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1 In 76 People Worldwide Have Tested Positive For COVID Since Outbreak Started; Republican Party Still In Lock Step With Trump; Biden Projects Majority Of Americans Will Be Vaccinated By September; Poorer Countries Left Behind In Vaccine Distribution; Biden to Unveil Policies Combating Climate Change; Japan's PM Apologizes for Lack of Medical Care; Indian Farmers Vow to Fight On After Violent Protest; 76th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz; One Survivor Sees Disturbing Echoes of Past Hatred. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired January 27, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hello, everyone, I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from CNN world headquarters here in Atlanta.
Ahead this hour. The fight for vaccines. As the number of COVID cases worldwide passes 100 million, there's a growing struggle between rich and poor over who should get vaccinated.
Second impeachment, same as the first. It seems Donald Trump's Republican enablers are set to do it again. A free pass, that is.
And now that science and fact have returned to the White House, President Biden playing catch-up on the global effort to slow climate change.
More than 100 million cases of COVID-19 have now been confirmed worldwide or, in other words, one in 76 people testing positive for the virus since it was first detected last year.
The outbreak has spiraled out of control in the past few months with more than half of all infections coming since early November.
The U.S. remains the worst affected country, reporting over a quarter of the global count. India, the second worst outbreak, more than 10 million infections, followed by Brazil, Russia, the U.K..
And concerns over what's being called vaccine nationalism are growing louder at the World Economic Forum. This nationalism refers to rich countries taking the lion's share of available supplies of the vaccine while poorer states are scrambling for whatever's left.
The German chancellor says wealthy countries need to pay for the COVAX program which distributes vaccines equitably around the world.
And she adds those who receive help in an hour of need remember it much longer than when it's offered in good times. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY (Through Translator): It has become even clearer to me than it was before that we need to choose a multilateral approach. That a self-isolating approach won't solve our problems.
We see that first of all in the question of vaccinations since it is the route out of the pandemic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, the frustration growing nationwide over a shortage of vaccine supplies. The U.S. president has announced an additional 200 million doses of the COVID vaccine have been bought bringing the national stockpile to 600 million.
The Biden Administration says it will also ramp up vaccine allocations to states by 16 percent. That starts next week -- from 8 million to more than 10 million a week.
We have more details now from CNN's Nick Watt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will increase overall weekly vaccine distributions to states, tribes and territories from 8.6 million doses to a minimum of 10 million doses.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's needed, maybe more. So far, fewer than 25 million shots are actually in American arms.
In New York City --
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, N.Y.: Right now, I need hundreds of thousands more doses per week.
WATT: In New Jersey --
GOV. PHIL MURPHY, (D-N.J.): We need probably two or three times the weekly dosage that we're getting right now.
WATT: The Biden Administration also planning to buy an additional 100 million doses from Pfizer and 100 million doses from Moderna, delivered this summer.
So total order, 600 million doses enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans.
BIDEN: But the brutal truth is it's going to take months before we can get the majority of Americans vaccinated, months. In the next few months, masks -- not vaccines -- are the best defenses against COVID- 19.
WATT: The CDC study of in-person schools in rural Wisconsin found infection rates were minimal when kids were, among other things, given layered masks, ordered to wear them and broken down into cohorts of 20 or less that don't mix and when kids stay home along with their siblings, if they show symptoms.
Meanwhile, starting today, everyone citizens included must test negative before flying in to this country.
But the variant first found in Brazil has already landed. A case just confirmed in Minnesota. Nearly 300 cases of the more contagious possibly more deadly strain first identified in the U.K. now confirmed in 24 states.
And the variant first found in South Africa? No confirmed cases yet; doesn't mean it's not here.
Now the schools issue is on many people's minds. Here in Los Angeles, one of the biggest districts in the nation, they say that they are going to vaccinate all teachers before they go back to brick-and- mortar teaching.
But the teacher's union, they say that's not enough. They say well, the kids are still going to be at risk and they might take the virus home.
[01:05:00]
WATT (On Camera): Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
VAUSE: Dr. William Schaffner is a professor in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He joins us now this hour.
Dr. Schaffner, good to see you.
DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Good to be with you, John.
VAUSE: Just quickly, off the top, very quickly. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being a total disaster, 10 being things just couldn't be better. Where is the U.S. right now in terms of a nationwide vaccination program?
SCHAFFNER: I think we may be at six. We're off to a good start but we still have a long way to go and there's still some bumps in the road we have to iron out.
VAUSE: OK. Well, now for something completely different, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: And we believe that we'll soon be able to confirm the purchase of an additional 100 million doses for each of the two FDA authorized vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna.
That's 100 million more doses of Pfizer and 100 million more doses of Moderna; 200 million more doses than the federal government had previously secured. Not in hand yet, but ordered.
We expect these additional 200 million doses to be delivered this summer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: OK. Completely different in a sense compared to the last 12 months because that was Joe Biden, the new president, essentially announcing what is a national plan to deal with this pandemic.
And to be perfectly honest, it doesn't seem that complicated, is it?
SCHAFFNER: Well, it is and it isn't. We're trying to vaccine more people than we ever have before in a short period of time with a new vaccine that takes two doses to administer. And the vaccines are a little bit difficult to handle because they have to be kept really quite cold, particularly the Pfizer vaccine.
And then some of the localities really have been strapped for resources and so they haven't been yet able to move the vaccine that they have into the arms of people who want the vaccine. So we still have some work to do.
But nonetheless, we're on the right track and I'm really quite optimistic.
VAUSE: It just seems, very quickly, that it's been a question of hardware rather than anything else, rather than finding the magic cure. It's getting enough syringes, enough doses, enough vaccine to where they need to be.
And now that there's some sort of coordination there, it does seem to be that it is on the right track.
SCHAFFNER: Oh, I think we are on the right track, there isn't any doubt. And I think, as I say, those issues in different localities will be worked out. I'm really quite convinced.
And one other thing, namely there'll be another vaccine manufacturer who's presenting their data to the Food & Drug Administration and we anticipate that they also will get an emergency use authorization -- that's the Johnson & Johnson product. And that's only a single dose vaccine.
And with a new manufacturer also producing millions of doses, a single dose vaccine, one that can be handled in a normal refrigerator, ha, that opens up the possibility to vaccinate many more people much more quickly.
VAUSE: Yes. The Johnson & Johnson is real old-school vaccination stuff. It could be a real breakthrough when it hits.
But what we're looking at Biden's plan -- there should be enough vaccine or enough supplies to vaccinate most Americans towards the end of September. That's the northern summer. Now assuming that very little changes, that there's no changes for the
better, no changes for the worse, there's 237 days between now and the end of summer in the U.S.
So with an average of 3,000 people dying every day, doing the math -- and I know this is very broad and not very nuanced -- but we're looking at another 700,000 people dead in this country.
Which, in many ways it just spells out that every day here is a question of life or death for a lot of people when it comes to vaccinations.
SCHAFFNER: Well, that's why it's absolutely number one on the Biden Presidency to-do list. And that's why he's given so much attention to it and given it federal direction and really oomph, real purpose. And we like that.
We also like that he's putting the scientists and the public health people upfront, trying to remove the politics from this. Which will lead to greater acceptance, I trust, of all those people who really do need to be vaccinated.
VAUSE: Would you expect the death toll to be approaching that 700,000 mark? And if you combine it with the number of people already dead, we're looking at well over a million?
SCHAFFNER: Well, as we start to vaccinate people, I think we'll start to reduce the transmission of this virus. So I'm hoping that those numbers are not as severe as you've just mentioned.
VAUSE: The shortages of the vaccine in some states is fueling this debate about whether it's better to use all the vaccine supply as a one dose to double the number of people vaccinated -- that's sparked some concern.
Here's the governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-N.Y.): It's better to get more people dosages as long as you're sure you can get them the second dose.
[01:10:00]
The last thing you want on top of this chaos is people get a first dose and then they come back for their second dose and you say, we ran out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The WHO now says that second shot of Moderna can wait for up to 48 days, still be effective. Does that go towards the one dose now and maybe hope for more later on argument?
SCHAFFNER: Oh, I think we're moving in that direction very, very rapidly. Most locations are now accepting that notion; let's get that first dose in, we seem to have the assurance that more vaccine will come and we don't have to do it in quite as timely a manner.
That said, these are two-dose vaccines. And there's an old adage; the vaccine dose delayed is often the vaccine dose never received.
So we have to make sure that people don't forget and do come in for that second dose. Because 95 percent effectiveness depends on receiving both doses.
VAUSE: Good advice to end on. Dr. Schaffner, thank you so much. Good to see you.
SCHAFFNER: My pleasure.
VAUSE: The COVID death toll in the U.K. has now passed 100,000, the fifth country to record such a grim milestone. Notably, the per capita death rate in the U.K. is The highest among those countries.
It's a long way from last March when the British government was hoping to keep the death toll below 20,000.
Here's Britain's prime minister, Boris Johnson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I'm deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and, of course, as prime minister I take full responsibility for everything that the government has done.
What I can tell you is that we truly did everything we could and continue to do everything that we can to minimize loss of life and to minimize suffering in what has been a very, very difficult stage and a very difficult crisis for our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Meanwhile, Britain is expected to announce tighter border controls and new restrictions on travel including a possible mandate quarantine for overseas arrivals.
An official announcement is expected in the coming hours.
And for more details, here CNN's Anna Stewart.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: People arriving into the U.K. may soon have to quarantine at designated hotels and foot the bill.
A policy aimed at preventing new variants of coronavirus from entering the U.K. potentially that could jeopardize the nation's vaccine rollout.
The government is expected to make an announcement Wednesday.
One option would be to implement a hotel quarantine just for those people arriving back from high-risk countries, for instance from South Africa, Brazil or Portugal, another option could be a blanket hotel quarantine, for everyone arriving into the U.K..
Whichever option is chosen, it's likely there will be exceptions, for instance, for the thousands of haulers who travel around the U.K. border every single day with goods.
And that is one reason that this policy would be hard to implement here in the U.K., much harder for instance than in Australia or New Zealand who have successfully adopted similar measures.
Another major challenge is just the vast volume of passengers still arriving into the U.K. every single day.
That number is estimated between 8,000 and 10,000 a day, according to Citi Group.
For the travel industry, any tightening of restrictions will be severely damaging. The trade body that represents airlines and airports in the U.K. has said it will be catastrophic.
It has been a dire start to the year already and a policy like this will do nothing to encourage people to travel. Already those arriving into the U.K. have to get a COVID-19 test prior to their arrival, now potentially quarantining in a hotel for 10 days or more and likely at the passenger's expense.
STEWART (On Camera): Anna Stewart, CNN, London's Heathrow airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, the senators are sworn in, the Democrats are building their impeachment case and the Republicans are getting ready to do what they do. Let's let Donald Trump off the hook.
Details in two minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:15:00]
VAUSE: It really is so different now for Russia's Vladimir Putin. No more fawning praise, no free pass for election meddling, no free pass for bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Yes, there's a new commander-in-chief in Washington and the two men spoke by phone on Tuesday.
According to the White House, Biden pressed Putin on recent cyberattacks, election meddling, and yes, those bounties on U.S. soldiers.
Meantime, Russian state media reports that Putin wants parliament to approve a five-year extension of the START nuclear treaty with the U.S. which is proof that these two men can still do business.
Congressional Democrats have been gathering evidence in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. That includes hours of security footage of a Trump-supporting mob storming the Capitol.
Senators swore an oath on Tuesday to be fair and impartial. Arguments are set to begin in less than two weeks.
Republican Senator Rand Paul forced a vote on the constitutionality of the trial since Donald Trump is no longer a sitting president. While he lost the vote, it was, in fact, a political win.
CNN's Ryan Nobles explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The United States senate is one step closer to the impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, the senators were sworn in as jurors for that trial and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont was selected as the presiding judge.
Now it didn't come without a bit of controversy.
Republican senators, led by Rand Paul, offered up a point of order to ask if the impeachment trial be halted because it is not constitutional.
The argument being that because the former president is out of office that he can no longer be convicted from an impeachment article. Now that ended up not going anywhere -- in fact, five Republicans voted with Democrats to table that motion but it did perhaps offer an indication as to where this trial is headed.
In fact, Paul said it means the impeachment of the former president is dead on arrival. That's because 17 Republicans will have to cross party lines in order to convict President Trump. There were far from 17 Republicans willing to do that today.
Now it's not necessarily indicative of what could happen in two weeks once the trial takes place -- for instance, Rob Portman of Ohio was someone that voted to look more into the constitutionality of the impeachment trial but also said that he's open to hearing arguments over the course of those two weeks.
And even some of the Republicans that voted against the idea that it would be unconstitutional still said that they are holding out the option that they may not vote to convict.
So this process still has a long way to play out. But right now, it appears unlikely that the votes are there to convict the former president.
We should also point out a bit of disturbing news. Senator Patrick Leahy, who we mentioned will serve as the presiding judge in this impeachment trial, he was taken to the hospital after not feeling well.
Senator Dick Durbin, the second ranking Democrat in the United States Senate, saying that his wife has reported back that Senator Leahy is feeling fine, that the hospital trip was just out of an abundance of caution. He said that Leahy could even be back in the senate on Wednesday.
But still, Leahy playing a very important and historic role in this impeachment trial.
NOBLES (On Camera): Ryan Nobles, CNN, on Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Ron Brownstein is CNN's senior political analyst and the senior editor for "The Atlantic." He is with us this hour from Los Angeles. Ron, thanks for being with us.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SNR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, John.
VAUSE: So look, just in terms of pure politics. Rand Paul's vote on whether or not the impeachment trial is unconstitutional was a pretty smart move in a way. Gave the GOP sort of an off-ramp here, if you like.
Just five Republican senators voted yes. That's well short of the 17 needed for a guilty verdict for that two-thirds majority in a trial.
And it seems that, yet again, Republicans are willing to allow Donald Trump to do whatever he wants because no one in the party wants to be the next Liz Cheney.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, that's been the story for four years.
[01:20:00]
You don't get to the point of a mob ransacking the Capitol and threatening the lives of elected officials overnight, and you don't get there alone.
You only get there because Trump, through four years, each time that he broke a window, the congressional Republicans obediently swept up the glass. And he concluded over time that there really were no boundaries he could not cross that would cause them to discipline him.
I was just thinking Mitch McConnell was one of those who voted to say the trial was unconstitutional or might be unconstitutional after he delayed the trial until after Trump was in office. Kind of a neat trick, that.
In fact, most constitutional scholars believe -- and there is precedent in the 19th Century -- that the senate can hold an impeachment trial of a former official.
This was really about another signal that the Republican Party remains under the thumb of Trump and willing to remain there.
Because as many have pointed out, John, this is their moment. If they want to separate from Trump, this is the moment they can do it. The fact that they're not doing it could have a long shadow over the next few years.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to how Paul justified his opposition to an impeachment trial.
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAND PAUL, (R-KY.): We're not going down the road the Democrats have decided, this low road of impeaching people for political speech.
I want the Democrats to raise their hands if they have ever given a speech that says take back, fight for your country. Who hasn't used the words "fight" figuratively?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And here's -- I want you to listen to how Trump's words actually literally incited his supporters on January 6th. Here we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to walk down to the Capitol.
CROWD: Yes.
CROWD: Storm, storm, storm.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Let's take the Capitol.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Take the Capitol.
TRUMP: We will stop the steal.
CROWD: Yes.
CROWD: Stop the steal, stop the steal.
TRUMP: And we fight, we fight like hell.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, we do.
TRUMP: And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.
CRWOD: Fight for Trump, fight for Trump, fight for Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Rand Paul -- it's sort of a real stretch of whataboutism.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
VAUSE: And in this context, it just seems nonsensical. And yet the majority of Republicans are behind him. BROWNSTEIN: Rand Paul, noted constitutional scholar, who thought that
the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of '64 applying to private business were unconstitutional.
So look, as I said, this is very transparent. This is about the conclusion by most Republicans that they cannot afford to alienate Trump or alienate his base.
And I have often said that people assume that's because they're afraid of him, they're afraid he will launch a primary campaign against them -- and I suppose there is that risk and we can see it play out in 2022 in Georgia and other states.
But I think it is really more because they need him. Because every Republican, virtually every Republican running for office now is facing the same erosion in the white-collar suburbs that used to lean Republican as a result of a recoil from Trump's definition of the party.
And as a result, they all need enormous turnout among the Trump base of non-urban, non-college and evangelical whites.
In many ways, he has addicted the entire party to the drug that he successfully pushes. Which is generating that enormous turnout and, in effect, as I said, they are putting themselves in a position where they are ensuring that he has leverage over them going forward.
VAUSE: We hear from Republicans now it's time to put the past behind us, time to come together, unity.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN MCCARTHY, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER: A vote to impeach will further fan the flames of partisan division.
REP. JIM JORDAN, (R-OHIO): We should be focused on bringing the nation together. Instead, Democrats are going to impeach the president for a second time.
MADISON CAWTHORN, (R-N.C.): Today is the moment for members of congress to put aside partisan politicking and place people over power.
REP. MATT GAETZ, (R-FLA.): I'm increasingly concerned the Democrats are drafting articles of impeachment to further divide America.
MCCARTHY: All of us must resist the temptation of further polarization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes, that's rich. What's seems difficult to explain though is that many of those Republican lawmakers who a calling for unity and just letting Trump off the hook, including Rand Paul, three weeks ago were hiding under their desks in locked rooms as Trump insurgents stormed the Capitol.
Just as they feared for their lives then, many now fear for their political lives. And I guess this is what you say, this is the end result of the Trump takeover of the GOP.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, it's the end result of them constantly providing him more rope. And, of course, a majority, a clear majority of House Republicans who are now kind of braying about unity voted to overturn the election and, in effect, make Trump the president for four more years over the will of the voters, even after the riot.
Not to mention what so many Republicans did in the weeks leading up to it in refusing to acknowledge Biden's victory. And none of that was divisive?
[01:25:00]
And we're going to see Republicans led by Mitch McConnell filibustering almost every priority that Joe Biden lays out. And that is kind of like in the service of unity?
In essence, what these Republicans are saying is they want a kind of -- they want a get out of jail free card. They want to just kind of turn the page, wipe away all of their actions in the Trump years.
But I don't know if it's that easy to do. And I do think there are lots of previously Republican voters in the suburbs of cities like Atlanta and Phoenix and Dallas and Houston, who look at what happened on January 6th, who look at guys in pelts and people with zip ties ransacking the Capitol, looking to capture and hang a noose outside of the Capitol and they say to themselves, is that the coalition where I belong, do I belong in the same coalition with that (ph) people?
Look at the reporting of KFILE today on CNN.com about what the QAnon congresswoman from Georgia had been saying in the last few years about executing Democrats.
This is kind of the Faustian bargain they have made. They are accepting -- they want the energy and enthusiasm that Trump inspires among his base. But as we saw both in 2018 and in this election, there is a real cost for that --
VAUSE: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: -- among previously Republican voters. And yet, they are again acting in a way that cements his influence over the party.
VAUSE: They just can't give up the drug, I guess. They're just sort of addicted to it in some way, Ron.
But thanks for being with us. Ron Brownstein there.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, John.
VAUSE: -- (inaudible) for us. Well, the financial toll from the COVID pandemic has been devastating around the world and in the United States.
Millions have already lost their jobs and, despite some help from the federal government, many Americans could still lose so much more.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich reports now from New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michelle Bennett and her children are living in fear. Her landlord is trying to evict them after she lost her job and can't pay rent.
MICHELLE BENNETT, FACING EVICTION: I don't really have anywhere to go with me not having the income to pay during the pandemic. Because I don't want to be homeless.
YURKEVICH: The eviction crisis is just one of the economic disasters facing the Biden Administration including historic job loss and a growing hunger crisis.
Last week, President Biden signed an executive order extending a ban on evictions through March.
But doesn't help Bennett, whose lawyers say her landlord is using a loophole that's becoming more common during the pandemic.
BENNETT: I've already started packing.
YURKEVICH: Biden's 1.9 trillion dollar stimulus plan proposes about 30 billion in additional rental assistance. For months, Bennett's tried applying so she can stay in her home. With no luck.
BENNETT: When you call, it's like no money or call back next month, maybe there'll be money then. And then you call back that next month, it's still oh, we're out of money.
YURKEVICH: Gabbie Riley is also out of a job. Weekly unemployment claims are back hovering a million. And last month, the economy shed jobs for the first time since April.
Every single one of those 140,000 jobs lost was held by a woman. Riley is one of them.
GABBIE RILEY, LAID OFF IN DECEMBER: It's maddening, it's frustrating, it's defeating.
YURKEVICH: Riley worked in sales at the Loews hotel in Minneapolis. Leisure and hospitality lost more jobs than any other U.S. industry last year.
Riley, a single mom, is worried her career is over.
RILEY: We have a long way to go yet before our economic society is really feeling and appreciating what females have to contribute to society.
MELODY SAMUELS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST HUNGER: What is a food pantry without food?
YURKEVICH: As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, food banks across the country are running out of critical government funding. The Campaign Against Hunger in Brooklyn, New York says their money is nearly gone.
SAMUELS: It's frightening. I don't know what I'm going to do because I still have food to buy.
YURKEVICH: President Biden signed an executive order to address hunger, directing the department of agriculture to give families more money to replace school lunches and increase food stamps for about 12 million Americans.
But some on the brink will still fall through the cracks and food banks need federal funding to feed them.
SAMUELS: I need assurance from all our policymakers that listen, you started, we need to finish this thing. We started helping families, we can't leave them in thin air.
YURKEVICH (Voice Over): Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, Brooklyn, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Join us for a CNN Global Town Hall: Coronavirus Facts And Fears, we'll have experts from President Biden's COVID team. That's 1:00 a.m. in London, 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. Only on CNN.
Well, Joe Biden is moving ahead with his campaign promise to tackle climate change.
Coming up. A look at a series of executive actions he's expected to sign in the coming hours.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:32:25]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Well, President Biden now says the time has come to try and heal this country's racial divide. He announced a series of executive orders and pointed to George Floyd's death as a pivotal moment in pushing the country towards a racial reckoning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Those eight minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyd's life, opened the eyes of millions of Americans and millions of people around -- all over the world. It was the knee on the neck of justice and it wouldn't be forgotten.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: In four separate executive orders Biden directed the Justice Department to end contracts with privately-run prisons, ordered increase enforcement of a fair housing law, committed to strengthen relations with Native American tribes, made a government policy to condemn anti-Asian bias specifically with regards to the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden is expected to sign another round of executive orders in the coming hours focusing on climate change. He's also expected to raise the climate crisis to an issue of national security.
CNN's Bill Weir has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): During a 2020 filled with broken record-breaking fire and drought, massive swarms of locusts and so many hurricanes they ran out of names, Joe Biden promised to help avoid planet cooking, climate changing, fossil fuel suicide.
BIDEN: A cry for survival comes from the planet itself.
WEIR: And within hours of his oath, he signed an executive order for every agency and government to be guided by the best science, while undoing the many results of Donald Trump's fossil fuel fetish.
The first target listed, involves places like the Permian Basin of Texas, where a certain kind of heat-trapping pollution belches, unchecked and invisible.
(on camera): Unless you have a special infrared camera like this which can turn a Texas blue bird sky, into this. And this is methane, a greenhouse gas, 80 times more potent in carbon dioxide. If CO2 is a blanket of average thickness, methane is a blanket as thick as Lebron James is tall.
(voice over): The gas does lose its potency much faster than CO2, but the volume is staggering. Along with all the active oil and gas production, the U.S. has millions of abandoned wells leaking methane.
Biden's strategy to stop this may become clear with Wednesday's second batch of climate orders when he's also expected to halt any new drilling and fracking on federal land and water.
[01:34:59]
WEIR: And since he also rejoined the Paris Accord, the whole world is watching.
JOHN KERRY, U.S. SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE: We come back, I want you to know, with humility for the absence of the last four years and will do everything in our power to make up for it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so happy to hear that John Kerry say this, because we need the U.S. to be back at the center of the action.
WEIR: Not so happy? Republicans like Ted Cruz who's already turned Trump's line about representing Pittsburgh not Paris into a bumper sticker. But the evenly divided Senate also has a Democrat.
SENATOR JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): I'm Joe Manchin --
WEIR: Who once shot a literal hole through his own party's climate plan.
MANCHIN: I sued EPA and I'll take dead aim at the Cap and Trade Bill because it's bad for West Virginia.
WEIR: In a statement, the senator from Coal Country now says the Paris Accord must be improved so all countries are held to the same standard and that every resource must be used in the cleanest way possible.
(on camera): Who do you think is a bigger obstacle to the goals of real climate action? Is it Republicans like Ted Cruz or is it a coal state Democrat like Joe Manchin?
VARSHINI PRAKASH, CO-FOUNDER SUNRISE MOVEMENT: It's hard to substantiate, you know, which one is more or less of a threat.
WEIR: The Sunrise Movement, had twice as many members arrested for their 2018 Capitol Hill protest than the mob on the day of the incursion.
And their cofounder vows to keep the pressure on everyone, including the man she helped get elected.
PRAKASH: I think the key here is that Joe Biden cannot litigate these issues behind closed doors, with obstructionist Republicans. He cannot immediately moderate or temper his vision.
There is this false sense that just taking a policy and moderating it or making it milk toast will make it apply to a broader swath of people with, but that's simply not true.
WEIR: And for Biden, this test is time and every day this invisible problem goes unsolved, the results get a lot more visible.
Bill Weir, CNN -- Odessa, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Let's stay with the story a little longer. CNN's John Defterios is live for us in Abu Dhabi.
So John, you know, Biden has made it clear that action on climate crisis, his action on jobs as well -- they go together like peanut butter and jelly. And in many ways that sort of brings him in line with, you know, the way the Europeans have seen it all along.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes, you can almost hear the sight of relief from the European Union especially John with the Biden nomination for reentering the climate agreement on Paris specifically. The U.S. Is a country that has a lot of heft to rebuild momentum to Paris. But also for COP26 at the end of the year in Glasgow. So we're going to see this rollout very likely today from John Kerry, speaking at virtual Davos, for the moratorium on any new leases for oil and gas on federal land or waters going forward.
This follows the pledge to go to net zero emissions, neutrality by 2050. Can't imagine the Europeans as you're talking about, at 100 percent on the electrical grid in the United States, renewable energy by 2035. That is an ambitious target but this dovetails nicely with the European Union.
So they're hoping Europe and United States can get this momentum back around the world. France, Denmark, Germany leading that pushed there by the E.U. in Brussels.
Let's take a listen to Angela Merkel at the World Economic Forum yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): We had said our European goal, our national goal for CO2 emissions from 40 percent to 55 percent is something that we want to aim at four 2030.
We have committed ourselves for 2050 to climate neutrality which may well lead to a situation that Europe and once we have achieved that is the first climate neutral continent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: Now, a major milestone passed last year, John. In fact renewable energy surpassed fossil fuels on the electrical grid in Europe for the first time ever, as coal demand is dropping. That makes the transition to gas which is cleaner burning but particularly solar and win here and hydrogen getting into the system.
VAUSE: Angela Merkel had quite the virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum. Is she -- sort of (INAUDIBLE) -- with President Xi Jinping she was going for transparency, right?
DEFTERIOS: Yes. She didn't mention President Xi by name, but after 16 years as chancellor and a mainstay at Davos, even though this is a virtual one, she takes certain liberties. So she said everybody talks about multilateralism and that was a point to Xi speaks the day before. She says we are lacking transparency.
[01:39:50]
DEFTERIOS: And I thought it was bold enough for her to say that we didn't get the origins of the virus from China in terms of the information flow, nor from the World Health Organization in terms of their information policy not willing to take on China.
Now having said that, Xi came under some criticism for pushing forward the E.U.-China investment agreement before the Biden inauguration and that did not go over well in Washington. But she did challenge Xi this time. VAUSE: John thank. John Defterios there in Abu Dhabi.
Well, Japan's prime minister has apologized for his government's response to the latest surge of the coronavirus pandemic. Yoshihide Suga says COVID patients have not received appropriate medical care.
The country reported more than 3,800 new honor cases on Tuesday pushing the total past 370,000.
CNN's Blake Essig is live in Tokyo. Blake, an apology is a good start I guess. Does the prime minister actually have a plan to try and fix what has gone wrong?
BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, you know, that it's something but the reality of the situation here is that the situation in Japan is dire. The medical system is straining, and here on the ground medical experts are saying that there is a chance that ICU beds are going to run out. That includes for coronavirus patients and non- coronavirus patients, who might be suffering from other serious illnesses like a heart attack.
Now, CNN recently reached out to the 11 prefectures that are currently under the state of emergency order and found out that there are more than 18,000 coronavirus patients currently either waiting to be admitted to a hospital or other medical care facility at this time.
And with reports of people dying while convalescing from the coronavirus at home, yesterday, during a session of parliament Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was asked if he takes responsibility?
Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOSHIHIDE SUGA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We have been aiming to make a medical system which, as much as possible, provides treatments to the people who need it. It is our job to appropriately prepare a system where people will not die while they're being transported to hospitals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ESSIG: At the same time that the medical system here in Japan is straining, Japan's government is touting its vaccine rollout. Now just today, while other countries all over the world have already been vaccinating their residents for almost two months, Japan held a vaccination drill in Kawasaki City to get a better idea of how long it's going to take the vaccinate people and how big the system that they need to put in place is actually going to be.
And so again, with six months to go before the Olympics are set to begin, the goal is to start vaccinating people by the end of February and have everyone -- all 127 million people here in Japan vaccinated before the Olympics take place in about six months time, John.
VAUSE: They still think they're going to happen? We'll see. Blake, thank you. Blake Essig there in Tokyo.
Next up here on CNN NEWSROOM, members of the Dutch government vowing not to surrender to idiots and scum after several nights of riots. A look at what's behind the unrests in a moment.
[01:43:09]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: The Dutch government is vowing not to give in to protesters after several nights of angry confrontations over COVID lockdown measures. The clashes, looting and arson in multiple cities have led to hundreds of arrests.
CNN's Scott McLean has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Another night of violent riots in the Netherlands. Hundreds of rioters taking to the streets across the country. It comes days after the government instituted a nighttime curfew starting at 9 pm. designed to reduce social contact and the spread of the coronavirus.
Rioters set off fireworks, threw stones, looted stores and, authorities say, sought confrontation with police. Riot police responded with water cannons and tear gas. Some police officers even moved in on bicycles.
At least 180 people arrested Monday and 250 on Sunday.
"It has nothing to do with protest", Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Tuesday. "It's criminal violence," he said, "and we will treat it as such."
The government insist that while people are welcome to disagree with its policy decisions, it will not back down to people one minister called, quote, "idiots".
"I'm not going to mince words," says the mayor of one badly-affected city, "it's scum of the earth."
Coronavirus cases are declining in the Netherlands, but the government insists a curfew is necessary to prevent social contact, protect against more infectious strains of the virus and head off a third wave.
But with more cities implementing emergency security measures, it's not just the virus the government is trying to tamp down.
Scott McLean, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well after a massive day of violent protests farmers in India say they will fight on. They want the government to repeal three new laws which they say benefit big business at their expense.
CNN's Vedika Sud has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Wild (ph) scenes in the heart of India (INAUDIBLE) in New Delhi. What was to be a massive but peaceful rally in tractors and on foot by tens of thousands of farmers, into Delhi protesting agriculture reforms soon turned violent.
The protesters were granted permission by police but tensions escalated after they diverted from agreed on routes while entering Delhi breaching barricades which led to clashes with police.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Delhi police is responsible. We wanted to march peacefully but they used tear gas, damaged our tractors and used batons.
SUD: Batons and tear gas were used by outnumbered security forces to control widespread protests. Thousand then moved towards India's historic red port, converging at the gate, clambering walls.
In an unprecedented move, a flag was hoisted alongside India's national flag. It is from this iconic monument India's prime ministers have been delivering the speech on Independence Day.
As a show of strength, farmer unions wanted to coincide the rally with India's 72nd Republic Day parade. But as tanks paraded before the Indian prime minister, tractors driven by protesters ran across the capital almost crushing police personnel standing in their way.
The Delhi police in a statement blamed farmers for floating guidelines and resorting to violence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of our policemen were injured. Such incidents should not take place during peaceful protests.
SUD: After multiple rounds of talks, the Indian government offered suspending the contentious reforms for a year and a half which was rejected by farmer unions.
Today's violence, reduces their bargaining power.
YOGENDRA YADAV, FARMER ACTIVIST (through translator): What has happened has happened but now there should be no violence or anything that will defame the farmers' movements. The respect, the dignity of farmers is in your hands.
SUD: What is earlier described as largely peaceful protests by hundreds of thousands of farmers who have been braving the intense cold and at Delhi's borders, for the last month is now being criticized for descending into chaos.
Vedika Sud, CNN -- New Delhi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well a somber day of remembrance and a push for future generations to carry on the stories of the Holocaust.
Coming up one survivor explains how the lessons can be applied today.
[01:49:48]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: It's been 76 years since Soviet troops liberated the death camp at Auschwitz. The industrial scale death camp where the Nazis killed more than a million people, most of them Jewish. There's just a few survivors still alive to recall their stories. And in his remarks to open the Holocaust Memorial Day, Prince Charles said it's up to the next generation to ensure those stories are never forgotten.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES, PRINCE OF WALES: As I speak, the last generation of living witnesses is tragically passing from this world. So the task of bearing witness falls to us.
This is not a task for one time only. Nor is it a task for one generation or one person. It is for all people, all generations and all-time. This is our time when we can each in our own way be the light that ensures the darkness can never return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Germany will mark Holocaust Day at the Bundestag in about three hours from now. And as the world acknowledges the horrors of the past one survivor sees disturbing evidence that hatred from that past is once again with us here and now.
Clarissa Ward has her story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Born in berlin in 1930, Irene Butter grew up as a Jewish girl in Nazi- occupied Europe forced to endure the horrors of the holocaust.
IRENE BUTTER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: Hitler came to power when I was three years old and gradually the persecution of the Jews developed.
WARD: In 1937, Butter's family fled to the Netherlands, but a German invasion in 1940 left them under Nazi oppression once again.
First they were sent to a transit camp and then to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where Butter knew Anne Frank before she died there. Butter nearly suffer the same tragic fate.
BUTTER: After one year of horrible conditions, my family barely survived. Not giving up hope was a very critical thing. To hope that the war will end, that I will survive. WARD: Soon after Butter's beloved father died on their train to
freedom. Her mother and brother were hospitalized. And 14-year-old Butter was sent to France, then Algiers, and finally the United States.
BUTTER: I was separated from my mother and my brother for 18 months before we were reunited in New York to start a new life.
WARD: In the U.S., Butter earned her doctorate, became a professor and started a family. Now with grandchildren, bearing witness to her legacy.
SHIREEN NASSAR, GRANDDAUGHTER OF IRENE BUTTER: I actually heard about her story at a very, very young age. And I remember being terrified. I feel very, very fortunate to have a grandmother that is so, so strong. That has survived something like this. And I've learned so much from her.
[01:54:57]
WARD: Telling others about her ordeal was not always easy for Butter. It took four decades before she could relive what she had endured in the Holocaust.
(on camera): What allowed you or what prompted you to take on a more public role in discussing what you went through?
BUTTER: Well, I would say one of the main influences was (INAUDIBLE). I once heard him speak on the radio and he said if you were in the camps, if you smelt the air and heard the silence of the dead, then it's your duty to be a witness and to tell the story.
WARD (voice over): Since finding her voice, Butter has told her story around the world with a focus on speaking in schools.
BUTTERS: The responses I received from students to my story who put themselves in my shoes and tried to relate their own lives to it, that is what gives me hope.
WARD (on camera): What do you want the younger generation, Shireen and Shireen's friends to take away from the horrors that you went through?
BUTTER: Well, I think we learned something there again, echoes of the Holocaust. And on January 6th, we saw it in our own country when there was an attempted coup. And rioting in Washington D.C. and some of the rioters wore Nazi symbols and used Nazi slogans.
So it's right back here. And I think we learned from it. I think we learned that democracy is vulnerable. And we cannot take anything for granted. But it is up to us to the people, to preserve and protect our democratic institutions and our constitution.
WARD (voice over): Still, Butter has faith in humanity, despite all the atrocities she has faced.
BUTTER: There is good in every person. We're all made of the same fabric regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion. I think that our humanity overrides all of these differences.
WARD: Clarissa Ward, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. The news continues after a break here on CNN with Rosemary Church.
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