Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Nigeria: Military Has Rescued All Kidnapped Students; Uyghurs Accuse China of Trying to Silence Them Abroad; U.S. Lawmakers Scramble to Secure Deal as Shutdown Looms; No ICU Beds In L.A. Area; Macron Tests Positive For COVID; U.S. Reaps COVID Results After Thanksgiving Gatherings; Moderna Approval Goes Forward; California Behind Only The U.S. And Brazil For Daily Cases. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired December 18, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hello. Welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm John Vause. Coming up this hour on CNN NEWSROOM.
With almost no ICU beds left and record-breaking case numbers, Southern California on the brink. I'll speak to a doctor on the front line this hour.
Free after six days. More than 300 boys kidnapped from their Nigerian boarding school apparently rescued by the military without a single shot being fired.
And Brexit, remember that? Negotiations continue -- and spoiler alert, it's not going well. We hear from the lorry drivers, literally stuck in the middle. And there they are.
U.S. regulators are set to authorize a second highly effective COVID vaccine after an independent panel of experts overwhelmingly voted in favor of green-lighting the candidate from drug maker Moderna.
The head of the FDA says final authorization will happen quickly, meaning this new vaccine could be out for distribution on a priority basis as soon as next week.
But right now, this health crisis continues to worsen across the United States with health care workers overwhelmed by a record 114,000 patients now being treated in hospital for COVID. And many ICUs are at or very close to capacity.
Here is CNN's Alexandra Field.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Moderna's vaccine could now be just days away from reaching Americans.
An FDA advisory panel is recommending authorization of what would be the nation's second COVID vaccine. The panel heard accounts from scientists, doctors and people who survived COVID.
DR. DOUGLAS DIETERICH, INSTITUTE OF LIVER MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI: There's a lot of long term effects of COVID. After I was at home for a few months, I developed some severe atrial arrhythmias. When they subsided, I developed severe hypertension which I'm still battling.
FIELD: It comes just a day after one of the darkest in our history. The pandemic at its all-time worst.
DANIEL TREVINO, SIBLINGS DIED FROM COVID-19: One minute they're OK, you're talking to them, facetime. Then all of a sudden you have to facetime them again and they talk to you they're hooked up to like six different machines with tubes going down their bodies. And that's the last image you're going to have of your loved one.
DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: We're just not seeing people doing the implementation necessary to stem the tide of this virus right now.
FIELD: A new CDC forecast adds tens of thousands more deaths to predictions for the next few weeks. As many as 391,000 by January 9th.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So these patients when they are dying, they are alone.
FIELD: Nevada and five other states hitting a record high for deaths reported in a single day.
The White House COVID task force says the fall surge is merging with the post-Thanksgiving surge to create a winter surge with the most rapid increase in cases yet.
Tennessee now among the states with the fastest spread of the virus.
GOV. BILL LEE, (R-TEN.): One thing that this vaccine will not solve, one thing it will not cure, is selfishness or indifference to what's happening to our neighbors around us.
FIELD: The roll out of Pfizer's vaccination, the first to hit the market continues across the country.
A shipping error forced New Mexico to throw out 75 doses that shipped at the wrong temperature. But pharmacists also saying they're finding some vials of the Pfizer vaccine have extra doses.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm getting ready for the vaccine.
FIELD: A bit of a boost as certain states learned they're getting less for now than what they expected.
Iowa says it's working with federal partners to figure out why they're receiving as much as 30 percent less than what they planned for.
The states will be learning on a weekly basis about how large the next week's shipments will be which means that they will have to plan and perhaps adjust their plans in some cases.
We are also now learning that if the Moderna vaccine gets its emergency use authorization it could start sending out its shipments of the vaccine almost right away.
That means the federal government would plan to send out about 7.9 million doses of vaccine next week; 5.9 million from Moderna and another 2 million from Pfizer.
FIELD (On Camera): In New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: California is the new epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. Almost the entire state with a population of close to 40 million people now under a mandatory stay-at-home order as cases and deaths hit record highs.
If California was a country, Johns Hopkins University would rank it third behind the U.S. and Brazil in daily confirmed cases.
Across the state, hospitals are under incredible strain with virtually no capacity for more ICU patients in Southern California.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI, LOS ANGELES: Right now, we have 5,100 people in Los Angeles County hospitalized for COVID-19. A five percent increase just since yesterday.
[01:05:00]
It's double the number that were hospitalized a month ago and worse, 1,035 of them are the ICU.
Put simply, there are more people in the ICU today than all the COVID hospitalizations about a month ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Live now to Los Angeles an Dr. Anish Mahajan. He's the chief officer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Doctor, thank you for taking the time. I know this is obviously an incredibly busy and stressful time for you.
Most of the major hospitals around the L.A. area, if you look at their intensive care units, they're somewhere between 90 percent and 100 percent capacity.
Last time I checked your hospital was treating 50 COVID patients, ICU was at 84 percent, six beds available.
If that's correct, what happens in the next few days when seven patients are rushed into the E.R., they need to intensive care or eight or nine patients? The nearest hospitals have no beds. Who then decides which patient gets what treatment?
Have you prepared for that moment sort of logistically and ethically and emotionally?
DR. ANISH MAHAJAN, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, HARBOR-UCLA MEDICAL CENTER: This is an extraordinary time.
Every day in California and in Southern California we're breaking records. As of tonight there are no more ICU beds available in Los Angeles. No more.
What are we doing in the hospitals? We are creating ICU beds where we shouldn't have to create them. We are stretching our staff thin.
And we are going to have to make -- it looks like, based on our projections -- very difficult decisions, as you are indicating, about triaging care and trying to maintain a level of care for people who have a chance of doing well.
This is not something we should have ever had to face at this stage of the pandemic but this is the reality.
VAUSE: Just to be clear. As of this hour there's not one ICU bed available in the L.A. area?
MAHAJAN: We've reached zero percent ICU bed availability based on the data that the hospitals provide the public health authorities.
Now what are we doing about it? We are creating ICU beds in our ERs, in other sections of the hospital where we don't normally put critically ill patients.
But that's not the whole story. It's not just beds that we need, we need ICU trained nurses and ICU trained doctors.
In the eleventh month of this pandemic, our healthcare workforce is exhausted. They've been sick, they're also getting sick from COVID and other stress-related conditions. This is not anything short of an incredible big crisis.
VAUSE: It did not have to be this way though, did it?
MAHAJAN: It did not. What we are seeing coming into our hospitals, coming across the nation, are infections that occurred over the Thanksgiving Day weekend.
As you know it takes two to three weeks after somebody contracts the infection to be sick enough to need the hospital. And so this was avoidable, the messaging was there. We needed folks to lower their risks and stay at home.
But I also want to say that Congress's inaction, their inability even to this hour to pass a stimulus bill to give paycheck relief and have people be able to make their rent, they haven't done that yet.
And so it's a strange thing to tell people to stay at home and stay safe but then when they have to put food on the table, we haven't provided them relief. So this is a very difficult situation.
VAUSE: We need --
MAHAJAN: And people who can stay at home should stay at home.
VAUSE: When you think about the coming weeks which could in fact to be the worst we've seen of the pandemic so far, how are you preparing for that , what are you expecting? Where are you bracing for?
MAHAJAN: It feels like the fog of war for our health care workforce here in California and all across America. It's unreal that we're in this situation.
Here we are with a glimmer of hope, the vaccine has arrived, we start vaccinating our employees at 6:00 am tomorrow morning. And yet, we know that there's much infection raging in the community that it's coming into the doors and we have to somehow catch it.
And there really is no end in sight. Because if folks don't really pay attention and make the right decisions over the Christmas holidays we could be seeing surge upon surge through the month through the month January and into February.
It's almost like we're snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory now we have a vaccine. But it's just a little bit too late.
VAUSE: The thinking which just seems -- the cruel irony of all of this is that yes, there was a Thanksgiving Day surge but there was also that period over the summer when preparations should have been made for PPE, to get people at home, to get contact tracing, to get the testing out.
And it never happened. And that is compounding problem upon problem upon problem.
[01:10:00]
And it seems yes, there's a vaccine but the other part of this -- there's much reliance on vaccine -- but the other part of this is just not working.
MAHAJAN: Yes. This has been I would say an epic failure of federal and national leadership on so many levels, as you point out.
We were very slow, and we shouldn't have been, to get PPE supplies. We were very slow and continue to have problems with adequate access to testing for people. Contact tracing, we never set it up properly as a nation. These are all failures at the top.
We didn't have the right example setting by our biggest -- by our nation's leaders about wearing a mask, about social distancing.
All of this has brought us to this point of crisis where we could see a half million Americans dead from COVID-19 by February or March.
VAUSE: Dr. Anish Mahajan, thank you for what you do and good luck for some very difficult times ahead. Thank you for being with us.
MAHAJAN: Thank you.
VAUSE: Intensive care units in hospitals in Seoul, South Korea, appear to have maxed out.
More than 220 COVID patients have now been waiting more than a day for an ICU bed.
CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Seoul for us. And just as some context here -- the greater Seoul area is home to 26 million people and more people are being infected with this virus than ever before.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John.
The greater Seoul area is effectively half of the population so it is a very serious issue at this point. Health officials know that they need to find more ICU beds and quickly.
So on Wednesday and Thursday, they effectively had one free ICU bed -- you and I spoke about it. They now say they have four free ICU beds within the greater Seoul area, they're working to get more. They're hoping to have 160 more by early January.
So it really is a scramble to try and find beds that can be dedicated to coronavirus patients. And, of course, it's not just the bed it's the doctors and the staff to go with that to be able to treat people.
But Seoul City officials have said there's been such an explosion of rising cases in early December and since that point they have been rapidly running out of beds.
They're trying to find more at this point. They're increasing the number of doctors, the number of private sector hospitals that they're involving as well to try and increase that.
But we did see that this week there was a man in his sixties who died while waiting for a hospital bed. He tested positive on Saturday, he died in the early hours of Tuesday.
And now Seoul City has apologized to him and to his family for that happening saying that it should never have never happened. And it is the first time that that has happened in Seoul City. John.
VAUSE: Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks for us in Seoul.
VAUSE: Well, E.U. leaders are being tested for COVID-19 after coming in contact with the French president.
Mr. Macron tested positive Thursday and has canceled all his upcoming trips. He's working remotely right now but he had numerous contacts with European leaders in recent days.
So far the Irish and Spanish prime ministers tested negative. The Portuguese prime minister is in self-isolation waiting for results.
Details now from CNN's Melissa Bell reporting from Paris.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: It was after displaying symptoms that the French president was tested and found to be COVID-19 positive. Emmanuel Macron now isolating for the next seven days as per French regulations.
His wife, also, Brigitte, will be isolating we're told although she doesn't have any symptoms.
Many questions, of course, about the many people that Emmanuel Macron saw at the Elysee palace this week, not least the Spanish and Portuguese prime ministers who've both announced that they are isolating as a result.
It is a reminder, of course, not only of the fact that no one is immune and that this virus reaches the very top but also of how badly Europe really needs a vaccine now.
Infection rates in many countries continue to rise. Restrictions over the last couple of weeks have tightened where authorities had often hoped that they would be loosened by now.
What we also heard today from the president of the European Commission is that the European vaccination campaign is to begin from the 27th of December.
Some hope, therefore, that Europe might finally be able to round the corner.
BELL (On Camera): Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BIDEN: The King of Sweden has broken from his usual silence on current events and political issues to criticize his country's controversial approach to the coronavirus.
New cases in Sweden are rising at record pace, some intensive care units said to be at capacity. There's more deaths per capita than other Scandinavian nations.
Sweden never went into a lockdown during the first wave, still not recommending wear face masks.
The King was blunt in his assessment.
KING CARL XVI GUSTAF, SWEDEN (Through Translator): Simply, I think that we have failed. Many people have died and that is horrible. That is something we can all sympathize with, that we haven't been able to help them. And it is very sad, terribly sad.
[01:15:00] VAUSE: Well, he's still president for another month. But apart from complaining about losing the election, there's seems nothing but silence from the White House. We look into what, if anything, President Trump has been doing recently.
Also, six days after they were taken, the Nigerian government says hundreds of kidnapped students have been rescued. Coming up. The mixed messaging on who was behind the attack.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Well, there's only one U.S. president at a time.
And the one who's still there for 33 more days seems to be taking a hands off approach on almost every crucial issue from the pandemic to national security.
So what has Donald Trump actually been doing? Here's our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: One day after the death toll from the coronavirus in the U.S. reached an all-time high injecting more misery into the U.S. economy, President Trump is out of sight and out of touch, actually taking a victory lap on the pandemic.
Tweeting -- "All-time stock market high. The vaccine and the vaccine rollout are getting the best of reviews. Moving along really well. Get those shots everyone. Also stimulus talks looking very good."
CROWD: (Chanting)
ACOSTA: Instead of crushing the virus, the Trump Administration is still carrying out its assault on the election with Vice President Mike Pence echoing his boss's bogus claims of voter fraud.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now I know we've all got doubts about the last election. And that's why we're going to keep right on fighting.
ACOSTA: Pence was out stumping for Georgia's endangered Republican senators who, like much of the GOP, can't admit Joe Biden beat Mr. Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Have you acknowledged that Biden's going to be the president?
KELLY LOEFFLER, U.S. SENATOR REPUBLICAN: Look, the president has a right to every legal recourse. That's what's playing out right now. I'm focused on winning this race on January 5th.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: But have you acknowledged that Biden's going to be president?
LOEFFLER: Look, my focus is on winning this race right now. It's vitally important that Georgians understand the American Dream is on the ballot.
ACOSTA: Behind the scenes sources say that the president is not just fixated on the election, he's obsessed with Joe Biden's son, Hunter.
Not so, Mr. Trump tweeted. Insisting -- "I have nothing to do with the potential prosecution of Hunter Biden or the Biden family. It is just more fake news. Actually, I find it very sad to watch."
But his own advisers are tired of hearing it. As one source close to the White House told CNN Mr. Trump's whining is unbecoming. Life's not fair, so what?
The president also has yet to denounce Russia's suspected role in a recent cyberattack on U.S. federal agencies through a massive data breach.
As Mr. Trump's former homeland security advisor, Tom Bossert, wrote in a "New York Times" op ed -- "President Trump is on the verge of leaving behind a federal government and perhaps a large number of major industries compromised by the Russian government."
It's a reminder of the time the president sided with Vladimir Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies on Russian interference in 2016.
[01:20:00]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They said they think it's Russia. I have -- President Putin, he just said it's not Russia. I will say this I don't see any reason why it would be.
ACOSTA: A show of weakness that outraged his own advisers.
JOHN BOLTON, FMR. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think Putin is smart, tough. I think he sees that he's not faced with a serious adversary here.
I think Putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle. I don't think he's worried about Donald Trump.
ACOSTA: In a statement, Biden warned Russia -- "As president, I will not stand idly by in the face of cyber assaults on our nation."
Despite the Russian threat, Mr. Trump tweeted he will veto a bipartisan defense bill arguing the legislation would quote -- "make China very unhappy. They love it."
ANGUS KING, U.S. SENATE INDEPENDENT: We've got to get this defense bill passed because there's so much in it to help us defend ourselves. Ironically, the bill is sitting on the president's desk at the moment of this most recent attack.
ACOSTA: As for the pandemic, the presidents own close advisers are now breaking from his leadership on COVID-19. All but begging Trump supporters to use masks.
CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: This message isn't for everyone. It's for all those people who refuse to wear a mask.
Lying in isolation in an ICU for seven days, I thought about how wrong I was to remove my mask at the White House.
ACOSTA: The White House says the president has been briefed on the suspected Russian cyberattack but so far the president remained silent on the hacking.
Jim Acosta. CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein, is with us live from L.A.
So, Ron, according to a number of reports here Russian hackers, possibly Russian hackers, have breached or targeted the national Nuclear Security Administration which maintains the nuclear stockpile weapons, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, State Department, Treasury Department, Commerce Department, Microsoft and more than 40 major customers of Microsoft.
There was an urgent bulletin which was issued from Homeland Security. It reads --
"This threat poses a great risk to the federal government and state, local, tribal and territorial governments as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations."
And just like there's been on the pandemic which is spiraling out of control, nothing really but silence from this president. What are the consequences when the ship of state is rudderless like this?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SNR. POLITICAL ANALYST: No, it's extraordinary. I don't think we've ever had a situation in modern American history where a president has simply walked away from his job.
If you look at the coronavirus, if you look at this -- which is being called one of the greatest intelligence failures of modern times -- the ability of the Russians to penetrate so many systems and to evade our defenses.
And the president is fundamentally AWOL. I've likened it before to a captain who is leaving the bridge under fire and retreating to his state room, plotting his own escape, and leaving his crew to face an attack.
And that is in essence what the president is doing with the American public. We are living through a Pearl Harbor a day, a 9/11 a day in the number of Americans who are dying.
And the president is simply not engaged as cities and counties across the country find their ICU and hospital capacity buckling under this extraordinary strain.
VAUSE: And all the time what he is doing is building this alternative reality where he did not lose the election and Republican lawmakers are enabling this. And not only that, it seems they want four more years of it.
We get this reporting from Politico. "Interviews with more than two dozen GOP and local chairs and Republican National Committee members reflect a party that, far from reassessing its embrace of Trumpism, is hell bent on more of the same.
The dominant post-election focus of the GOP is about how to emerge from 2020 bolstering Trumpism, not softening its edges."
Does that mean they want a smarter version of a white nationalist race-baiting misogynist as their nominee in four years?
BROWNSTEIN: Possibly. First of all, that was a very good story.
Look, the kind of changes Trump has imposed on the Republican Party, the kind of changes he has imposed on their coalition, both demographically and geographically, tend to be self-reinforcing.
Because the voters who are least comfortable with the way that he is redefining the party leave the party.
And that's what we saw in the big movement toward Biden in the inner suburbs of these major cities.
Whether it was Oakland County outside Detroit or Cobb and Gwinnett outside of Atlanta or Montgomery in Delaware or the suburbs of Denver or the suburban communities outside of Phoenix -- in all of those places, Biden ran significantly better than Hillary Clinton. That's the principal reason he won the election.
And what that means is there are white collar suburban voters may be leaving the Republican coalition, leaving what's left behind in essence Trumpier; more dependent on non-college and non-urban whites where he continued to run very strong.
So it's entirely possible that whether or not Donald Trump runs in 2024, a candidate offering something like Trumpism will have the upper hand in the Republican primary.
[01:25:00]
BIDEN: We now have a party where elected Republicans who follow the law and go against Donald Trump receive death threats and are caught up in conspiracy theories.
Georgia's governor is one of many --
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
VAUSE: -- to be on the receiving end. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): This needs to stop. People need to deal with facts and we'll give them to them.
And if anybody has an issue with something I've done, they need to come to me and I'll will talk to them about it. They don't need to bother my wife or my children or any other person that's serving an elective office, their wife or children.
Because I can assure you, I can handle myself --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Kemp's crime was refusing to play along with Trump's delusion about widespread voter fraud in Georgia. So is the Republican Party now fully embracing voter suppression, not just as a strategy but almost as a guiding philosophy?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, voter suppression, first of all, has been a pattern in Republican-controlled states really for decades, accelerating enormously after John Roberts engineered the Shelby County decision in 2013 repealing the critical elements of the Voting Rights Act.
And we are seeing already in states around the country, Georgia being one of them, these fraudulent claims of fraud becoming the basis for arguing for a new round of voter suppression.
Republicans in the Georgia state senate have already said they intend to repeal on demand absentee balloting, to end drop boxes in the state.
The Republican state house speaker wants to eliminate the direct election of the secretary of state, take that away from the voters and give it to the legislature.
What's more ominous, John, I think is not only are you seeing that but you are seeing so many Republicans take the next step at trying to actively subvert -- supporting Trump as he tries to subvert the results of the election.
Someone said to me last week in the future not trying to subvert an election will be seen as disloyal behavior to the party.
And it is highly likely that Governor Kemp who is very conservative -- ran very much to the right in 2018, ran as a Trump acolyte -- he will probably get a primary challenge in 2022 based largely on his refusal to try to overturn the election.
And if that happens, whether or not it succeeds, it's a very chilling message to other Republicans going forward about their willingness to accept a vote that they lose. Which does happen.
VAUSE: Yes, indeed, Ron. This is some difficult days ahead for the Republican Party and what its future will be.
As always, good to see you. CNN senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me, John. VAUSE: Take care.
Accusations that Beijing not only cracking down on Uyghurs at home but now also trying to silence those who are living abroad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I feel there's a gun behind my head. Every single time I move I may well face very serious consequences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN exclusive reporting is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:30:23]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Well, the Nigerian government says more than 330 students have been rescued in a military operation. They were kidnapped from their school in the country's northwest six days ago.
While this rescue mission was successful, CNN's Arwa Damon reports some are still worried this abduction will not be the last.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was a Friday night. The school boys was getting ready for bed in their dorms, some personnel (INAUDIBLE) still chatting, others about to fall asleep.
Attackers stormed in shattering any sense of security enjoyed by most school children of normal that may have existed, and that may never exist for the students again. More than 300 of them were kidnapped.
A chilling video released shortly before they were freed claimed to be by the Abubakar Shekau-led faction of Boko Haram, and shows one of the schoolboys making a statement clearly under duress and being prompted surrounded by his classmates looking distraught and covered in dust.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to dissolve any gun of vigilantes, close any kind of schools.
DAMON: The video confirmed that the boys are alive, and that their captors are ready to negotiate their freedom.
But just hours later, the Nigerian government said the boys were freed with no conditions and that local bandits were responsible. For days the school boys parents were shocked, heartbroken, terrified.
MURJA GOMA, MOTHER OF ABDUCTED SCHOOLBOY: We have seen so much tears. Our hearts are grieving, and we don't even know what to do. We have gotten tired of talking.
DAMON: They were expecting the worst. After all, everyone remembers the pain of the families of the Chibok school girls, more than a hundred of them still remain missing nearly seven years on.
Angry protesters took to the streets.
JAMILU ALIYU TURANCI, NORTHWEST COORDINATOR, COALITION OF NORTHERN GROUPS: Why we are even here today because we want to tell the federal government that what federal government is doing is not enough. What the federal government is doing is not enough. And Mr. President has killed us. Mr. President shows no sympathy over this matter.
DAMON: Even with the joyous news of the release of the schoolboys, there remains an underlying fear, that this can happen again when all people want is an end once and for all to the lawlessness that is increasingly defining their lives.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: My former colleague, Isha Sesay, is with us now from Los Angeles. She's the author of "Beneath the Tamarind Tree: a story of the lost school girls of Boko Haram". She was recently appointed a U.N. goodwill ambassador and extensively reported from Nigeria on the kidnapping of the girls back in 2014.
Good to see you again.
ISHA SESAY, U.N. GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: Good to see you, friend.
VAUSE: Ok. There are some (INAUDIBLE) out there from news outlets. They're also on social media, apparently showing these boys after they were released. If you look at the images, they're yet to be confirmed by CNN. We're not entirely sure if they're genuine or whatever but they show you dozens of boys on the backs of trucks, many smiling, some looked dazed. We are still working on the details.
But here's the official tweet from the Nigerian government. "I welcome the release of the kidnapped students of government science Secondary School Kankara. This is a huge relief to the entire country and international community. The entire country is grateful to the government, Masari, the intelligence agency (INAUDIBLE) --
That was from the president.
Clearly, if this is all as advertised, it's almost like a storybook ending. Why does that seem premature?
SESAY: Well, premature only in the context that we still don't even know whether they were all the boys back. Let's start there. We know that some who've managed to escape before this official release as described by the government. One boy said -- a count in the forest said there were about 500 boys taken. What we are getting word of is 344 being released. So again, we are not entirely clear on the numbers released. Also this issue of who is behind it. Again, local officials saying it indeed is local bandits, which are known or who are known to operate in the northwest and not Boko Haram.
But then, there is also some word saying that the boys in that video purportedly released by Boko Haram are boys from that school in Katsina, so the details are very, very murky.
But listen, I do want to stress that topline (ph) out of all of this John which is the boys who have been released, we are all overjoyed to see those scenes, because as you know, when it came to the Chibok girls, it was with a very long, drawn out process, and to this day, 112 still unaccounted for.
[01:34:53]
VAUSE: And that's the fear here right now, you know, 330 become, you know, 20 or so. We'll find out, I guess, in the coming hours and days.
According to a spokesman for the president, you mentioned this, the claims of responsibility of the kidnapping by Boko Haram. The government says that's just not true. It was done by criminal bandits.
The boys actually appeared in a video, which carried the logo of Boko Haram, you can see there the black flag up in the corner there of the screen. The government insisting it was a criminal act not an act of terrorism.
And there's this tweet too from the spokesperson saying the national intelligence agencies, the military and police -- the police force rather -- provided the environment for the safe release of the hostages."
Even the state governor of Katsina telling the national broadcaster, "Security forces had cordoned off the area where the boys were being held, have been given instructions not to fire a single shot."
It goes on to claim not a single shot was actually fired. How much of this rings true?
SESAY: Listen, as someone who covered the Chibok girls for many, many years and continues to maintain connections with the community and those who are still advocating for their release, like you said, this seems all very neat and tidy. And, you know, we wait to hear more from the boys themselves.
I think that is the hope that they will give us more details as to how this all played out.
But indeed, you know, it's all very, very -- let's just say it's all very, very neat and tidy. It's all very just hard to square with what we know from the past dealings when it came to Chibok.
Again, I want to reference Dachi (ph) in 2018, where 110 girls were taken from a school there and all but one has been released sadly to this day. Again, you know, these things, we never get the full story immediately. There's always, you know, the statements that are made that, you know, again give huge praise to the security forces which listen, if they got all these boys back, as they say they did, they should be praised.
But at the end of the day, let's also get back to the initial point which is that armed men stormed a school and made off with hundreds of schoolboys. This after Nigeria joined the safe school initiative, back in 2014. We continue to see schools being attacked. So, you know, this is --
VAUSE: Let me just jump in there because so now these promises we are hearing of better security at schools, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMINU BELLO MASARI, GOVERNOR OF KATSINA STATE: We must make sure working with the police, and other school changes are sufficient, armed security closer (ph) to schools. In addition (INAUDIBLE) want to increase the number of the private security brought in each school, to make sure that we don't experience what we've experienced in the last six days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know, there is a horse vaulting out there somewhere and a barn door slamming shut. You know, a thousands kids have been kidnapped by Boko Haram over the years, and they are talking about better security still?
SESAY: Well again, 276 girls were taken in April, 2014 and then 110 were taken in 2018. And now, we are talking about a school being raided and hundreds and hundreds of boys being taken again.
You know, I don't think anyone would blame a single individual out there hearing that statement, and saying, let's wait and see how this plays out because to date the attacks continue to happen, and families continue to be traumatized by criminal elements seizing their children.
I continue to make this point, which I've done on Twitter, and I say again. It's very hard to tell parents in northern Nigeria, which has the largest out of school population in the world, Nigeria as a whole -- the majority of those children being in the north, it is hard to tell parents to send their children to school, when you cannot guarantee their safety.
VAUSE: When you can't guarantee they've got to come home at the end of the day, it's a bit of a hard sell.
Isha -- it's always good to see you, thank you.
SESAY: Be safe.
VAUSE: Beijing has long been accused of committing human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim population and the rest of Xinjiang province. Now, a CNN exclusive report has found evidence the Uyghur diaspora is also under state surveillance.
Here is CNN's Ivan Watson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This was one brief moment of freedom from Mayila Yakufu, video call in September from Mayila after being released from detention for just one day. She spoke from China's northwestern region of Xinjiang to her cousin who lives in Sweden.
NYROLA ELIMA, COUSIN OF MAYILA YAKUFU: I didn't recognize her at the very beginning because she looked so pale and she looked so weak. And she had short hair. They cut her hair in the detention facility.
WATSON: This was Mayila in happier times. A single mother of three, and a member of China's Uyghur Muslim minority who taught Mandarin language classes and sold insurance until Chinese authorities took her away to an internment camp in March, 2018.
She has spent most of the last two and a half years in and out of detention, cut off from her children in Xinjiang and her parents and sister in Australia.
[01:40:02]
MARHABA YAKUB SAJAY, SISTER OF MAYILA YAKUFU: The Chinese government accused my sister of financially support terrorism, which is she sends money to my parents and to me, to my house here.
WATSON: Mayila's sister and her parents run this Uyghur restaurant in Adelaide, Australia. Mayila helped these immigrants start their life here by sending them money to buy a house.
Her father says the Chinese government is punishing the family for that generosity.
MAYILA YAKUFU'S FATHER: I feel pain every day as if I'm stepping on nails because the cost of this house is my daughter's suffering.
WATSON: Mayila's family agonized over whether going public would hurt or help their missing daughter. In the end they launched a campaign to push for her release.
From Sweden, Nyrola Elima tells me when she tweeted about her cousin, three times Chinese police showed up at the door of her parents' home in Xinjiang.
ELIMA: We printed out the Chinese version and took it to my mom and said, look, your daughter, she is making Chinese government look very, very bad. You need to tell your daughter stop it.
WATSON: The 2nd time she tweeted about Mayila, just hours later Chinese officials took Mayila away, and her family has been told she is now back in detention. Her cousin fears it was because she spoke out. In a statement to CNN,
China's mission to the European Union accused Mayila's family of being members of the Eastern Turkistan Liberation Organization, which Beijing has labeled a terrorist group.
But the family denies any connection to the group and points out that Chinese authorities issued travel visas to Mayila's mother, allowing her to travel unimpeded to and from China, as recently as August of 2016.
Beijing routinely denies allegations by human rights groups and the U.S. government that accused China of a massive detention campaign in Xinjiang, rounding up close to two million Uyghurs and members of other minorities into internment camps. Chinese officials insist these are actually vocational training centers, aimed at stopping Islamist extremism.
They published glossy videos from so-called graduates of the camps.
Mayila's cousin calls this propaganda.
ELIMA: It seemed exactly like during the Second World War, how Hitler made propaganda about the happy Jew. If it's real then why are there so many Uyghur outside looking for their family members?
WATSON: CNN has interviewed many Uyghurs in exile, like Mayila's family they talk of hopelessness and guilt for their missing loved ones lost in Xinjiang's giant system of arbitrary detention.
(on camera): What has the last three years been like for you?
ELIMA: Extremely pain. Extremely painful. I feel there is a gun behind my head. Every time, when I move, I may well face very serious consequences, and my family member will pay for that.
WATSON (voice over): Ivan Watson, CNN -- Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Coming up next on CNN NEWSROOM, parts of the U.S. have not seen this much snow in decades. It's causing a whole lot of problems across the northeast.
Also, a deadly cyclone makes landfall in Fiji, the very latest on the forecast when we come back.
[01:43:38]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That's kind of funny.
In the United States, record breaking snowfall in the northeast from a powerful winter storm dumping over 40 inches of snow in some places. That's almost a meter.
New York central park saw almost 11 inches, more than what fell during last winter's entire season.
Tens of thousands of customers from Virginia to New England are without electricity and the Governor of New York State Andrew Cuomo has declared a state of emergency for some counties.
At least two people are dead after tropical cyclone Yasa made landfall in Fiji on Thursday. Winds reached up to 285 kilometers an hour. Heavy rain brought major flooding.
Fiji declared a state of natural disaster, ordered its entire population to seek shelter. Also imposed a curfew across the country.
Let's go to meteorologist Karen Maginnis for the very latest on that cyclone and where it's heading now and what's left of it?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It's moving towards the south, John. And it's gradually weakening. The environment is much colder. And so it's not going to have that energy that we typically see fuel these tropical cyclones phones.
This is one of the strongest tropical cyclones we've seen in recent history. But for Fiji, two systems already for this tropical season. And it looks like they are beginning to enter what will be an active time for them over the next several months.
You can see raging floodwaters. They've seen mudslides, landslides. You heard John just mentioned the fatalities there. That is expected to go up. There are just under 100,000 people that live on Fiji and they are saying everyone was impacted in one way or the another.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated and sent to shelters. Here are some of the rainfall totals we've seen just under 200 millimeters in some cases.
Now, it still has a lot of energy associated with it. Right now winds at 140 kilometers per hour. But it is moving more towards the south, eventually towards the southwest.
So here is Tonga and it looks like some of Tonga will be impacted by a very heavy surf and some high wind, maybe some heavy rainfall. But it did appear as if Fiji has borne the brunt of this system and already 2 major tropical cyclones have impact of this region. The last one being herald.
But you go back to 2016 and it was Cyclone Winston. And that was -- at the time, considered the strongest across the southern Pacific. But it may rival what we have seen now with cyclone Yasa, that has already claimed four fatalities. Back to you, John.
VAUSE: Karen, it's good to see you. Thank you. Take care.
Well, when we come back, let the stockpiling begin. With a no-deal Brexit looming, U.K. ports are clogged and under strain. And these delays are bad for business.
[01:48:40]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: More legal trouble for Google in the U.S. with 38 state attorneys general filing a new antitrust lawsuit. The company is already facing lawsuits from the U.S. Justice Department and a number of other states.
The latest suit was filed Thursday, accusing Google of holding an illegal monopoly over online search and search advertising. Google has yet to respond publicly.
U.S. lawmakers scrambling to secure a deal to keep the government running and offer financial aid to Americans struggling through the pandemic. Right now, congress is at a stalemate. If they do not come up with a solution by Friday night at midnight, there will be a shutdown unless they extend the deadline again.
CNN's Eleni Giokos live for us with more on this. Also called kicking the can down the road.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Exactly.
We've been talking about this for months, John and look, the general sentiment is that both Republicans and Democrats want to get this done. They and they even were willing to work through the weekend and extend the deadline.
So at least we understand that there's a sense of urgency. But it's actually the detail here that really matters and many sticking points have come to the fore.
And this is why we've seen a break down in negotiations with so many months -- I want to take you through these points because it actually is quite complex.
The wording matters, the spending allocation matters. So what is now being debated extensively, a limit on the Federal Reserve emergency lending program. That could actually happen if the Biden administration comes early next year.
So Democrats are pushing back on that. And then we look at the overall bipartisan package, which by the way now is just around $900 billion, a far cry from the $2 trillion that Democrats had initially been, you know, talking about many months ago.
It's the makeup of that. So the $600 stimulus check that will be going to individuals, will those people also be able to receive the $300 extra a week under the enhanced unemployment benefit Republicans saying that they shouldn't? How many more weeks is the enhanced benefits program going to be extended, for the eviction protection, just how long, what is the wording?
And then loans to business, to small businesses. Is that $300 billion or $325 billion dollars. So again, it's just the makeup, it's the mechanics of this package that really does matter.
And the big sticking point here, by the way, is liability protections for businesses. I mean aid to states and local governments, which we know have been bundled into a separate bill that will be able to be voted upon.
But I want to take a step back and remind you that the jobs market in the United States is deteriorating. When I looked at the initial jobless claims number that came through yesterday, showing 885,000 people filed for initial claims last week.
Now, this is the highest number we've seen since September. Over five weeks as you know, an increase coming through on initial claims.
And here, John, I mean you've got 20.6 million Americans that are on some kind of benefits in the United States. And 12 million Americans will be falling out of eligibility for unemployment benefits the day after Christmas.
And I keep, you know, really reminding the audience that around five million Americans could be facing evictions in January. This is why this relief bill is so vital.
Economists say that government needs to take a proactive stance here. Because if you do not inject money into the economy while you've got a resurgence of cases of COVID-19 cases, then you are facing the prospects of a double dip recession. You are facing pandemics scars that could last a lot longer.
So it's vital now. Time is running out. And I'm hoping the next time you and I speak, John, we will have a little bit of clarity.
VAUSE: You want to make a bet. We will see, I guess. Ok.
I think we will be talking about this for a very long time.
Eleni, thank you. Good to see you. Eleni Giokos there in Johannesburg.
Well, there is long lines of trucks and lorries waiting at British ports. It's just getting longer. Business groups are now warnings those delays will mean delayed Christmas deliveries and increased prices.
The pandemic holidays and the looming threat of a no deal Brexit all adding to the pressure.
Here is CNN's Anna Stewart.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Still 30 miles out from the port of Dover, they're in for the long haul. (on camera): How long is the queue -- hours?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three hours.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two hours, maybe.
STEWART: Two hours.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we have more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So all I'll do is stay in the queue on my other side. And on this side. This will save me about another three or four to get (INAUDIBLE) hours.
STEWART (voice over): The pandemic has caused port disruption for months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to take us probably four to five hours to cross over to France.
STEWART: The last few weeks have seen queues getting longer and British hauler Alcaline are pitching it down to Brexit and the risk of no deal.
[01:54:58]
DAVID ZACCHEO, OPERATIONS MANAGER, ALCALINE: Pandemic-wise, I don't think they have much to do with this. This is just queueing the stockpiling which a lot of customers have been doing for the last couple of months.
In 2021, this could be like this on a daily basis.
STEWART: To beat the traffic, Alcaline are taking to the skies. They bought two helicopters.
(on camera): Enjoying the view -- all these big lorries joining queue.
(voice over): Whilst flying over the English Channel, from Dover to Calais, a main artery of trade between the U.K. and the E.U. queues on both sides and with a disruption some businesses just can't afford.
(on camera): And what sort of ice (INAUDIBLE) with a helicopter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's like the car park. We'll take all the light things. I took some windscreen wipers for example. You will take, a thousand of those in. if their production line were to stop, far more cost effective to get a helicopter.
Take over for me Charlie, we're not going to stop to the U.K.
Have a good day and good night.
STEWART: We're just crossing over the white cliffs of Dover. We are back. It's taken us less than 20 minutes to do the whole round trip.
For those people driving the lorries it's taking hours, sometimes up to a day.
(on camera): Helicopters are a huge investment for this haulage firm. That's not the only money they've spent preparing for Brexit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We made an over 3 million pound investment and maybe half of it is a complete waste of money. It could have been invested elsewhere or done other things, you know, because not knowing what the future is going to be, like well, you know, what kind of deal we're going to have, until the very last minute, you know, so obviously it is impossibly. all of easily it's impossible. You can't plan anything.
STEWART (voice over): They may have to permanently move half their fleet to Europe next year, making British drivers redundant.
Fresh back from Italy, a familiar face.
I have missed you, Gordon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've missed you.
(on camera): I filmed with Gordon nearly TWO years ago. His journeys are taking much longer now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today IT took me 5 hours. 2 weeks ago, it took me 9 hours.
Stewart: (voice over): I DO REMEMBER YOU SAYING THAT the only Brexit for you was a no deal Brexit? Do you still want this. Do you still --
GORDON TERRY, TRUCK DRIVER: Yes. it will clear up; It will get better; I'm optimistic. You've got to be only, otherwise you wouldn't do this sort of work.
STEWART: If only everyone was so optimistic. Anna Stewart, CNN -- Dover, England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Referendums have consequences.
I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. My colleague Kim Brunhuber will take over at the top of the hour. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
[01:57:42]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
