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Myanmar Military Holds Steadfast Against International Criticism; Texans Endure Freeze As Governor Blasts Green New Deal; Variants Dominate Conversation Around Lower COVID Numbers; U.N. Says The Poor Are Being Left Behind; Colombia Begins Vaccine Roll Out; Millions in Texas Left without Power for Days; Facebook Blocks Users in Australia from Getting News; Japan's Ruling Party Invites Women to Observe Meetings; Biden Administration Weighs Closer Ties with Havana; NASA's Perseverance to Attempt Mars Landing. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 18, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
KIM BRUNHUBER, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to everyone watching from around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
A deadly deep freeze leads to desperate measures. Millions of Americans without power shivering through another night of sub-zero temperatures. And they're going to great lengths to keep warm.
The United Nations says the poor are being left behind as wealthy countries race to vaccinate their citizens against the coronavirus.
Plus, seven minutes of terror. NASA is set to begin a new mission on Mars, but first it's probe has to stick a tricky landing.
All right. We begin in the U.S. state of Texas where authorities say they're making progress on restoring electricity to residents who've spent the past few days in the freezing cold and dark.
More than 2 million customers are still without power after severe winter storms sent temperatures plunging over the weekend. Water pipes had burst due to the cold flooding homes, and more than 7 million people have been told to boil their water as treatment plants are offline.
Warming centers are open across the state as people look for heat and comfort.
And Austin's mayor says he's hearing power plants won't be back online until Friday or Saturday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE ADLER, MAYOR, AUSTIN, TEXAS: We're asking everybody in the city that has power to treat this as if they did not; to conserve, to lower their thermostats and then lower them again. Even if you have power to use candles and flashlights. This is a rough place we're in right now and there's no guarantee of
immediate relief.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now millions of freezing Texans want to know why the state wasn't better prepared despite knowing a deadly storm was on its way?
CNN's Ed Lavandera has more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The temperature in Jose Limon's house in Del Rio, Texas is 35 degrees. He lost power Sunday night.
JOSE LIMON, DEL RIO, TEXAS RESIDENT: I just stay in this room. It keeps the room warm.
LAVANDERA: He can handle the cold but he needs a generator to keep his oxygen machine going. Limon spent three weeks in a hospital intensive care unit recently battling COVID-19. He still needs around the clock oxygen.
LIMON: I'm nervous. I'm nervous, I don't know what's going to happen, when the power's going to come on.
There's a lot of -- around my house, there's a lot of people that have light, but not me. I don't know why.
LAVANDERA: The bitter cold has now turned to heated anger over the catastrophic failure of the state's power grid.
Texas governor Greg Abbott made the rounds on Texas television news to say it's a total failure of the organization known as ERCOT, which runs nearly all of the state's power grid. He's called for an investigation and for executives resign.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT, (R-TEXAS): ERCOT stands for Electric Reliability Council of Texas and they showed that they were not reliable.
LAVANDERA: Most of Texas runs on its own power grid, separate from the rest of the country. State leaders designed it this way to avoid federal regulation.
ERCOT officials insist the decision to take power away from millions of homes using controlled outages spared the entire state from a systemwide failure that could've taken months to repair and left even more people freezing.
BILL MAGNESS, CEO, ERCOT: If we had waited and not done outages, not reduced demand to reflect what was going on on the overall system, we could've drifted towards a blackout.
LAVANDERA: According to ERCOT officials, equipment failures at oil and gas plants account for the largest amounts of power knocked offline. Despite that, right wing pundits have used the Texas freeze to blast
the reliability of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.
In the middle of this crisis, Governor Abbott went on "Fox News."
ABBOTT: This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal. It is essential that we, as a country, remain where we continue to provide access to fossil fuels for heating, for taking care of our homes.
LAVANDERA: But before the governor made that appearance, he was telling Texas news stations that one of the biggest concerns was frozen equipment at natural gas plants, which provides most of the heat for Texas homes.
ABBOTT: The power generators froze up and their equipment was incapable of generating power. And then, on top of that, the natural gas that flows into those power generators, that has frozen up also.
REP. MARC VEASEY, (D-TEXAS): There's no Green New Deal in Texas. That is a j-o-k-e, joke.
LAVANDERA: Democratic Texas congressman, Mark Veasey says the governor and state Republican leaders are trying to shift blame.
[01:05:00]
VEASEY: I would say 100 percent of the blame goes to Greg Abbott and the Republicans. Just for years and years of neglect and mismanagement.
JORDAN ORTA, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS RESIDENT: We are starting to get really frustrated.
LAVANDERA: In the meantime, Texans like Jordan Orta and her little boy are scrambling to fight off the freeze. They slept in their car last night, in fear they'll do the same tonight.
ORTA: It's uncomfortable, as you can imagine, it's not like sleeping in your own bed. But we were warm, and able to make it through the night. I'm just hoping that tonight's a better night.
LAVANDERA: State power grid officials say that out of the 680 power generators in the state, 180 of them have been knocked offline. Those same officials also say they're hoping to get power fully restored in the next couple of days.
But hope doesn't keep people warm.
LAVANDERA (On Camera): Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: And joining me now on the phone is Texas resident, Bryce Smith. He's in Royse City, Texas which is near Dallas. Thanks so much for joining me. First off, I understand you are able to get out of your house which
didn't have electricity. Just take me back to then before you left. What was it like?
BRYCE SMITH, RESIDENT, ROYSE CITY, TEXAS (Voice Over): It was -- honestly, it was freezing. All of our neighbors were outside in their cars, trying to figure out how to stay warm and how to light their stoves to try to keep warm if they did have gas coming into their house. (Inaudible).
BRUNHUBER: And for you -- yes, and for you trying to stay warm, how did you do it?
SMITH: Honestly, we had gas coming into our house, we tried to boil pots of water. But we knew that we couldn't do it long because of the poison that could happen.
So we tried to air out the house and then we ended up staying in the car as long as we could until we were almost out of gas.
BRUNHUBER: And then trying to get gas, I understand, is a mission in and of itself. How did you guys go about finding gas?
SMITH: Oh, we ventured out. Luckily, we're from the Midwest, we're from Iowa, so we ventured out in the snow and ice and we made it to around three of the gas stations that were about 10, 15 miles out and nobody had gas.
We tried to call as many people as we could around the area and we were able to find one , hours later, 30 miles away.
BRUNHUBER: Oh, my gosh. Was panic setting in at some point when you are running low on gas?
SMITH: Yes.
BRUNHUBER: I understand you have two children with you, right? And you thought maybe you'd be freezing at the side of the road there?
SMITH: That is correct. We have a four-year old daughter and a one- year old son. And once we hit a quarter of a tank and we had to shut our car off and then enter the house again where it was freezing and you could see your breath, that's about when panic set in.
I had to call my family up in Royse City and everybody got on the phone calling shelters and everything immediately.
BRUNHUBER: And were you able to get shelter in the end?
SMITH: No, we were not. The Palmer Convention Center where they told us to call and the Salvation Army, they were both automated numbers. I got hung up on many times from the Salvation Army.
They finally picked up and gave me another number which was an automated service as well.
BRUNHUBER: Oh, my gosh.
SMITH: Yes.
BRUNHUBER: And in the end, you were able to get to your mom's house, I understand. So you guys have electricity right now. But do you know what state your house is in?
SMITH: We do not currently, at this time. We're still -- [inaudible] watching Austin and ERCOT and we're seeing there's still outages in our area and we're currently on boil notice for water. And we're hoping that our pipes aren't burst down there.
BRUNHUBER: Well --
SMITH: So we're hoping we still have a home to go to.
BRUNHUBER: Yes -- as well. A lot of folks out there are angry at how this has all been handled, at what led to this situation. Who do you blame?
SMITH: I don't know where to place the blame, I honestly don't. It's just so bad that we just need help. We just need help. I'm not really focusing on the blame so much as who we need to help us. We need some sort of help.
BRUNHUBER: What specifically do you need?
SMITH: We need updates. We need people going into our neighborhood because we have people in our neighborhood that are asking for help, older people, our neighbors, they don't have electricity.
We were lucky enough to venture out and drive because we're from Iowa. They're not lucky. We see people with kids less than a year old in our neighborhood, they're still stuck in there for three days now without power. There's no food or gas.
We need somebody to bring something in to help these people.
BRUNHUBER: Well, I know there are lots of good folks out there who are trying to help. And certainly, we have links on our website to organizations that are trying to help people as well.
[01:10:00]
So hopefully, you and the rest of the community will get what you need. And we wish you all the best in this horribly trying time.
Thanks so much for being with us, Bryce.
SMITH: Thank you so much.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Best of luck. Bryce Smith joining us there.
The U.N. secretary general says rich countries are getting more than their fair share of the coronavirus vaccines and some 130 countries have yet to receive a single dose. He (inaudible) a call from Mexico for countries to stop hoarding vaccines and make distribution more equitable.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: The roll out of COVID-19 vaccines is generating hope. But at this critical moment, vaccine equity is the biggest moral test before the global community.
We must ensure that everybody everywhere can be vaccinated as soon as possible. Yet progress on vaccinations has been widely uneven and unfair. Just 10 countries have administrated 75 percent of all COVID- 19 vaccines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And speaking at a virtual meeting of the U.N. security council, he went on to say that if the virus is allowed to tear through poor countries, it will just keep mutating and put the whole world at risk.
Meanwhile, Britain urged the U.N. to quickly call for ceasefires in conflict zones like Yemen to allow for vaccinations.
The country with the second worst COVID outbreak in Latin America has now begun its vaccination program.
Stefano Pozzebon has more on the rollout in Colombia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Yes. Colombia will commence vaccinations on Wednesday. It's a landmark moment for this country and a landmark moment that was eagerly expected and awaited ever since the beginning of January when the government granted emergency use authorization to the same Pfizer vaccine that will be dispensed commencing on Wednesday.
It took more than a month for the vaccine to actually arrive in Colombia after the government granted the authorization.
And President Duque and his team have selected a nurse in a public hospital in the northern city of Sincelejo in the rural department of Sucre, far away from the main cities, far away from the capital of Bogota.
This nurse in a public hospital, Veronica Machado (ph), will be the first Colombian to receive the vaccine.
And with this choice, Duque said he was trying to convene (ph) the message that the vaccine really is for everybody and there should not be barrier to accessing the vaccine.
On a press conference late on Tuesday, President Duque again remarked that the vaccine will be dispensed free of charge into as many Colombians that should require -- of course, priority is being given to health care workers and the elderly -- but the goal is to vaccinate up to 35 million Colombian citizens by the end of the year. And that is, indeed, a tough challenge ahead for Colombia which is
reaching these moments a few weeks after other countries in the region like Brazil, Argentina or Chile had already commenced vaccinations.
The government is adamant that they are on their schedule and that they would respect that commitment.
But with the worldwide shortage of the vaccine and the challenges in the supply chain of this prized commodity, it's a very difficult challenge ahead. For Duque and for all Colombians.
POZZEBON (On Camera): For CNN, this Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.
BRUNHUBER: South Africa also got off to a slow start but has now launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
Health care workers there are getting the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. And that's after the government suspended plans to use the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine over concerns it wasn't effective against the South African variant.
And among the first to roll up his sleeve, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who tweeted, "Just took the vaccine." He said it was quick, easy, and not so painful.
Germany's health minister said the country is seeing a quick and troubling spread of the new coronavirus variants especially from the more contagious strain first found in the U.K.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENS SPAHN, HEALTH MINISTER, GERMANY (Through Translator): Two weeks ago, this variant made up six percent of tested samples, now that figure is over 22 percent.
This means that, as has been seen in other countries, there is evidence that the mutation is doubling roughly every week. We must expect that this mutation could become the dominant virus in Germany.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: U.S. health experts warn these variants could accelerate the trajectory of the pandemic with another rapid rise in cases.
[01:15:00]
They say an such outcome could be avoided with the right health measures including more vaccinations.
Dennis Carroll joins me now. He's an infectious disease expert and the former director of USAID's emerging threats division. Thank you so much for joining us.
As we've just heard, growing concern about these variants. Here in the U.S., the CDC pointed to the example of Zambia which had no cases of the South African variant last March, now that variant is found in some 96 percent of samples and the cases have gone up sixteen-fold from December to January.
So how worried are you that, just as we're seeing cases going down here in the U.S. and in other parts of the world, these new variants can cause it to shoot back up again fairly quickly?
DENNIS CARROLL, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: Well, first off, these variants are very much a natural part of the virus's evolution.
The more opportunity it has to infect people -- every type it infects a person, it reproduces itself and in the process of doing that, it creates new versions of itself, slight variations. And sometimes those variations have implications for how transmittable or how deadly it might be.
And so, the fact that we're hearing about variants reported in the United Kingdom, in South Africa, Brazil and elsewhere is really part of a natural process.
As long as this virus is allowed and able to circulate uninterrupted, it will continue to generate these new variants. And they do pose a significant challenge.
We've heard that the South African variant, not only is it more infectious but we are now hearing that, in the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine, it is less susceptible, making that vaccine less valuable in trying to control this particular virus.
So, as it has opportunities to create new variants, it may show itself ultimately to become less vulnerable to the vaccines that we're generating and potentially more deadly.
So it's really a race against time. Bringing this virus under control really requires a global focus. Because, as we've just said, if a virus emerges in South Africa with these new capabilities it can wreak havoc anywhere in the world. So it's a concern. Fortunately --
BRUNHUBER: Yes. And that's why you've argued that the richer nations like the U.S. have to come together and cooperate more to help that global vaccination effort.
The good news is COVAX, the shared vaccine distribution program for low- and middle-income countries, is going to make the first deliveries of the vaccine at the end of February.
But the bad news is that that's about two months or more after the wealthier nations have started vaccinating their citizens. So what do you make of the progress or the lack thereof, so far?
CARROLL: Well, first off, I'm thankful that we do have a COVAX, there is an effort to deal with this equity issue but as you just pointed out, there's still huge discrepancies between the rich and the poor countries.
A forecast made this past week projected that while the rich upper income countries may bring the vast majority of their vulnerable populations with full protection of vaccine by the end of this year, we're not going to see an equivalent level till maybe 2023 elsewhere in the world.
And all of that sort of speaks to not only people being vulnerable but, as we were just talking about variants, more opportunities where the virus isn't brought under control to generate new versions of itself that may make the vaccines that are being used in the upper income countries less effective.
So as we need to understand this is a global problem and it needs a well coordinated global response.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. We saw in the news this hour, Mexico filing a complaint with the U.N. saying the vaccine rollout isn't fair because, quote -- "the countries that produce the vaccines have higher rates of vaccinations and Latin America and the Caribbean have much less."
But isn't that the key phrase there? That the countries that produce the vaccines -- how hard is it to make that case, when, for example the U.S. which has contributed significantly to the development of the vaccine has to shut down vaccination sites because they don't have enough supply themselves?
[01:20:00]
CARROLL: Well, I think we all recognize, first and foremost, that demand for the vaccine far out -- exceeds what the availability of that vaccine is. So first and foremost, there's a global shortage no matter where we look.
And that speaks to a longer term issue about how we can better address global vaccination needs for future challenges of this kind. That said, we're in a very difficult position now where we do appreciate not all populations are equally vulnerable.
And as we know, very clearly, within the U.S. and Europe, the populations that are most vulnerable are the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions. And we suspect that's also true elsewhere in the world, certainly in the Americas and in Africa and Asia.
Our first approach towards equity is to making sure that the people most vulnerable have access to it. And the second is to make sure everyone else gets access to it as a way of addressing this issue about variants.
But the first challenge is to protect the people who are most vulnerable from dying from severe illness and then protect the world from the emergence of these variants.
And so we need to have a global standard of prioritizing and using the vaccines against that standard. And we do not have one. Sadly.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, listen, we will have to leave it there. So many unanswered questions there, so many challenges.
But thank you so much for joining us and sharing your perspective, Dennis Carroll. Appreciate it.
CARROLL: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: Britain's Prince Philip is in the hospital but Buckingham Palace emphasizes his stay is a precaution.
Queen Elizabeth's 99-year old husband hadn't felt well for several days and his doctor advised him to go to the hospital for observation and rest. The Palace said his illness isn't COVID related. The Queen has remained at Windsor where the royal couple has spent most of the pandemic.
Now there is no end in sight after the biggest demonstration since Myanmar's military coup. Protestors are back out. We have an update ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: Reuters reports security forces fired rubber bullets in a confrontation with striking railway workers in Mandalay, Myanmar. Civil disobedience is part of the ongoing protests of the military's coup.
Wednesday's demonstrations were the largest so far. Smaller groups of protesters are gathering Thursday.
Paula Hancocks is in Seoul with the latest. Paula, massive strikes, lots of arrests and now they want to detain celebrities. What's going on here?
[01:25:00]
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, at this point, it appears that who they are rounding up and who they want to round up is anybody who has criticized the military.
So the latest target from the military leadership point of view is six celebrities that they have named, put an arrest warrant out for them, because they believe that they have galvanized support for the former party, the former ruling party, and, critically, against the military.
So they are really trying to just silence critics across the country.
We have seen a number of protesters being detained. We have also seen that many members of the NLD, the National League for Democracy, that was in power up until just over two weeks ago be detained as well.
So this is now moving on to the next voice the military effectively does not want to hear, and doesn't want these protesters to hear.
Because we did see a massive crowd on Wednesday. Those on the ground telling us it was by far the biggest that there has been since the coup happened more than two weeks ago.
And the reason for that being so big on that particular day was it was a day after Aung San Suu Kyi, the ousted leader, had had her first day in court albeit via video conference and another charge had been laid against her. So that was really the support there. We are seeing, again, through the live streams, talking to people on
the ground, they are out on the streets once again. Although not quite, as you, say the numbers that we saw on Wednesday. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Turning now to the international community. There's some skepticism that any international pressure will have any effect here. So what's been the reaction so far from the international community and then the response from the military?
HANCOCKS: Well, the response from the military is a fairly easy one. They haven't directly engaged to any of the criticism or the warnings that they have heard from the international community, at least not publicly.
We've heard from the U.N., the U.S., a number of other leaders around the world that the world is watching. Warning the military that if force is used against protesters then there will be great consequences.
But, of course, this is a military that has been in power for almost 50 years before, it was a brutal military dictatorship which was widely condemned and still was widely sanctioned and managed to survive. So it is a question about how much impact that can have.
Now we did also hear from the U.N. envoy to Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, speaking to CNN saying that she has spoken to a senior military leader within Myanmar, saying they need to change the textbook of what happens next.
She believes that they did have tactics planned when the coup took place but may have been surprised by the sheer level of the resistance on the streets so are unable now to implement the changes that they want to see.
But certainly, there has been a huge amount of international criticism. But also -- this is what we're hearing on the ground -- this is what people want to hear, they want the international pressure.
And potentially also the reason why we're seeing four days in a row of Internet shutdowns or near total Internet shutdowns according to the monitoring service, NetBlocks, as the military seems to restrict some ways of letting this information get out.
BRUNHUBER: All right.. Thank you so much for that excellent analysis. Paula Hancocks in Seoul.
The U.N. secretary general is condemning the abduction of students from a northern Nigerian school.
Amnesty International said -- "Education is under attack in Nigeria... and no child should have to choose between their education and their life." Unidentified gunmen killed one student and kidnapped at least 27 others along with staff members of the school.
In the aftermath of the attack, the state's governor ordered the immediate closure of boarding schools in the area.
The U.S. state that opted out of the federal power grid is now dealing with a disaster, partly of its own making. But it's people are pulling together.
UNKNOWN: Bad weather, snows, rain, thunder. Nothing's going to keep us from getting to the people that need our help.
BRUNHUBER: How small Texas towns without electricity or water are surviving.
And Texas normally produces more power than any other U.S. state, thanks to fossil fuels and renewable energy alike. So why did the lone star state go dark? We'll take a closer look. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:32:04]
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: All right.
Let's get you up to date on our top story this hour.
More than two million people in the U.S. state of Texas are spending another night in the freezing cold without electricity. A deadly winter storm also knocked out water treatment plants across the state. About seven million people are under a "boil water" advisory. People who are able to make it to the grocery stores are finding empty shelves, and a lot of frustration.
CNN's Chris Cuomo spoke with one family who recently moved to Texas after a tornado destroyed their home in Ohio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIANNA BLAKE, TEXAS RESIDENT: Seeing my two sleeping babies, under a bunch of blankets in front of the fireplace that was slowly going out was heartbreaking. I just started kind of grabbing my canvases off the wall and breaking them and throwing them in the fire.
And while I'm doing that he's getting fencing, parts of our bunny patch and he's hand sawing them in the garage. As we're also simultaneously reaching out to everyone trying to find firewood, and we luckily our community really came together. We were able to reach somebody at 5:00 a.m. and they answered the call, which is remarkable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Other communities in Texas are also opening their doors sharing their supplies and rolling up their sleeves.
Joe Lopez from affiliate KXXV, shows how the town of Mart, Texas population 2,200 is coping with the disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE LOPEZ, KXXV (voice over): The winter storms have taken a huge blow on people in Mart.
ELIZABETH FITZGERALD, RESIDENT OF MART TEXAS: We've been without water for a 24 hours plus, along with without power for 28 hours plus.
LOPEZ: Sparking the community to rise up like never before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got some great citizens that care more about other people than themselves.
LOPEZ: Places like Read's grocery store had been donating its water supply so people can have freshwater. And residents like Elizabeth Fitzgerald and her husband knew they had to help the cause.
FITZGERALD: So what we're doing is we're just going door to door trying to find anybody who may need water. We will go pick those up and bring them to those that can't drive or don't have Internet access to Facebook.
LOPEZ: Over at First United Methodist Church, people are using what gas they have left to help cook up food for the community.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two more meals, ok. Thank you. Someone is a diabetic? Ok, then we'll make sure we get them a meal.
LOPEZ: Something the Fitzgeralds say almost every other house has been in need of.
FITZGERALD: I'm just grateful to be part of the town mat (ph) it's going to go out of their way to help someone in need.
LOPEZ: Through the teamwork of its citizens they were able to find generators to open up warming shelters around town. But now it's up to the city to get Mart restored.
TREVOR BAIZE, MART TEXAS CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: We've got city employees that are staying at the water plan trying to get it back and running. They're sleeping there, trying to get everything going so we can get back to as normal as possible.
LOPEZ: City councilman Trevor Baize says it could take days for Oncor to restore the power, but if anyone has an emergency, first responders are ready to lend a helping help.
[01:34:59]
BAIZE: Bad weather, snow, rain, thunder, nothing is going to keep us from getting to the people that need our help.
LOPEZ: Joe Lopez, 25 News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: If you would like to help those who are struggling to find shelter, food and warmth, well go to our Website. We've got a vapid list of groups that are helping out and that address is CNN.com/impact. Well, Texas produces more power than any other state, so how is this
nightmare even possible?
"GLOBAL ENERGY CHALLENGE" anchor John Defterios joins us live. So John, many on the right have been quick to point the finger at green energy, obviously this failure is much, much larger than that. Take us through this.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, you know, it gave an opportunity for the climate deniers here to point the finger at solar and wind, but actually what came off the grid was a 3rd from renewables. And the majority was thermal power. That would be gash coal and nuclear. So of course, this is right across the board.
And you know, I don't want to sound cliche Kim, but this was the perfect storm that toppled the infrastructure. By the way this was a deregulated market so it was very good for consumer pricing but not for planning and investment, that is the majority problem here.
So if you take a deeper look at what happened. We have peak demand going to 70 gigawatts right a day. And they lost 40 gigawatts in that mix that I was talking about. And there's also spillover effect.
Now the state regulators saying the best thing that could happen by Thursday, today, when business starts to open up in Texas again is rolling outages. This is not going away anytime over the next three or four days. Let's put it that way.
And that spillover I'm talking about is because Texas is the largest producer in the United States of oil and gas. And without electricity that production drops. And it is having a impact on global prices.
Let's first listen to Vicki Hollub. She's the CEO of Occidental Petroleum, has assets in west Texas. It's known as the Permian Basin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICKI HOLLUB, CEO, OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM: That is something that is so unprecedented, that, you know, a part of our grid was just prepared for.
And the reality is that it seems that quite a bit of the power on the grid that's supplied by the wind and solar where not winterized to the point where they could stay on the grid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: Now with a grain of salt here, Vicki Hollub is the CEO of an oil and gas company, right. So I did talk about the fact that solar and wind came out but the majority was thermal and now the states talking about limiting the gas distribution as well.
And I talked about the impact on prices. These are 13-month highs with the international benchmark going up to $65 a barrel and we're above $61 a barrel for WTI or West Texas Intermediate, that whole Permian Basin. BRUNHUBER: John, I want to go back to a word you slipped in there
deregulated. That is a key word here at least when it comes to the federal government, right. I mean Texas prides itself on its independence and that includes the energy industry and it's grid there.
So that is part of the problem here, right?
DEFTERIO: Yes, I think it is, Kim. And I'm glad you underlined it here. It is the Lone Star State, they are fiercely independent and the same attitude towards the energy market and they could be a little bit arrogant because they have an abundance of everything, right. Oil and gas I talked about, up to six million barrels a day that is about 60 percent of the U.S. output at peak.
They have solar and wind in abundance. They started doing this about a decade ago. The problem is they have so much energy, they that they did not need to be part of the national grid. So when crisis hit, right, that certainly failed them.
Number two, they were prepared for peak demand in the summers with the humidity and the flooding that comes in those months as well. Not for arctic cold and what we've seen is the jet stream coming lower and lower, and bringing that cold air and that freezing temperature to Texas.
So they have this thing in the business called "mitigated infrastructure", something that can withstand hot and cold. Texas was not ready for it. And this is a product everybody wants to deny. It is a product of climate change, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. And that's a subject in and of itself we would love to explore later.
Thank you so much John Defterios in Abu Dhabi, we really appreciate it.
DEFTERIOS: Yes.
BRUNHUBER: Well if you are in Australia and you want to read or share a news article on Facebook well, it's not going to happen.
The social media giant is now blocking news content after the government proposed a law that would force tech platforms to pay for it.
Australia's treasury is blasting Facebook's actions as not just wrong, but harmful.
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JOSH FRYDENBERG, AUSTRALIAN TREASURER: In respect to Facebook's actions today, Facebook was wrong. Facebook's actions were unnecessary. They were heavy-handed and they will damaged its reputation here in Australia.
Their decision to block Australians access to government sites be they about support through the pandemic, mental health, emergency services, the bureau of meteorology were completely unrelated to the media code
which is yet to pass through the senate.
But what today's events do confirm for all Australians, is the immense market power of these media digital giants.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Then a Facebook executive issued this statement. "What the proposed law introduced in Australia fails to recognize the fundamental nature of the relationships between our platform and publishers. Contrary to what some have suggested, Facebook does not steal news content, publishers choose to share their stories on Facebook."
Japan's ruling party tries to take a step in the right direction and include more women at its meetings but well, there is a big catch. We will explain.
Stay with us.
Plus U.S. President Joe Biden is looking at ways to mend fences with Cuba, but there is a giant noisy obstacle in the way. We will be back.
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BRUNHUBER: Well Naomi Osaka does it again. The reigning U.S. open champ booking her second trip go the Australian open final after defeating Serena Williams in straight sets.
Whilst it's no doubt a disappointment for the American tennis great, Williams was seeking a record tying 24th Grand Slam title. Japan's Osaka has won 20 straight matches and is a favorite to win the final no matter who she faces.
Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power for much of the last six decades now wants more female lawmakers to join its board, but only as long as they don't do the talking.
CNN's Blake Essig is standing by in Tokyo. So Blake, I mean it's a little bit more complicated than that. It also has to do with the 2020 Olympics scandal. But even in that context, the seeming tone deafness here beggars belief.
BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Tone deaf is a good way to describe this proposal. To involve more women in meetings.
Now, this proposal was made by the secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party. The proposal is to allow five women to quote, "take a look and fully understand, what kind of discussions are happening during certain ruling party executive board meetings.
[01:45:00]
ESSIG: Now these women will essentially only be allowed to observe and not speak. Now, if they do want to ask a question or make a comment they can do so in writing to the secretary at the end of the meeting. Of course, this all comes just about a week after the sexist comments made by the former Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori, forced his resignation.
Now as you might expect, this proposal has received a lot backlash on social media. Anger and outrage with some women going as far as saying that this proposal, and Mori's sexist comments make them feel like second class citizens and sadly they feel like the male dominated liberal Democratic party and really, the aging ruling class elite here in Japan not only don't understand what the problem is but don't seem willing to make any changes.
And gender equality issues have always seemed to have been a problem here in Japan. Just recently in 2020, the World Economic Forum ranked 17. 121st out of 153 countries in their gender gap index. And the reason for that is because only 10 percent of women served in the legislature. Only 5 percent of women serve on executive boards at companies.
And while I've talked to professors in Asian studies, and experts on Japan, they say that the gender equality issue is getting better in Japan, but clearly these last two weeks have proven that we still have a long way to go, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, exactly. Well said.
Thank you so much, Blake Essig, in Tokyo
Well, Joe Biden has finally called his Israeli counterpart nearly after a month after his inauguration.
The U.S. President says he had a quote, "good conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday." A source close to the White House says there's a sense Mr. Biden may have delayed the call as payback for the Israeli leaders cruel treatment of president Obama and Mr. Netanyahu's close alignment with Donald Trump. The U.S. president is expected to outline his foreign policy vision on Friday in a virtual speech to the Munich Security Conference.
Cuba is another diplomatic challenge for the Biden administration. Four years of Donald Trump left relations with Havana southward but the new U.S. president is considering ways to turn things around.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann reports.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When the flag went up over the U.S. embassy in Havana for the first time in more than 50 years, it marked not only the resumption of the U.S.-Cuban diplomatic ties but also a crowning foreign policy achievement for then President Barack Obama. BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have come here
to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas.
OPPMANN: That optimism proved to be wishful thinking. Shortly before Obama left office U.S. diplomats, some of them were undercover CIA officers, began falling mysteriously ill. The most seriously impacted had brain injuries.
Doctors that examined them said many of the Americans reported hearing strange sounds. And the incidents became known as the sonic attacks. By fall of 2017 diplomat families and nonessential personnel were pulled out by the State Department, leaving a skeleton screw at the newly-reopened embassy.
More than three years later the shutdown means Cubans still cannot apply for visas at the embassy. Leaving people like Victor, who is hoping to travel to the U.S. to treat a rare form of cancer stranded.
"The answer we got was that they could not receive the request because the consulate was closed," he says even though it is a medical situation, a situation of life or death. U.S. Interests are also not being served.
(on camera): Major changes are underway in Cuba, there have been unprecedented protests by Artists Against Censorship. The Cuban government is easing restrictions on private entrepreneurs and Raul Castro is expected to step down in April as head as the island's communist party.
But right now there is almost no U.S. diplomatic presence on this island.
(voice over): The Biden administration announced it was reviewing the decision to reduce embassy staffing. But what caused the diplomats' illness may never be known. A study released by the National Academy of sciences in December, pointed to the possibility of concentrated microwave energy as a possible culprit. Something Cuba's investigators quickly dismissed.
DR. MITCHELL VALDES SOSA, CUBAN SCIENTIST: There is no physical possibility of a microwave weapon penetrating hotel rooms, houses and causing brain damage without burning the skin and without harming other --
OPPMANN: A declassified review from 2018 obtained by the National Security Archive indicated that U.S. government officials botched the initial investigation into the attacks.
[01:49:50]
PETER KORNBLUH, NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE: Even a year and a half after all of this began, U.S. investigators did not have the vaguest idea of what had happened, if anything, in Cuba. And the report makes that pretty crystal clear.
OPPMANN: A lawyer for eight of the U.S. diplomats tells CNN his clients are still feeling the impacts of the so-called Havana Syndrome. Even if the Biden administration decides to send other officials to replace them, the mystery of how U.S. diplomats fell ill in Cuba may never be solved.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN -- Havana
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: They're calling it seven minutes of terror, that's what lies ahead for a NASA Rover on track to land on Mars in a matter of hours. We'll take a closer look with a member of science -- Mars science teams.
Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Severe winter storms across the U.S. have taken a heavy toll on wild animals. Just off the coast of Texas, local volunteers have had to rescue hundreds of cold stunned turtles. They say the ice- cold waters have caused them to become lethargic and unable to swim.
And then in Oklahoma alligators are struggling to keep their heads above's frozen water. This one was seen poking its snout through the ice in order to breathe. Biologists are planning to keep a close eye on them as the frozen water begins to thaw.
Well, in just a few hours a spacecraft will go through what NASA calls seven minutes of terror. The space agency's rover Perseverance will try to land on Mars and for seven minutes NASA will have no control over what happens.
Perseverance will enter Mars' atmosphere at about 25 -kilometers per hour, using a heat shield to protect itself from temperatures reaching nearly 1,300 degrees Celsius.
The rover must then deploy a parachute and retro rockets at the perfect moment, hopefully slowing its descent towards the treacherous terrain. If Perseverance survived the landing it will embark on a two- year mission searching for ancient signs of life, collecting samples and gathering other invaluable data.
And Ray Arvidson is an Earth and Planetary Sciences professor at Washington University and a member of the Mars science team. Thank you so much for joining us Professor.
So this is hugely exciting. But for those arriving cold, who hear about, you know, yet another rover on Mars, and go, you know, ho-hum, how would you sell them on this one?
RAYMOND ARVIDSON, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: That is an excellent question. So we have had multiple rovers on the surface of Mars. Spirit and Opportunity back in -- landed in 2004. Those were on our mantra kind of -- is there evidence for water in the past on Mars? And both of those rovers definitely found evidence. Fumaroles (ph), hydro thermal vents, lake beds. Curiosity which in fact we commended today has been on the surface since 2012 and that's moved on to was Mars habitable. And we've landed on ancient lakebeds, Well, we found organic molecules and evidence that water was existent as a lake for a long period of time.
Perseverance is completely different. We are going from water, is it there? Yes. Habitability was probably (INAUDIBLE) early on, to actually bio signatures.
Searching with instruments on board also returning samples, sometime in the next 10 years, to get direct evidence for past life to the extent that it existed. So it is an evolution.
[01:55:02]
BRUNHUBER: Right. I understand, you know, Perseverance -- Perse as how I like to call is like curiosity but smarter. Some of the equipment on there is pretty fantastic.
You know, you have a rover shooting lasers at space rocks -- it sounds like every kids' dream there. So explain some of the cool technology they're using like super cam and what they are trying to find exactly.
ARVIDSON: Yes. you're right. Perseverance has the same vehicle as curiosity but more advanced instruments. So on the mast, there is very neat camera and color that can zoom in to get details.
is another camera system that blasts out a laser, and then makes basically what's called a plasma or you can do the composition of the rocks and the soil.
And the arm has instruments to actually identify organics, Lasers Roman's spectrometers. In addition to doing composition -- a very shiny scale.
Then the coolest thing and it was thrilling and I'm getting those samples encapsulated and ready to kind of spit out on the surface, a few dozen of them. and they're about the size of your pointer finger.
BRUNHUBER: So they are going to cash those rocks for a visit later on.
Another aim here is to pave the way for a human mission. So specifically, what are they looking for in that context? How will that help?
ARVIDSON: Well, you know, what we're really doing is looking for the samples to get back to earth. To look for evidence of life. And if they find positive evidence, bio signatures could be present, microbes could be chemical signatures -- whatever it turns out to be, then I think that it really says humans and robots at some point will go together to Mars.
Kind of like antarctica, a scientific exploration continent, in this case (INAUDIBLE) scientific exploration planet. In addition to the fact that, you know, humans are explorers and we will go there one way or another.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, I can't wait to see. It will be tomorrow afternoon Eastern time here in the U.S., we'll all be watching. Thank you so much Professor Raymond Arvidson. Really appreciate it.
ARVIDSON: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: And thank you for watching. I'm Kim Brunhuber. It's been my pleasure.
And Rosemary Church is right there, no on the other side up next with another hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
Please do stay with us
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