in the global spotlight. Iran's parliament meeting Sunday to discuss the assassination and possible withdrawal from the nuclear deal signed with western powers in 2015.

While some world leaders are pleading for calm, analysts say Iran could seek retribution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL WILLIAM MCRAVEN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND: The Iranians are going to be in a position where they have to retaliate. I don't see any way around it. They're going to have to save face.

And so now the issue becomes what does that retaliation look like? Does that then begin to escalate the problems in the region? And that's not going to be good for anybody. The Iranians don't want to go to war with us. We don't want to go to war with Iran. So everybody needs to do the best they can to kind of lower the temperature.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Joining me now, Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on nuclear nonproliferation. He's a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and also host of "The Deal" podcast. He joins me now from California.

Good to get your -- I mean, let's face it. This is an embarrassing intelligence failure, another one, actually. But retaliation carries big risks right now, especially before the U.S. inauguration. What do you see as Iran's options right now?

JEFFREY LEWIS, PROFESSOR, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well, Iran has a lot of options. It's really just a question of how they want to play it. Do they want to run certain risks with the Trump administration, or do they want to risk poisoning the well with the Biden administration? It's very tough to tell.

The one thing I would say, though, is you know, this is a very dangerous moment. I think we really dodged a bullet earlier this year, when we saw Iran respond to the killing of Qasem Soleimani with a missile strike against a U.S. military base in Iraq. That was a very large missile strike. It resulted in large numbers of casualties, but no one was killed. I hope we are as lucky this time as we were then.

HOLMES: Very good point. I mean, speak -- speak to that risk versus reward factor, when it comes to the assassination itself. If it was Israel, I mean, in some ways, it can be seen as a win-win calculus for Benjamin Netanyahu: take out a prominent figure in the nuclear program. But also, if Iran retaliates, it gives Israel and/or the U.S. a reason to strike back militarily?

LEWIS: Yes, I really think it depends on how one looks at Israel's strategic goals. If the goal is to poison the well for diplomacy, I think the strike is extremely successful. I mean, they -- they killed a scientist, but what they've -- what they've really have done is try to assassinate the possibility of returning to the nuclear deal with Iran.

If Iran retaliates, that will make it much harder. And frankly, if Iran does nothing, I just think support for the deal in Iran will drop.

HOLMES: I know you've been tweeting a lot on this sort of issue, too, but one presumes Fakhrizadeh had a line of succession. Will his death slow his work? I mean, past killings would suggest perhaps not too much.

[00:05:03]

LEWIS: Yes, we've actually run this experiment. In 2011, all of Iran's solid-propellant long-range missile team was killed in an explosion, including the head of that program. And it delayed the program by a few years, but pretty quickly after that, we saw Iran reconstitute the team, rebuild all of the facilities, and recently, they've been launching missiles designed by that very team.

So you know, I think our experiences, maybe for the Israelis at the moment, it feels good to conduct an assassination like this. But there isn't any evidence that it slows the Iranians down. And if anything, it probably incites them to go faster.

HOLMES: Yes. And some suggested it actually encourages interest in the nuclear program by young scientists, as well. I've seen that. If the time between now and January 20 is, let's say, uneventful, what chance for a revived U.S.-Iran Involvement in the nuclear deal? What would Iran want in return? What might a Biden administration demand of Iran?

LEWIS: Well, you know, I think that a Biden administration is going to want Iran to return to compliance with the agreement, which is something Iran has said it will do if sanctions come off.

And so I think the big challenge for them in the short term is just going to be sequencing that. Can you find the right series of steps where sanctions come off, Iran comes back into compliance, and we get sort of back to where we were?

The challenge is going to come that it's been several years now. Iran has made a lot of progress, and there are a lot of other issues, such as Iran's support for proxies around the region, and -- and Iran's missile program, that are -- that are going to make the political environment for an agreement much tougher.

But you know, we just finished a documentary on the Iranian nuclear deal called "The Deal," and the thing that we really learned from that, which I think is the most important thing to keep in mind, is if there is political will, we will find technical solutions.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes, exactly. the documentary is fascinating, by the way.

Not all Iran-aligned groups within the country and without the country have the same calculations, of course. How does this potentially change the dynamic between Iran's hardliners and moderates? Many would say that the hardliners have the upper hand now anyway.

LEWIS: Well, you know, I can't see how it would help the moderates. I mean, if you're someone in Iran who's been arguing for restraint, if you're someone who's been arguing that there always is the possibility of using diplomacy to solve these problems, the fact that there has been this deal, but that the Trump administration has come on out, withdrawn from it, and then you've seen this incredible level of violence, whether it's assassinations, or buildings blowing up in Iran.

You know, if you imagine yourself sitting in that room, I think the people making the case for building the bomb have just an easier time of it, because they can point to this kind of unremitting hostility.

So, you know, I think we can get to a point, again, where diplomacy is viable, but stuff like this doesn't make it easy.

HOLMES: Real quick, we do this sort of stuff for a living. What do you see coming in the next couple of months?

LEWIS: Well, I think the Iranians are probably going to try to play it cool for at least a little bit, but I can't rule out that there will be more assassinations, more buildings exploding, and, in the end, things getting a little out of hand. So my fingers are crossed. I always try to remain optimistic, but I also try to be a realist.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. And worth a follow on Twitter. Jeffrey Lewis, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

LEWIS: It was a pleasure.

HOLMES: Nearly a year after the coronavirus first emerged, the world is now up to 62.7 million cases. Think about that. Almost one and a half million deaths.

And the worst-hit country, of course, that is the United States. Well over 13 million infections now recorded. And for 27 straight days, the number of daily U.S. cases has exceeded 100,000.

Keep in mind, this is all happening before the inevitable surge from the Thanksgiving holiday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: I want to be straight with the American people. It's going to get worse over the several weeks. But the actions that we take in the next several days will determine how bad it is, or whether or not we continue to flatten our curve. And right before Thanksgiving, we actually saw cases start to plateau in many states that have been aggressively mitigating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: But now all those travelers who ignored experts' advice and did gather over Thanksgiving, are coming home and bringing with them, no doubt, infections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: We know people may have made mistakes over the Thanksgiving time period, so if you're young, and you gathered, you need to be tested about five to 10 days later. But you need to assume that you're infected and not go near your grandparents, and aunts, and others without a mask. We're really asking families to even mask indoors if they chose to gather during Thanksgiving, and others went across the country or even into the next state.

And if you're over 65 and you have co-morbidities and you gathered at Thanksgiving, if you develop any symptoms, you need to be tested immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Meanwhile, hospitals getting to be beyond strapped, because more people in the U.S. are hospitalized with COVID than ever before. Some 93,000.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I got a few calls from colleagues and associates, who are very much involved in different states throughout the country, saying we're at that point where we assume, if things don't turn around quickly, we're going to have a situation with capacity, not only of hospital capacity but staff. You know, what do you think we should do?

I mean, almost pleading for advice about, you know, what can we do? We don't want to lock down completely, but we might have to if this -- and I'm talking locally. I'm not talking about nationally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Some help is on the way. On Tuesday, a committee of advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make recommendations on who should get the first doses of a vaccine once one is fully approved. They're expected to go, of course, to those frontline healthcare workers who need protecting. And the experts are trying to make the public understand there is no reason to feel apprehensive about getting that vaccine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: How will you convince Americans to take this vaccine?

ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: So I want to make sure that all Americans know that this vaccine, these vaccines, have been tested in tens of thousands of individuals. They're independent data safety monitoring boards. There's going to be an independent transparent review. The Pfizer vaccine will have an advisory committee on December 10. All the data will be out there.

The surgeon general and myself and all the team are really out, trying to educate the public. We have to see what the data show, but all indications are this is an extremely safe vaccine. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Japan, meanwhile, reporting a sharp increase in new coronavirus cases, more than 2,000 new cases on Sunday. And, on Saturday, more than 2,600, the most recorded in a single day.

And South Korean officials are putting new social-distancing restrictions in place as cases rise there. The government banning big year-end parties and trying to stop the spread of the virus.

Paula Hancocks is in Seoul for us, joins us now with the latest. Worrying numbers out of Japan, in particular.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Michael. Yes. We are seeing increases, really, across many countries that, up until recently, had dealt with this particularly well.

You know, of course, we are heading into the winter months. We're having a lot more events and a lot more things happening indoors, rather than outdoors. So I think this was expected.

But what we're seeing in Japan, as you say, more than 2,000 cases reported on Sunday. And one thing they are concerned about, in many of these -- these countries, is the number of hospital beds. It's something that is being noted very carefully.

In Japan, for example, they had a record number of -- of positive cases with severe symptoms in intensive care, 462. But that's the highest number they have had since the pandemic began. So certainly, that is going to be of some concern.

And here in South Korea, the numbers have dipped below 500, which we had been seeing for a few days. So they have dipped slightly, but still, numbers very high for here, 438.

Now, the social distancing rules here in South Korea are at level two at this point, which has not been increased over recent days. They were discussing it over the weekend, to see whether or not they needed more stringent restrictions, but at this point, you have to wear a mask inside. Otherwise, you will be fined.

Cafes are take-out only. Bars and clubs are shut. But they believe, at this point, that that is the right level. And certainly, they will be watching that very closely.

Look at Hong Kong, as well, a territory that is doing particularly well when it comes to -- to dealing with this pandemic, but they had 115 new cases on Sunday. That was the largest number we've seen in Hong Kong since August. And one decision they have made in Hong Kong is that they are going to have to cancel all in-person classes from December the 2nd. So from Wednesday, they'll have just online classes until after the Christmas holiday, hoping that that will be able to curtail this rise somewhat -- Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Paula Hancocks there in South Korea for us. Good to see you, Paula. Thanks. Now, South Australia is set to open its border with the neighboring

state of Victoria in the coming hours. Victoria has now gone 30 days with no new coronavirus cases and reopened its border with New South Wales to the north last week.

[00:15:04]

South Australia's premier says the easing of restrictions is a huge relief for many people. His state, for example, will no longer require travelers from Victoria to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival. Some good numbers in Australia.

Well, several European countries are reevaluating lockdown measures after making progress in fighting the virus. This coming just in time for the Christmas shopping season, of course. Some are easing restrictions. Others, though, are saying not just yet.

Jim Bittermann reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in France, and several other European countries, lockdown restrictions, which have been in place for a month or more, are starting to be gradually, very gradually, reduced.

Christmas shopping at stores and boutiques, were started here this weekend, although social distancing rules apply. With the rate of hospitalizations and COVID patients and ICU beds on the decline, places of worship and hair salons were permitted to reopen. But it will be at least December 15 before the government will consider further relaxing the rules.

In Germany, there will most likely be no change in restrictions until at least December 20. In Italy, authorities are easing up on restrictions in five regions where the numbers are improving.

Still, though, throughout Europe, governments are grappling with how to slowly bring back something resembling normal life, without creating a third wave of infections and lockdowns from the holiday socializing.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Gilles (ph), France.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, President-elect Joe Biden forges ahead when forming a government that "looks like America," quote unquote. While President Trump spouts baseless claims of election fraud, again. We'll have that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back. The Biden transition is on in full swing. President-elect Joe Biden will get his first presidential daily briefing on Monday. He's also building, as promised during the campaign, a government as

diverse as America. He's announced, for example, an all-all female senior White House communications team.

CNN has also learned, he's set to name key economic members of his economic team Monday, including the long-expected announcement of Janet Yellen as treasury secretary, and two other women in top roles to help him navigate the country's economic recovery.

Meanwhile, Biden's victory over President Donald Trump in Wisconsin was reaffirmed after a recount was completed in one of the state's largest counties. But that didn't stop Donald Trump from ranting about nonexistent election fraud on FOX News. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via phone): This is total fraud, and how the FBI and Department of Justice, I don't know, maybe they're involved, but how people are allowed to get away from this -- with this stuff is unbelievable. This election was rigged. This is the essence of our country. This is the whole ball game. And they cheated. Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:20:09]

HOLMES: It was an extraordinary interview, and so many lies. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is following the story, has details of that interview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It was a stunning 45 minutes of lies, delusion, and disbelief from the president of the United States on Sunday, as he phoned into a FOX News program for something that really didn't resemble an interview, but more of a conversation with the host of the show, Maria Bartiromo, even encouraging the president as he made these false claims and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

The president continuing to make baseless claims, even in the face of mounting evidence against his case. Thirty-plus lawsuits brought forward by the president's campaign and their allies have been dismissed or withdrawn by those legal teams in state and federal courts, in key battleground states across the country.

One of the latest blows to the president's attempts to claim voter fraud coming in a series of federal cases in the state of Pennsylvania, with one particularly strong rebuke from a Trump- appointed judge, Stephanos Bibas. He wrote this: "Calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here. The campaign's claims have no merit."

And so that goes to push back against all of the claims of thrown-out ballots that the president was making; election observers not being allowed in the room. All of that debunked by these legal cases.

The president also continued to make this conspiracy theory -- share this conspiracy theory about voting systems deleting or switching votes that were intended for him to President-elect Joe Biden. That was somewhere that even Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican Party, she even wasn't willing to go that far this weekend, as she campaigned in Georgia. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Machines are switching the votes, and we go there in crazy numbers, and they should have won but then they still --

RONNA MCDANIEL, CHAIRWOMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Yes, we have to -- we didn't see that in the audit. So we've got to just -- That evidence, I haven't seen. So we'll wait and see on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And the president's efforts to call this election rigged also running to roadblocks as it relates to recounts and audits in key states, like the audit in the state of Georgia that confirmed the results of that victory for Joe Biden.

Where the two recounts in two key counties in the state of Wisconsin, paid for by Donald Trump's campaign, $3 million recounts, that sent more votes -- a minimal number, to Joe Biden. Confirming the results of Joe Biden's victory over there.

Now, the president, on Sunday, did make clear this. Even as he said, earlier this week, he would leave the White House on January 20 if the Electoral College does indeed confirm Joe Biden's victory in this 2020 election.

He also said that he's not going to abandon this notion that this election was rigged. As false, and as baseless as it may be, the president saying that even six months from now, he will still maintain that this election was stolen from him.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And joining me now, Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst, senior editor at "The Atlantic." Good to see you, Ron.

Before we -- yes, I want to talk about the bewildering presidential rant on FOX News. But before we do, what do you make of the appointments announced by the incoming Biden administration?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: We're beginning to get to his promise of the campaign to be the transition to the next generation of leadership. I mean, his initial appointments were well- respected, experienced, familiar, but familiar. And they were, you know, the sort of people you would expect in any Democratic administration. I think, today, when you get these announcements of so many female

nominees, people of color, he begins to turn the page toward the next generation of Democratic officials and leaders, which is something the party needs, given how many septuagenarians right now are kind of running things, between Pelosi, Schumer, Biden, and so forth.

HOLMES: That's a very good point.

OK. To the stunning nonsense from the president on FOX News, renting, rambling, lying. It's pointless, of course. The election is decided. But the thing is, there are still millions of supporters out there who believe what he says. What are the dangers in that?

BROWNSTEIN: I think it's extraordinarily destructive. I mean, we have never seen anything like this, obviously, from a defeated president. And you know, it is a continuation of kind of the separation of red and blue America. Not only into separate media ecosystems, as we often say, but into fundamentally separate realities. And this is not a kind of symmetrical divergence.

I mean, you have red America retreating -- retreating, in effect, from reality. The president making these baseless claims. Astonishingly few Republican elected officials challenging him on it, even though they are producing death threats against the secretary of state in Georgia, in Arizona, they are poisoning the nation's bloodstream. They are widening our divisions. And yet, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy and virtually every senior Republican leader cannot find the words to simply say this is baseless, this is false, and this is destructive.

HOLMES: Yes, and you and I have talked about this often. It is still a major issue in the country, the congressional Republicans, by and large silent as the lies continue.

[00:25:10]

And in fact, you tweeted on this. You said silence of Mitch McConnell and -- and McCarthy, as well, becomes even more egregious as Trump widens his conspiracy to so immense, as you put it. And even mentioning the FBI, the DOJ, trashing institutions that stand in his way.

You talk about the lasting damage, but what about the damage to the party, as well?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, first, I think, as the president's conspiracy theory, which started at a racist core -- I mean, you know, he -- he is accusing Philadelphia, and Detroit, and Milwaukee, and Atlanta, cities with large African-American populations, of stealing the election. He's not talking accusing Montgomery and Delaware counties, outside of Philadelphia, where he declined by more, from 16 to 20, than he did inside Philadelphia. Or the WOW counties outside of Milwaukee; or Cobb and Gwinnett outside of Atlanta; or Oakley County out of Michigan.

He's focusing on heavily-black cities and saying that's where the fraud was committed. But as he kind of starts from that base, and expands now, as you point out, to include the Justice Department and the FBI, and a conspiracy so immense.

That language I -- I cited for a specific reason. It was Joe McCarthy's language in the early 1950s. And I think what we are seeing from Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, and the other Republican leaders will be remembered as equivalent to the cowering of the GOP leaders in the early 1950s as McCarthy raged with his baseless, you know, charges of vast communist infiltration of the government. I mean, they are doing comparable damage now.

Will they damage themselves inside the Republican core? Probably not. Because you know, you are seeing the allegiance of so many of the voters to this -- to this line of argument, but I do think it kind of reaffirms the view of those very suburbs that we just mentioned. That the Republican Party is kind of moving in a kind of extremist direction at this point, particularly, as long as Trump is defining it.

HOLMES: Yes. The acquiescence to the absurd is -- is -- or the obscene is --

BROWNSTEIN: You're quite right.

HOLMES: The president, as you said, calling the Georgia secretary of state an enemy of the people. The man now has around-the-clock security because of death threats. They struck out at the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, a firm supporter of his, saying the governor's done nothing; I'm ashamed I endorsed him.

I mean, is he risking harming Republican efforts to win those two crucial Georgia Senate seats with that and his other comments on Georgia?

BROWNSTEIN: That is -- that is -- yes, that is a really good question. I mean, you saw, over the weekend, there were Trump voters who confronted the RNC chairwoman when she was down there, saying, Why should we go vote, if our votes are being stolen. So there is the risk of that.

But I think it pales next to the risk to the country. And the extraordinary cynicism, I think, in particular, of Mitch McConnell, to allow this to go on, either because he thinks it will hurt Biden, make it tougher for Biden to get a second look from Republican voters, and, thus, have less leverage to try to pressure Republicans in Congress to work with him, or, or simply because he thinks it will kneecap the administration coming out of the gate and improve the GOP odds in 2022.

All of this is happening, as you know, Michael, while we are facing the greatest national security threat of the United States, I believe, since World War II.

And the -- you know, when the day after Pearl Harbor, the Republican leader in the Senate, Charles McNary, stood directly behind Franklin Roosevelt, as he signed the direct -- the declaration of war.

Here, we are seeing Republicans kind of organize themselves to inhibit Biden's ability to respond to the greatest threat, I believe, that we have faced in 80 years. And just the contrast is extraordinary, and I think extraordinarily damning, in the eyes of history, for the way McConnell is conducting himself in these critical weeks after the election.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. Always a fascinating discussion. Ron, good to see you, my friend. Thank you so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

HOLMES: We'll take a quick break. When we come back, a day of shock and mourning in Nigeria. Villages laying dozens of victims to rest after Saturday's massacre in Borno state.

And amid conflicting claims about fighting in Ethiopia, humanitarians calling for urgent access to refugees. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:31:55]

HOLMES: Welcome back. Security forces in Nigeria are searching for dozens of people missing in the aftermath of Saturday's brutal killings.

Now, this happened in a farming community near the capital of Borno state. A local official says 34 people have been buried. Suspected Boko Haram militants on motorcycles killed at least 110 men and women, who were farmers, harvesting their fields.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

USMAN ISMAIL, EYEWITNESS (through translator): We found their corpses, and that was where the main killings took place. So we changed our route and went through a nearby village called Gutto (ph). We met so many people fleeing from our village without knowing where they were going to. Some were even unconscious. Some huge quantity of harvested rice was set on fire. We really need prayers, and it's only God that can save us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: A member of the local vigilante group says the villagers had an agreement with Boko Haram not to harm farmers if they gave them food whenever they asked, but it seems that deal ended last week when some Boko Haram members stole cattle and the vigilantes killed one of the militants.

They fear Saturday's attack might have been in retaliation.

Rebels, meanwhile, in Ethiopia's Tigray region claim to have shot down a military plane and retaken a town from the government forces on Sunday. No comment so far from Ethiopian officials.

Now, this comes one day after the government announced the military offensive in the Tigray region was over. The International Committee of the Red Cross says the regional

capital, Mekelle, was quiet on Sunday. But hospitals are running low on supplies to care for the wounded and body bags for the dead.

Nima Elbagir with an update.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Almost four weeks since the military campaign first began, and Ethiopia's prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, says that the campaign against the country's west Tigray region has come to an end.

(voice-over): It's been very difficult to get any kind of confirmation of what is actually happening in Tigray, because the European government has had the region under an almost complete communications blackout.

The six million people, plus almost 100,000 Eritrean refugees are believed, by humanitarian organizations, to be under dire conditions. What little we're hearing from Ethiopian refugees who managed to cross the border into Sudan is pretty horrifying.

Ethiopia says that they are now going to open humanitarian corridors, but there's been no confirmation as to when that will actually happen. And the UNHCR says that those 100,000 Eritrean refugees in Tigray are only days away from being without food entirely.

(on camera): The U.N. is calling for complete and unrestricted access, to Tigray immediately.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: In Saudi Arabia, a women's right activists who has already spent more than two years in jail is now going to be tried by a terrorism court. Her apparent crime: campaigning for women to drive.

Nic Robertson with the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Saudi Arabia's most well-known female prisoner, Loujain al-Hathloul, has gone from jailed rights activists to alleged national security threat.

Her sister is horrified. She alleges Loujain has been tortured in prison.

LINA AL-HATHLOUL, LOUJAIN'S SISTER: My parents saw that she was very weak, that her body was shaking, that her voice, as well. But even with that, she was still very focused and wanted to read her whole defense. Her and other activists were being electrocuted, waterboarded, flogged, beaten, deprived of sleep, force fed.

ROBERTSON: Saudi authorities have repeatedly denied allegations of torture and sexual abuse in their jails.

Hathloul campaigned for women to drive. Then, just weeks before Saudi's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, gave the go-ahead for the long-awaited reform, she was arrested.

Human rights groups called on world leaders to use last week's virtual G-20 summit in Riyadh to pressure MBS to allow her release. Instead, days after the event wrapped, Hathloul appeared before a judge, only to learn her case was being referred to a notorious terror court.

ADEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: I believe the charges have to do with receiving money from hostile governments, in order to pass it on two dissidents and hostile groups in Saudi Arabia.

ROBERTSON: So far, the Saudi government hasn't published its evidence, and Saudi's courts, where evidence would be presented, are notoriously difficult to access.

International pressure for Hathloul's release isn't working. Unclear if President-elect Joe Biden, who has promised to take a tough line on Saudi, can make a difference.

AL-JUBEIR: We're not subject to pressure. These individuals were arrested under our laws, and our courts have jurisdiction. And they decide. We don't allow people to put pressure on us, in order to do things that are against our interests.

ROBERTSON: Unclear, too, when Hathloul's next court appearance will be, although the venue is set. Saudi Arabia's specialized criminal court, which according to human rights group Amnesty International, is intrinsically unfair.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

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HOLMES: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Still to come, the world's loneliest elephant soon starts a new life in Cambodia, partly thanks to the singer Cher. How her years of campaigning paid off, when we come back.

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HOLMES: The world's loneliest elephant finally has a new home, largely thanks to one of the world's biggest pop stars.

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CHER (singing): -- heart is grieving. You people believing the dream that you wish will come true.

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[00:40:17] HOLMES: You might recognize that voice, Cher, serenading Kaavan the elephant, who has spent decades at a zoon in Islamabad, much of that time alone and mistreated, as well.

But he's getting a new lease life at an elephant sanctuary in Cambodia.

Cher flew to Islamabad to see Kaavan before his journey, and she's also expected to be in Cambodia when he arrives on Monday.

CNN's Selina Wang is following the story from Tokyo. A really sad story initially on how he was treated, but it looks like a happy ending unfolding.

SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Michael. A happy ending indeed.

Cher has spent years campaigning to have Kaavan, the world's loneliness elephant, moved to a better home. And now that is finally happening.

Kaavan is currently on a 25-hour journey from Pakistan to a sanctuary in Cambodia. He's currently on a jumbo jet.

Now, Kaavan is Pakistan's only Asian elephant, and his poor living conditions have sparked global uproar from activists, rights groups and even global superstar Cher.

He's a 36-year-old bull elephant. He had spent most of his life in chains, 35 years in this Islamabad zoo and in a small enclosure. He had lost his female partner in 2012, leading him to be dubbed the world's loneliest elephant. Elephants are social animals. They thrive off of interactions with other elephants, and veterinarians had diagnosed him with behavioral problems because of this isolation. He's also been diagnosed as overweight, as having physical and psychological damage, as well.

Now, the living conditions in this zoo were so bad that a court judge ordered all of the animals to be removed from the zoo. At the time, Cher had called this one of the greatest moments of her life.

In Cambodia, Kaavan is going to be in much better conditions. He's going to be with other Asian elephants, as well. Take a listen to what the Pakistan government advisor had to say about Kaavan's new home.

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MALIK AMIN ASLAM, CLIMATE CHANGE ADVISOR TO PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER: In his future house or his future home in Cambodia, he will be very happy, because he's got a 10-acre area in which he will be relocated immediately, which has been fenced at the moment. But across the fence, he can see other animals, other elephants.

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WANG: Cher has an animal welfare group that worked with other organizations to transport this elephant, which was a mammoth task. Experts had spent time training the elephant before the journey, and they spent hours coaxing him into this large metal box, even at one point using ropes to pull him in.

Now, Cher was in Pakistan last week. She even met with the prime minister, Imran Khan, thanking him for allowing Pakistan to release the elephant -- Michael.

HOLMES: Selina Wang there in Tokyo. Appreciate it. Thanks so much. A nice story.

And thank you for watching, I'm Michael Holmes. Stick around, though. WORLD SPORT coming your way next. I'll see you in about 20 minutes.

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