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South Africa Kicks Off Vaccination Program; United Nations Ask Wealthy Nations Not to Hoard Vaccines; Prince Philip Brought to Hospital; Texas to Endure More Cold Nights; Politicians Never let a Crisis Go to Waste; Myanmar Military Now Going After Celebrities; World's First COVID-19 Human Challenge Study Begins This Month; Dangerous Deep Freeze In Texas As Many Homes Were Left Without Power For Days; U.S. Department Charges Three North Korean Hackers; U.S.- Israel Relations On Biden Administration; Facebook Blocks News In Australia; Seven Minutes Of Terror To Mars; Dipping In A Freezing Temperature During The Pandemic. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired February 18, 2021 - 03:00 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 (on camera): Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, promising news about vaccines and variants of COVID-19. Plus, why some doctors are looking for volunteers to infect with COVID.
And winter weather messes with Texas, millions of people are still without power and some have no water and no heat.
Good to have you with us.
Well, as coronavirus variants spread around the world, there is promising news that several vaccines are effective against the more transmissible strain.
New studies suggest the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines offer some protection against variants, including the strain first identified in South Africa. And the vaccines appear particularly effective in warding off severe illness. But they come as health experts warn the spread of the variants still could lead to a rapid surge in cases.
To curb the spread of the virus, South Africa is rolling out the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The single dose shot has been given first to healthcare workers as part of a research study. The country is pivoting from the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine after fears it's not effective against the variant first bound in South Africa.
So, let's go straight to CNN's David McKenzie who is live outside of a hospital in Soweto, South Africa. Good to see you, David. And this is a significant move in South Africa after problems with the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Talk to us about the progress of this rollout, how this is all going to work.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going to be slow progress at first, but they hope that after several weeks doctors and nurses like the one standing behind me registering for this Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial, will be able to get vaccinated in large numbers, even tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands.
We were here as that vaccine started getting administered to the very first health workers here in South Africa. I spoke to a nurse here who has been toiling away for months in the COVID wards here at Baragwanath hospital. One study showed up to half of the doctors and nurses in those wards contracted COVID during that first wave. So, these are really the people at most risk. She said she is thrilled to get this vaccine.
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MCKENZIE: You had been in the COVID ward for so many months. What does it mean to you to now get a vaccine?
UNKNOWN: I'm so happy. I'm really ready to get the vaccine. Because of everything we've got told come to we were like, I wondered what was going to happen. We are afraid for our families. So, it is now working.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKENZIE: Well there are now more doctors getting around 200 of them getting their vaccinations today at Baragwanath. I spoke to one of the leading vaccine experts just a short time ago here in South Africa. He says that it's a race between the variants and the vaccines, not just here in South Africa, but on a global basis.
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SHABIR MADHI, DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF WITWATERSRAND MEDICAL SCHOOL: Yes, I think anyone that believes this variant isn't disseminated into many other countries has been naive about it. The reality in the African context with the amount of traffic between South Africa and other countries, in all likelihood this variant has dispersed throughout Southern Africa.
Unfortunately, there isn't much sequencing that's done in many parts of Africa, so they wouldn't be able to identify it. And the same thing is also true for many high-income countries. We've already seen this variant now being identified in 35 countries, mainly in the northern hemisphere.
And in many of those countries, including the United States, they've established community transmission, which means that this variant has spread (Ph) and it might be that they could start experiencing many sort of outbreaks related to this variant, which is consistent to most vaccines, or at least relatively resistant compare to our original virus.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MCKENZIE: Well, that doctor, Professor Shabir Madhi was disappointed
with the results that they found in the AstraZeneca vaccine which was shown to be very minimally effective against mild and moderate disease. But he does believe there still could be place for that vaccine, especially when trying to stop severe disease. Which in the context of South Africa, and many other African countries, really is what public health experts want.
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It's unlikely they will be able to stamp out COVID-19 in its entirety, but just to help health care system and hospitals like Baragwanath from being overwhelmed in future waves.
That's really the goal here, while South Africa has now said they will send that million doses of that vaccine to the African union to distribute to other countries on the continent. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Very good point. David McKenzie, joining us live from Soweto. Many thanks.
Well Columbia has finally began its vaccination program. The very first dose going to a 46-year-old nurse. The government says it released the vaccines initially to a rural area to send the message that they are for all people from all walks of life. Larger cities like Bogota will start administering their shots today.
Colombia's outbreak is the second worst in the region after Brazil and its vaccine rollout has lagged behind that of its neighbors.
Well, the U.N. secretary general says wealthy countries are getting more than their fair share of the coronavirus vaccines while some 130 countries have yet to receive a single dose. He echoed a call from Mexico for countries to stop hoarding vaccines and make distribution more equitable.
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ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: The rollout 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 administered its 75 percent of all COVID-19 vaccines.
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CHURCH: Speaking at a virtual meeting of the U.N. Security Council, he also said that if the virus is allowed to tear through poor countries, it will keep mutating and put the whole world at risk.
Meantime, Britain urged the U.N. to quickly call for ceasefires in conflict zones such as Yemen to allow for vaccinations there.
Well as new daily cases across the U.S. continue to fall, and more shots are going to arms, President Joe Biden suggests life may return to normal by Christmas. And while the nation's leading infectious disease expert says that's a fair timeline, he cautions it will be a gradual transition.
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ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: What we are talking about is that maybe, not 100 percent exactly the way we were before all this happened, but what he was referring to, and I would agree with that, is that we are going to be able to do things that we right now are not able to do.
For example, indoor dining, going to a theater, going to a movie, being able to congregate in a setting with dinner, with people beyond those who are in your own household. If we get the level of infection to really very, very low in the community, not like it is now, we still, even though we are doing much better, you still have up to 100,000 new infections per day. I'm talking very, very low level of infections. You can start doing some of the things that really resemble what we call normal life.
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CHURCH: Dr. Fauci there. Well, Buckingham Palace says Prince Philip is in the hospital as a precaution, not an emergency.
Let's get an update on the 99-year-old duke of Edinburg's condition. We turn to Max Foster who is just outside his hospital in London. He joins us now live. So Max, what more are you learning about Prince Philip's condition?
MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: No updates today. He spent a second night in the hospital behind me. I'm joined by a big bank of world media here, because as you say, he's 99 years old. And we haven't been told exactly what's wrong with him apart from he felt unwell for a period of time.
But the palace very much emphasizing this wasn't an emergency admission, and he walked into the hospital unaided yesterday. And it's really a period of observation and rest for Prince Philip. But we do expect him, Rosemary, to be here for a number of days.
CHURCH: So, at what point we might get an update on this?
FOSTER: Well, the palace is pretty keen not to give any running commentaries as they called it, because, you know, the royal family is quite private about its medical matters. We never get much detail about them but they do accept that, you know, when there is an admission like this they need to inform the world, but they also want to sort of, air on the side of caution in terms of not worrying, put too many people about his condition.
He's been into hospital several times over the years for various different conditions. He tends to stay a few days and then he goes back home. But he was in this bubble that Windsor Castle with the queen and key members of staff, and they took him out of that bubble to bring him here. So, they are obviously concerned about something, but I'm told it was purely on the advice of the household doctors.
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So, the queen has stayed in Windsor, she is not come out to London. I think if she was concerned then there would be some movement there.
CHURCH: -- are insisting that this is not COVID related.
FOSTER: Absolutely. So that's the only bit of information. I think the palace is getting so many questions about that. And the duke received a vaccine along with the queen, we don't know whether they've had one or two vaccinations so far, but that would've given them more confidence obviously to be able to move them into London from Windsor for this treatment.
CHURCH: All right. We will continue to monitor this of course. Our Max Foster joining us there. Many thanks.
And this is CNN Newsroom. Coming up, up to 90 young volunteers will be deliberately exposed to COVID-19 in the world's first human challenge trial. And I'll be speaking to a scientist involved later in the show.
But first, millions at this hour are in the cold and dark in Texas amid widespread power outages triggered by winter storms. We will have the latest on that. Back in just a moment.
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CHURCH (on camera): This just in to CNN, Japan has just named Seiko Hashimoto who has competed in seven Olympics as its new Tokyo 2020 chief. Now this comes after the former chief Yoshiro Mori resigned following his controversial remarks about women.
Mori's comments at an Olympics board of trustees meeting were met with backlash and he followed up with his quote, "deepest apologies," adding, "my inappropriate statement has caused a lot of chaos."
Well, millions of people across Texas are spending another night without electricity or heat after the state was slammed by a powerful winter storm. Some residents are even sleeping in their cars to try to keep warm. The storm and continued cold snap have crippled power facilities, causing more than two million power outages. And that will likely continue as the cold temperatures remain.
Right now, more than 21 million people in Texas are under some kind of winter weather alert, and it's not just the power, water is also an issue as pipes freeze and power outages affect water treatment plants. Some residents have been forced to use melted snow or pool water for drinking and flushing toilets.
How many across Texas want to know? Now many across Texas want to know why the state wasn't better prepared despite knowing the storm is on its way.
CNN's Ed Lavandera has more.
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The temperature in Jose Limon's house in Del Rio, Texas is 35 degrees. He lost power Sunday night.
JOSE LIMON, RESIDENT, DEL RIO, TEXAS: I just stayed in this room. It keeps me really warm.
LAVANDERA: He can handle the cold but he needs a generator to keep his oxygen machine going.
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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 is going to come on. There's a lot of -- around -- 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 turning to heated anger after the catastrophic failure of the state's power grid. Texas Governor Greg Abbott made the rounds on Texas television news programs 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 to resign.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): 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 for 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, you 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 amount 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 heat for Texas homes.
ABBOTT: The powered 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-TX): There's no Green New Deal in Texas. That is a j-o-k-e, joke.
LAVANDERA: Democratic Texas Congressman Marc Veasey says the governor and state Republican leaders are trying to shift blame.
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, RESIDENT, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: 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 we were able to make it through the night, and just hoping that tonight is a better night.
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LAVANDERA (on camera): State power grid officials say that out of the 680 power generators in the state, 180 of them have, been knocked off line. Those same officials also say they are hoping to get power fully restored in the next couple of days. But hope doesn't keep people warm.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.
CHURCH: The deep freeze is forcing many states across the U.S. to delay COVID vaccinations and distribution. In the largest county in Texas, the health department had to redistribute more than 8,000 doses to hospitals, universities, and jails after their backup generator failed. And these were some of the lines to receive those shots before the expired.
Meantime, other counties have had to close down vaccination sites and postpone appointments for several days.
Joining me now is Yasmine Smith, she is the director of Justice and Advocacy for the Austin Area Urban League in Texas. Thank you so much for talking with us.
YASMINE SMITH, DIRECTOR OF JUSTICE AND ADVOCACY, AUSTIN-AREA URBAN LEAGUE: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: So, this winter storm has knocked out power for more than three days, leaving the most vulnerable to fend for themselves. And you've been helping people find alternative shelter after they lost power and heating. How difficult has that been, and what are some of the major challenges that people are facing right now?
SMITH: It's been extremely difficult, from, you know, building trust with individuals that have historically been oppressed, even building that trust for them to leave their encampments, our in-house neighbors was a hurdle we had to face.
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Once we built that trust and were able to move people, the very transportation because our vehicles were not equipped, we were not equipped to be doing this.
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CHURCH: And Yasmine, while you've been dealing with that, of course you are in your office now where you do have power. But at home, you lost power and heating. How have you've been coping with that? And knowing there is no timeline here for when power might be restored?
SMITH: I actually had to be rescued by some of the same individuals I had been coordinating to rescue others. It's very dramatic to be boots on ground in this manner, and also be very afraid for your own safety. In my home, it was below 30 degrees. I did not have power and it was a very scary place to be.
CHURCH: Yes, I totally understand that. And of course, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is blaming everyone but himself, pointing the finger at ERCOT, the company that runs most of the state's power grid. Even trying to score political points by attacking renewable energy when we all know it's the frozen equipment and oil and gas plants that's the main reason for this power loss.
So, what is your reaction to the governor not taking responsibility for this, and why do you think Texas was not better prepared for this winter storm?
SMITH: This is not the time to be pointing fingers. This is the time to be looking at what you have around you, and making sure your neighbors are OK. And it would be a disappointing failure if we, as Texas, did not grow and learn from this experience. So, it should not happen again in the future.
CHURCH: And what is the biggest concern that you have for the next few days as people try to survive this?
SMITH: I am worried, especially about our unhoused neighbors who, for some reason, could not get into some type of shelter, having gone back to those encampments. I am -- I am worried about families in their homes right now, under 20 degrees, 20 degrees running out of food. I am worried about how my city I love and is my hometown that I love so much, Austin, is going to survive and weather the storm if we do not get some serious relief.
CHURCH: Yasmine Smith, we wish you all the best. Our hearts go out to you and all people there across Texas trying to deal with this. We thank you so much for talking with us. SMITH: Of course. Thanks for reporting out.
CHURCH: Well, it is about 3 p.m. on Thursday in Myanmar right now and protesters are again in the streets despite growing fears of a violent crackdown. The police had significantly hardened their stance and reportedly fired on protesting railway workers in Mandalay.
In a move aimed at shutting down the demonstrations, Myanmar's military is targeting six celebrities it claims are encouraging protests against the country's military coup.
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CHURCH: Wednesday's anti-coup demonstrations were considered the largest yet in two weeks of public marches and protests.
And our Paula Hancocks joins us now from Seoul with the very latest. So, Paula, what more are you learning about what is going on right now in Myanmar?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, judging from the live streams from talking to people on the ground, we know that these protests are still continuing. Not in the same size as we saw on Wednesday, because as you say, that was the biggest that we have seen since the coup happened over two weeks ago.
But there are still civil servants that aren't going to work. There are still people who are trying to block the roads, trying to slow life down. And just really add to the civil disobedience movement. And they are also the ones that we speak to that this has to be peaceful. That they are doing a peaceful protest against the military in the hope that they will step down and allow their democratically elected government to be reinstated.
But of course, despite all the international condemnation, despite thousands upon thousands of people coming out onto the street, the military is showing absolutely no signs of that at this point. All this is falling on deaf ears.
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In fact, what they are trying to do, it appears, is to silence some of those who are encouraging people to come out onto the streets. As you mentioned, there are six celebrities have now been named by the military leadership.
Saying that, they've broken certain article of the penal code which effectively says that you cannot criticize the military. You cannot galvanize people to incitement of hatred of the military and they are criticizing them for encouraging people to come out.
And also, a number of these celebrities have been giving money from certain donors to those in the streets who either don't have a job, or are not going to their job because of this movement, to make sure that they are not losing out financially. Now we did speak to the actress wife of one of those names on the
list. They are currently in hiding. She says that they are terrified about what is going to happen. But that is not going to stop them from trying to support this movement. There's a real feeling that this is their last chance to try and secure democracy. Rosemary?
CHURCH: All right. Many thanks to our Paula Hancocks monitoring what is happening there in Myanmar. Many thanks.
Well, the U.N. secretary general is condemning the abduction of students from a school in northern Nigeria. Amnesty International said education is under attack in Nigeria, and no child should have to choose between their education and their life.
And unidentified gunmen killed one student and kidnapped at least 27 others along with staff members at the school. In the aftermath of the attack, the state's governor ordered the immediate closure of boarding schools in the area.
Well, still to come, I will be speaking to a scientist involved in the world's first human COVID challenge where up to 90 young volunteers will be deliberately exposed to COVID-19. We will tell you why.
And later, how did a massive winter storm have such a devastating effect on the Texas power grid? We will take a look at the causes, that's coming up.
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CHURCH (on camera): Welcome back to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. And you are watching CNN Newsroom.
Well up to 90 young healthy volunteers will be deliberately exposed to COVID-19 in the world's first human challenge study. It's taking place this month in Britain after ethics approval was granted this week. The government department involved says the participants aged 18 to 30 will be exposed to COVID-19 in a safe and controlled environment to increase understanding of how the virus affects people.
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Andrew Catchpole is chief scientific officer of hVIVO part of Open Orphan PLC, the clinical company involve in these trials. And he joins me now live. Thank you so much for talking with us.
ANDREW CATCHPOLE, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER OF HVIVO (on camera): Thanks for having me on.
CHURCH: So, it is the world's first human COVID challenge trial, where these volunteers, as we say, directly exposed to COVID-19. How is that done exactly and what protections do these 90 healthy volunteers receive should something go wrong?
CATCHPOLE: So how the inoculations are done is firstly, we are screening the volunteers very, very thoroughly to make sure volunteers which are eligible and enrolled on this study are the lowest possible risk for severe disease with COVID. Then they will come into our quarantine unit, which is being conducted in the Royal Free Hospital, and have an individual room, with own suite bathroom and all of the (inaudible) assessments and the inoculations will be conducted in that room.
The virus will be inoculated by small droplets into their nose. And then from that moment onwards, it will be monitored extremely closely, taking samples multiple times a day to monitor whether they have replication or infection from the virus. We started from really small amounts of virus were not necessarily expecting volunteers that we start with to get infected because we are starting with such a small amount of virus for security reasons.
CHURCH: And what will you be looking for specifically?
CATCHPOLE: So, what we are trying to achieve with this very first study is to identify the smallest amount of virus possible to cause an infection. So if we see no infection in the first few subjects, we will then gradually increase the amount of virus until we are able to establish an infection.
Once we've done that we then have the model ready to be able to use the model for testing for vaccines. So whether we can vaccinate subjects, and bring them into our quarantine unit, and challenge them with the virus, to see if the vaccines are able to prevent the infection. And a very important key in terms of all of this demographic, these 18 to 30 year olds are, from what we know is we are expecting many of them to have asymptomatic infections.
CHURCH: Right.
CATCHPOLE: So the effected, they'll have virus, but they won't have any symptoms. And this is a key part of the pandemic. Because people don't know their ill, they are still walking around and communicating with, others and therefore transmitting the virus.
If we can make sure that vaccines are preventing asymptomatic infection, we can also make sure vaccines are preventing transmission, and help the pandemic.
CHURCH: Right. So, how difficult was it to overcome the ethical issues, and get approval for this world first trial?
CATCHPOLE: The challenge studies themselves are not new, I mean, have often been conducting these challenge studies for over 20 years in other respiratory viruses. So, the platform in the U.K. particularly is well understood about challenge studies in general.
But of course, as it is right and inappropriate to do so there was long discussions with the Ethics Review Board to approve this study because of course, what is the world's first of doing a challenge study with a pandemic, with the pandemic virus. So, we are very delighted to be on a very deep discussion with the Ethics Review Board, because we feel that is definitely the most appropriate thing to do. CHURCH: Right. And the website is U.K. COVID challenge.com, and you
are still encouraging people to express interest in taking part in this research, is that right?
CATCHPOLE: Yes, that's absolutely right. Because we are only going to be enrolling the most healthy 18 to 30 year-olds, and also they need to have not had prior exposure to the virus. So we are also be testing them to make sure that they don't have antibodies already. It means we need to screen many hundreds, if not many thousands of volunteers to find people that are suitable for this first trial. So, we are very much encouraging people to still sign up for this trial.
CHURCH: Now, do the volunteers receive money for this? And do they receive assurances that they will get all the medical care they need, should, as we've talked about just a little earlier, should something go wrong?
CATCHPOLE: Absolutely. Safety is our absolutely first priority. So, we are controlling safety in three main ways. So, firstly, is the demographic of people we are recruiting on the lowest possible risk, then we are using the smallest amounts of virus, and also as soon as infection is started for in early subjects, we are at purely precautionary measure to be giving them anti-viral.
And you mentioned about the compensation, it's exactly that. It's compensation for their time. These (inaudible) individuals will be giving up a lot of their time, they need to be in the quarantine unit for 17 days. They will have contact with the outside world, but they won't be have be able to have face to face contact, of course, with their family members during that time. It's a long period of time to give up.
[03:35:03]
And then, we are also following them for one year after that. So they are still be in contact on the clinical trial for a whole year afterwards. So, it's a huge amount of time these volunteers are giving up. So, it is very right that they are there for compensated for their time. And the amount they are compensated for is a figure that's always agreed with the ethics research body. It's approximately $5,000.
CHURCH: Wow. Very brave, though. Dr. Andrew catchpole, thank you for walking us through all of the stages of this. It's just fascinating. I appreciate it.
CATCHPOLE: Thank you very much for your time.
CHURCH: Thank you. Well, back now to the desperate and dangerous situation in Texas, where millions are now struggling without electricity or heat, days after a severe winter storm. They have been more two million power outages, and that will likely continue as the cold temperatures remained through the end of the week.
Well, Texas producers more power than any other state, so how is this even possible? Global energy challenge anchor, John Defterios joins us live. Good to see you, John. This has been a tragedy for so many people. I mean, the power outage has been going on for days now. When can Texas expect power to be restored?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR (on camera): Well, you're right about the tragedy, Rosemary and this extreme weather that hit the second most populous state in the United States and this is not a simple solution. You can flip a switch and your energy is back. So, the state regulators suggesting the best-case scenario on the business day on Thursday in Texas would be to have rolling blackouts. And that could be the solution all the way through the weekend.
So, extraordinary considering it is the energy capital of the United States in itself. And this is pretty simple math, to be candid, Rosemary. They were expecting kind of peak demand of 70 gigawatts, and that's what they had, but 40 came off the grid and despite what's been said in the conservative media about the failure of wind and solar, the majority which came off line, is the thermal power that would be gas, coal and nuclear and indeed the wind and solar facilities did freeze up because they didn't have heating systems ready for the arctic weather that they were dealing with.
And there is a spillover effect here, Rosemary, because Texas produces so much oil and gas without the power, without the heating, the projection has plummeted. Particularly in west Texas, it's known as the Permian based and roll that shell production comes from. Here's' Vicki Hollub who is the CEO of Occidental Petroleum there.
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VICKI HOLLUB, CEO OF OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM: It was something that was so unprecedented that part of our grid was just not prepared for it. And the reality is that, it seems that quite a bit of the power on the grid that supplied by the wind and solar were not winterize to the point where they could stay on the grid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS (on camera): Vicki Hollub here, she is the oil and gas producers. So, obviously she would tilt towards the hydrocarbons, but she did in that comment here. Also, the Permian base that she's talking about loss of about 2 million barrels a day of production. Texas overall $4 million barrels a day. And this having an impact in global energy crisis.
If we take a look, we spike over $65 a barrel, that's a 13 month high, and also well above $61 a barrel as well, Rosemary. It is a global crisis, and it hit a commodity market that's already been heated up by all the stimulus packages, and investment by the hedge funds.
CHURCH: Yes. It just extraordinary seeing this plan. Of course, Governor Abbott blaming everyone, and not taking responsibility at all. So Texas, as you mentioned, known as the energy capital of the U.S., the largest oil and gas producer, what's been learned through this power failure? And how will they prevent a repeat of this?
DEFTERIOS: Well, Rosemary, you've lived in the states for a long time. You know that they have a very strong independent streak in Texas, right. And it comes to energy as well, because of the major producer of oil and gas but also brought in the solar and winds. So they're thought was we are so big at this, we don't need to tap into the national grid.
They're going to probably have to rethink that strategy, and there's also has to be recognition, which is kind of not the case in Texas overall, that there is climate change, and it does affect the weather system in the United States. So their system is fortified for extreme heat in the summer, and humidity and even flooding, but not for the arctic cold.
And we've had the jet stream moving down over the years because of the changing of the weather patterns. You need to mitigate the infrastructure, so it's prepared for the extreme cold and the extreme heat, and that's not just the reality in Texas, it's throughout the world at the same time, Rosemary. It is our harsh reality in the 21st century.
CHURCH: Yes. And they were of course trying to avoid federal regulations, as you say. They might need to rethink that. John Defterios, many thanks for joining us with the latest on that.
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DEFTERIOS: You bet.
CHURCH: Well, U.S. federal prosecutors have charged three North Korean hackers with conspiracy to steal more than $1 billion. The unsealed indictment describes brazen operations that targeted cryptocurrency traders and movie studios, including Sony from 2014 to 2020.
Authorities say the sophisticated technology used proves North Korea's cybersecurity threat. Arrests are unlikely, but the U.S. publicizes the charges to name and shame the hackers, and a regime funded by online theft.
Australia is trying to regulate how news is shared on social media, but Facebook is not having it. More on the showdown between the tech giant and the government there coming up.
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CHURCH: Joe Biden has finally called Israel's Prime Minister almost a month after his inauguration. The U.S. President says he had a good conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. A source close to the White House says the delay in calling the Israeli leader may have been payback for the Prime Ministers cold treatment of President Obama, slow acknowledgment of Biden's election win and his close ties to Donald Trump. CNN's Sam Kiley is covering this for us from Jerusalem. Good to see you, Sam. So, what more are you learning about this?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, Rosemary, you could add to that list of irritations from the Biden administration. The announcement in the three weeks at the beginning of this year just ahead of the Biden inauguration of an expansion of the numbers of settlement homes being authorized on the west bank by the Netanyahu government just as a new, more liberal presidency came into being.
There has been, over the years, these two men know each other very well, but the relationship between Netanyahu and the Obama administration was poor, very poor indeed. And the Biden administration is signaling very clearly that they intend to reset it from the bromance that really that existed between Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. Something closer to the real world following long establish U.S. policies.
That said, they've also agreed that they won't be moving the U.S. Embassy from here in Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv to reverse the decision taken by the Trump administration, but they are going to take a look at the Trumps acknowledgment of the Israeli annexation of the Syrian Golan heights and indeed the legal status of settlements on the west bank in the future.
No particular announcements that has come from the Biden administration, Rosemary, but we are seeing a bit of a reset on these issues right across the Middle East, just in the last couple of days. The Biden administration also announcing that, for example, bilateral talks between the U.S. President and the Mohammad bin Salman, the crown prince in Saudi Arabia, the chief executive, if you'd like, of Saudi Arabia under the ailing King.
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Those bilateral conversations will no longer happen, and that he will have to talk to more junior officials inside the White House if there's any communication with the man whom Joe Biden considers morally responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi among other things at all. So, we are seeing a resetting in the Middle East, back to what we used to know much very different indeed from the Trump administration, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Sam Kiley bringing us the very latest from Jerusalem. Many thanks.
Now two big changes on how to get your news if you are living in Australia, and if you want to read or share a news article on Facebook there, well, that is not going to happen anymore. The social media giant is now blocking news content after the government proposed a law that would force tech platforms to pay for it. So, let's speak to Dana McKay a lecturer in computing and information systems at the University of Melbourne. Good to have you with us.
DANA MCKAY, LECTURER, COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE: Hi, nice to be with you.
CHURCH: Wonderful. So, money appears to be at the center of this battle between the Australian government and Facebook. How might this be resolved? MCKAY: Well, Google is made to resolve it by paying for content. So,
Google is now forming deals with large media organizations, where they will be paying for content. But it's not just money. It's also information and data, right? And potentially that's what Facebook doesn't want to give up, because Facebook's whole business model is based on selling information about its users, and if they have to tell news platforms what they are collecting, that might be a problem for their business model.
CHURCH: So, there's a lot of fury clearly in Australia. People are not very happy. They woke up to this, and who would they be blaming, and how might they respond us users of Facebook?
MCKAY: That's a really interesting question. I personally haven't seen anyone blaming the government, and I'm completely impressed by that. There's a lot of discussion of whether the law is a great, law or the best possible law to do what the government is trying to achieve. But nobody is saying that there should be no law like this at all.
Which shows just how savvy consumers of online services have become in the past five years, and I'm really pleased to see that. There is a lot of anger at Facebook, particularly as a lot of sites that weren't new sites that were small community organizations have been caught up in this. So, women sports organizations, organizations that provide services to people with disabilities, lots of organizations that focus on the rights of aboriginal people have been caught up in this, because whatever classify or Facebook used obviously classified those pages as looking a little bit news-y.
Now Facebook has said that they are rolling that back, I'm not sure how far along that process we are, but this fury not just about the fact that we can share or access news anymore, but also that they've caught up these community organizations, and even some the state health website. Switch in a global pandemic are kind of important, right? There were people are getting their news about what the current restrictions in their state are or how many COVID cases there are.
CHURCH: Yes, I mean, that's important information that you want to have that out there certainly on a platform like Facebook. So is there very much talk about boycotting Facebook in Australia?
MCKAY: Look, I haven't seen -- I mean, when the Cambridge Analytica scandal happened, I think nearly 10 years ago now, lots of people did leave Facebook, but Facebook as a piece of infrastructure has ironically enough become more important as a piece of infrastructure in peoples lives as a result of the pandemic, because it's one of the ways that they maintained social contact and kept in touch with friends and loved ones overseas.
And so, if one person's wants to leave, everybody has to agree to leave. And I think there's a lot of social pressure, and social issue and maybe we just want to stay where we are because it's too hard to go somewhere else and get set up somewhere else. But there is an awful lot of anger at Facebook. One thing I have seen is lots of people talking about how to get around it already. CHURCH: Very Australian. But Facebook has pretty much said, well you
know, this is going to be resolved ultimately if Australia does the right thing. So, they are waiting for the Australian government to pull back on this legislation.
MCKAY: I think they will be waiting a long time. I think, you know, this is not something -- Google a couple of weeks ago said they were pulling out of the country if the law didn't change. And they are now making deals with media companies.
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So, I don't think the Australian government are missing around here. And I think the world is watching too. I mean, I'm talking with you on CNN international about something that is happening here in Australia. Because there is an increasing realization that these tech giants have fairly unlimited power and a concerned about how much that power is and whether it should be regulated.
CHURCH: Yes. That's certainly the optics of this exercise, isn't it? Dana McKay, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your analysis. I appreciate it.
MCKAY: Thank you so much for having me.
CHURCH: Thank you. Naomi Osaka does it again. The reigning U.S. Open champ booking her second trip to the Australian Open final after defeating Serena Williams in straight sets. The loss is 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 the heavy favorite to win the final no matter who she faces.
Well, the new search for life on Mars is about to begin. But first, a U.S. Spacecraft must endure seven minutes of terror. The daring Martian landing NASA is about to attempt. That's next.
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CHURCH (on camera): There it goes. If you could tell a building you're fired, this is how you do it. The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey was imploded yesterday into a heap of rubble and dust. It had been vacant since it closed back in 2014, one of the properties Donald Trump owned that went bankrupt.
Atlantic City had begun to auction off a chance to hit the button to demolish the structure with the proceeds going to the local boys and girls club. Current owner, the investor (inaudible) halted that plan, but reportedly will donate $175,000 to the kids club. Plans for the site have not been announced as yet. Well, in just a few hours from now, a NASA probe will try to land
another rover on Mars. NASA says the landing will be one of the most difficult maneuvers it's ever attempted. Its mission? To find signs of ancient life and pave the way for a potential human settlement. Kim Brunhuber takes us there.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): A preview of a perilous dissent on the red planet after months traveling through space. It's what NASA describes as seven minutes of terror. The U.S. Space agency is Perseverance mission plunges into the Martian atmosphere at over 19,000 kilometers an hour. It breaks with tremendous force, lurching downwards as it endures temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius. Then it deploys a parachute, and just the right moment, it releases a rover, retro rocketing towards a treacherous terrain.
MATT WALLACE, MARS 2020 DEP. PROJECT MANAGER, NASA JET PROPULSION LAB: It all has to happen in about seven minutes. And it all has to happen autonomously. This is one of the most difficult maneuvers that we do in this space business. You know, almost 50 percent of the spacecraft that have been sent to the surface of Mars failed, and so we know we have our work cut out for us.
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BRUNHUBER: If the daring landing succeeds, NASA's Perseverance rover will touch down at Jezero Crater, the sight of a Martian lake. More than 3.5 billion years ago. They're Perseverance will help prepare for human life in the future, and search for signs of ancient life of the past. It will also correct rock samples that will hopefully return to earth for the very first time. The two year mission is unlike any other made possible by discoveries from NASA's four other overs on Mars.
THOMAS ZURBUCHEN, NASA ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR SCIENCE: Our journey as been from following the water back, to seeing whether this planet was habitable, to finding complex chemicals. And now we are at the advent of an entirely new phase, returning samples. An aspirational goal that has been with the science community for decades.
BRUNHUBER: Perseverance also promises new perspectives of the red planet. The rover's microphones, and 23 cameras, can share sights and sounds never seen or heard before. Also along for the ride, a drone sized helicopter named Ingenuity. It will be the first to try flying on another planet. The new technology may help direct the Perseverance rover or even be a scout for future probes. As NASA's latest mission to Mars charts new realms of exploration. Kim Brunhuber, CNN.
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CHURCH (on camera): Very exciting there. Wintry weather in Europe can keep many people indoors of course. But one group of hardy ice swimmers in the Netherlands love the cold. It may be an odd take on battling the coronavirus pandemic. But people practice cold therapy, taking frequent dips in Amsterdam's frigid canals. Some are followers of a Dutch health guru who claims brief icy swims have many health benefits. Others are just curious.
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AILEEN KENNEDY, ICE SWIMMER: I think with the lockdown, and less possibilities for people, and also people are becoming more curious and interested in taking responsibility for their own health, physical and mental. I think it's really been a huge boost and boom of people wanting to do this.
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CHURCH (on camera): It's unclear if cold water swimming has real benefits, but proponents say it's also fun.
Thanks so much for joining us, I'm Rosemary Church. I will be back with a third hour of global news in just a moment. Do stick around.
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