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U.K. Government Says Nearly 9 Million Have Had First Vaccine Dose; Protests in European Capitals Over COVID Restrictions; W.H.O.- Led Team Gets Access to Chinese Flu Data; Nationwide Demonstrations in Russia Call for Navalny's Release; North Korean Defector Talks About His Decision to Flee; Retail Investors Make Silver Latest Target. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired February 01, 2021 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. Well a dispute between the U.K. and the EU over vaccine supplies seems to have cooled down for now at least. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says AstraZeneca has agreed to deliver 9 million additional doses to the block in the first quarter of this year.

Meanwhile the British government says almost 9 million people across the U.K. have received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Nearly 500,000 people have had both doses. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has been tracking the vaccine rollout in the U.K. She joins us now live from London. Good to see you Salma. So great news, 9 million doses of the vaccine already administered. And you have some more good news to share with us. What's been happening at the age care homes?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Rosemary, it's so rare when I can talk about a triumph, talk about a moment of positivity but we have that today. All care home residents across England have now either been offered the first dose of their vaccine or received it. That's 10,000 care homes across England, job done, take the bow. A major crucial milestone as the Prime Minister had said.

And this was of course an area of concern. Care homes are one of the areas where there was an outbreak at the beginning of this pandemic. The death toll, the overall death toll, a third of it were care home residents. So they were a priority. They were among the first people to receive this vaccination. The goal was to get all care home residents vaccinated by the end of January. So this also means the vaccination program is on time.

Another bit of good news. On Saturday, the U.K. reaching a milestone number, a record number of vaccinations in a single day, about 600,000 people vaccinated. So the sense, Rosemary, that this vaccination program is now moving at breakneck speed. Moving very quickly. And they are trying. They are at a race here. They are trying to beat the pace of a variant of COVID-19 that's been prevalent in the U.K. that sent a huge number of patients, a tsunami of coronavirus patients into these hospitals.

The Prime Minister says the number of coronavirus patients in these hospitals is still dangerously high. That's why all the focus has to go into this vaccination program.

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Get all the key priority groups. Care home residents, that's done. Clinically vulnerable people, that's still being worked on. All of those over 70 and frontline health care workers and staff. So that's the goal. Get all of those key priority groups. Because really, Rosemary, this is the only weapon against this variant that's been brutal here and causing so much death and anguish -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, absolutely right. Thank you so much for sharing that very positive news. Salma Abdelaziz joining us live there from London.

All across Europe frustration is growing over COVID restrictions. The capital cities of Vienna, Budapest and Brussels all saw protests over lockdown measures on Sunday. For more on that, want to bring in CNN's Melissa Bell. She joins us live from Paris. Good to see you Melissa. So as the EU struggles to get vaccine supplies distributed across the continent, it now has to deal with these protests. What is the latest?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I mean, what the protests that we saw on Sunday in so many parts of Europe have in common, Rosemary, is that they were essentially banned by authorities. And yet people turned up, arrests were made, and it is really a measure of the anger that there is in so many parts of the European Union now with the length and the cost of the restrictions that remain in place.

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BELL (voice-over): Protesters versus police. Demonstrators filled the streets of some European cities on Sunday to vent their anger over coronavirus lockdowns that they say have gone on too long.

In Brussels, riot police carrying batons and shields detained at least 200 people for gathering at what officials deemed an unauthorized assembly. Protesters say restrictions like a nighttime curfew and a ban on nonessential travel in and out of the country are more destructive than the virus.

CONSTANCE, STUDENT (through translator): I am here because I think it's not right at all what's going on. Just because of a virus that doesn't kill that many people. Now, people are dying and starving. They can't work and earn money.

BELL (voice-over): Thousands of people marched in Vienna despite a ban on the rally. The crowds waved Austrian flags, some calling for the government to resign as the country endures its third lockdown.

GABRIELE WLADYKA, PENSIONER (through translator): We have to get rid of these nonsensical coronavirus measures which are just destroying our economy and everything and don't make any sense. BELL (voice-over): Restaurant workers in Budapest packed a city square as their own businesses remain empty. They say their livelihoods have been ruined because they can only serve take out, which amounts to a fraction of what they need to survive.

So far authorities have avoided the escalation of protests seen last week in the Netherlands, where police turned water cannon and tear gas on rioters, who police say set off fireworks, threw stones and looted stores. Scenes officials don't want repeated with police in many protest cities out in full force.

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BELL (on camera): Rosemary, I think it is in the light of those sorts of pictures that you need to think of that row that we saw last week between Ursula von der Leyen and the representatives of big pharma groups, the extra doses now promised by AstraZeneca. The extra doses now promised by BioNTech. It is still going be short fall that the European Union is seeing over the next few week in terms of vaccine deliveries, and an ambitious target of 70 percent of its population that the EU wants vaccinated by this summer. And we're a long way off from that.

CHURCH: Certainly are so close with this vaccine but unfortunately supplies are not living up to all of those expectations. Melissa Bell joining us live from Paris, many thanks.

World Health Organization investigators on the ground in Wuhan, China, now have access to months of Chinese flu data. They are hoping it can help trace the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

CNN's international security editor, Nick Paton Walsh has been tracking this story for us. He joins us now live from London. So, Nick, a year has passed, of course, since the start of this pandemic. So how much can we expect this investigation to achieve? And how much access and cooperation will the W.H.O. team get from China?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The panel on the ground, we spoke to yesterday, refer to how the Chinese are being transparent, and they're getting to see what they want to see. But I think you're right there to point out that yearlong gap kind of typified by the visit yesterday to the Wuhan seafood market in Wuhan, anecdotally a patch in the global perception the place that was at the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Even though some studies of late suggest that it may well have emerged elsewhere.

They toured a facility that had long for months been shuttered, heavily disinfected, no people. Eerie one W.H.O. panel described it.

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Another said though that it was surprising how interesting was to actually see how place come into it and how it could have acted as a main vector at the very beginning of the pandemic.

But also, it's believed that today and the next days ahead -- next two days or so -- they'll visit key facilities in Wuhan. The CDCs that are resident there but also, the Wuhan Institute of Virology. A place that's done a lot of intensive work on coronaviruses in bats and has gained notoriety because of unsubstantiated evidence free allegations made by the now former Trump administration that it was somehow the source of a leak that caused the outbreak to start.

But as you mentioned, Rosemary, a key thing in all of this that we heard of yesterday, now from the team from the W.H.O. there. They have months of data from Chinese officials about influenza in the areas around Wuhan and also in the months before December 2019 when this began. That's key because it may show possible flashpoints, indications as to when and where exactly the virus initiated.

Remember in many countries around the world they've seen a rise in inexplicable flu symptoms in the months ahead that when they first officially recorded the first coronavirus. Perhaps you may also remember too, a CNN investigation in December last year revealed in fact revealed unreported spike in two cities near Wuhan, in very early December. That's weeks before they first realized they had the coronavirus 20 times the size as we've seen the year before this particular spike.

Perhaps is unclear what relevance it necessarily had to the coronavirus, perhaps also another clue as to where this originally began. So vital, Rosemary, to work out where it came from. So potentially humanity and China can stop that happening again -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Exactly right. Nick Paton Walsh joining us live from London. Many thanks.

And just ahead, CNN talked to a North Korean defector. His advice for President Joe Biden when it comes to dealing with leader Kim Jong-un. We'll be right back in a moment.

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CHURCH: An independent monitoring group says Russian police detained more than 5,000 people during antigovernment protests on Sunday. One of those detained was Yulia Navalnaya. This video shows officers in riot gear forcing her into a van and arresting her. She is the wife of Alexey Navalny, the jailed opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Protesters nationwide are demanding Navalny be released from detention. CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins me now from Moscow. Good to see you Fred. So bring us up to date on the situation with these demonstrations. Because of course, more are planned.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right, Rosemary. More are indeed planned in the coming days really. What's going to happen next is that Alexey Navalny, his legal troubles are actually going to continue. He has a court hearing that is set for tomorrow, for Tuesday. And his supporters have already called for people to come out and to protest outside the court where that is to take place.

Now that most probably is not going to be near as big as what we saw yesterday. Also course because what we saw yesterday really unfolded in the entire country and really tens of thousands of people across Russia took to the streets, and not just the streets, there were some who people protested on ice sheets and on frozen lakes throughout this very vast and of course in many places very cold country.

As you mentioned, more than 5,000 people taken into detention according to an independent monitoring group. And one of the things that we saw, Rosemary, is that especially at the beginning of the protests here in Moscow, it seemed as though the authorities were trying to stop the protests from even taking hold. There were big mass detentions going on. I know I was live in one of our shows yesterday morning and I think during one of our live shots like seven or eight people were detained just in that span of time.

Also a lot of journalists detained by the way as well throughout Russia. This is according to an independent monitoring group. More than 80 journalists were detained. In the State Department, in the form of the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, he came out very early in the game yesterday and he condemned what he called harsh tactics against both protesters and journalists.

And just a couple minutes ago, Rosemary, there was a conference call with the Kremlin, where the press secretary for Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov. He came out and said that Russia would have none of it. He said that essentially, they don't need to be lectured by the United States or by other countries. And also claimed that the work of journalists was not interfered with at those protests that took place in Russia yesterday. Certainly seemed to us there were a lot of journalists who were taken into custody yesterday, at least what we could see, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, indeed. Fred Pleitgen bringing us up to date on that story. Many thanks.

U.S. President Joe Biden was set to give a major foreign policy speech on Monday, but a coming winter storm forced him to postpone it. CNN's Paula Hancocks spoke exclusively with a high level North Korean diplomat who recently defected and found out what advice he would give the new U.S. president.

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ryu Hyeon-Woo told his teenage daughter he'd drive her to school. Instead, he drove to the South Korean embassy and claimed asylum.

RYU HYEON-WOO, FORMER NORTH KOREAN DIPLOMAT (through translator): I told her come with mom and dad to find freedom. She was shocked and then said OK. That's all she said.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): Ryu was acting North Korean ambassador for Kuwait until he defected in September 2019. Part of the North Korean elite, a privileged diplomat, of a country that touts itself as a socialist paradise. It was a life Woo, and his wife were desperate to save their daughter from.

In his first ever interview, Ryu reveals how agonizing the decision was to make. His voice cracks when he thinks of his 83-year-old mother, his wife's elderly parents and his siblings all back in Pyongyang.

HYEON-WOO (through translator): I just want to see them live long. Any thought of them being punished for what I've done just hurt my heart.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): North Korea under Kim Jong-un has had a policy of punishing the families of defectors, a deterrent for those wanting to flee and lifelong guilt for those who escape.

Ryu says he watched the 2018 summit between then U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un while in Kuwait.

HYEON-WOO (through translator): As a diplomat, I thought this might be a political photo op. The U.S. can't back down from denuclearization and Kim Jong-un cannot denuclearize. North Korea's nuclear power is directly linked to the stability of the regime. I can't imagine they'd abolish this.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): As for advice for President Joe Biden, Ryu demurs citing Biden's lengthy foreign policy experience.

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But he does believe that North Korea will only consider reducing nuclear weapons, not giving them up completely, all while being accepted as a nuclear state.

HANCOCKS: What does Kim Jong-un want from President Biden?

HYEON-WOO (through translator): I think he wants the U.S. to lift sanctions.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): A move Ryu does not think should happen. He also wants the issue of human rights to be an important part of Biden's North Korean policy. He sees Biden's previous nuclear deal with Iran as a sign of hope for dealing with North Korea. But he does offer a reality check.

HYEON-WOO (through translator): North Korea's going to be more difficult than Iran.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

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CHURCH: Well just last week they helped send GameStop shares soaring. Now amateur investors have set their sights on a new target. The details next.

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CHURCH: First it was GameStop, now precious metals. Investors on Reddit's WallStreetBets forum have made silver their new target. And #silversqueeze is now trending on Twitter. The so-called Reddit rebellion It's pitting hedge funds against amateur investors sent GameStop shares skyrocketing last week.

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But unlike GameStop, silver futures have been strong as of late and some are questioning this new Reddit trading strategy in the volatile commodity market. We're now just hours away from the opening bell on Wall Street. And as you can see, U.S. stock futures are all in positive territory. We'll see what happens.

So U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren admits she doesn't know who's right or who's wrong in the GameStop saga, so she's calling for the Securities and Exchange Commission to make sure no group of investors is manipulating the market.

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SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): What's happening with GameStop is just a reminder of what's been going on, on Wall Street now for years and years and years. It's a rigged game. They've turned this stock market not into a place where you get capital formation to support businesses but more into a casino and they're doing all kinds of market manipulation, pump and dump, companies that buy back shares of their own stock so that they can inflate the stock prices. We need a market that is transparent, that's level and that is open to individual investors. It's time for the SEC to get off their duffs and do their jobs.

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CHURCH: There you go.

And finally, the White House dogs are taking advantage of the snow in Washington. U.S. President Joe Biden's granddaughter Naomi tweeted this picture of Champ and Major playing in the snow on the White House lawn. And you can see the Washington Monument in the background. They're the first pets to live in the White House since the Obama administration. Great picture there.

And thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is up next. You're watching CNN. Have yourselves a great day.

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