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Border Reopened in England; Trump Hinted to Veto COVID Relief Bill; Trump with a Laundry List of Pardons; Joe Biden Promised More Aid to Americans; Hospitals Run Out of ICU Beds; California Hospital Struggling with Surge; U.K. Scientist New Variant May Impact Children More; WHO Calls Meeting to Discuss Virus Variant in U.K.; Congo's Rainforest and Future Pandemics; Israel's Unity Government Crumbles; Eliminating Food Waste in Japan; Santa Gets Exemption on COVID Restrictions. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired December 23, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, the border between France and U.K. is back open with strict rules in place, but there is confusion and chaos there this morning. A live report just ahead.
The U.S. president threw the COVID relief bill into question and granted clemency to 20 criminals including convicted murderers all within an hour.
And hospitals across the U.S. are overwhelmed as health experts fear another holiday case surge.
Good to have you with us.
Well, France is reopening its border to some travelers from the U.K. with a variety of conditions attached. The border was shut down over concerns a new coronavirus variant from the U.K.
But just over the last hour, CNN has learned that truck drivers are still not allowed to cross into France, though France is allowing some travelers from the U.K. to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test before entering the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRANT SHAPPS, BRITISH TRANSPORT MINISTER: But France are accepting lateral flow test, which means that some viewers will know that quick and easy to do, that they bring a very fast result by comparison. So we'll be making sure that tomorrow we are out there providing tests, but as to say, you need to know where to go so, so just don't turn up and expect to get one, wait for further instructions and stand by. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): Well CNN's Jim Bittermann is in Gilles, France, and our Salma Abdelaziz is at the port of Dover in England. They're closely monitoring travel between both countries as these restrictions are ease.
So, Salma, let's start with you in Dover where truck drivers are scrambling amid all these chaos to get COVID testing, we just heard that presumably in the coming hours, that should be made a little bit easier but what is the latest from there?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: Rosemary, I actually just want to step out of my shot because something is just happening right behind me here right now. And I want to show it to you, so essentially all of these drivers right now just rushed to this border. You can see a massive group of them in front of the police. They are shouting, they are jeering, they are frustrated, they are angry.
Because they are being told yes, there is an agreement between France and the U.K. to reopen this border but on the ground, this is playing out very differently. These drivers are being told by these policemen that they cannot cross even if they have a negative test, the only people that these policemen are allowing to cross, and this is what they told us, are tourists. Tourists are the only people who are allowed to cross if they have a negative test.
These drivers are not even if they have a negative test. So, they are being instructed to get a test. I want you to meet one of these drivers who is stranded here, Greg. Greg, if you don't mind, we're going to step in right here, we'll just keep our distance. But tell me what's happening.
GREG MAZUREK, TRUCK DRIVER: So, what's happening. We are here since Monday morning and there's no information here. They are sending us to an airport where there are 4,000 trucks and there is no testing starting yet. So, we have no idea what's going on, but as you can see, people are crazy and nervous right now, because they are pretty sure that we will not reach our families for our -- to Christmas.
ABDELAZIZ: How does that make you feel that you're not going to be home?
(CROSSTALK)
MAZUREK: You can see how I feel.
ABDELAZIZ: You're from Poland, I know.
MAZUREK: Yes.
ABDELAZIZ: You had to call your family and tell them you're not going to go home.
MAZUREK: My family is waiting for me. What can I do? Why they are doing some testing somewhere, I don't know where, because there is information that the testing is somewhere. Why there is no testing here to unlock the Dover airport? Where is the testing here? Testing should be done here unlock Dover. First, you can see, nobody will cross to Dover, because people are crazy here.
ABDELAZIZ: Thank you so much, Greg.
MAZUREK: We are here since Monday.
ABDELAZIZ: Thank you so much, Greg. I am very sorry. You can only imagine, Rosemary, the amount of emotion that is here. These are literally men who are not going to go home for Christmas most likely. They have been stuck here for two or three days since Sunday night. They have no access to bathrooms, no access to food, no access to health, no access to sanitation.
There's an airport location that's about 45 minutes away. We're about 3,000 drivers were told to go. We were able to shoot drone footage of that. And again, there no access to any sanitation or bathrooms or food. You are concerned about their living conditions. They have been living here for two or three days essentially on the streets. And the concern is obviously when you have a virus that is spreading rapidly, what about their health, what about their safety. These are their fears and concerns right now. Rosemary?
[03:05:08]
CHURCH: Absolutely. Their frustration is totally understood. This is been chaotic, badly organized by the U.K. government. They need to explain themselves most definitely. What's confusing here, at one -- at one moment we're hearing that they need to have this negative test and then they are being told by these police that even a negative test isn't going to get them in. So, could you just clarify that point for us?
ABDELAZIZ: Well, I know that of course, anytime orders are issued from a capital far away, that of course these orders might take time to trickle down. Why that hasn't happened yet? I simply don't know. I only know how it's playing out on the ground for these policemen.
And quite -- and more importantly, rather, the men who were stuck and stranded here don't know. They are confused. And again, Greg is one of the few who do speak English here. Most of these drivers come from other parts of Europe, English is not their first language.
So, to tell them to go to the NHS web site, the National Health Service web site, to tell them to go and sort of sort out their own coronavirus test. That's a massive task for them to accomplish in a country where they don't speak the language. I can't express you the amount of confusion and upset and chaos here that they are feeling.
So, yes, we don't have clarity. We don't understand. All we know is that this is playing out differently on the ground. Maybe orders need to trickle. There is also a concern these policemen say that they have about fraudulent tests, about people showing tests that are not their own test. So, that's also a concern whether or no that's playing out. But really, Rosemary, what we're looking at here, is even if these guys were able to get negative test, how do they get tested? That's the question I keep being asked. And we are being asked as journalists as we walk on the street. How do I get this coronavirus test? Where do I go? And there are no answers for them really at this stage. Rosemary.
CHURCH: Yes. That is not acceptable and these truck drivers caught in the middle. Salma, many thanks for that report. I appreciate it. Jim, let's go to you now in Gilles. What is happening in France?
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically on this side of the border, Rosemary, the fact is that the truckers were allowed to go over to England for the last three days, they've been permitted to go across. It's really the traffic in the other direction. Of course, here, the drivers don't want to go to the U.K. because they're worried that they'll get stuck over there.
So, there's a reluctance on the part of the drivers themselves to even go over to the U.K. with their goods. So it has the -- not the same thing playing out here, but I should just add what Salma was saying there that, in fact, this order, this agreement between the governments came down very late last night and it is quite possible that it hasn't yet filter down to the troops out in the field.
And it will certainly do so during the day, I would imagine, because the governments have definitely agreed to this idea that there are two types of tests that they'll accept. The PCR test and this lateral flow test. The lateral flow test they say only takes about 30 minutes to analyze.
The question of course where are these drivers going to go to get that test. Is there going to be a testing facility available somewhere? The British have said yes, that it's going to be at the airport there. The abandoned airport where they will be able to take this test, but so far who knows how many have been able to find the place and have gotten the test?
So, I could imagine that it's a complete confusion. At least part of the confusion was part yesterday, also, I should just add, Rosemary, while the European Union because the European Union said yesterday all countries should keep their borders open, but the European Union countries have the right under the rules to protect their citizens. And if they feel that their citizens are not being protected, they can close their borders.
That's what, not only France but a lot of other European countries have done in light of this variant of the coronavirus strain that a lot of people are worried about. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Yes. All right. Jim, obviously France and the U.K. need to figure this out and they need to do this quickly because a lot of these drivers they can't just get in their trucks and go off to another destination to get a test. Someone or something some sort of establishment has to be set up near these truck drivers. We'll see and keep a very quick eye on this. So, Jim Bittermann, many thanks to you. I appreciate it.
Scientists in the U.K. say the new variant is likely more infectious than others, and there is also a hint it may have a higher propensity to infect children. Later this hour, we will ask an expert about that.
And this just in from central France where the suspect in the killing of three police officers has been found dead. That is according to the country's interior minister. The officers were shot and killed after responding to a domestic violence call.
CNN affiliate BFM TV reports the gunman opened fire when officers arrived then set the house on fire. A fourth officer was wounded. The woman who call police was reportedly rescued.
[03:10:01]
Well it has been a busy start to the week for President Donald Trump. Shortly after announcing a flurry of presidential pardons, he threatened to torpedo the hard one COVID relief bill. Here is what was posted to Twitter on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package and maybe that administration will be me, and we will get it done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): And remember, it was Mr. Trump who called off stimulus negotiations just before the election. The president is also stirring up controversy with 15 pardons and commuting some or all of five prison sentences.
CNN's Pam Brown has the details.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): President Trump announced 20 pardons, including several of his allies and past associates. And those include George Papadopoulos who pleaded guilty in the Mueller probe to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians He is the fourth person the president granted clemency to in the Russia probe so far.
Also, on the list, two corrupt GOP allies who are early supporters of President Trump, Chris Collins, and Duncan Hunter. Hunter who was sentenced to 11 months earlier this year for misuse of more than $200,000 in campaign funds will now not serve any time behind bars with this pardon. Collins was sent to prison in October of this year for insider trading, activity he engaged in while on White House grounds according to investigators.
And there are other controversial names on the list, such as four Blackwater guards involved in war crimes, the massacre of Iraqi civilians including one Nicholas Slatten who have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. So those are some of the key names. And then there were also two
former border control agents who were sentenced to prison in 2005 for shooting an unarmed undocumented immigrant, they were heralded as heroes on right wing media at the time. And nearly half of the pardons are nonviolent drug offenders who had been advocated by Alice Johnson, who Trump pardoned earlier this year.
So, we have around -- we have 20 pardons on this latest list from President Trump before Christmas, and we expect a flurry of more pardons before the president's term ends.
Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.
CHURCH (on camera): And CNN legal analyst Elie Honig has an idea of just who we could see pardon before President Trump's term ends next month. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think he's just getting warmed up. I mean, it is December 22, he's got 20 some more days in office. You know, if we think that this is it and he's done, think again. I mean, I think he's setting the stage for even more dramatic, more self- serving pardons.
I'm looking at potentially at Rudy Giuliani, I'm looking potentially at Steve Bannon, I'm certainly looking at his family members, his children, other members of the Trump org. And then maybe, I don't know if it crosses this line, but he's crossed the lines, a lot of lines already, will be attempt to pardon himself. Buckle up, there's more to come on this for sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): Well, on Tuesday, U.S. President- elect Joe Biden addressed the nation on the state of the coronavirus pandemic and efforts at a smooth transition of power. While he applauded Congress for passing a $900 billion COVID relief package, he promised to give more financial aid to Americans impacted by COVID-19.
Mr. Biden also warn the U.S. has yet to see the worst of the pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Here's the simple truth. Our darkest days and the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us. So, we need to prepare ourselves, to still our spines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): And despite trying times ahead, Mr. Biden says he is ready to work, noting there will be no honeymoon phase for Congress. The president-elect wasted no words blaming President Trump in part for a cyberattack linked to Russia. He says the U.S. remains a target since the full scope of the attack is not yet known. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: This has all happened on Donald Trump's watch when he wasn't watching. It is still his responsibility as president to defend American interests for the next four weeks. But rest assured, that even if he does not take it seriously, I will.
It is a grave risk and it continues. I see no evidence that it's under control. I see none. I have heard of none.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): Joining me now to discuss all of this is CNN political analyst Toluse Olorunnipa. He is also a White House reporter at the Washington Post. Good to have you with us.
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's good to be here.
CHURCH: So, President Trump is threatening not to sign off now on the $900 billion COVID relief stimulus deal that was approved by both the House and the Senate. Does he understand how this process works? Or is he just throwing a span in the works here? What is he trying to do?
[03:15:06]
OLORUNNIPA: Yes. Typically, presidents have been involved in these kinds of negotiations from the beginning. They don't wait until the negotiations are over and the bills are passed and all of the work has done to decide that they want to weigh in on the process and say that they want to make changes.
So, President Trump is really throwing a lot of grenade, a big grenade into this process and really blowing it up and making it very hard to see how Democrats and Republicans will be able to come up with anything.
Obviously, he's saying that he wants more money go into the American people. That's something that the Democrats actually support, but they're asking why the president wasn't more vocal more earlier on in the process when members of his own administration were involve in these negotiations who are supporting the Republican positions saying that Americans should only get about $600 per person.
And now President Trump is saying that he wants people to get $2,000 per person. So, he's blowing up these negotiations. It's not clear whether or not he's just sort of, blowing off steam or whether he's serious about interfering with this process, and maybe even vetoing this bill if there are not changes made.
But he is definitely making this 11th hour intervention into the process, and really making it hard to see how this process moves forward in any kind of cohesive way.
CHURCH: Yes. I guess we'll see as time progresses, right, what he does do on this. So, he calls himself the president of law and order, yet Donald Trump just issued 15 pardons and 5 commutations. That included convicted murders, confessed liars, and corrupt politicians. What did you make of his choices? And how many more might be in the pipeline, do you think?
OLORUNNIPA: This is a president who is trying to use his broad pardon powers in the final days of office to reward people who he thinks are his political supporters, people who he thinks are worthy of, you know, commutations and clemency and not really thinking about the political consequences or about the fact that it is quite hypocritical to be focusing on a message of law and order when you're giving out get out of jail free cards to people who are convicted criminals.
So, the president realizes that he does not have much time where he will have this power. And he wants to use it to the fullest extent that he can even though the consequences may undercut his broader message of law and order.
CHURCH: Yes. And President-elect Joe Biden, meantime, went after President Trump Tuesday over his lack of leadership on the pandemic. And condemned him for his handling of the massive cyberattack that Russia was suspected of carrying out.
Now Biden made it clear that he will respond in kind once he's in office. When it comes to the cyberattack, a stark contrast of course to President Trump who refuses to accept that Russia was behind it. But he's done nothing about it. It's all -- it's all too little, isn't it? What is going on here, do you think?
OLORUNNIPA: President Trump has always this blind spot when it comes to Russia. He's not been willing to condemn or confront Russia, or its leadership for its various attacks on the United States. This is another instance of that.
And Joe Biden really came out forcefully and not only against Russia but against President Trump essentially saying that this hack, this massive cyber intrusion happen on President Trump's watch that he's been asleep at the wheel and he's been unwilling to speak truth to power when it comes to confronting Russia.
And that when Biden takes over, he is saying that he will, you know, inflict some kind of response and in a way of his choosing against Russia alongside United States allies to show that he will not continue the appeasement policy of President Trump. He wants to make a clean break from that kind of policy.
CHURCH: And Toluse, as Donald Trump continues to deny the election result a senior Republican close to him is describing the president as a petulant child throwing a tantrum when he doesn't get his way. And military officers at the Pentagon are also starting to worry about his next move, given talk of martial law and other wacky ideas to stay in power. Where is this all going?
OLORUNNIPA: Well, the president is surrounded by a very extreme group of advisers at this point. A lot of the adults in the room the mainstream Republicans have really disappeared from the president's orbit and now he is being advised by people like Sidney Powell, by Michael Flynn, who are essentially saying that he can stay in office by using the military, by using his executive authority to seize voting machines.
Really extreme, outlandish ideas to try to prove these baseless claims of voter fraud and these are the kinds of people that the president is listening to. My colleagues and I have reported that the president does want to hear from anyone who says that he needs to concede the election. That it's over. He's looking for voices that will tell him that he still has a pathway to victory.
CHURCH (on camera): Toluse Olorunnipa, thank you so much.
[03:19:57]
Well, health experts are pleading with Americans to change their holiday travel plans with hospital admissions rising and available beds shrinking, the healthcare system cannot handle much more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY BLAKE, CHIEF NURSING OFFICER, HARBOR-UCLA MEDICAL CENTER: The patients are extremely sick. This is a horrible disease. I hope I don't cry because it's been 10 months of this and we are inundated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH (on camera): You are back with us. We are looking at these live images from Dover in England where tempers are flaring as the U.K. and France reopen their borders.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is there on the scene. She joins us now. They've opened the border, Salma, but they haven't got a very good plan in place. What is happening there?
ABDELAZIZ: Well, Rosemary, it's absolute tension here and chaos. I really do want to step out of the shot to show you just what's happening behind me here. You have dozens of these stranded truck drivers, they are tired, they are frustrated, they are angry. And they've essentially rushed right to the front of this entry to the port.
You can see the police officers now have lined up. We've just seen more police come into reinforce. These police officers are also tired and have been up all night. And essentially this is playing out very differently on the ground.
We do understand of course that there is an agreement between France and the U.K. to reopen this border but what's happening here is that these policemen are telling these drivers they cannot cross even if they have a negative test. They are instructing to go and get a coronavirus test. But they're telling them the only way to do it is to either go to the National Health Service web site or to a nearby airport.
Both of which are extremely complicated to do. We know that the airport is full of thousands of truck drivers already waiting for their COVID tests. The NHS web site, well, that's really complicated for many of these drivers to do because they simply don't speak English as their first language. They come from other parts of Europe, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, I could go on. And English is not their first language.
Asking them to go on a web site and find how to get a COVID test, that's a big ask. One man just came up to me right before I started speaking to you, and he said why are they treating us this way? Is it because we are from eastern Europe? Why are we being treated this way? Why do we see other people cross and not us?
A great sense of sadness and anger because many of these people believe they're not going to make it home for Christmas. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Unbelievable situation. And certainly, we need answers from the U.K. government and from France. They need to be figuring this out. You can't open borders without having a plan in place. And that's clearly what's happening here.
Salma Abdelaziz will keep an eye on this and come back to you when there is more to share with our viewers. I appreciate that update.
Well, 2020 is on track to be the deadliest year in U.S. history with more than three million deaths expected according to preliminary data from the CDC. COVID-19 has played a role accounting for about 9 percent of U.S. deaths so far. Johns Hopkins University reports 3,400 Americans died from the coronavirus on Tuesday. And COVID hospitalization set a new record for nearly a month.
[03:25:06]
More than 100,000 people have been hospitalized in the U.S. for the coronavirus. But despite these grim numbers millions of Americans have opted to travel for the Christmas holiday.
America's top infectious disease experts says Christmas shouldn't be canceled but Americans need to be careful and limit travel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: This type of travel is risky. Particularly if people start congregating when they get to their destination in larger crowds, in indoor settings. I'm afraid that if in fact we see this happen, we will have a surge that super imposed upon a difficult situation we are already in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): And Dr. Fauci received his first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Tuesday along with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. They share their hope that Americans will get vaccinated once the shots are widely available.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FAUCI: As a symbol to the rest of the country that I feel extreme confidence in the safety and the efficacy of this vaccine, I want to encourage everyone who has the opportunity to get vaccinated, so that we can have a veil of protection over this country that would end this pandemic.
ALEX AZAR, SECRETARY, UNITED STATES HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: I have complete confidence in the safety and efficacy of these vaccines. And I am just so grateful to NIH, and Moderna, and all the participants and Operation Warp Speed for bring us to this point where now we can see a light at the end of the tunnel from this dark period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): California is now the epicenter of the current surge. L.A. County hospitals reported last week they nearly maxed out their ICU capacity. And healthcare workers are overwhelmed, exhausted and feeling the strain like never before.
Sara Sidner has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Nurse Cliff Resurreccion is preparing for battle against the insidious invisible enemy he and his colleagues have been fighting for months.
COVID-19 is now sending so many people to the hospital in California, there are no more intensive care unit beds open here at Harbor UCLA Medical Center, so they've moved coronavirus patients into the emergency room, some are so sick they're hooked up to no less than eight I.V.'s, pumping in vital medicines to save or soothe them.
CLIFF RESURRECCION, REGISTERED NURSE: It's very exhausting, you know. It's really like a never-ending struggle. It's really tough right now.
SIDNER: Before his shift started, nurse Resurreccion learned one of his COVID-19 patients had died. The patient had no family visits and no breath left to say goodbye.
RESURRECCION: Unfortunately, he had no family and all these patients have no family to be able to come and see him, you know, it's very sad around the holidays and for everyone involved.
SIDNER: Everyone here has been exposed to the trauma of loss over and over again, but the patients just keep coming. What's it like right now for yourself?
BLAKE: It's a disaster right now for a staff. The patients are extremely sick. This is a horrible disease. I hope I don't cry because it's been 10 months of this and we are inundated.
SIDNER: They can't send patients out to other hospitals in Los Angeles County, because in the most populated county in America there is not a single license ICU bed open all 2,500 are full. At last count, all of southern California had zero ICU capacity. Zero. BLAKE: And here is no break, there's absolutely no break. And even during July it wasn't so bad. But this time, we're seeing large numbers.
SIDNER: Nancy Blake says this is so much worse than the first two surges of the virus because now they're getting their normal amount of emergency patients, plus a large number of coronavirus cases.
In the past two weeks California has seen a 63 percent increase in hospitalizations and in just one day, around 40,000 new infections were reported. This as 98 percent of the state is under a stay-at-home order, that is clearly not what is happening.
What effect does that have on your staff?
BLAKE: They're angry, because at the very beginning it was people were, you know, saying nurses are heroes and great job, and now they're not listening to us. They're not wearing their mask. They're saying it's a hoax. And I have to say I'm a glass half full kind of person. My glass is empty right now.
SIDNER (on camera): You'll remember in New York at the beginning of the pandemic when they had refrigerated trucks because they need space for bodies, well now, at this hospital, they have the same thing and this one has just been turned on.
But amidst the signs of suffering, there were signs of hope. Healthcare workers lining up to get their first dose of the vaccine, each sending a message as to why they're getting inoculated.
[03:30:00]
The first day had arrive, the mood soared but soured by the afternoon as more patient crushed into the emergency room.
Are you OK?
UNKNOWN: No. ever seen, it's the worst I've ever seen. I've been a nurse for 40 years and it's the worst I've ever seen and some of the things these nurses are seeing, whether patients are dying there's no family members, so they are holding that patients hand, or they are on the other side of an iPad where the family is crying.
SIDNER: Her glass is empty as she said, partly because of what this has done to her staff she sees it every day. They used to be taking care of about 60 patients, at the height of the coronavirus outbreak in the summer. Now, that number hovers at about 100 COVID-19 patients. Sara Sidner, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Ahead on CNN, scientists say the new COVID-19 variant may impact children more. We'll have new research from the U.K.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well, we are learning about two more
countries now imposing travel restrictions on the U.K. South Korea says it will suspend flights starting today until the end of the year over concerns about the new coronavirus variant discovered in Britain. And Japan has announced stricter controls on arrivals from the U.K., but it's not banning travel outright.
CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now from Seoul. So, Paula, what's the latest on these travel restrictions?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, Rosemary, starting off with South Korea, as you say they are banning and suspended all those flights in and out of the U.K. until December 31st.
They also said that those travelers coming in from the U.K. who have a quarantine exemption. These are often business travelers who are allowed to apply for that quarantine exemption, those are now null and void. So everybody will have to do the 14-day quarantine coming from the U.K.
They also say that what usually happens is that you have a test at the beginning of that quarantine. For those coming from the U.K., you need to have one at the end of the quarantine as well, to make sure that you have a negative test before going back into the population. And in addition if anybody that's test positive, they want to test specifically to see if this new variant has reached the South Korea shores.
And when it comes to Japan as you say, it's not quite as stringent. There's not this blanket ban on flights to and from the U.K., but they are saying at the moment that non-Japanese passengers from the U.K. will simply not be allowed to take those flights.
[03:35:07]
And there's also more of a restriction again for these business travelers, the non-Japanese, but residents of Japan who in the past have been able to travel to and from the U.K. for business. And they don't have to quarantine, that is not going to happen for the foreseeable future.
They will again have to do that 14-day quarantine just like everybody else. So, we are seeing restrictions really across many countries in Asia starting to be put in place because of this new variant. Rosemary?
CHURCH: All right, Paula Hancocks, many thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.
Well meantime, the World Health Organization is set to meet today to discuss the new variant of coronavirus in the U.K. British scientists say it may be more transmissible especially in children, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's more dangerous. Here's more now from two scientists speaking at a virtual news conference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER HORBY, PROFESSOR OF EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD: This virus is a new variant that is slightly more transmissible than the existing viruses. And therefore it's going to be a challenge in the coming months to control the spread of the new infection rate.
Here is hint that it has a higher propensity to infect children that may perhaps explains some of the differences, but we haven't established any sort of causality on that but if we can't see that in the data.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): Well, Dr. Richard Dawood, is the Medical Director at Fleet Street Clinic in London. He's also a travel medicine specialist. Good to have you with us.
RICHARD DAWOOD, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, FLEET STREET CLINIC: Hi there.
CHURCH: So, of course we know that the World Health Organization will meet today. They'll discuss this U.K. variant. What do we need to know? What more information do we all need to know so that we know how to respond to this? Because it's certainly been by most accounts, and all accounts I would suggest an overreaction when we watch the response what's happening now between the U.K. and France.
DAWOOD: Yes, it does seem to be very much an overreaction. I think there is a strong political element here, I think politicians are anxious not to be blamed for doing too little, too late. But I think the way it has been put across has provoke an inevitable reaction from countries around the world, going up the drawbridge and thinking that this can now be managed by travel restrictions. It is absolutely not the case.
You know, it is very clear that this variant has been around for much longer than people realize. In fact, the first cases that were detected go back to September. I think one thing that would be very helpful to know from the WHO is what surveillance shows in other countries around the world where it is very likely that this variant has also already been in place.
A lot of what we know about this variant, it arises from the fact that a lot of genetic sequencing takes place in the U.K., so we will probably know more about it more quickly than in other countries, but that's not to say that this because we haven't seen, you know a lot of case reports from other countries in Europe or other countries in the world, that this is not going on there.
And it seems very difficult to get to grips with that each time there is a new variant, and are and a viruses mutate all the time. And we've seen this with all kinds of other viruses, that there are this subtle changes overtime. And we can't react -- we can't afford to react in this way each time some subtle change in the virus appears or else it's going to spend a very long time in lockdown and not really be able to move forward. And indeed we get to see lots of other health impacts arising from repeated lockdowns, impacts on other health conditions in people's mental health.
CHURCH: Yes. Unfortunately the politicians are in charge right now and they're not getting this advice from doctors like yourself and scientists, so that they actually make the correct decisions. It's very frustrating for a lot of us watching on.
DAWOOD: Indeed. I think, I saw an interview with Dr. Fauci this morning, I think he is on the money, I think he's got a very clear view, I wish that kind of thinking was more widespread, because that's exactly the kind of thing he's talking about.
CHURCH: Yes. Trying to get that message across that the virus is mutate, people need to wear their mask and do exactly what they've been told to do. But a lot of people are just not listening. But Doctor, I did want to ask you because British scientists think that this variant may be more transmissible, especially in children. Now why would that be the case? Why would it have mutated to do that?
[03:40:06]
DAWOOD: Well, I think it's very hard to extrapolate the data coming in into things like that. All we can really say in terms of transmissibility is that we are seeing more cases of this particular strains.
Does that mean it's being past more freely from person to person or that we are just seeing the impacts of people mixing more closely together or different super spreading events that have happened, you know, along the lines with the previous strains?
We are definitely seeing a bigger increase in case numbers. You know, there's a lag between seeing that and monitoring the genetic sequence. But, yes, I don't, or I haven't seen a good theory to explain increases in case numbers in children. But a lot of the cases that we are seeing now.
I have spent a lot of time talking to people who have tested positive and I'm calling them and a lot of time I find that they are completely symptom-less. We need to know that this is a big rise in the number of asymptomatic infections that is being detected, or if this new strain is causing any difference in the extent of disease. Every indication, there's no particular increase in variance.
CHURCH: Yes. And hopefully soon we will find out, make sure that these vaccines that are out there will be effective. But we will talk about that another time. Dr. Richard Dawood, many thanks. I appreciate it.
DAWOOD: Thanks too.
CHURCH: Whether it's SARS, EBOLA, or now the coronavirus, the world has faced its share of devastating pandemics, but there are growing fears that a more dangerous virus could be lurking in remote region of the world.
In a CNN exclusive, senior international correspondent, Sam Kiley travels into the depth of the Congo to investigate the coming contagion.
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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This pristine wilderness is under threat. The environmental disaster here could lead to a human apocalypse. Because locked up in the forest are reservoirs, are potentially deadly contagions, some perhaps more dangerous than we've ever seen before.
Ingende, 400 miles upriver from the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, has been struck by a recent outbreak of the killer Ebola virus. It has killed three out of 11 patients here, but doctor's fear that they have stumbled on a new virus for which there may be neither treatment nor cure.
CHRISTIAN BOMPALANGA, MEDICAL CHIEF, INGENDE ZONE (through translator): We have to do more examination to figure out what it is (inaudible).
KILEY: So the doctors just told me that one of their immediate concerns is that they are getting cases now that present symptoms that are similar to Ebola, but when they test them in the laboratory here, they are coming up negative.
This patient has Ebola symptoms, but she tested negative. She is one of two victims here who may be fighting a disease never encountered before.
I asked the doctor if he was worried about new diseases emerging.
DADIN BONKOLE, PHYSICIAN TREATING EBOLA (through translator): Yes indeed. We should be afraid. That was how Ebola came, it was unknown, an unknown disease, and then after tests, it turned out to be a virus
KILEY: Treatments and a vaccine for Ebola now mean that while it's often deadly, more patients do survive. But medicine will never keep up with new diseases emerging from the wilderness. The patients here did survive. The test for known illnesses were all negative. So her disease remains a mystery. Doctors worry that more zoonotic diseases like Ebola, HIV/aids, SARS, MERS and COVID-19 will emerge and make that jump from animals to humans.
Ingende, on the river Ruki, is deep in the Congo basin. It is accessible only by boat but, that's how a virus can travel to big cities like Mbandaka to the country's capital Kinshasa and into the global bloodstream.
Mbandaka has been at the epicenter of this latest fight against Ebola, which killed 55 people in the province.
Here in Mbandaka, they are battling with the fifth local outbreak of the Ebola virus which is on its 11th here in the Congo, they are getting a grip on it they believe. But they are also concerned about finding unknown viruses that emerge from the forest, just like Ebola.
The scientists here have limited funds but they know their work is essential to protect their own country and the rest of humanity.
[03:45:05]
UNKNOWN: If we don't have all this in place, you can imagine the nightmare scenario where you just have a vast epidemic with many places leading to huge mortality and morbidity.
KILEY: More than 100 new viruses have been discovered in the DRC over a decade, including many coronaviruses in bats. So, it's bats that get tracked. Bats are linked to many zoonotic diseases notably COVID-19 and Ebola.
GUY MIDINGI, ECOLOGIST, NATIONAL BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INRB: Now if we can put it in the capture bag, you have to be really careful or it bite.
KILEY: The virologists have told us that once they haven't found the Ebola virus itself inside them, they have found the antibodies, so these are an essential species and an early warning system for humanity.
And it could prove fatal, start an epidemic or worst. So could a cross infections from an unknown host, to bats, to chickens, to children. About 80 bats are swabbed, tested for COVID and Ebola, and then the samples are sent to Kinshasa for more investigation. Most of them survive capture and are returned to the wild.
The Congo's population has almost doubled in two decades to around 90 million. This puts the forest under strain and closes the gap between people and the new diseases that can kill them.
The scale of the direction of the rain forest here in the Congo is not yet on the scale that we have seen in the Amazon. A great deal of it is the result of local farmers who clear the land and then farm it for a few years. The problem is that causes fragmentation of the rainforest, increasing the surface area between the forest and humanity.
Professor Jean Jacques Muyembe Tamtum, is an expert in emerging diseases. He has been tracking them since he discovered Ebola in 1976. And now he has a warning for us all.
JEAN JACQUES MUYEMBE TAMTUM, IS AN EXPERT IN EMERGING DISEASES: So, it has become an outbreak.
KILEY: Are you afraid that there is going to be more emerging diseases coming out of the forest, something that is perhaps spread like COVID but kills like Ebola?
MUYEMBE TAMTUM: We are now in a world where new pathogens will come out that will constitute a threat for humanity. And as you know, most of these diseases emerge from Africa.
KILEY: And this in the Congo is how viruses mostly travel.
The river Congo is the great artery that gives life to the whole nation, but it's also the root by which the results of deforestation are exported.
Like these smoked monkeys being sold for food. I film undercover because traders here in protected species fear exposure. Adams Cassinga is my guide. He once subsistence food, now bush meat (ph) is an international luxury commodity.
Can you arrange for shipping to Europe and America?
And so that's no problem, there's an agency for that. A protected species, the monkey's heads and arms had to be cut off to disguise them with antelope meat.
ADAMS CASSINGA, WILDLIFE CRIME INVESTIGATOR, CONSERV CONGO: We have experienced an influx of expatriates, mainly from Southeast Eastern Asia and who demand to eat certain types of meat, such as turtles, snakes, primates.
KILEY: The U.N. estimates that some 5 million tons of wild meat are harvested every year from the Congo basin. But the most potent source of viruses are live animals. They carry the viruses and can infect when they're butchered or patted in private zoos. Live animals and bush meat are part of a multibillion dollar global trade that is a cause and a symptom of ecological disaster.
Combined with logging and industrial pressure, untold numbers of potential infections could be released, and now it seems as if nature has found a way to protect itself, but locked up in the armory of the forest, is a weapon against the planet's most deadly threat, humankind.
And if so this abandoned palace of a long dead dictator isn't a relic of the past, it's a vision of what the planet looks like when mother earth fights back.
Sam Kiley, CNN, Kinshasa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH (on camera): Truly chilling there, be sure to tune in for the full episode of the Coming Contagion, Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in New York, 8:30 p.m. in London. Only here on CNN.
[03:50:11]
Well, it's hard to imagine a worse time of a pandemic for a government to dissolve. But that is what is happening in Israel. The coalition government fell apart. So, what comes next? That's straight ahead on CNN Newsroom.
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CHURCH: Israel is now heading to its fourth election in two years. After the government collapsed on Tuesday. The country's parliament failed to meet a critical deadline for passing the 2020 and 2021 budgets. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former partners sought to blame one another for the unity governments collapse. So, let's bring in journalists Elliott Gotkine, he joins us live from
Tel Aviv. Good to see Elliott. So, in the midst of a pandemic Israel is heading for a fourth election in two years. How is the outcome going to be any different?
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST (on camera): Rosemary, I think you could say is probably going to be same-same but different. Opinion polls suggest it will be the same in the sense that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Likud Party, according to the Opinion Polls, which were running on local TV last night, would be the biggest party in parliament.
They would win, they would come first in that sense, but at the same time it will be different because he's main competition will not be from the center or the left of the political spectrum. But from his own right side of the political spectrum.
Gideon Sa'ar, former minister just bolted from Netanyahu's Likud Party the other week. He formed a new Party called New Hope. And the polls suggests that he's nipping at Netanyahu's heels. There's the (inaudible) Party also to the right of Netanyahu.
Bombay Naftali Bennett, he serve with Netanyahu, under Netanyahu. He doesn't like Netanyahu. He's also been soaring in the polls as well. That's because he wasn't a part of this government that's just collapse.
And looking at how the numbers add up, it's hard to see a very smooth or easy path for Benjamin Netanyahu to cobble together enough parties, and enough seats to form a majority. That said it's again, not so easy to see how his rivals would be able to do likewise, to form a coalition government.
Now, an elegant solution might be perhaps if he does do as the poll suggests, maybe invite Gideon Sa'ar who bolted from his Party the other week to come back. Maybe offer him a breathtaking premiership agreement. But we've all seen how that works out.
And rivals might say, well, look, we can't trust you. We've seen what you have done. So, in that sense, perhaps the collapse of this government and Israel's 23rd Knesset, or parliament, will come back to haunt Netanyahu.
CHURCH (on camera): All right, Elliott Gotkine, bringing us up to date in that situation. We'll keep a close eye on it. I appreciate it.
Well, fresh top-grade fish is crucial in Japan's high-end sushi restaurants. But that demand can come with a cost to the environment as it leaves behind tons of unused discarded seafood. Selina Wang takes a look at the chefs trying to fix that.
[03:55:05]
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SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 9:00 a.m. in Tokyo's Toyosu fish market. The biggest and best fish sold hours ago. Customers are mostly gone too.
But not Futoshi Nakamura the restaurateur is hoping to buy whatever is left. Fish that are misshapen, dented or slightly discolored.
FUTOSHI NAKAMURA, PRESIDENT, MUGEN AND CO-FOUNDER MOTTAINAI PROJECT (through translator): 3 billion yen worth of fish is thrown away every year because it isn't standard or is unpopular. We wanted to open a restaurant which let people know about these wastage. And eat well at low prices. This is why we started the Mottainai Project restaurant.
WANG: Mottainai is a Japanese word. Inspired by a centuries old concept, rooted in the Buddhist philosophy of respecting the value in all things.
NAKAMURA: The word Mottainai includes several meanings, one of the meanings is what a waste for example we use Mottainai when we throw away food that is still edible.
WANG: It happens more than you think, even in Japan, nearly 6.5 million tons of food are wasted here each year according to most recent government data. Here, there is a value in everything. And customers clearly don't seem to mind mottainai. Elsewhere in Tokyo, technology helps. Kazuma Kawagoe, is a former chef turned start founder, his app Tebete matches users with eateries offering discounted food before it's thrown away.
KAZUMA KAWAGOE, CEO, CO-COOKING (through translator): We saw creating an app would be the most suitable way to make people recognize the problem of food waste and to start a social movement.
WANG: Tebete launched in 2018, it's especially helped bakery which sell products with short shelf lives. Users too, more than 300,000 people have signed up so far. Fujiyama sees this Mottainai movement taking hold across Japan. Because as he put it, why waste a good thing? Selina Wang, CNN.
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CHURCH (on camera): Well, it appears COVID restrictions won't keep Santa stuck at the North Pole. The special past New York is giving to Mr. Clause. That is ahead.
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CHURCH: Many parts of the world will be under COVID restrictions come Christmas. But in New York, one man is receiving a holiday exception.
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CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: We have an unusual request but DOH has been considering for the past few days and they've actually granted the request. Santa Claus asked for an exception for the 14-day quarantine requirement, because it would be impractical for him to be in this state, and in quarantine, and still get all his gifts delivered.
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CHURCH (on camera): Governor Cuomo said the Department of Health.
