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U.S. Set to Kick Off Massive Vaccination Campaign; Parts of Europe Seeing Uptick in Infections; At Least 23 Arrested during Washington Protests; Trump Not Moving beyond Election Loss; Millions of Pfizer BioNTech Vaccine Ready to Ship; Final Day of E.U.-U.K. Negotiations; 2020 a Tough Year for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson; World Leaders Make Incremental Pledges at U.N. Summit; Massive Iceberg on Collision Course with Atlantic Island. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired December 13, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hi, welcome to all of our viewers joining us from around the world. You're watching CNN. Thanks for joining me. I'm Robyn Curnow.
In the hours ahead we expect to see the first COVID vaccinations delivered around the U.S. But that's just the beginning. We'll look at the challenge of getting it out to millions of Americans.
But President Trump still seems to have his attention focused on the election he lost and why his own attorney general is the latest focus of his wrath.
And some of the president's supporters are even angrier. We'll have the details of the rally that dissolved into chaos.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.
CURNOW: Here in the U.S. the first doses of the first COVID vaccine reaching front line medical workers as early as Tuesday or Monday. Now nursing home residents and staff are also at the top of the vaccination list, the final key left to turn by the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Well, Dr. Robert Redfield must issue the government's final blessing on the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Once that happens, millions of frozen vials packed in dry ice will start moving cross- country under the FDA's emergency use authorization.
This drug, with 95 percent immunity against coronavirus after two shots, is showing up just as the pandemic in the U.S. is getting much, much worse, much faster. A million Americans tested positive in just the past four days alone, bringing the total so far to a staggering 16 million people infected.
It took almost 100 days to reach the first million back in April. Now nowhere is the scope of the pandemic more apparent than in the nation's hospitals. That system has been pummeled since July.
The number of COVID patients soared above 100,000 at the start of December and really hasn't slowed down, as you can see from this map. There are currently a record 108,000 people battling COVID in the U.S., in U.S. medical facilities right now.
Now with massive public vaccination campaigns about to get underway, CNN's Sanjay Gupta explains who's likely to benefit from the vaccine and who should not get it yet -- Sanjay.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Just remarkable developments scientifically with this vaccine. It is now authorized and has now been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control as well, which means that lots of moving parts are starting to unfold.
We know that the shipments are scheduled to begin this weekend. Likely going to be arriving in many places by Monday morning. And we could see people starting to get vaccinated for the first time outside of a clinical trial early this week, perhaps Monday or Tuesday.
The process has been so far, once the FDA authorized it, the CDC recommended it and we get some better clarity on not only who the vaccine is recommended for but also who may not be recommended.
For example, we know that this is going to be recommended for people 16 and over. There was some back and forth on that among the advisory committee. Some felt that the age should be 18 and over but the FDA and now CDC think 16 and over.
We know that pregnant women, for example, were not part of the original clinical trial; 23 women in the trial became pregnant while in the trial. But there's not a lot of data to worry that it's dangerous or that it's not safe. There's not a lot of data to show its efficacy in pregnant women specifically.
That's likely to end up being conversations between pregnant women and their doctors. For example, if a pregnant woman is in a high-risk profession and exposed to COVID over and over again, for example, they may go ahead and ask for the vaccine.
We know that people who have had a significant allergic reaction in the past, so significant that they carry an EpiPen, they may not be recommended to get the vaccine. And people who have conditions that have compromised their immune system.
But I think a lot of this is going to be conversations between individuals and their health care providers to try and figure out what's going to be the best course of action for them.
Three million doses, roughly, are going to distributed around the country. And it's up to each state to sort of triage these doses. We know that specifically health care workers who take care of COVID patients and people in long-term care facilities are going to be at the top of the list.
But each state may give all their doses to health care workers or all their doses to long-term care facility residents. Or they may split it up. So it may be different in one state compared to the state next door. So that may feel a little disjointed in the beginning.
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GUPTA: But the hope is, as more and more vaccine is created, it's going to help smooth out some of the demand surges that are likely to occur obviously in these various states.
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Thanks, Sanjay, for that.
Now we should remind you that the CDC has not yet signed off on the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. But when it does, transporting millions of doses of vaccine to their destinations while keeping them super, super cold will be an epic challenge. Pete Muntean explains now what is involved.
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're getting new insight into why the vaccine is not on the move right this moment. Pfizer says vaccine shipments will begin leaving here starting Sunday morning.
What's so interesting is that we know this spot is so central to the vaccine distribution network. This is Pfizer's largest facility here in Michigan. And Operation Warp Speed says vaccines will start leaving here bound for 600 individual locations across the country. Those are places like hospitals, pharmacies, CVS and Walgreens.
But Operation Warp Speed says many of those places will not actually see the vaccine until Monday. The bulk of the shipments arriving on Tuesday. It is FedEx and UPS who are carrying those packages. And FedEx tells us there is a reason why the vaccine is not on the move right this moment.
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RICHARD SMITH, REGIONAL PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAS AND EXECUTIVE VP, FEDEX: We could deliver it within 24 hours, but the decision was made by the team that because there are hundreds of administration sites that are going to be receiving these, they thought it best that we wait until Monday to deliver them to ensure they're all open and ready to receive.
So, a weekday, a normal business day seemed like the optimal time to send out those first shipments, rather than try to get them delivered on a Sunday, when some of these administrative sites might be short staffed or not open. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MUNTEAN: This is not just a ground game; also a major air operation. And the FAA is directing airports to get ready for vaccine flights whether or not they're planning on them already. The FAA says there's always a chance that a plane could divert for weather or potentially have an emergency.
The FAA is telling airports that delivery trucks need to have priority access and that security should be double-checked. You know, this could be the beginning of the end for this pandemic but this major movement is about to kick off right here -- Pete Muntean, CNN, Portage, Michigan.
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CURNOW: Let's talk about all of this with Dr. Jorge Rodriguez. He joins me now from Los Angeles.
Doctor, hi, lovely to see you. It's -- this is fascinating. It's a huge scientific -- historical scientific moment. We're seeing this vaccination roll out.
Has anything like this ever been done before in the U.S.?
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: Nothing at all. Even while -- I wasn't around but even in the polio vaccinations, no effort has ever been put together with this degree of, you know, sort of urgency and with this degree of cooperation.
Just remember that a vaccine has gone from the beginning of the pandemic to administering the vaccination in approximately nine months. That's unheard of.
And this is a worldwide pandemic. So the solution is not just to give it to people in the United States. It's to give it to people world- round, so nothing like this has ever been done. It is quite astounding.
CURNOW: It is quite astounding, particularly organizationally now. There's the need for ultracold freezers, tracking equipment, military backup plans, if need be, tight security and basic distribution.
What do you think is the most -- what needs to be done the most effectively, the most efficiently?
RODRIGUEZ: The most efficient thing that should be done, first, since the vaccine requires such cold temperatures, is that it needs to be gotten and taken to the areas that are necessary under the correct environment.
It needs to be distributed in the correct environment. So precision is the most important thing. I think the second most important thing is telling the public when
they can get the vaccine, how they can access it, because there are a lot of questions right now. So I think the communication to the public is going to be absolutely the most important thing.
CURNOW: Yes. It certainly is. That's not just a U.S. thing as well. Many people asking questions and they just need some trust, essentially, in their health care providers. That, of course, is also seen when other people take it. We have all these millions of people potentially being vaccinated in the coming months.
How important is it for people who have already had COVID to also get vaccinated?
Where does that fit in?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, the people who already had COVID need to be stratified as if they never had it.
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RODRIGUEZ: We don't know if they can harbor the virus later on, if they can get it a second time.
Therefore, people that are -- that have been already infected with COVID should not have a sense of security that they're never going to get it again. They need to be vaccinated. Probably the most long- lasting immunity will be obtained through vaccination.
CURNOW: That's interesting. Also the interesting thing, doctors like you still don't know if this vaccine stops the infection or just stops you from getting sick.
This is about mask wearing way into next year, isn't it?
RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. I think one of the disservices we've done to the public is we have almost propagated the myth that, when things are better, we can go out and be normal.
Let's realize that normalcy is going to take a while. We don't have long-term data on this vaccine. So until we know, six months out, a year out, that it is safe to come out of our homes, we are going to have to still just take precautions. We don't know if we can spread it.
Until we know differently, we still have to take precautions to protect those who've not been vaccinated. And actually, ourselves, because we don't know how long it will be effective in those who have gotten it.
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CURNOW: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, speaking with me just a little bit earlier from Los Angeles.
New coronavirus cases are also headed in the wrong direction across parts of Europe. According to Johns Hopkins University, Denmark, France and Germany are among the countries suffering an uptick in new infections during the past week.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to meet on Sunday with Germany's 16 state premiers about a possible nationwide lockdown there. And it's widely expected to go into effect before or shortly after Christmas in hopes of stemming the country's surging cases.
So for the latest on the coronavirus in Europe, I want to turn to Anna Stewart. Anna joins us from London.
Hi, Anna, it's certainly looking like this is not necessarily that Christmas is canceled but it's certainly going to be a very different Christmas than any of us are used to.
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly. Europe is really struggling, 14,000 new cases in terms of the daily figures for France, 28,000 for Germany. And that is why we're expecting to see some stricter measures announced later today.
Germany has actually been on what's been called a soft lockdown since the beginning of November. But clearly that has not done enough to curb the spread of the virus. Some states in Germany have already announced stricter measures. But to do so nationwide, Chancellor Angela Merkel needs to come to an agreement with the heads of the 16 states of the country. So she'll be meeting with them in the coming hours.
On the table are expectations that shops could be shut, schools could be closed early, terms brought forward and perhaps people being told they need to work from home. Germany was actually planning to ease restrictions for Christmas. That could still be the case. And this is, of course, an issue being faced by governments around the world, how to allow people to meet. Interestingly this week chancellor Angela Merkel did actually give a unusually impassioned speech I would say. She said if we have too many contacts between now and Christmas and that ends up making it the last Christmas with the grandparents, then we will have failed.
Germany is not on its own. You mentioned some countries are struggling with the seemingly never-ending second wave of the coronavirus. France has registered 14,000 cases in the last 24 hours. They were due to ease their current lockdown on Tuesday. They won't be easing it nearly as much as they had expected.
A curfew is going to be extended as well. In Denmark many more regions have been brought under lockdown. Around 80 percent of the population is facing that.
And even here in England, where a national lockdown actually ended less than two weeks ago, already we're seeing the infection rate start to creep up, particularly in certain regions. Here in London, the trajectory is not good and we're expecting at the end of this coming week even stricter measures to be implemented all before Christmas, trying to keep the virus under control, trying to allow people to have some normalcy for Christmas. But really it's all a bit up in the air at the moment.
CURNOW: Anna Stewart in London, thanks so much.
President Trump was smiling on Saturday as he attended the annual Army-Navy football game. But sources say he's fuming about a member of his cabinet over the election and is considering firing him. Coming up, details on what one insider is calling a cold war.
Plus vaccine shipments will soon be underway in the U.S., as we've been saying. Now hospitals are preparing to receive those first doses. That's next.
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CURNOW (voice-over): Four people were stabbed and almost 2 dozen others arrested during postelection unrest late Saturday in Washington, D.C, The mayor's office says the stabbing victims are in critical condition.
Videos posted online show fights, such as this one, breaking out between Trump supporters and counterprotesters. Large groups of Trump supporters descended on the nation's Capitol earlier in the day to protest the presidential election result.
Those daytime demonstrations were largely peaceful but most protesters were not wearing masks, as you can see, even as the pandemic rages.
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CURNOW: Meanwhile President Trump remains furious about the election results more than a month later. The latest target of his anger, his own handpicked attorney general William Barr. Boris Sanchez has more from the White House -- Boris
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump spent Saturday mostly focused on the 2020 election and mythmaking, repeating false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from him.
And now the president is focusing his ire on those in his administration and elsewhere that are refusing to go along with this fantasy.
On Saturday, President Trump tweeting that the Supreme Court acted disgracefully in dismissing that lawsuit from the state of Texas and other states, trying to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania and a number of other states. [03:20:00]
SANCHEZ (voice-over): The president also focused on his attorney general, William Barr. CNN reported earlier this month that President Trump was furious with Barr after the attorney general revealed in the Associated Press that he did not believe that there was any widespread election fraud, there was no evidence of widespread election fraud.
CNN has learned that President Trump, at that point, contemplated firing the attorney general but was talked out of it by aides, ultimately suggesting that he was so close to January 20th and a new administration that it wouldn't be worth it.
Now the president is again revisiting the idea after news that attorney general William Barr worked to keep news that the Department of Justice was investigating President-Elect Joe Biden's son, Hunter, under wraps.
Barr, following precedent and policy at DOJ to not reveal any sort of information about a candidate or their family members being under investigation around election time, the president tweeting this, quote, "Why didn't Bill Barr reveal the truth to the public before the election about Hunter Biden?
"Joe was lying on the debate stage that nothing was wrong or going on. Press confirmed. Big disadvantage for Republicans at the polls."
That "truth" there that the president is alluding to, a bit nebulous at best. Nevertheless, this is history repeating itself. Remember, President Trump frequently berated his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, on Twitter because Sessions did not do his bidding and ultimately recused himself from the Russia investigation.
That went on for the better part of a year before President Trump ultimately fired Sessions, replacing him with Barr.
Now we're in a similar situation with the current attorney general. Sources close to the two men say that the communication between them is virtually nonexistent, that there has been a breakdown between the two of them.
They likened it to a cold war between the two men. At this point, we understand the president has mused about firing Barr. It's unclear whether he will, so close to a new administration on January 20th -- Boris Sanchez, CNN, at the White House.
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CURNOW: Joining me is Jessica Levinson, professor of law at Loyola and host to the podcast, "Passing Judgment."
Jessica, lovely to see you. The president tweeted we have just begun the fight. We see Americans fighting on the streets, D.C. images we showed a little before Boris. But is the legal fight now totally over?
JESSICA LEVINSON, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: Almost, almost, almost. I wish I could say totally over. Now any legitimate legal fight is way, way over and, frankly, never even began.
So people have asked me, when it comes to the post election litigation, are you going to talk about this in your election law class?
The answer is no. I would talk about this in an ethical lawyering class or professional responsibility class as to what not to do. There haven't been any real legal questions.
Is it over, over, over?
I mean, any potential small path to victory is over.
But will the suits potentially continue in order to help fund-raise?
Maybe.
CURNOW: That's a good point.
How has the legal fight to overturn the election created political opportunities for the president and his supporters?
In many ways, some have suggested that these legal losses have created a very clear post-presidency message and even movement for Mr. Trump.
LEVINSON: I think so. If you look at how much President Trump has been able to fundraise as a result of continuing to fight in the courts, I think, at this point, it's probably upwards of $200 million. So continuing the legal fights has really allowed him to continue his political fights and his political fundraising.
This money, particularly for a leadership PAC, could really allowed him to continue to hold sway over the Republican Party, not just by using the media but also by using this frankly huge slush fund.
So I think that's what we're talking about here. There really is no realistic path, even in 2020, even in our crazy, topsy-turvy world, there is no legal path to overturning a democratically-elected president-elect; in this case, Joe Biden.
CURNOW: So is what you calling a slush fund and examples such as the majority of House Republicans supporting this Texas court case, how and to what extent Mr. Trump has co-opted the Republican Party and how long will that endure after the 20th of January?
I mean, how much does the political landscape change in the years ahead?
LEVINSON: I wish I knew the answer to that.
[03:25:00] LEVINSON: I suspect that anybody who says they know for sure, I'm a little suspicious of that.
But what we do know is that the Republican Party really has become the party of Trump. We saw this in the Republican convention, where the platform was one thing: re-elect President Trump.
And I think for some Republicans, some voters, not elected officials, it's become kind of unrecognizable, because none of these things have anything to do with your view of tax policy or the environment or criminal justice or voting rights.
It's all really just about trying to elect President Trump.
Now how much noise is he going to make going forward?
In part, it's how much the elected Republicans allow him to make. I mean, the fact that a majority of them signed onto a lawsuit that was so absurd that it is -- we should have a real conversation about whether the lawyers should be sanctioned.
Doesn't say a lot about the institutional strength of the Republican Party. And that's not good for our country. It's better for our country when we have two legitimate parties, not one party with certain views and then another party that supports, at least publicly, undermining our democracy.
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CURNOW: Jessica Levinson there, joining us from Los Angeles.
So one quick programming note for you. Voters in the U.S. cast their ballots for the president more than a month ago but the votes that really matter, the Electoral College, will be cast on Monday. So do stay tuned for our special coverage of the Electoral College vote.
It all starts at 11:00 am Eastern time, 4:00 in the afternoon in London, right here on CNN.
So coming up on CNN, before vaccines can even start going into people's arms, they first need to reach their destination. The plans underway in the U.S. to distribute the drug nationwide.
Plus as coronavirus numbers soar in Los Angeles, small business owners are pleading with politicians, desperate for relief. We have that story as well.
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CURNOW: Welcome back to all of our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It's exactly 30 minutes past the hour. Thanks for joining me. I'm Robyn Curnow and, of course, you are watching CNN.
So the U.S. is getting closer and closer to rolling out its first coronavirus vaccine. This is great news. The Pfizer BioNTech drug has cleared all but one regulatory hurdle. The final step is to formally accept the recommendation. And that could come at any moment.
Shipments are set to begin later today with the first deliveries expected on Monday. It is certainly a massive undertaking that requires precise coordination and temperature controls. We're covering every step of the process.
Adrienne Broaddus reports from a Chicago hospital as it readies for deliveries but we begin with Dianne Gallagher at a Michigan airport near the Pfizer facility.
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DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As a race to distribute the Pfizer vaccine in the United States is set to begin, there are different parts of the logistics, the process of actually getting that vaccine to hospitals and nursing homes and government agencies that have taken months to plan.
Different carriers like FedEx and UPS are going to take that vaccine and ship it all over the country to try and get it to people who need it quickly. Now there are three different aspects to this.
Of course, temperature, much has been made about the fact that this vaccine must be kept in extremely cold conditions, negative 94 degrees Fahrenheit.
And timing: FedEx has said it's using Bluetooth and GPS to make sure it has eyes on these packages of vaccines everywhere they go, every step of the way, to make sure they get there as quickly as possible.
And then there's the transit and that's because airports across the country have been told by the FAA to prepare for these vaccine flights even if they're not expecting them. One airport that has been told to potentially expect those vaccines is Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have Stephen Clark with me now.
And, Stephen, proximity wise, it's very close to Kalamazoo where Pfizer is shipping a lot of these vaccines out.
But what is it about this airport that has made you guys ideal for this vaccine distribution?
STEPHEN CLARK, GERALD R. FORD INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: It's all about infrastructure. When carriers are looking to transport this vaccine not only here in the United States but globally, it's all about long runways, air cargo facilities and the ability to get people and goods in and out rapidly.
So we have a 10,000-foot long runway, perfectly capable of handling wide body international flights. We handle wide body domestic air cargo flights every single day of the week. So for an airport like Ford, it's just business as usual for us.
GALLAGHER: I know you guys, though, have been planning for this about a month now. It's not just technical and a difficult process, it's been kind of emotional as well, right?
CLARK: Absolutely. I think, for us, our industry has been impacted so much by COVID. Many of our colleagues, our friends, our loved ones, they lost their jobs, they're laid off, furloughed, changed jobs.
So to have an opportunity to be on that starting line of heroes, we think of health care workers, we think of nurses, we think of, you know, scientists, all these folks, the fact that transportation gets to be a part of that story and put an end to the beginning of this terrible pandemic is pretty incredible.
GALLAGHER: I know the Ford Airport say they've spoken or been in talks with at least four international carriers in terms of the vaccine. Of course, a lot of this is still shrouded in secrecy and there's massive security involved in the vaccine distribution here in the United States and worldwide -- Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, staff will be ready to roll when the vaccine arrives. Saturday morning, the staff learned the vaccine is sensitive to light. So engineers developed a plan to transform what they call the vaccination preparation area.
You see this crew is working right now. They're going to darken the area to help maintain the integrity of the vaccine. Over to my left, you'll notice there are 10 vaccine stations. This is where those health care employees who are most at risk for contracting the virus will receive that shot in the arm.
I spoke with the clinical physician who is going to administer the first shot. On Friday, he participated in a dry run here at the hospital. They wanted to test out their system and see how things would flow.
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BROADDUS: I asked if there were any surprises. This is what he had to say.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's turning into a very nice, full-sized clinic, so it'll bee -- it's one of those things I'm excited to be able to have the opportunity to vaccinate so many people. It's also is a little mind-boggling how this whole process is going to work. But we have so many different plans in place and different people working on different aspects of that, that really I think this clinic will run smoothly. It's just a matter of getting it going.
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BROADDUS: A new process for everyone. A staff also tells me, once people get to this stage in the game, it'll look no different than receiving the flu shot. The hospital is expected to receive about 2,000 doses. There are roughly 10,000 employees at Rush.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Well, small business owners in Los Angeles are voicing their desperation over COVID restrictions there. On Saturday some of them actually marched, calling for a rollback of coronavirus measures and more government aid to help their struggling businesses. Paul Vercammen was there -- Paul.
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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The small business owners, many of them wearing green shirts, first started at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. They wanted to stress they realized the numbers are horrific in California, the spread of COVID-19 throughout the state.
But they say they believe they can reopen safely outside, put people back to work and not risk anybody's health. They then marched to the park here at the corner of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, if you will. And we caught up with Hector (ph). He's a server. He said it is absolutely horrible for his family that he lost his job.
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HECTOR, SERVER: It hit us tremendously, myself, my family, my friends, my coworkers, everyone has been a struggle from the beginning until this point. We made it through the first phase of the lockdown. Now we're going through the second one.
And now I don't know if we're going to be able -- if I'm going to be able to provide t my family, if I'm going to be able to bring a holiday meal this season because of the shutting of the restaurants, we've been following all the protocols. We've been taking temperatures. We've been making sure that guests are 6 feet apart from each other.
They are wearing their mask when they're going to the restaurant, when they're leaving the restaurant. And now they're shutting us down.. We need a solution. We need to get our jobs back.
We don't know if I can pay my rent and my bills next month. I don't know if we're going to be able to provide a safe holiday to my family. But just shutting us down and taking our jobs away, that is -- I don't think that's the solution.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VERCAMMEN: Organizers of the march stressed time and time again they're willing to compromise with politicians to find some way to begin hiring people again. And they stress that most of the people who are unemployed make less than $50,000 a year -- reporting from Beverly Hills, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now back to you.
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CURNOW: Thanks, Paul.
So coming up here at CNN, it's a make-or-break day for the post-Brexit trade talks. The latest on the negotiations between the E.U. and the U.K. as the deadline swiftly approaches. That's next.
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CURNOW: It's 40 minutes past the hour.
Time is certainly running out for the U.K. and the E.U. to reach a deal on their future relationship. Today is the deadline. Both sides are set for reaching a post-Brexit trade agreement but that's not looking very good and likely at the moment. A U.K. government source says that the latest E.U. offer is, quote, "unacceptable."
Now disruptions to commerce are already being felt. There have been miles-long backups heading into the port of Dover. Senior international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins me now from London with more on all this.
It's certainly going to be quite a stressful day or two.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Absolutely. And I think there's more of those days stretching out ahead.
The reason that there are so many trucks backed up, going into the port of Dover and that part of Kent, is because people are already stockpiling. That's part of the government contingency plans, in the event of a no deal, to have medical suppliers, pharmaceutical providers to stock up in advance of a possible no deal at the end of the year.
The talks, as you said, the offer on the table from the E.U., according to a government source last night at Number 10 Downing Street, said very clearly, the offer on the table is unacceptable.
The talks were made at a very difficult place. The reality is that we don't actually know what's going on inside that room. We do know, however, Boris Johnson has offered to speak directly with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor; Emmanuel Macron, the French president. Those offers of the direct conversations have been turned down. This
is part of a very, very tough and bad year for this prime minister that began so well a year ago.
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ROBERTSON (voice-over): Boris Johnson has had a tough year and it shows, his party in rebellion as waves of COVID-19 pandemic battering Britain worst than most other nations.
BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: Well, we did it. We did it.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Yet a year ago, surfing electoral success.
JOHNSON: I am humbled that you have put your trust in me.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): A massive 80 MP majority.
Then came floods and COVID-19's first wave.
JOHNSON: I was at the hospital the other night, where I think there were actually a few coronavirus patients. And I shook hands with everybody.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Johnson slow to grasp the gravity.
JOHNSON: You must stay at home.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Slow to lockdown, slow on PPE, slow on test and trace.
JOHNSON: I've taken a test. That has come out positive.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Days later, rushed to hospital.
JOHNSON: NHS has saved my life. No question.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): By mid-December, more than 60,000 of his citizens not so lucky. Many in care homes lost their lives to COVID- 19. And through it all, Johnson losing credibility.
JOHNSON: Anyone who cannot work from home should be actively encouraged to go to work.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): His return to work message ridiculed.
MATT LUCAS, ACTOR AND COMEDIAN: If you can work from home, go to work, don't go to work. Go outside. Don't go outside.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): His chief adviser flouting lockdown guidelines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We agreed that we should go for a short drive to see if I could drive safely.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): But managed to hold onto his job for another six months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just hoping that the government make a U-turn.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Humiliating U-turns, including over free meals for school children.
JOHNSON: But this is not a return to normality. I wish it were so.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): By year's end, the country, his party, deeply divided over his handling of COVID-19.
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ROBERTSON (voice-over): The pandemic not his only controversy.
THERESA MAY, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The government is acting recklessly and irresponsibly.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Drawing unprecedented rebuke from his predecessor following his plans to break terms of a legal Brexit treaty with the E.U.
NICOLA STURGEON, SCOTTISH FIRST MINISTER: To the other countries of the E.U., Scotland wants to return and we hope to do so soon as an independent member state.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): And worse, Scotland's drive for independence gaining momentum, their leader's handling of COVID-19 perceived better than his, humiliating infamy for Johnson should the 300-year union uncouple on his watch.
JOHNSON: I do think it's vital that everybody now gets ready for that Australian option.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): And on the other union, Brexit leaving the E.U., almost 11 months of talks, still no trade deal.
JOHNSON: We're not stopping. The talks will continue to negotiate.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Less than 20 days to go, time running out. Failure could lead to economic pain. Yet, amazingly, in a year packed with drama, he added more at home, a divorce, a betrothal and a baby.
For a man who once dreamed of being king of the world, the weight of it is surely on his shoulders now
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ROBERTSON: And it will be felt this morning and this afternoon most keenly by the prime minister, who's supposed to have another phone call with Ursula van der Leyen, the European Commission president. That will be to determine whether these current round of talks can continue.
It's not clear at all what's going on inside that negotiating room. It's not clear if there is what they describe as a landing zone for a deal.
But what is clear are the pressures that have been mounting this year on Boris Johnson. And now in an extreme place. The hardline Brexiteers on his party demanding he doesn't bend and give in to the European Union. Business leaders in the country hugely concerned and worried about the economic impact of a no deal Brexit.
Estimates at the moment could be as many as 300,000 jobs lost and more than $50 billion to the British economy with a no deal. The pressure is on Boris Johnson, absolutely intense right now, Robyn.
CURNOW: It certainly is. We'll see what happens in the coming days and coming hours as well. Nic Robertson, thank you.
So we're following a tense situation in northern Nigeria, where late Friday gunmen on motorbikes attacked a secondary school for boys. One of the gunmen was killed in a gun battle. But the details of the clashes still not clear. What is unknown right now is whether all the 700 or so students have been accounted for.
Earlier reports suggest some of them may have been abducted and are being held for ransom but there's no confirmation from the police. We'll keep an eye on the situation and report any new developments as we have them.
Coming up on CNN, we'll find out why scientists are worried about a massive iceberg and where it's headed. That next.
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ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: Can anybody still deny we are facing a dramatic emergency?
That is why today I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a state of climate emergency in their countries and (INAUDIBLE) regions.
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CURNOW: The U.N. secretary-general there, urging every country to declare a climate emergency. World leaders, of course, marking the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate accord this weekend. But they offered no new bold moves forward toward ending fossil fuel use or any other actions.
In fact, the impacts of climate change are increasingly stark, ranging from extreme wildfires in California and Australia to rapidly collapsing arctic and antarctic ice sheets. Environmental campaigners say there's still a wide gulf between the goals of the Paris climate accord and the pace of action needed to avoid catastrophe.
And the need to deal with the climate crisis is certainly pressing. A recent report had this grim news. I want to read it to you.
"2020 is on track to be one of the world's three warmest years on record. The oceans, for instance, are still warming at record levels. More than 80 percent of them experienced a marine heat wave this year."
And in August California's Death Valley reached a searing 130 degrees Fahrenheit. The report says that's the highest known temperature globally in at least 80 years.
Although the air seems cleaner in some areas because of COVID lockdowns, because of reducing emissions, some scientists say carbon dioxide levels are at record highs and still rising.
Now the changing climate may be creating an environmental danger in one of the world's most remote spots as well. A massive iceberg that broke off from an antarctic ice shelf back in 2017 is now on a collision course for an island in the southern Atlantic and scientists say it threatens the island's extraordinary wildlife. Derek Van Dam now explains.
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DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: A small, uninhabited island deep in the southern Atlantic Ocean doesn't usually grab a lot of news headlines. But the South Georgia Island off the Antarctic Peninsula is garnering a lot of attention lately, especially from scientists and biologists.
You see a gigantic iceberg is on a collision course with this small island, which is teeming with wildlife and that could set off an ecological disaster in the days and weeks to come.
To fully understand what's happening, we have to go back in time to July 2017, when this gigantic iceberg calved off the Larson Sea ice shelf along the Antarctica Peninsula. It's massive. It weighs hundreds of billions of metric tons.
It got caught in the prevailing ocean currents across this region. This is known as Iceberg Alley. About 90 percent of the world's icebergs actually go through this particular region. You can see its proximity to South Georgia Island, the Falkland Islands as well as Patagonia and South America.
Scientists have been monitoring its progress over the past few months. We've highlighted the iceberg here on the satellite imagery with that shading of orange.
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VAN DAM: You go back to middle of September of this year, it was over 900 kilometers away from the coast of South Georgia Island but now it's about 100 kilometers off the shoreline. That puts it within reach of the continental shelf around this island.
It's massive. For our U.S. audience, it is larger than the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It's also about the same length as the province of Bali. So this thing is absolutely huge.
Scientists, however, have deemed this a shallow iceberg because it's only about 200 meters deep. And that's a concern because that means it could easily ground itself on that continental shelf that surrounds the island, which has the potential here to damage some of the underwater ecosystems; of course, disrupting food paths for penguins, for instance, who go out on these long journeys to collect food to feed their young.
If they take longer than usual, their young could actually starve to death. And the melting ice fresh water into the ocean, that could alter some of the local currents in the ocean.
Now climate change and whether or not it's destabilizing the ice shelves here in Antarctica, still up for debate. But one thing is for sure, Antarctica is one of the fastest warming places on the planet, about three times faster than the global average.
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CURNOW: Thanks, Derek.
American football history was made on Saturday in Vanderbilt's 42-17 loss to Tennessee. That's where Sarah Fuller became the first woman to score in U.S. college football's elite Power 5 conferences.
This was her second time kicking for Vanderbilt but her first time scoring with a successful extra point. Fuller also serves as the goalie for the Vanderbilt women's soccer team.
So thanks for watching. I'm Robyn Curnow. My colleague Kim Brunhuber will be back with more news after the break. Well, thanks for joining me. Have a wonderful Sunday, wherever you are.
