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E.U. Orders Inspection of Belgium's AstraZeneca Site; Inside the Race to Get Vaccines to Poorer Countries; U.S. Economy Shrinks in 2020; Biden Issues 22 Executive Orders in First Week; Teen Convicted of Blasphemy Freed; Pakistani Court Upholds Acquittal in Daniel Pearl Murder; Canadian Couple Charged with Violating COVID Rules; S.C. Officials Confirm Cases of More Contagious Coronavirus Strain; Proposal to Build Permanent Fence Around Capitol Meets Resistance. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired January 29, 2021 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Wherever you are around the world, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause, and coming up this hour.
[00:00:25]
On the same day, a highly contagious coronavirus variant, first detected in South Africa is found in the U.S., comes a new highly- effective vaccine, except on the variant first detected in South Africa.
Breaking up is hard to do, and so it is for the Republican Party and Donald Trump, with many in the GOP declaring their loyalty forever to the one-term president who lost in a landslide.
And the duplicitous and complicated scheme to jump the vaccine line. How one wealthy couple's alleged scam has left the good, gentile folk of Canada shocked and outraged.
We start this hour with breaking news, word that these new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus could mean another 85,000 deaths in the U.S. by May. That's the forecast from the University of Washington.
One of those variants, first detected in South Africa, has now spread to the U.S. It's been circulating in more than two dozen countries, including Canada, Australia, Japan, many western European nations, as well.
A new vaccine from Novavax is almost 90 percent effective but not against a variant from South Africa. It's close to 60 percent, maybe 50 percent in some cases. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has already ordered 60 million doses.
Meantime, European regulators are expected to decide in the coming day on approval for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The drug maker is disputing a claim from German officials that people over the age of 65 should avoid a vaccine. That's not the only controversy plaguing AstraZeneca. Reports of
production problems at the company's Belgium plant have prompted an investigation. Details now from CNN's Melissa Bell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a sign of the growing distrust between the E.U. and AstraZeneca. An inspection carried out here at one of the main sites on the continent where the AstraZeneca vaccine is produced.
Earlier this week, the CEO of AstraZeneca had claimed that the shortfall that AstraZeneca has announced in its delivery of vaccines to the E.U. was the result of production difficulties at this plant.
Now, that inspection was aimed at finding out whether that was, indeed, the case. It came at the request of the European Union, which has also made a claim that it wants to keep a much closer eye on vaccine exports going forward. So the E.U. really trying to figure out where those shortfalls have come from.
This, of course, even as it comes under pressure over the slow rollout of its vaccination programs in several countries. In Spain, Madrid has announced a freeze for the next couple of weeks on its vaccination rollout until they can get more doses into the country. And elsewhere, shortages, as well.
Overall, the E.U. says it wants to vaccinate 70 percent of its population by the summer. So far, the figures is just 2 percent of people who have been vaccinated here in Europe.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Seneffe, Belgium.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining us this hour from Los Angeles is Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, a CNN medical analyst and a viral specialist.
And it's good to have you with us again, Dr. Rodriguez.
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Thanks.
VAUSE: OK. The big picture seems to be, worldwide, these mass vaccination programs are struggling, to some degree. And the more time it takes to reach herd immunity, the more time the virus has to mutate, possibly into a variant which vaccines will have no effect.
That looming threat doesn't seem to be reflected in the urgency right now, trying to fix supply chains. If you had your way, what would -- what should be happening that is not happening right now?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, if I had my way -- and I've changed, actually, my mind over the past two weeks -- I think the most important thing is to vaccinate as many people as possible, especially here in the United States, where up to 40 percent of the people don't want to get vaccinated. I would probably start vaccinating everybody over 60. I would then probably start vaccinating people that are in subgroups and different ethnicities that are at higher risks for death.
And then, I would just open it up for anybody, seriously, that wants to get vaccinated. Because replication of the virus means mutation, means resistance. So that's what I would do. As the government, I would be very tightly overseeing these pharmaceutical companies, and their accountability of production. It seems easy, but I know that it's not.
VAUSE: Yes, and also, there's this need for, I guess, this rapid vaccination centers essentially operating 24/7, right?
RODRIGUEZ: That's correct. And listen, I wish that they would be a call-out there to physicians and nurses like myself. I know that they've talked about it. For us to work graveyard shifts for us to work weekends and really vaccinate 24/7.
[00:05:04]
VAUSE: Yes. You know, this variant, which was first detected in South Africa, has now been found in the U.S., in South Carolina. The CDC issued a statement, which read in part, "At this time, we have no evidence that infections by this variant cause more severe disease. Like the U.K. and Brazilian variants, preliminary data suggests this variant may spread more easily and quickly than other variants."
OK. But with the slow rollout of vaccines, that brings us back to this important question of face masks. "The Washington Post" is reporting that Germany on Tuesday night made it mandatory for people riding on public transport or in supermarkets to wear medical-style masks: either N-95s, the Chinese or European equivalent, the KN95 or FFP" -- you know, the surgical mask, basically.
At the very least, would you advise now maybe double masking for people at this point?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, I would advise that, if people can get an N-95 and maybe even a KN-95, which is one that's made in China, and not really overseen, that that's the best thing they could wear.
If they can't wear that, then they should wear, probably, a surgical mask, which you can get on any of the web sort of markets and -- you know, and cover that with a cloth mask.
The worst thing is a cloth mask or one of those bibs that you just put over your face or -- or some sort of handkerchief. It only protects you around 25 percent.
Replication means mutation, means variants. So those people that are not covering themselves and think that they're not getting sick, they're actually contributing to the economy not rolling, to stores not opening. Everybody is playing a role here.
VAUSE: Yes, well, the drug maker Novavax, which carried out a small trial of its vaccine in South Africa, there's mixed news. "The New York Times" had this headline which kind of sums it up: "Novavax's Vaccine Works Well: Except on Variant First Found in South Africa." The early tests in Britain found an efficacy close to 90 percent, but
in South Africa, it fell to 60 percent among those in the trials whose immune system was not compromised with HIV. It then fell below 50 percent when volunteers with HIV were included.
And it seems that result from South Africa, that could have global consequences here.
RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely it could. For example, in the U.K., it seems that Novavax vaccine is fine against even the U.K. variant. But what is more scary to me, John, is that, in the South African study, out of the 15 people that received the vaccine that got COVID, 90 percent of them had the South African variant.
So most of those vaccines have sort of been guided to attack what is called the spike protein, where the virus attaches to the human cells. And it is that very spike protein that is mutating.
So we don't have the definitive answers yet, but I just don't like the way -- and where this is going right now.
VAUSE: Yes. That, in particular, is firstly incredible and also troubling. And we're out of time now, but Dr. Rodriguez, as always, thank you. Appreciate you being with us.
RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Take care.
Well, 400 million more doses of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine will be headed for Africa. The African Union says it has just secured those doses as part of an effort to vaccinate a little more than half of the continent's population over three years.
This comes on top of the 270 million doses it's already ordered, and millions promised by the World Health Organization's COVAX program. But with a population of 1.3 billion, a lot more shots will be needed.
Western nations have taken the lead in buying up vaccines, leaving few options to fight the virus in other parts of the world.
CNN's Ivan Watson shows us what's it like on the front lines in some of those places.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In western countries, the first coronavirus vaccines arrived with great fanfare, generating excitement and hope.
But in most of the world's poorer countries, like Pakistan, vaccine distribution hasn't even begun. This hospital in Karachi is so full there aren't enough beds for all the COVID-19 patients.
DR. NASHWA AHMAD, COORDINATOR, COVID-19 SERVICES, SOUTH CITY HOSPITAL: We are full. We have patients waiting. We have families who are suffering. We have patients at home, sick patients at home, patients who are on oxygen, who just don't have space in hospitals.
WATSON: Dr. Nashwa Ahmad says she's discouraged at the lack of available vaccines.
AHMAD: The vaccine is not here in this country for the foreseeable future. That means our healthcare workers still have to continue to do their jobs, endless hours without the protection of the vaccine. It's very difficult.
WATSON: Help is on the way. The COVAX Facility is a global initiative, established after the start of the pandemic. It has the ambitious goal of distributing some 2 billion doses of vaccine by the end of 2021.
AURELIA NGUYEN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, COVAX: This is an unprecedented effort. We have never rolled out this number of vaccines in this short time.
WATSON: Most of the doses are to be given to the world's 92 poorest countries, for free.
[00:10:00]
NGUYEN: The COVAX Facility is really built around fair and equitable access, so that no country, and no person who needs the vaccine, is left behind, regardless of their economic status.
WATSON: COVAX is a partnership of several international health organizations. It will distribute vaccines through UNICEF, which has considerable experience leading vaccination campaigns against other diseases in the developing world.
But COVAX distribution isn't expected to start until February, in part due to the long wait for the World Health Organization to approve vaccines for emergency use.
BENJAMIN SCHREIBER, DEPUTY CHIEF, GLOBAL IMMUNIZATION PROGRAM, UNICEF: Countries are looking at COVAX and don't yet see vaccines arriving, while they see some countries are making bilateral deals, and that creates kind of a panic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nice and relaxed.
WATSON: Some wealthier countries have been scooping up limited supplies of COVID vaccine for themselves.
JEROME KIM, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL VACCINE INSTITUTE: Vaccine nationalism is the evil twin of COVAX. A lot of the countries that signed up for COVAX, the high-income countries in particular, hedged their bets by putting in preorders for COVID-19 vaccines.
WATSON: The head of the WHO denounces this practice.
TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: I need to be blunt. The world is on the brink of a catastrophe, moral failure. And the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world's poorest countries.
WATSON: While it waits for COVAX, the Pakistani government expects to receive a welcome gift of half a million doses of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine in coming days. A drop in the bucket for a population of more than 200 million.
Even when the vaccine rolls out, convincing a skeptical public to take it may be an uphill battle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Why would I get vaccinated? There's no such thing as corona. It's a lie.
WATSON: Defeating the virus will also require fighting mistrust of government and the spread of disinformation.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, still to come, we now know the extent of the damage done to the U.S. economy by this pandemic. Putting more urgency in Joe Biden's push for his COVID relief bill.
Also, a boy sentenced to 10 years in jail for blasphemy. How he escaped that fate, but why he still fears for his life in the future.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Well, the numbers are out and the pandemic has cause the biggest contraction to the U.S. economy since the year after World War II.
Amid this economic crisis, Joe Biden is now pushing a relief proposal worth nearly $2 trillion. But given the size, scope, and speed of that legislation, he's taking criticism, not just from the right but also from his allies on the left. CNN's Phil Mattingly reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[00:15:06]
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And the first thing I've got to do is get this COVID package passed.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But President Joe Biden's goal of a bipartisan COVID relief package may be slipping away.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're not going to do this in a piecemeal way or break apart a big package.
MATTINGLY: The White House and their allies on Capitol Hill, ready to press forward.
PSAKI: Republicans can still vote for a package, even if it goes through with reconciliation. There's no blood oath. Anybody who signs, they're able to sign -- to support it regardless.
MATTINGLY: And top White House officials, including the president himself, continued to have discussions with Republicans in search of a path forward
PSAKI: He wants this to be a bipartisan package. He's listening to Democrats and Republicans -- We all are -- to ensure that that's what it looks like at the end of the day.
MATTINGLY: But Biden has also made clear splitting key elements out to reach a deal is not on the table.
BIDEN: Time is of the essence, and I must tell you I'm reluctant to cherry pick and take out one or two items here and then have to go through it again. Because these all are kind of -- they go sort of hand in glove.
MATTINGLY: And Democrats on Capitol Hill are increasingly convinced a deal with any Republicans on Biden's $1.9 trillion proposal is simply not possible, sources say.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The smartest thing we can do is act big.
MATTINGLY: And they are ready to push ahead on a partisan basis.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): We would hope that we would have bipartisan cooperation, but we're not taking any tools off the table, should there not.
MATTINGLY: All as the depth of the economic destruction wrought by COVID comes to light. The U.S. economy contracted 3.5 percent in 2020, the first annual decline since the 2008 financial crisis and the worst drop since 1946.
BIDEN: In the middle of this COVID crisis.
MATTINGLY: The damage from the pandemic also driving Biden's newest executive action on Obamacare. The man who made "BFD" famous --
BIDEN: This is a big (EXPLETIVE DELETED) deal.
MATTINGLY: -- now reopening enrollment for the law that's deal was so big, as he presses to undo his predecessor's efforts to kill the law.
BIDEN: Basically, the best way to describe that, to undo the damage Trump has done.
MATTINGLY (on camera): While President Biden's first eight days in office have focused largely on executive actions, there's no question about it, when you talk to top White House advisers. That COVID relief package, that $1.9 trillion proposal, is the focal point of the administration right now.
Now, if the president, as I noted in the piece, has been reaching out to Republicans. He's spoken to two Republican senators behind the scenes -- Rob Portman of Ohio; also Susan Collins of Maine -- seeing if he can bring them along.
But again, the reality right now, both on Capitol Hill and in the White House, is there is a recognition that a bipartisan proposal, given how big Democrats want to go, Democrats including President Biden, seems very out of reach at the moment.
But they have the numbers right now, no matter how slim those margins are, to get something passed, and both Biden and his top economic advisers have said going big and acting fast is their No. 1 priority. A No. 1 priority that likely, at least at this point in time, won't get Republican support.
Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Jessica Levinson is a professor at the Loyola Law School and host of the "Passing Judgement" podcast, and she's with us from Los Angeles. And it is good to see you.
JESSICA LEVINSON, PROFESSOR, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: It's good to be here.
VAUSE: Great. And you know, this first week of the Biden presidency has been the great undoing. Twenty-two executive orders, including two on Thursday relating to healthcare. Here's the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Today we're about to sign two executive orders. Basically, the best way to describe them, to undo the damage Trump has done. There's nothing new that we're doing here, other than restoring the Affordable Care Act and restoring the Medicaid to the way it was before Trump became president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Can the same be said of all the other executive actions? I mean, there seemed to be in a lot of new initiatives in the climate plan just a day earlier.
LEVINSON: Yes, the same cannot be true in the sense that it's not all just directly undoing what the Trump administration has done.
And I mean, look, let's be clear. In an ideal world, you want a lot of this to go through Congress. In an ideal world, you want this to go through a typical legislative process. But this is not an ideal world, and we have not been living in one for the last four years.
So a lot of this is what President Biden has said. It's just trying to unravel some of what I think are the greatest pieces of damage that were done.
But some of it also, while not directly unraveling, while maybe trying to get more of a shape to a new program, for instance, like climate change, it is still is acknowledging what has happened in the past, which honestly is us losing four years of trying to save our environment.
So all of this that we see so far is really just a reaction to what's happened over the last four years.
[06:20:06]
VAUSE: Yes, I mean, I guess at the end of the day, ultimately, does it matter if these actions are restoring the 2016 status quo or that they're new initiatives? Because given the urgency of the time, I mean, action needs to happen quickly. And that's not going to happen with the almost certain foot dragging from Republicans in the Senate.
LEVINSON: John, I mean, so there's that -- John, there's that law professor part of me that still wants to say, yes, it does matter. Because our government isn't set up to do this much by executive order, but that's a very ivory tower of me, right?
And the truth is that when you're facing a Senate that's talking about using the filibuster, even though Democrats do control the Senate; when you're looking at the kind of obstruction that we saw during the Obama years; and when you're looking at, frankly, things that are exigent circumstances. We are facing an emergency when it comes to health and safety, the pandemic. We're facing an emergency when it comes to humanitarian crisis, climate change. You can't wait.
I mean, you would want this to go through Congress. You would want Congress to say, I'm raising my hand. I want to do my duty. But that's not where we are right now.
VAUSE: Yes. But then we get to this point that, you know, the Biden campaign or being able to work with Republicans, find the middle ground. Tell me this. It begs the question where is the middle ground when you're working with Republican lawmakers like this one? Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): She's guilty of treason. It's a crime punishable by death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes, Nancy Pelosi guilty of treason. That's Marjorie Taylor Greene, newly-elected congresswoman from the great state of Georgia.
The video, to be fair, is from 2018, but it's not like she spent two years in a mental health facility being deprogramed from the QAnon quote [SIC] -- cult. You know, the only action, though, Republican leaders are taking here is to give her a seat on the Education Committee.
LEVINSON: And the only action, really, that's really being taken against a member of the House of Representatives, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, I can see are those who voted against impeachment. Think, for instance, of Representative Cheney, who said -- excuse me, who voted in favor of impeachment; who said enough is enough. We just lived through an attack. I had to shelter in place. My colleagues were wearing gas masks. We weren't sure if we could open the door for security, because we didn't know if it was actually security or not.
And she's the one that's being punished.
You know, we -- we talked for four years about establishment Republicans versus Trump Republicans. At this point, I think the Republican Party still is the party of Trump. You still have people peddling lies and falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
To accuse Nancy Pelosi of treason, it's not just legally wrong. It's just -- it's totally unmoored from reality.
VAUSE: Yes. And Nancy Pelosi says now that it's likely more funding will be needed for security for members of Congress because of threats, both external and internal. Here's the speaker of the House. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELOSI: When the enemy is within the House of Representatives, a threat that members are concerned about, in addition to what is happening outside.
We have members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on other members of Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Just very quickly, how does Congress move forward from this moment?
LEVINSON: You don't. You can't have anybody in America going to work or going to school fearing for their lives.
I spoke to a member of Congress recently who told me there's basically a group text where they can find bulletproof vests for when they go on the floor.
This is the people's House. This is the place where we're supposed to -- it's supposed to be the highest place of representative democracy, where we make laws that dictate what type of society we want to live in, what type of norms we want.
And for members of Congress, of any affiliation, to fear for their lives when they're going to vote on legislation is just totally reprehensible and not acceptable.
Where do we go from here? I mean, you have to -- at this point, I don't know what to say, other than this screams out for censure and expulsion of members of the House. And it's in their hands. They do have the power to do that.
VAUSE: Yes, we'll see if they have the courage. Jessica, great to see you. Appreciate it. LEVINSON: Thank you.
VAUSE: Well, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will soon meet over the turbulent state of the stock market. That's because a group of investors from the online platform Reddit have banded together to stick it to the Wall Street guys.
They've been driving up stocks who, by traditional measures, should be in trouble, especially amid the pandemic. But they're now seeing some record gains.
It all began with mall relic GameStop before branching out into other companies like AMC movie theaters. Before the opening bell Thursday, GameStop was up nearly 2,500 percent. That's just for this year.
Now, the big hedge funds and short sellers who were betting on these stocks failing have been dealt a major blow. Some have needed a massive infusion of funds to stay afloat.
Amid all of this chaos, no-fee online breaker Robinhood, which caters to millennials and promises to democratize finance, restricted the trading of these volatile stocks, which then caused outrage and accusations of market manipulation. Both Democrats and Republicans criticizing the decision by Robinhood.
[00:25:15]
And a class action lawsuit has already been filed against the app. It now says it will allow limited buying of these stocks on Friday.
GameStop ended the day around 40 percent lower but still well above the less than $20 its shares were going for just a few weeks ago.
A Nigerian teenager who was convicted of blasphemy is now free. He was sentenced to 10 years and spent the past five months locked up without access to his family or to a lawyer. And now even though his sentence has been overturned, chances are he's still in danger. He spoke to CNN's Stephanie Busari.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nervous, shy, Omar Farouq still bears a trauma over what he's endured, even if, for now, he feels relieved.
OMAR FAROUQ, BLASPHEMY SENTENCE OVERTURNED (through translator): I'm happy, and I give thanks to Allah.
BUSARI: Farouq was just 16 when he was sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor in August 2020 by this Sharia court in Kanu State, northern Nigeria.
He was accused of insulting the prophet during an argument. He always denied the charges, but that didn't stop the court from convicting him.
Farouq has now been freed after his sentence was overturned, because he didn't have legal representation at his first trial.
FAROUQ (through translator): Honestly, the judgment passed onto me was unfair, since I knew nothing about what I was accused of, and I didn't commit it.
BUSARI: Many in Nigeria believe Sharia law is unconstitutional. But like most other Muslim-majority states in the country, Kanu still enforces it. And some in the community could see Farouq's release as an affront.
KOLA ALAPPINI, FOUNDATION FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: He himself knows he's in danger, because when we tried to pick him from prison today, you could see the fear in his face. He didn't even want to follow us, because everybody had told him that if he steps out of the prison walls, he will be killed.
BUSARI (on camera): Now Farouq says he's focused on his education and one day hopes to become governor or president so he can fight against the type of injustice that he received.
Stephanie Busari, CNN, Lagos.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, there are still many countries that have laws against blasphemy. It's defined as speech or actions that are disrespectful of God. Punishments range from fines to death.
Still to come, after a Pakistani court orders the release of the man convicted of kidnapping and murdering an American journalist. Amid all the outrage and cries of retribution, what are the options now left for the United States?
And the saying cheaters never prosper is ringing very true in Canada. A wealthy couple accused of breaking the rules to get vaccinated, and now they're paying the price.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:30:20]
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.
Drug maker Novavax says Phase 3 trials for its COVID vaccine is nearly 90 percent effective. The U.K. has already ordered 60 million doses. A senior U.S. official says the shot may not work as well against a variant of the virus first reported in South Africa.
European regulators are expected to decide in the coming hours on approval of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. The drug maker is disputing a claim from German health officials that those over the age of 65 should avoid that particular shot.
And the Biden White House hoping its nearly $2 trillion COVID relief package will get support from both parties in Congress. The president and his advisors say going big and acting fast is their top priority.
Thursday, it was announced that 2020 was the worst year for the U.S. economy since 1946.
A Russian court has rejected Alexei Navalny's appeal and says the opposition leader will stay in detention ahead of a court date next month.
Navalny was detained last week after returning from Germany, where he spent five months in hospital, recovering from Novichok poisoning. Russia's police service had raided Navalny's apartment and say he was in breach of a suspended sentence. He says that case was politically motivated.
Since his detection, thousands of people across Russia have demonstrated. More demonstrations are planned for the coming weeks. Navalny says he's cheering them on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through translator): I want to say, you won't succeed in frightening us. In fact, we are the majority. You won't manage to fighting dozens of millions of people who were robbed by those in power, despite the fact that those people, who are now under arrest, face hardships.
I want to express my huge support to who take to the streets. Because it's them who, in fact, are the last line of defense against our country sliding into total deterioration and so that those in power now won't steal all of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, the United States has been very critical of Pakistan's supreme court, which ordered the release of four men convicted of kidnapping and beheading American journalist Daniel Pearl. The White House called it an affront to terrorism victims everywhere.
CNN's Nic Robertson has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Daniel Pearl's brutal murder was one of the most shocking events in the months following the 9/11 terror attacks.
"The Wall Street Journal" reporter was kidnapped January 2002 in Karachi, Pakistan, while investigating Islamic militant groups. He was held for more than a week. Then, Pearl's abductors beheaded him and sent the video to U.S. officials.
Four men were arrested later in 2002 and convicted of Pearl's kidnap and murder. One of them, British national Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was given the death penalty.
Now, 19 years later, Pakistan's supreme court has ruled the men should go free.
MAHMOOD SHEIKH, LAWYER OF AHMED OMAR SAEED SHEIKH: The court has ordered that all four of them, all four accused, be released forthwith, if they are not required in any other cases.
ROBERTSON: The United States blasted the decision as an outrage.
PSAKI: This decision to exonerate and release Sheikh and the other suspects is an affront to terrorism victims everywhere, including in Pakistan.
ROBERTSON: Judea Pearl, Daniel's father, told Christiane Amanpour the decision will tarnish Pakistan.
JUDEA PEARL, DANIEL PEARL'S FATHER: What the supreme court of Pakistan has done is up with pending (ph) an indictment over the entire nation, for one of the most horrific crimes in the 21st Century. A crime against humanity, against journalism, and against the core of our civilization.
ROBERTSON: So, what happened? Last year, a provincial court overturned the conviction of three men and reduced Sheik's sentence to seven years, time that he had already served.
Both the Pearl family and Pakistan's government appealed to the country's supreme court. But on Thursday, the court ruled against them and acquitted Omar Sheikh.
SHEIKH: The court has come out to say that there is no offense that he has committed in this case, and he should not have been in prison in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ROBERTSON: So what happens next? Here's one possibility.
PSAKI: We call on the Pakistani government to expeditiously review its legal options, including allowing the United States to prosecute Sheikh for a brutal murder of an American citizen and journalist.
ROBERTSON: For now, all four men remain in detention, waiting to see what the Pakistan government, and the new Biden administration, do next.
[00:30:10]
Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Live now to Islamabad for more, and CNN producer Sophia Saifi is with us.
You know, I remember when this all took place. It was outrage at the time. But I guess what's the reaction there now in Pakistan that these guys are set to be released?
SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Well, John, there are some who are saying that this is good for Pakistan's serenity. There's also a lot of shock among activists, amongst journalists, who saw this happen, who came of age in 2002, in 2001, when that murder took place.
It has, of course, sent ripples across the country. I mean, we had the Pearl family release a statement that said this is a travesty of justice, and that is what is being seen as. Here, amongst many journalists and activists and the left here in Pakistan.
Now, what we're seeing is -- is that late last night, I was told by the Pearl family lawyer that there is a possibility that the attorney general's office of Pakistan, in collaboration with the federal government, as well as the provincial government of Sind (ph), will possibly be filing a review petition, which basically means that the same three judges, two of whom ruled in favor of the acquittal, will be reviewing the petition again, and seeing whether there were any legal irregularities in the decision they made. That is the most they can do. Because he supreme court, as we know, it is the apex court of the country. There isn't much more than that to be done.
So all eyes are on whether there will be a review petition, what happens with that.
Secondly, all eyes are also in the city of Karachi where these men are being kept in jail. Will they be able to walk free?
There's a lot of pressure on Pakistan at the moment, on the government. We've had statements, you know, statements from the U.S. attorney general's office, from the State Department, saying that they would want to prosecute Ahmed Omar Sheikh on U.S. soil.
Now, 19 years ago, when the U.S. tried to extradite Ahmed Omar Sheikh, then, you know, dictator -- military dictator General Pervez Musharraf, President General Pervez Musharraf, had prevented the extradition from taking place.
So there are a bunch of, you know, things that we're expecting. We don't know how this will play out just yet, but what we know at the moment is a men are still in jail, and many people are working to make sure that they remain in there -- John.
VAUSE: Sophia, thank you for that. We appreciate the updates. Sophia Saifi there in Islamabad.
Well, another legend has passed away. Cicely Tyson, who broke barriers for black actresses, died Thursday at age 96. Tyson won Emmys for the 1974 miniseries, "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman." She also was an awarded -- was awarded, rather, an honorary Oscar in 2018 for her work.
Tyson continued to act regularly into her 90s, with rolls on popular shows like "House of Cards" and "How to Get Away with Murder."
In 2016, then-U.S. President Barack Obama ordered her the Medal of Freedom.
Tyson told "TIME" magazine last year she had no plans to retire. He family did not reveal the cause of death.
Still to come here, a wealthy couple accused of cheating the system to get vaccinated. They wound up getting caught and charged. Now they're out of the job. More from Canada in a moment.
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VAUSE: Well, the plan was relatively complicated, involving lies and impersonations, and traveling to faraway places, all just to cut the line and get vaccinated. And the fallout for these one-armed bandits has been swift and harsh.
We have more now from Paula Newton, reporting from Canada.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The alleged incident seems unthinkable in its deceit, and officials say residents are still shaken.
Authorities in the Canadian territory of Yukon allege Rodney Baker, a former gaming executive, and his wife, Ekaterina, from Vancouver, chartered a plane to a tiny community, shortly after arriving in the Yukon and allegedly, posing as local workers, received a vaccine they weren't entitled to.
MATTHEW CAMERON, YUKON SENIOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR: I think there's a lot -- a lot of people that are really upset. There's a lot of outrage here, still, that people would selfishly come to the Yukon and put our communities at risk.
NEWTON: It happened in the tiny outpost of Beaver Creek, close to the Alaskan border. Authorities say the couple flew to the city of Whitehorse in the Yukon earlier this month. And instead of isolating for two weeks, as they were legally required, they chartered a plane to Beaver Creek, where they allegedly knew a mobile clinic was setting up to vaccinate everyone who lived and worked there.
Home to indigenous communities, the Yukon is especially vulnerable to COVID-19, with few medical facilities. Canada has given indigenous and northern residents priority for vaccines, knowing lives are on the line.
CAMERON: They went to a small community, and that, I will tell you, Paula, that that has sent a shock through our territory. I had two calls yesterday with all of the first nation chiefs from across the you go on, discussing how we can be sure to keep everybody safe.
NEWTON: What has been so unnerving, say residents, is the fact that the Bakers broke quarantine, putting at risk thousands who have sacrificed so much to keep the virus from ravaging remote communities.
CNN has reached out several times to the Bakers for comment and have not heard back.
The Bakers were charged under the Civil Emergency Measures Act, not for getting the vaccine but for breaking quarantine. Fines can reach $500 Canadian and up to six months in prison, or both.
The Bakers were each fined the maximum and a surcharge. And the Royal Canadian Mounted Police tell CNN they are still investigating.
While the couple has not been fined for actually getting the vaccine, the Canadian minister in charge of the vaccination rollout in indigenous communities says the Bakers should do more.
MARC MILLER, INDIGENOUS SERVICES MINISTER: I'm disgusted. I understand these people are wealthy, and I won't tell them what to do with their money. But, you know, perhaps, reparations are due of some level.
NEWTON (on camera): Officials in the Yukon say they haven't received anything from the couple yet, not even an apology. And indigenous leaders say they want harsher punishments in place to make sure this can't happen again.
Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.
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VAUSE: Well, thank you for being with us. I'm John Vause. Fifteen minutes of your time, I'll be back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But for now, here's WORLD SPORT.
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