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A New Video Shows What It Was Like Inside Capitol During Riot; State Capitols are Bracing for Possible Violence; Russia Detains Kremlin Critic on Return to Moscow; Disagreement Over Responsibility for COVID Vaccines; U.K. Faces Educational Challenges as COVID Cases Escalate; Snowboarder Survives Avalanche and Catches it on Video; President Trump to Issue Clemency on Tuesday; Washington Well- Prepared for Joe Biden's Inauguration; No Negative Result, No Entry in U.K.; Joe Biden Faces Tough Challenges Ahead; COVID-19 and New Variant Could Take More Lives. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired January 18, 2021 - 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 here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, we are now learning that U.S. president -- the U.S. president is set to use his final hours in office to issue a big wave of pardons, and commutations. Washington, D.C. locks down ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration. And we have stunning new video from inside of the capitol during the siege.

Plus, incoming U.S. health officials warn the pandemic is about to get worse. We tell you the stark prediction for the next month.

Good to have you with us.

With just over two days left in his presidency we are hearing that Donald Trump is preparing dozens of pardons but not one for himself. That is a plan right now, at least. Sources say Mr. Trump will issue about 100 pardons and commutations on Tuesday. More on that in just a moment.

Meantime, Washington, D.C. is preparing for an inauguration day unlike any other. The capitol is now a fortress amid warnings of armed protest by domestic extremists, heavy security at state capitol dwarfed the handful of demonstrators who showed up Sunday. And stunning new video of the chaos on January 6th shows why vigilance must be maintained. A warning, the video is graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Fuck you, police!

UNKNOWN: Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! UNKNOWN: Whose house?

CROWD: Our house!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): Extraordinary there. And Alex Marquardt will take us through what's being done to prevent a repeat of those horrific scenes. But first, Jeremy Diamond has details on those pardons by the outgoing president.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump is expected to issue around 100 pardons on Tuesday. That will be his final full day in office. The pardons, we're told, are expected to include a mixture of some more controversial pardons, to white collar criminals, some high-profile rappers, as well as potentially some of the president's political allies.

But there will also be in this batch several pardons that are more about criminal justice reform minded, pardons that would be more akin to those to the one that the president gave to Alice Murray Johnson who, herself, has been advocating with the president for pardons for other individuals who have been incarcerated for a long time.

Now, this final batch of clemency actions comes were really cap off weeks of a scramble by the president's political allies to try and secure pardons either for themselves or for other people. In fact, The New York Times is reporting today that some of the president's allies have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to secure pardons or to at least lobby the president to try and secure pardons for certain convicted felons.

As of now though, our sources are telling us that a pardon, a self- pardon for the president is not expected at this time or at least that the paperwork for a self-pardon has not yet been drawn up. That is something that we are told President Trump has been considering in recent weeks, asking some of his allies and advisers whether or not it would be wise for him to do that.

And we're told that the idea of a self-pardon really has the chances of that have really gone down in the wake of these riots that took place on January 6th because of the optics of the president pardoning himself or something potentially that he is now being impeached for.

So, again, more than -- about 100 individuals expected to see pardons or commutations from the President of the United States on Tuesday as the president winds down the final days and hours of his presidency.

Jeremy Diamond CNN, the White House.

[03:04:58]

ALEXANDRA MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here on the streets of Washington, D.C., things are pretty quiet. There is a sense that this is the calm before the storm. The question is, whether the storm comes? Whether there is more violence in the days leading up to and on the day of Joe Biden's inauguration?

They are not taking any chances. We are here just near the eastern side of the capitol building, you can see they have set up what is essentially, a fortress around the capitol. Eight-foot fences, they called them non-scalable, there is razor wire all along the top, there is just a staggering amount of security here in the streets of D.C., many of which have been closed down for traffic and for pedestrian traffic.

Thousands, 25,000 National Guard troops may be mobilized for the inauguration of Joe Biden. You can see that some of them right here behind me. They have been deployed near the capitol, they are armed, and they have been joined by various law enforcement agencies to create this patchwork of security, this incredible, coordinated security operation.

Now, the FBI has said that there are no specific threats, but there is concerning online chatter. They have said in a bulletin that armed groups have expressed interest in carrying out protests in D.C. and in all 50 states. And one of the concerns expressed by the mayor of Washington, D.C. on Sunday was that because the federal buildings here in D.C. are so fortified, and there's so much security in the nation's capital, that the would-be protesters or rioters could target other parts of the city or state capitols. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D-WA): I'm not only concerned about other state capitols, I'm also concerned about other parts of Washington, D.C. What you are showing is really the federal enclave of Washington, D.C., not where the 700,000 of us live.

So, our police department working with our federal law enforcement partners in the United States army quite frankly, also has a plan to pivot if we have any attacks in our neighborhoods.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT (on camera): The mayor of D.C., also saying that this is the most security the city has seen since 9/11. Normally there is a lot of security for inaugurations but not like this. They are confident however that they will have a secure event. The mayor of Washington, D.C. saying that all hands are on deck but this scene, this level of security is not what we think about when you hear that phrase, peaceful transfer of power.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

CHURCH: And we'll speak to a political analyst after a short break, but coming up on CNN Newsroom, U.S. health officials are warning Americans to expect many more deaths from the coronavirus by spring. We will find out where that staggering number could be just one month from now.

Plus, the U.K. has just tightened its entry requirements. A live report from London, next. [03:10:06]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH (on camera): Welcome back everyone. Well, Washington, D.C., is preparing for an inauguration day unlike any other. The capital is now a fortress amid warnings of armed protests by domestic extremists. All of this overshadowing the start of the incoming Biden presidency.

And we are joined now by Inderjeet Parmar, he is a professor of international politics at City University of London and a visiting professor at London School of Economics. Thank you so much for being with us.

INDERJEET PARMAR, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, CITY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Good morning. Very happy to be here.

CHURCH: So the U.S. is a nation on edge, counting down the days to an unprecedented inauguration, embracing for what most of us hope will be a peaceful transfer of power after the storming of the capitol, but once Joe Biden takes office he will need to hit the ground running in the midst of multiple crises. So how will he be able to do that?

PARMAR: Well, it's going to be very difficult for him, of course, he is inheriting all these crises as the pandemic, which is the kind of mother lode, there's also the interruption of political violence as we saw on the 6th of January. But there is also the protest which broke out last year in regards to police violence and so on.

So, he has inherited a very large number of crises. And I think the kind of program that he is putting forward, which in the big picture is very ambitious to deal with all of those kinds of areas, plus the shape of the global system, I think it's an ambitious agenda, it's the only thing that is likely to work.

But I think there are also barriers to or at least hindrances, which could be to do with the makeup of the party itself, the Democratic Party and it's kind of broadly neo liberal ideology but also the sort of donors that they have. And it's that tension between the necessity or radical change along the lines of a plan of the 1930s new deal and the political forces which are related to the Democratic Party over the last 40 years or so.

CHURCH: And as you mentioned, Joe Biden's agenda is ambitious. He runs the risk of over promising and under delivering at a time when the country faces a pandemic, divisions, high unemployment and hunger for so many Americans, which is just ridiculous for the superpower. So how much can Biden achieve through executive orders, because he does pose and hope to sign a number of those?

PARMAR: Yes. I think in domestic and foreign policy, the executive order has become a kind of a move of choice. We look at President Trump and he has actually more than doubled executive order usage in his four years than pretty much George W. Bush in his 8th and Barack Obama in his 8th, and Bill Clinton in his 8th. That's partly because of the makeup of the Senate and the House. But I think the national emergency in addition to executive orders can

also be a very powerful tool in dealing with the pandemic and so on.

[03:14:58]

The executive order is probably more effective in foreign policy, and there, there is a number of very, very quick wins which President Biden could mobilize on Iran, on World Health Organization, climate change, Paris accord, Saudi arms sales, the war in Yemen, Cuba, perhaps, as well the North Korea, and whether they want to move towards a peace treaty.

So, the executive order is going to be a fundamental tool. The presidential proclamation which is related to that, but I would say the national emergency, I think that will be very, very important as well.

CHURCH: And how much of a destruction would you expect the impeachment trial of Donald Trump to be as Biden tries to fulfill this ambitious agenda?

PARMAR: I wouldn't frame it as a distraction, because I think it's actually tackling one of the fundamental problems of American democracy, of a crisis of democracy at this time. The fact of the behavior of the last administration, President Trump, but also his broader political faction and so on.

We're not looking at a truth and reconciliation commission so much as a reckoning of what led to all of that crisis on the 6th of January which erupted in violence, and how, what was the deeper connections, the wider connections of law enforcement and other right-wing groups and try to sort of come to terms with that, deal with that as well and try to restore greater confidence in the American Democratic system.

So, it will be time consuming but I think unless that is done and it's not papered over in a superficial way, I think those problems will remain very, very deep and they will erupt at some other point. So, it's one of the crises which President Trump -- President Biden is going to inherit and he needs to deal with that as a matter of urgency as well.

CHURCH: Yes. Many challenges ahead. Professor Inderjeet Parmar in London, many thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.

PARMAR: Thank you very much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROCHELLE WALENSKY, INCOMING CDC DIRECTOR: Nearly 4000 deaths a day. Almost 400,000 deaths total by the middle of February. We expect half a million deaths in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): And that was the incoming CDC director warning Americans to be prepared for some dark weeks ahead. And in just the next day alone the U.S. is expected to top 400,000 total deaths from COVID-19. What's concerning many U.S. health officials is the rapid spread of the variant first identified in the U.K. and the toll it could take.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER COMMISSIONER, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: In about five weeks this is going to start to take over. The only backstop against this new variant is the fact that we will have a lot of infection by then so they'll be a lot of immunity in the population and we will be vaccinating more people. But this really changes the equation and I think what we are looking at is a relentless strike from this virus heading into the spring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): While a few states have improved their outlooks, many others haven't fared as well according to Johns Hopkins University. Forty-six states have positivity rates higher than 5 percent as of Sunday. The WHO has recommended governments not reopen until rates stay at or below 5 percent for at least two weeks.

Well the U.K. and France are moving forward with new steps to help fight COVID-19. In just the last few hours the U.K. closed all travel corridors with the prime minister making it clear the only way in is with proof of a negative COVID test.

And in France, officials are looking to speed up vaccinations with shots now available to people over the age of 75.

Melissa Bell is in Paris following COVID vaccinations, but we begin in London where Salma Abdelaziz has more on the U.K.'s new entry requirements. So, Salma, how will this new system for entry work and for how long?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: So, Rosemary, all travel quarters are now shut. That means no countries is exempt, no country is considered safe. All arrivals have to self-isolate for at least 10 days. Now you can be released early from that isolation in five days and you take a test to coronavirus test and that is shown to be negative.

There is also another step to this. Any passengers, any travelers who want to come into the U.K., they have to show negative coronavirus tests taken at least 72 hours before departure. So, you sort of have two step systems here to get tested before you leave and then isolate of course once you've arrived.

All of this is because the authorities are concerned about this new variance. Not just the ones that we know about, like the one in South Africa and Brazil but ones we don't know about, yet to be identified variance. And it happens as this country is trying to ramp up its own vaccination program because of course the U.K. right now is suffering under the worst point in the pandemic. It's one of the worst hit countries.

You have an overwhelming number of coronavirus patients right now stretching our hospitals here to the brink. And using up all the ICU capacity. And the government's only response to this has been the vaccination program. That's where all the efforts are going right now.

[03:20:05]

We just heard from the vaccination czar of this country just a short time ago, and he said that they might be piloting 24/7 vaccinations in London, 24/7 giving out those injections in London. That's how concerned they are. They might be doing this by the end of this month.

You also have the vaccination program expanding overall, over 70s now are going to be contacted this week, as well as people who are extremely clinically vulnerable to expand that number of people who are coming in to get their injections.

So really, all the focusing right now is on that vaccination program. Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying just a few days ago, 140 people, every single minute getting vaccinated. Meanwhile of course, the U.K. isolating itself, sealing itself off to keep itself from getting any more of this new variance and any sort of variables or possibilities that might come with them. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Such a massive operation. Melissa, I want to go to you now. COVID vaccinations are now underway in France. How is that -- how is that being progressing?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pretty slowly here on the continent, Rosemary, compare to it what we've seen in the U.K., partly because the European vaccination program started so much later. Not the 8th of December as it is in the U.K. but rather, the 27th of December in the E.U. So that's been going on for three weeks now here in E.U. countries, and yet the figures are still pretty small in terms of who has been vaccinated.

Only Germany and Italy have managed to vaccinate a million people so far. Spain is out about 760,000. France not yet even at 450,000. That's how slow it's been going here.

And of course, the challenge is, as Salma was just saying for the U.K., to get as many people as vaccinated as possible because of these fears of the worsening of the COVID-19 indicators in the number of European countries and fears over the spread now here on the continent of that variant that was first identified in the United Kingdom.

So, as you mentioned a moment ago here in France, we move on to now over 75-year-olds who are not in nursing homes. What's been happening for the last three weeks here in France is that the vaccinations, the priorities have been given to residents of nursing homes and those who work within them. Now it is people outside them. Over 75. And then they will move down those age brackets to get more and more people vaccinated.

All eyes this week also, Rosemary, on those key COVID-19 indicators, so far France has a system of curfews in place. That was put down to 6 p.m. nationwide on Saturday. But the government has made it clear that if the figures continue to worsen, then a third lockdown is not off the cards.

CHURCH: Yes. That is a problem for sure. Salma Abdelaziz and Melissa Bell, thanks to both of you for bringing us up to date on the situation. I appreciate it.

So, let's bring in Oksana Pyzik. She is a global health expert at University College London. Good to have you with us.

OKSANA PYZIK, GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERT, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Good morning.

CHURCH: So, as we've heard, and we know of course, the countries that are struggling with administering vaccinations on a massive scale. Appointment computer systems have crashed. Supplies haven't met demand. It is a daunting task given everyone needs to be vaccinated. So, how does this get done better and faster?

PYZIK: Certainly, and this is not a surprise, really. We have had a turbulent start in the U.S. and in the U.K. There are some lessons that we can learn from other countries as well. But that is to be expected given that this is the largest immunization program in history.

So, I do think in the coming weeks and months these problems can be ironed out and learning from that experience on the ground and particularly ensuring that all hands are on deck. And that we are leveraging existing public health infrastructure.

And in the U.S. there is a significant plan to scale up the participation of large community pharmacies, the CVS Walgreens, et cetera, who have the capability to immunize 50 million Americans per month, whereas we contrast this with the U.K., currently there are plans to include 200 community pharmacies alongside GP Clinics and mass immunization centers as well.

But there is a part that if we want to do this faster, we should be using all the expertise on hand. Pharmacies already are immunizing for the flu routinely. They have the training and expertise. So, with 11,400 pharmacies in England I think we could be doing more on that front.

But we do see some creative innovative solutions coming from the U.K. as well. For example, in the heart of communities, using churches and other site sets that are embedded in communities is also going to be very effective in drawing out more people to get their vaccines.

[03:25:06]

CHURCH: Of course, in the U.S. we have learned that the Trump administration has no reserves of vaccine doses left despite claiming last week they would release all available reserves. How can those supplies be increased, and how do you make sure everyone gets equitable access to those doses?

PYZIK: And that is going to be prove -- to be proving to be an enormous challenge not in the U.S. but worldwide as well. In terms of the vaccine itself, we need to be seeing is that there is no waste of any doses right now. Sometimes the policies of hospitals and other centers meant that anything that, whoever did not need that particular eligibility criteria wouldn't receive their vaccine.

However, there has been a turnaround given the reports from the front line and healthcare workers about this precious resource going to waste. So that's the first thing, is to ensure that we are using what we are using appropriately.

In terms of getting more vaccines it's a race against everyone else as well. And there have been manufacturing delays, for instance, with the Pfizer vaccine that could have knock-on impact later on in the year due to refurbishing of their plan, et cetera, so all sorts of challenges in terms of actually increasing supply.

So, what we need to be doing in the meantime is to ensure that we are using supply that we have as smartly as we can and to ensure that as many people who are vulnerable will be able to access it but equally that none go to waste.

CHURCH: All right. Oksana Pyzik, many thanks to you for joining us. I appreciate it.

PYZIK: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well Russia's top dissident returns to the country five months after an attempt on his life. But Alexei Navalny was barely on the ground before police arrested him. CNN is in Moscow with the details.

Plus, Central American migrants in search of a better life are met with tear gas and batons.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Welcome back, everyone. Well, all eyes are on the White House where President Trump is expected to issue about 100 pardons and commutations Tuesday.

Sources say that at this stage, it is not believed the president himself is on the pardon's list. He is also being discouraged from pardoning anyone involved in the January 6th riot on Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile, shocking new videos have emerged showing the chaos and confusion that day. A reporter for the New Yorker filmed this, and a warning, the clip does contain swearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: We're gonna --

(CROSSTALK)

UNKNOWN: -- day. UNKNOWN: Millions of Americans (INAUDIBLE)!

UNKNOWN: Start making a list, put all those names down, and we start hunting them down one by one!

(APPLAUSE)

UNKNOWN: Traitors to the guillotine!

UNKNOWN: You're outnumbered. There's a fucking millions of us down there. And we are listening to Trump -- your boss.

UNKNOWN: And look here, look --

UNKNOWN: Ted Cruz's objection to the Arizona --

UNKNOWN: -- objection. He's going to sell us out all along.

UNKNOWN: (INAUDIBLE).

UNKNOWN: Objection to counting electoral votes on the State of Arizona.

UNKNOWN: (INAUDIBLE).

UNKNOWN: We know that's --

UNKNOWN: OK. All right, all right (INAUDIBLE).

UNKNOWN: He's with us, he's with us.

UNKNOWN: There's got to be something in here we can fucking use against these scumbags.

UNKNOWN: (INAUDIBLE).

UNKNOWN: Merry Christmas. This is good stuff.

UNKNOWN: Whatever.

UNKNOWN: Hawley, Cruz.

UNKNOWN: I think Cruz would want us to do this.

UNKNOWN: Yeah, absolutely.

UNKNOWN: I think we're good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): With the inauguration just two days away, security has become a major concern. CNN reporters are tracking security at state capitols where officials are bracing for possible violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Josh Campbell in Lansing, Michigan. Outside the state capitol behind me, you see members of the National Guard and the state police protecting this building, this following that warning from the FBI about possible protests with armed members across the country.

On Sunday, we saw a small group here, about 25 people, some of them armed, including some self-described members of the Boogaloo Movement, but no violence, no instigators.

We asked authorities how long they plan to keep these military and police out here. They say that they are doing a threat assessment, looking at all available intelligence. That will dictate how long we will see this show of force.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Omar Jimenez in St. Paul, Minnesota, in front of the heavily-fortified Minnesota State Capitol, as law enforcement navigates any potential threats leading up to inauguration day.

Now, the head of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety has said there is no immediate or local threat here at the moment and remains cautiously optimistic that that is what we see in the days ahead.

But Minnesota is also among more than a dozen states that have called in the National Guard to assist and the law enforcement presence you are seeing behind me again to make sure the capitol remains safe.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CHURCH (on camera): A caravan of Central American migrants is heading for the U.S. border just days before the new administration takes office.

Guatemala's army and national civil police fired tear gas and used their batons on a group of migrants as they moved through the country on Sunday. Forces were stopping the group from passing through a security ring. Thousands of families are fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries hammered by the pandemic and hurricanes.

Calls are growing for a leading Kremlin critic to be freed. Authorities detained Alexei Navalny as he returned to his home country of Russia on Sunday. He had spent the past five months in Germany recovering from being poisoned with a nerve agent.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports this isn't the first time Navalny has been targeted.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A final kiss, a final hug with his wife Yulia, and then opposition leader Alexei Navalny is led away by Russian security forces, detained shortly after landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, his first time back in Russia in five months since he was (INAUDIBLE) to Germany in a coma after he was poisoned by the chemical nerve agent Novichok.

Shortly before his detention, Navalny is saying he is not scared.

ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN POLITICIAN: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Everyone is asking me if I'm scared, he says. I'm not afraid.

[03:35:00]

PLEITGEN (voice-over): I feel completely fine walking towards the border control. I know that I will leave and go home because I am right, and all the criminal cases against me are fabricated.

(APPLAUSE)

PLEITGEN (voice-over): When Alexei Navalny boarded the plane hours earlier in Berlin, Germany, he was still joking when addressing reporter.

NAVALNY: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Me, arrested? That's impossible, he joked.

But the events that then unfolded were remarkable. As Navalny was in the air, hundreds of his supporters and many journalists gathered at the airport where his flight was initially supposed to land. Scuffles broke out and riot police arrested several people.

Minutes before landing, the flight was diverted to another airport. Navalny is saying he believes the move shows President Vladimir Putin was afraid of his return.

NAVALNY: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

PLEITGEN (voice-over): This is not just the power of some despicable crooks, he said, but the power of absolute worthless people that are doing some nonsense. They are jeopardizing the air safety of a wonderful big city. Why? Just so Putin can say who needs him?

An exclusive CNN and Bellingcat investigation implicated Russia's intelligence service, the FSB, in the plot to poison Navalny. The Kremlin denied involvement.

CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward even confronted one of the agents alleged to be behind the plot.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

My name is Clarissa Ward. I work for CNN.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): After he recovered, Navalny said he wouldn't give Putin the satisfaction of keeping him out of Russia, and he decided to return, knowing the threat of arrest was real as Russian authorities said he violated the terms of his probation in the 2014 fraud case, which Navalny says is politically-motivated.

Alexei Navalny never made it out of the airport. He will now remain in custody until at least the end of January, Russian authorities say.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CHURCH (on camera): The United States is condemning Navalny's arrest and is calling for his immediate release.

In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says, and I'm quoting, "Confident political leaders do not fear competing voices, nor commit violence against or wrongfully detain political opponents. The Russian people, like people everywhere, deserve a government that supports an open marketplace of ideas, transparent and accountable governance, an independent judiciary, and the ability to exercise their basic human rights of speech and assembly without fear of retribution."

Well, who should be responsible for COVID vaccines in Gaza and the West Bank is becoming a divisive issue. How Israel stance differs from that of the U.N.? We will take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Israelis are getting vaccinated against the coronavirus at a record rate. More than 20 percent of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The U.N. says Israel has obligations to vaccinate Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, as well. But Israel says that is the job of the Palestinian authorities.

Sam Kiley is following this for us. He joins us now live from Jerusalem. Good to see you, Sam. So in the end, who will have the responsibility of ensuring all Palestinians get vaccinated?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, in the first instance, Rosemary, the Palestinian authority has said that it is in negotiations with a wide variety of vaccine supplies and hopes to get its vaccination campaign underway sometime this quarter. That would be a very long way indeed behind the world beating.

A vaccination campaign has been rolled out inside Israel but also inside the West Bank in the Jewish settlements, which are illegal under international law, according to the United Nations, where anybody who has an Israeli ID and that includes the Arab residents of Jerusalem will be able -- are able to get vaccination. But that does not apply in every case as my report shows.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) KILEY: This Jewish man and this Arab resident of Jerusalem have something life-saving in common. They have both got Israeli ID cards and can therefore benefit from Israel's world leading anti-COVID vaccination program.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on track to meet his claim of inoculating Israel's entire nine million population by the end of March. But that, says the United Nations, isn't good enough.

The U.N. insists that Israel, and the occupying power, is responsible for ensuring that more than four and a half million Palestinians also get vaccinated. Morally and legally, this differential access to necessary health care in the midst of the worst global health crisis in a century is unacceptable, U.N. experts said.

A recent study produced by Beth Selen (ph), an Israeli human rights group, now says that the tribune (ph) of Palestinians across the whole area under Israeli control is so unequal, they have labelled it apartheid.

Israel's embassy in London dismissed the report as not based in reality but on a distorted ideological view.

Israel also rejected claims that it was responsible for the health of Palestinians, insisting that the Palestinian authority was in charge.

YULI EDELSTEIN, ISRAEL MINISTER OF HEALTH: We are trying to get as many vaccines as possible but our calculation was based on the Israeli citizens. If we get to the situation where all those in this country who want to be vaccinated will be vaccinated, we will be more than ready to share the vaccines with our neighbors. At this stage, we are talking about Israeli citizens.

KILEY: This is Kafr'Aqab, a Palestinian town annexed illegally, according to international law, to Jerusalem by Israel. It is cut off from the city by a security wall. Some Palestinians here, like Anan on the right, can get the COVID vaccine with an Israeli IDs. Others, like Mahmoud on the left, cannot.

It is racist, Mahmoud says. Anan says, half of the people here cannot take it and also I'm not going to take it. Why would I take it when they can't? I won't.

[03:44:57]

KILEY: The Palestinian authority hospitals are struggling for funds after Donald Trump cut U.S. aid of 200 million to the Palestinians in 2018. Still, the Palestinian authority says it's hoping to import vaccines soon but is struggling amid a worldwide shortage.

The percentage of Palestinian patients infected with COVID-19 who died is about 1.1 percent. Israel's is not .7 percent. But worst is the U.S. at 1.7 percent or the U.K. at 2.6 percent. Yet infection rates are climbing. The medics here cannot get vaccinations.

WAFA SHIHADEH, RAMALLAH CENTRAL HOSPITAL: We are starting to feel get depressed because we are not getting the vaccines here in Palestinian territories in Palestine, and we are seeing our -- at the border -- at the other side of the border, Israel is getting, I think, three days ago, 1,600,000 people got vaccinated. And here in Palestine, the number of vaccinated people is zero.

KILEY: A statistic that shocks few Palestinians, but is certain to add to the bitterness many already feel towards their efficient and powerful neighbor.

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KILEY (on camera): Now, Rosemary, clearly, this is an issue of where people believe responsibility lies and the belief has to be internal. From the Israeli perspective, their responsibility lies in vaccinating the citizens that it believes is responsible (INAUDIBLE) Israeli citizens, plus those with Israeli ID cards.

The Palestinian authority has insisted that under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel is, and this is a position supported by the U.N. experts, an occupying power, in their words, and therefore is responsible for the health of Palestinians in of the broadest possible sense.

But the Palestinian authority does exist. It has control administratively over a significant population of the Palestinians. But it doesn't control all of the territory. Really, that is where a lot of this friction lies. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Yeah, that is key. Sam Kiley, many thanks for bringing us up- to-date on the situation there. I appreciate it.

And staying open or staying safe? Just ahead, we will show you how schools around the world are struggling with in-person learning during this pandemic.

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UNKNOWN: (INAUDIBLE).

UNKNOWN: (INAUDIBLE).

CHURCH (voice-over): Instead of preparing for the Australian Open, frustrated tennis players have to exercise and train in their hotel rooms. At least 72 athletes are being confined to their rooms for two weeks after people on their chartered flights tested positive for COVID-19. Both players are concerned about having to compete after the quarantine. Organizers say the event will go ahead next month.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH (on camera): COVID-19 pandemic is making in-person learning difficult in the U.K. That is forcing policymakers to walk a fine line between keeping schools open and keeping people safe.

CNN's Max Foster takes a look at how educators in Britain and across Europe are coping with the challenge.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made it a national priority to keep schools open during the pandemic.

BORIS JOHNSON, PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: I do want to stress for everybody the efforts that we are making as a government to try to keep primary schools open.

FOSTER (voice-over): But those efforts weren't enough. Just hours later, he was saying this.

JOHNSON: Primary schools, secondary schools, and colleges across England must move to remote permit provision from tomorrow.

FOSTER (voice-over): It was a swift U-turn in the face of this: A precipitous surge in reported cases since December. The highly contagious new variant of the disease had changed the game.

UNKNOWN: What is happening to peak and how --

FOSTER (voice-over): Johnson's scientific advisers counselled three weeks ago that it was impossible to control the variant without school closures. But he is still sticking to his default position on schools. He wants them to reopen as soon as possible.

ELLA, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: When I was in grade seven and the lockdown came, we are like, oh, my gosh, this is so good, we don't have to go to school. Now, I'm just, like, oh, please let us go back to school.

FOSTER (voice-over): Ella is now learning from home. I visited her school just before the holiday break.

ELLA: At home, there are lots of distractions such as phones, et cetera.

UNKNOWN: Children could still learn from their home but it is not as good as going to school.

FOSTER (voice-over): Teachers tell me nothing can truly replace face- to-face learning. But they only want to return when it is safe. And they are critical of the government for not acting more decisively. The education regulator says she is weighing the health benefits of schools closing against the harm that can do to student well-being.

AMANDA SPIELMAN, CHIEF INSPECTOR, UK SCHOOLS REGULATOR OFSTED: There are real problems with motivation. There are real problems for younger children trying to learn through screens. We can see effects across the board.

FOSTER (on camera): So, if the U.K. lockdown works and virus rates stabilize, will reopening schools undo that progress? Well, research in The Lancet medical journal based on the last lockdown suggests not. It concludes that schools don't drive virus rates up, rather they reflect what is already happening in the community.

SHAMEZ LADHANI, PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND: When you look at the data, what you do see is that there is a lag in school-age children compared to adults. So when adult rates started going up, children's rates started going up. And during the lockdown, when adult rates came down, it took a week, but children's rates started going down as well. So there is a very close correlation.

FOSTER (voice-over): Some form of prioritizing in-person learning has been used around the world.

[03:54:58]

FOSTER (voice-over): In Denmark, schools got created in using any space available, even a church cemetery. In South Korea, the government has been willing to close schools in response to rising cases, but has also tried to maintain normalcy from temperature checks in May to sitting high school exams in December.

Masks played a big role in France where, first of all, children over 11 and later everyone over six had to wear one. But as winter sets in and the new variant took hold, governments had to reassess.

Denmark has kept schools closed for now. In Italy, high school openings have been delayed again and again, only slowly allowing students back. German schools are shut until at least the end of the month.

UNKNOWN: Let's just take a moment --

FOSTER (voice-over): Europe, a continent that prioritizes face-to- face learning about almost all else in this pandemic, forced to yield at least for now.

Max Foster, CNN, London.

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CHURCH (on camera): A snowboarder has survived an avalanche in Colorado and caught the heart-racing experience on video.

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UNKNOWN: (Bleep) I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm safe. I'm safe.

CHURCH (voice-over): Maurice Kervin was carving down the slopes near Loveland Pass for less than a minute when he got swept up by the snow. He says he noticed the snow breaking, looking like what he described as spider webs. He used his backpack fitted with an airbag to keep him on top of the snow. Kervin managed to escape without injuries. He is calling the experience very surreal.

And thanks so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. I'll be back with more news in just a moment. Do stick around.

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