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Countries Fighting Over Vaccine Deliveries; U.K. Reaches 100k Death Toll; Lack of Dedication to Combat COVID-19 Has Serious Consequences; President Biden Says Help is on the Way; Impeachment is More Likely to Become Dead on Arrival; Complacency Kills Innocent People; Biden Confronts Vladimir Putin On Cyber-Attack, Navalny Poisoning; Russian Youth Take On Longtime Leader; Antony Blinken Sworn In As U.S. Secretary of State; President Biden Signs Orders Promoting Racial Equity And Polices On Climate Change; One Step Closer To Answers In Wuhan; Dutch Government Vows Not To Bow To Anti-Lockdown Rioters; Holocaust Survivor's Story. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired January 27, 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 from all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, as the world deals with illness and death from COVID-19 we are seeing a fight heat up over vaccine exports.
A tough road ahead for U.S. Democrats as most Republicans backed Donald Trump ahead of his impeachment trial.
And on Holocaust Remembrance Day one survivor warns that we must stay vigilant to preserve democracy amid what she calls echoes of the Holocaust.
Good to have you with us.
One year ago, coronavirus was only beginning to creep into the world consciousness. Cases were centered in China as authorities there struggled to get a group on the problem. Fast forward 365 days and the pandemic has left its mark on every corner of the globe.
The world has just crossed 100 million cases as new variants of the virus continue to spread.
In Britain, they have crossed their own milestone, 100,000 people have now died there. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he takes full responsibility for what has happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We truly did everything we could and continue to do everything that we can to minimize loss of life and minimize suffering in what has been a very, very difficult stage and a very, very difficult crisis for our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): Meanwhile, in Europe, the fight over vaccine availability is getting very messy, the European Union is calling out AstraZeneca and Pfizer for delivery delays with threats of restricting exports and legal action.
So, let's get the latest. Salma Abdelaziz joins us from London, and Cyril Vanier is in Paris. Good to see you both. Cyril, I want to start with you. And of course, like everywhere else, demand for the COVID vaccine is outstripping supply. And that is what is triggering these tensions. There are problems between the E.U. and AstraZeneca specifically, talk to us about that. Bring us up to date on the situation.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, major tensions, Rosemary. I think you can't overstate the tensions. The E.U. is furious at vaccine maker AstraZeneca, all this over a vaccine that they hadn't even approved yet, but the AstraZeneca vaccine which is already been approved in the U.K. should be approved by the European Medicines Agency for use in the 27 member states later this week.
And those countries, because they're facing a third wave of the coronavirus, in part fueled by the new variant first identified in the U.K. Those countries really, really wanted to hit the ground running with schedule deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
And, unfortunately, AstraZeneca announced a few days ago that there was going to be a substantial decrease in the number of doses that they would be delivering in the first few months that's why the E.U. is furious. They didn't really understand why. AstraZeneca says it's due to a manufacturing problem at their European plant.
The U.K. is a bit of an irritant here, indirectly, I would say. Because AstraZeneca is delivering everything it needs to deliver on schedule to the U.K., the reason says the AstraZeneca's CEO is because the U.K. preordered doses earlier than the European Union did. And that explains why AstraZeneca is on time in the U.K. and two months behind schedule in the E.U.
Well, the E.U. is asking for explanations. It is unclear whether they can really do anything, whether they have any leverage to accelerate the AstraZeneca rollout. What is clear is how badly they needed. Because the vaccination program in European countries has started slowly. It is patchy, and it is for the moment the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines which are harder to roll out because they need to be kept at very low temperatures whereas the AstraZeneca one, as we know, is more convenient because it can be kept in a simple refrigerator.
And that is why in the U.K. they are able to vaccinate up to 500,000 people a day we saw that earlier this week.
CHURCH: Indeed. And of course, as you mentioned that vaccine rollout across Europe has been very sluggish. Only a very small percentage of the population has been vaccinated. So, bring us up to date on the cases and hospitalizations across the continent.
[03:05:01]
VANIER: Well look, they are going up in many countries. Look at France, look at Spain, look at Portugal. Here in France, infection rates are just about stable but hospital admissions are growing up and deaths are going up. And that is why the French are afraid that there might be a third national stay-at-home order just around the corner.
If you look at Portugal and Spain, they are arguably at a worse point than they've been since the beginning of this pandemic. In Spain, there have been 400,000 cases over the last fortnight. That means 16 percent of COVID infections for Spain have happened since the very beginning of the pandemic have happened in the last two weeks alone. Sixteen percent, Rosemary.
And as for Portugal, for the last seven, eight days they have kept establishing new records of deaths every day. So again, they are at the worst point that they have been in this pandemic since last year. It is not a good picture. We know this is being fueled by a rise in the COVID variant first detected in the U.K. which now accounts for about 9 percent of positive COVID tests. In some parts of France, it is estimated to be 20 to 30 percent in Portugal, Rosemary. And that again underscores the need to accelerate the vaccination rollout.
CHURCH: Yes, it is so frustrating at this point. But at least there is a vaccine. The problem is this supply line. We got to work on this. Thanks for that, Cyril.
Salma, to you now. Prime Minister Johnson says he is deeply as the U.K. death toll passes 100,000. Many of those lives lost in aged care homes. Bring us up to date on the situation there.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: It's truly is a somber day here, Rosemary, because that terrible, terrible milestone, 100,000 deaths, that is not proportionate by any stretch of the imagination. A third of those figures, a full third of it comes from care home residents. And that's not all. You are overwhelmingly more likely to be a victim to be one of those 100,000 if you're a member of the minority community, if you are black, if you are poor, if you live in a multi- generational household.
This virus has not been a great equalizer. It has exposed the socioeconomic divisions in this country and that's why there is so much anger and grief today here, as well.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of course saying the government did everything they could. The authorities took all the steps necessary. But there's going to be questions asked because the U.K. now has the highest death rate per capita in the world, Rosemary.
How did it reach this point? I think critics will tell you that at times the government did not act quickly enough. Lockdowns weren't put into place fast enough. Scientific advisers weren't listened to closely enough. And I think what really struck me in listening to the prime minister
yesterday was that he was not just talking about the past, about this as a death toll that has passed us, we are still very much in the throes of this surge, this terrible surge cause by the variant that you just heard my colleague Cyril described now in Europe.
And that variant has contributed to tens of thousands of these deaths. So, the prime minister yesterday of course giving his condolences to these families, but also saying unfortunately many more lives will be lost. That death toll will only climb. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Yes. It is such a grim outlook. Salma Abdelaziz bringing us up to date live from London. Many thanks.
Well joining me now is Dr. Peter Drobac, infectious disease and global health expert at the University of Oxford. Thank you, doctor for talking with us.
PETER DROBAC, GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERT, OXFORD SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL: Thank you for having me, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So more than 100,000 lives have been lost to COVID-19 in the U.K. The highest per capita death rate in the world for COVID-19. Why has the U.K. been hit so hard by this virus? And is the government doing enough to try to help people safe, as they insist they have?
DROBAC: This is obviously an absolutely a heartbreaking milestone and unfortunately it is -- it was predictable. And at least some of this was preventable. You know, if you go back 10 months to early March, I, and many other health professionals were warning that unless the U.K. started to take this more seriously, abandon this idea of letting the virus spread for herd immunity, that we would risk hundreds of thousands of deaths.
And at that time, we're called alarmists, and it was called political, and unfortunately, you know, some of those predictions did bear out. And our consistent failure to build a public health infrastructure and to do the basics well has driven a lot of this.
Now this would be hard for anybody, and I'm sure that intentions have always been the best. What concern yesterday in the prime minister's remarks was that he said that there would be a time to learn from this when this is all behind us. We need to be learning from this now and every single day and improving.
Because as was just pointed out, we're still at a point where we have record numbers of patients in ICUs and record numbers of deaths. We have this variant spreading and the vaccine rollout is going reasonably well in the U.K. But there's a long way to go and the vaccine alone will not save us.
[03:10:00]
CHURCH: Yes, and of course, it has to be said though, that U.K. is doing well with its vaccination rollout but the same can't be said for the European Union. And as far as they're concerned it's because they were a little late to the party when they signed the deal with AstraZeneca and with Pfizer.
But that seems an extraordinary situation now, AstraZeneca sending its doses to the U.K. as a priority. There is a big problem here, isn't there? This access to supply?
DROBAC: Exactly. You know, manufacturing a vaccine of this scale is incredibly challenging. Famously it's a complex and finick process. We see this often with manufacturing of flu vaccinations. So, it's not a surprise that there are going to be some delays and problem in production of course. The problem is scarcity that we all need these vaccines so badly.
We're not asking the right questions here. The questions we should be asking is, how can we do more to increase our manufacturing capacity and make as many of these vaccines as possible. And second, how can we work together to distribute these scarce resources most effectively to the people most in need.
We're seeing now the consequences of wealthy countries competing with one another for a limited supply and leaving everybody else out in the cold. You know, COVID-19 with a new variant is raging in South Africa right. There's been not one single dose of vaccine administered in South Africa and that's also tragic.
CHURCH: Yes, it is. It's an important point because we are seeing people fall over themselves trying to get it in the United States. We're seeing that across the European Union, in Britain particularly. So, what about those poorer nations, they're being left out in the cold? And what will that mean for the world because we want global herd immunity here?
DROBAC: Exactly. So, there are couple of big problems, right? If we continue going on this path it's going to -- it's going to mean that it's going to take much longer for us actually to control this pandemic. We could save many more lives with equitable distributions to those most in need around the world rather than this wealthy country first strategy.
The other problem that you can start foreseeing is, you know, picture the world 6, 9, 12 months from now. If wealthy countries have largely vaccinated their populations, open back up and they are, you know, back to life. And everybody else around the world is suffering and borders are closed. We're going to have, you know, two very different worlds.
You know, think about that widening of inequality. That's a recipe for all kinds of geopolitical problems. Listen, I don't know why we're, you know, just sitting back and counting on a few pharmaceutical companies to save everybody by manufacturing this stuff. There are ways that we can open up intellectual property rights and have a coordinated global effort to manufacturers many of these vaccines and other technologies as possible.
WHO is called for it. We could work through the World Trade Organization. If we really have an approach of global solidarity, I think we could do better. CHURCH: Yes. I think it's a massive point. A very poignant too. Peter
Drobac, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.
DROBAC: Thanks so much.
CHURCH (on camera): Well, amidst frustrations over COVID-19 vaccine shortages, President Joe Biden says that the U.S. will buy 200 million more doses. The goal is to have enough to fully vaccinate nearly every American by the end of the summer or early fall.
On Tuesday, Mr. Biden also announce plans to increase the number of doses being distributed and to give states more information on how many they can expect. The president calls it a wartime undertaking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We didn't get into this mess overnight. And it's going to take months for us to turn things around. But let me be equally clear. We're going to get through this. We will defeat this pandemic. And to a nation waiting for action, let me be clear on this point, help is on the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): And a new survey finds nearly half of all Americans hope to get vaccinated as soon as possible, or have already been vaccinated. That is a jump from December when only 34 percent were willing to get the vaccine. So far in the U.S. more than 23 million doses have been administered.
CNN's Drew Griffin takes a closer look at what has so far been a slow moving vaccine rollout across the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This mass vaccination center inside Atlanta's Mercedes Benz Stadium could be vaccinating up to 2,000 people a day, but on Monday it had just 150 appointments.
I am a bit surprised at the lack of business here.
SARAH APATOV, MEDICAL VOLUNTEER: Yes. Well, well we're reserving the appointments for how many doses we have available.
GRIFFIN: There is just not enough vaccine. Fulton County health director Dr. Lynn Paxton says her team alone could handle 50,000 doses a week. She's lucky if they get 10,000.
LYNN PAXTON, DIRECTOR, FULTON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH: We have to be very judicious and how we schedule our appointments. And the important thing I want everyone to know, is that we are in no way hoarding these vaccine doses.
[03:15:06] GRIFFIN: Louisiana's governor decided not to have mass vaccination sites for now, there's just not enough vaccine. In Florida, hospitals have canceled appointments because vaccines didn't show up. In parts of Texas, people lined up for hours.
UNKNOWN: I've been in line since five o'clock this morning.
GRIFFIN: CNN interviewed more than a dozen health officials from across the country and the message is largely unanimous. For many states, local health department and hospitals it's not just the lack of vaccine doses causing the chaos, for weeks there was a lack of information from the federal government.
AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, PROVIDENCE ST. JOSEPH HEALTH: I think having a federal plan would absolutely stop the kind of hunger games approach to every individual state, every individual county scrambling for their own set of rules.
GRIFFIN: Without knowing how much vaccine is going to be shipped to them and when, it's nearly impossible to plan. And that means crashing web sites, appointments impossible to get and a vaccine rollout that is looking a heck of a lot like that botched rollout for coronavirus testing.
This sounds almost like a repeat of where is the testing when COVID first happened.
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: It does feel a little too familiar. We're in that exact same position with vaccines right now. We're turning away people that we know are over 65 with heart disease and we're saying we're sorry, but we can't -- we don't have a vaccine for you today.
GRIFFIN: Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips who helps run 51 hospitals in seven states is dealing with another big problem. Worrying about everyone getting the required second dose. A clinic in Seattle that was vaccinating more than 2,000 people a day, is about to face a massive 90 percent cut.
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: So, what about all of those people who got dose one, now our allocations is cut back by 90 percent. How are we going to get everybody dose two?
GRIFFIN: That too is playing out across the U.S. Each state gets first doses and earmark second doses which are required for full immunity. Last week Colorado's governor ordered those second doses be used as first doses immediately.
GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): I sent a letter to all of our partners, the administrative vaccine directing them that all the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine they have, including the ones who were designated as second doses.
GRIFFIN: Most other states like New York are only using second doses on those who have already had a first shot. GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): 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.
GRIFFIN: It could all be solved with more vaccine. A problem the Biden ministration announced it will tackle with more than a million additional doses per week. It can't happen fast enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): Drew Griffin with that report. And just ahead here on CNN, why Republican Senator Rand Paul says the impeachment trial of Donald Trump is dead on arrival.
Plus, new details about the January 6th attack on the capitol. The acting capitol police chief says the department did not do enough to prepare. More on that on the other side of the break.
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CHURCH (on camera): Welcome back, everyone.
Well, here in the United States a Trump ally is slamming Democrats for pursuing an impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump. Senator Rand Paul argues that it's nothing more than a partisan exercise design to further divide the country. And on Tuesday, he pressed for Senate vote to declare the trial unconstitutional since Trump is no longer president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Impeachment is for removal from office. And the accused here, has already left office. Hyper partisan Democrats are about to drag our great country down into the gutter of rancor and vitriol, the likes of which has never been seen in our nation's history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): The Senate rejected his argument, voting 55 to 45, though most Republicans sided with Paul. The procedural vote highlights just how challenging it maybe for Democrats to convict Trump by a two-thirds majority. Paul went even further saying, quote, "impeachment is dead on arrival." Trump's trial starts on February 9th.
Joining me now is Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Always great to have you with us, Larry.
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So, Donald Trump's second impeachment is already overshadowing President Biden's effort to deal with a multitude of crises. And now, it is looking unlikely that Democrats will get the required 17 Republican senators they need to help convict Trump if Tuesday's vote on the constitutionality of this trial is anything to go by. How do you see this trial playing out?
SABATO: I think the conclusion is obvious. The Republicans would never going to convict Donald Trump. Never. No matter what Mitch McConnell was saying, no matter what some other senators said to cover themselves because of Trump's outrageous actions on January the 6th.
What they -- what they are doing now is giving themselves an excuse to vote no on conviction. They are going to say, we see it's unconstitutional, so even though I have doubts about what President Trump did on January 6th, I cannot possibly vote to convict him. It's unconstitutional. That's ridiculous. But that's what they're going to say.
CHURCH: So, if that is the case what is the next move for the Democrats? What do they need to do given their aim is to ensure he doesn't ever become president for the United States of America ever again?
SABATO: The first thing they can do is to really pile up the evidence when they had the floor in the Senate during the trial. And goodness knows, there is plenty of evidence and much of it is video. So, I think it will tend to influence people in the audience, influence Americans who are watching, or even the evening news programs.
So that's a good thing. Because they want to make sure that the public stays with them. And the public is with them right now. As far as what they can do about Trump, there are other ways to approach this.
First of all, if in fact the Republicans refuse to convict Trump, which I think is very likely, they could move immediately to censure Trump, very strongly worded censure. It's a simple majority in both Houses, and of course Democrats control both houses, narrowly. And once he is censured, they can use some means to keep him off the ballot in the future.
CHURCH: Interesting. And of course, as you mentioned, House managers they are preparing their case, planning to show video evidence of Trump inciting the crowd, reactions to his words within that crowd. Trump's many tweets relating to that insurrection.
In a court of law, the evidence is overwhelming. But in an impeachment trial it's all about politics. So, if Republicans decide not to convict Trump for inciting this mob, what will that reveal about accountability in this country, Republican senators, and their party?
SABATO: Even some Republicans have said, if you can't convict a president for doing what Donald Trump did on January 6th, and now we're learning before January 6th and some other actions concerning the Justice Department, if you can't convict a president for mob insurrection, inciting insurrection, what can you convict a president for? We might as well do away with the impeachment clause. CHURCH: What do you think Mitch McConnell strategy is here because he
has made it clear that he thinks that Donald Trump committed impeachable offenses. But then he throws spanner in the works in the Tuesday vote, although he probably had no choice but to vote against this being constitutional.
[03:25:09]
Could he flip the other way is that possible? What do you think his strategy is here?
SABATO: It's possible that he votes to convict. I'm skeptical but it is possible given what he said. But he's only likely to do it if he knows the votes are there not convict Trump because the idea would be to give the party cover. They can always say our leader boldly stepped forward and voted to convict the president knowing that it wouldn't pass. So, there are lots of political game being played here.
Absolutely right to suggest that. I think it's not all about politics. It's really about the Constitution and it's about what we as a republic, a Democratic republic will tolerate. But nonetheless, the Republicans have already constructed their alibis. And their alibi is that this is unconstitutional, which as I said, was malarkey.
CHURCH: Yes, indeed. Larry Sabato, always a pleasure to get your analysis on all things political. Many thanks.
SABATO: Thank you very much, Rosemary.
CHURCH (on camera): And House impeachment managers are scouring video of the attack on the capital to use as evidence against Donald Trump. Meanwhile, lawmakers say they are stunned by how unprepared capitol police and federal law enforcement were. One calls it dumb luck more people didn't die.
CNN's Jessica Schneider has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDON STRAKA, FOUNDER, WALKAWAY CAMPAIGN: Welcome to the revolution!
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Brandon Straka took center stage on January 5th, one day before prosecutors say he stormed the capitol. Straka spoke out at a stop the steal rally, warning that calls to stop Joe Biden from taking office would only amplify.
STRAKA: We are a problem for the rhinos who wanted to lay down and hand over this election to Joe Biden and the Democrats. Help me tell them right now we're not going away, we're not going away.
SCHNEIDER: The next day prosecutors say Straka recorded himself and other rioters attacking the capitol. In one of the videos, court filings claim Straka directed people to storm inside and told fellow rioters to take the shield away from a capitol police officer. And prosecutors say he wrote on Twitter that he was confused why the
capitol attack was being condemned. He allegedly wrote, for six to eight weeks everybody on the right has been saying, 1776. And that if Congress moves forward it will mean a revolution. So, Congress moves forward. Patriots storm the capitol. Now everybody is virtual signaling their embarrassment that this happened.
Straka even posted pictures of him posing with the president from December 2018 on his Instagram. Writing, tonight was a long-awaited thrill. I finally met and spoke with at real Donald Trump. He offered tremendous praise and even went around to several tables nearby and lauded me and walk away.
Walkaway is the group Straka founded which encourages liberals to abandon their beliefs.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We are going to walk down and I'll be there with you. We're going to walk down to the capitol.
UNKNOWN: Take the capitol right now!
SCHNEIDER: This new video compiled by Just Security shows how many closely many in Washington on January 6 were parroting the president. Hundreds of those who attended the rally on the ellipse marched to the capitol to commit violence. One hundred fifty people have been charged federally so far, and prosecutors say the charges will be getting a lot more serious. They are building towards charging some rioters with seditious conspiracy which carries a hefty penalty of 20 years in prison.
And now the acting chief of the capitol police is revealing the major missteps by the department and that officials at the capitol were not prepared for what they knew was coming.
Acting chief Yogananda D. Pittman telling the House committee, we knew that militia groups and white supremacist organizations would be attending. We also knew that some of these participants were intending to bring firearms and other weapons to the event. We knew that there was a strong potential for violence and that Congress was the target. The department prepared in order to meet these challenges, but we did not do enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER (on camera): Acting chief Pittman was operations manager the day of the insurrection and we've learned that capitol police officers are discussing holding a no confidence vote targeting Pittman and four additional chiefs who were on duty that day. In fact, one source telling us Pittman never took control of the radio or instructed officers how to respond in any form.
The union president saying no vote is currently underway, but that officers are definitely pushing for one.
Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington. CHURCH: Russian President Vladimir Putin is quickly losing ground
with the country's youth. Coming up, how the TikTok generation is taking on the longtime leader.
And Joe Biden took aim at the prison system with the stoke -- stroke of his pen. Find out what racial equity policies the new president has enacted.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:30:00]
CHURCH (on camera): Well, U.S. President Joe Biden confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin on several critical issues in their first phone call of the Biden era. The White House says Mr. Biden head a lengthy list of topics to discuss. They include a recent massive cyber-attack, and nuclear arms treaty, and the poisoning of Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins me now from Moscow, and Fred while of course that call was underway, lots of pressure being felt on the part of President Putin. And now it appears he's losing support of some young people who were influenced by his critic Alexei Navalny. What more are you learning about that?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Yes, that certainly does seem to be the case of course. One of the things that we saw last Saturday was massive protest, not just here in Moscow, but in many other cities across Russia as well. I was at the main protest here in Moscow, and some of those younger folks that we spoke to, that obviously spoke out very loudly as well.
They said look, in the past 20 years, all they've ever known is Vladimir Putin in power. And many of them are not happy with the way this country is run. They're also quite frankly not happy with the foreign policy of this country. And they say they believe that right now is the time when they think they need to speak up and standup. Rosemary.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN (voice over): Supporters of Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny gearing up for more protests. After coming out last Saturday, demanding his release from prison confronted by scores of riot cops and a heavy-handed response. Russia without Putin, some yelled. Clearly noticeable the many younger people in the crowd.
UNKNOWN: Generally, I am happy about how things are going in Russia. As well, I am really I feel sad for us. I feel sorry for Navalny, because he definitely doesn't deserve this.
PLEITGEN: Russian state media is trying to portray the protesters as radicals. But especially the younger ones, also as shallow and naive. Brainwashed by content on social media. But political science students and TikToker Mikhail Petrov, says that their grievances are real. MIKHAIL PETROV, STUDENT, TIKTOK USER: They don't want to be under the
Putin's regime anymore because they've been living under this regime their whole life, and they want something better.
PLEITGEN: Alexei Navalny called for the protests after being detained as he returned to Moscow after five months recovering from poisoning by the chemical nerve agent, Novichok. Navalny's group also released an investigation into Vladimir Putin's alleged wealth, calling it quote, Putin's palace.
[03:35:08]
In a sign that the claims made the investigation and the nationwide protests are becoming a problem for the Russian leader Putin, who won't even mention Navalny by name, used an event with handpicks youths to publicly deny and try to mock the allegations.
It is boring, girls, Putin said. But the joke might be on Putin himself. Social media already ridiculing his allege extravagant tastes, like this rap video taking aim at an aqua disco that Navalny's investigation claimed is installed inside the palace.
However, the anger many Russians feel over alleged government repression and corruption are very serious. The head of Navalny's organization in Russia tells me.
At these rallies people came out to support Alexei Navalny, he says. But there are so many problems and grievances in their minds. A lot of anger that has been building up.
And Alexei Navalny's group doesn't plan to stop. They have called for the next major protests across all of Russia for this weekend.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN (on camera): And those major protests, Rosemary, that are set to happen next Sunday, just to give you an idea of how emboldened this movement believes that it is right now. The main protests here in Moscow are set to happen while Moscow's Lou Bianca Square that is actually right where Russia's intelligence service, the FSB is headquartered.
Of course at that same intelligence service that Alexei Navalny believes is behind his poisoning. So, certainly it is said to be a big weekend next weekend, next Sunday. And you can feel how the movement right now believes that it does have a considerable amount of momentum, Rosemary.
CHURCH: And we will keep watching that after monitoring that story, Fred Pleitgen, many thanks for bringing us up to date with that.
Well, Anthony Blinken had a busy first day at the new U.S. Secretary of State he was sworn in as America's top diplomat on Tuesday, taking the oath of office on a copy of the constitution. He called the new role, the honor of his life. A longtime Biden associate with prior experience at the State Department. Blinken was approved and welcomed by Senators on both sides of the aisle.
Afterwards he made his round of calls with counterparts speaking with foreign ministers in Canada, Mexico, South Korea, and Japan. And Lincoln's boss President Joe Biden focused on the theme of racial equity on Tuesday promising it will be built into his agenda. The death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer was part of his motivation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Those eight minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyd's life open the eyes of millions of Americans, and millions of people around all over the world. It was a knee on the neck of justice. I ran for president because I believe that we are in a battle for the soul of this nation.
And the simple truth is, our soul will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to persist. We cannot eliminates that overnight. We need to make equity and justice part of what we do every day. Today, tomorrow, and every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH (on camera): Mr. Biden has ordered prison reform, including an end to federal use of privately owned prisons. He also signed a memorandum acknowledging racially discriminatory housing policies and vowing change. He condemned in writing bigotry against Asian Americans, and reasserted Native American tribal sovereignty.
Well, the focus of today's executive action will be climates. A source says President Biden is set to extend his moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal lands. And also elevate climate change to a national security issue.
CNN's Bill Weir has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN'S CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): 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 planted cooking climate changing, fossil fuel suicide.
BIDEN: The fight for survival comes from the planet itself.
WEIR: And within hours of his oath he signed an executive order for every agency in 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.
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.
[03:40:09]
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 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. And since he also rejoin 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.
UNKNOWN: 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.
SEN. 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 improve, so all countries are held to the same standard. And that every resource must be used in the cleanest way possible.
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 the 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 applied to a broader swath of people that that simply not true.
WEIR: And for Biden, this test is timed and every day this invisible problem goes unsolved, the results get a lot more visible. Bill Weir, CNN, Odessa, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH (on camera): Well, they demanded access for a year, but only arrived weeks ago, now a team of scientists will soon start investigating the origins of COVID-19. What they still have to learn after so many months.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:45:00]
CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. We are about to be one step closer to learning about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The World health Organization's team of experts will soon end their time in quarantine in Wuhan, China and begin their investigation. More than a year after the first case was detected.
And CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins me now from Hong Kong. Good to see you Kristie. You do have to wonder, after so long, how much the WHO Team could learn about the origins of the virus. And of course, the big question, how much cooperation will there likely get from Chinese authorities?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Absolutely, Rosemary. And China has pledge to cooperate that all depends on access. Access to data, and access on key locations. Now that team of 13 WHO scientists, they are emerging from the two week quarantine, some today, some tomorrow. And very soon they are going to go out in the field in Wuhan to investigate the origins of the pandemic, over a year after this coronavirus first emerged.
Now, the detailed itinerary has yet to be release, but the main scope of the mission remains the same. They're trying to find out where the coronavirus came from and how it spilled over into humans. Now, CNN has been talking to a scientists that is part of this 13 member team. She is a Dutch virologist, and she said over the last two weeks, during the quarantine period, she has been working with her teammates on the WHO and Chinese scientists poring over data sets on video chat.
She says, the WHO Team spirits is high, and that they are aware of the magnitude of this moment. That they are fully aware that the eyes of the world are on them. Now it is a tricky task ahead for this team, they have to proceed looking, following the data, following the science, but they also have to navigate a political minefield.
As you know China has been slammed for its initial handling of the outbreak. Though China and the WHO have been criticized for failing to respond quickly enough during the beginning months of what eventually turned out to be a pandemic.
And United States under President Donald Trump and China had been pushing forward to rival conspiracy theories about the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. So, given this political environment, just realistically, what can this team of investigators achieve? Well, I posed that question to an analyst. Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YANZHONG HUANG, SENIOR FELLOW FOR GLOBAL HEALTH, CFR: Well, I think -- if you look at the itinerary of the investigation team, they are being -- about to emerge from that two week quarantine, they have another two week to decide with it. We don't know where they had been to village, you know, who they are going to talk to. And what kind of information, you know, they are going to obtain from their Chinese counterparts, so this is still pretty much all unknowns to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT (on camera): So, according to the team of scientists, they say that their mission is simple, it is to follow the science, but they're also urging patients, according to the Dutch virologist, who is a member of this team, Mary (inaudible), she says previous origin investigations have taken years to complete. Rosemary?
CHURCH (on camera): Alright, Kristie Lu Stout, bringing us the very latest there from Hong Kong. I appreciate it.
A relative calm returns to the street of the Netherlands after three days of rioting. Police were out in force Tuesday night after (inaudible) multiple cities, and crowds became violent following the start of a nightly curfew, aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. Groups had gathered on Tuesday were broken up without incident.
Well, despite the violence, the Dutch government says, there are no plans to do away with the nightly curfew.
CNN's Scott McLean has more on the recent unrest.
(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 9:00 p.m. 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. Its 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.
[03:50:16]
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)
CHURCH (on camera): Coming up next, the harrowing story of a holocaust survivor in her own words. Along with her inspiring story, Irene Butter has a warning about society today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IRENE BUTTER, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: They are again, echoes of the holocaust and on January 6th we saw it in our own country when there was an attempted coup.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH (on camera): Well today is holocaust memorial day. Britain's Prince Charles marked the occasion with a somber message noting that the last generation of living witnesses to the horrific events will not be with us much longer. He said, it falls to all of us to bear witness.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE CHARLES, UNITED KINGDOM: 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 for all times. 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)
CHURCH (on camera): And in about an hour from now, Germany is said to mark holocaust memorial day at the Bundestag, as the world acknowledges the horrors of the past, one survivors sees disturbing evidence of that hatred here, and now.
Clarissa Ward has her story
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN 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.
BUTTER: Hitler to power, when I was three years old and gradually the persecution of the Jews developed.
WARD: In 1937, the Butters' 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 very critical thing, to quote that the war will end, that I will survive.
WARD: Soon after Butters 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.
[03:55:10]
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.
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.
WARD: What allowed your -- 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 influence is was a (inaudible), I once heard him speak on the radio and he yeah said, if you are in the camps, if you smell the air and heard the silence of the dead, then it's your duty to be a witness and to tell the story.
WARD: Since finding her voice, Butter has told her story around the world, with a focus on speaking in schools.
BUTTER: 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: 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'd 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 its right back here, and I think we learn 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: Still, Butter has faith in humanity, despite all the atrocities she has faced.
BUTTER: There is good in every person, where 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)
CHURCH (on camera): Powerful warning there. We'll have more news in just a moment.
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