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Water Disruptions for More than Half of Texas; Vaccine Doses Backlogged Due to Weather; German Politicians Voice Support for AstraZeneca Shot; Biden Declares "America is Back," Pledges $4 Billion toward Global COVID-19 Vaccine Aid; U.S. Willing to Resume Talks with Iran on Nuclear Deal; Pro-Democracy Protesters Honor Woman Killed by Myanmar Police; How Some White Nationalists Profit from Hate; Harry and Meghan Won't Return as Working Royals. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired February 20, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Power is returning for most people in Texas. But water shortages and another night of freezing temperatures mean things are far from normal.
And that bad weather is affecting COVID vaccinations. The White House says shipments of 6 million doses have been delayed.
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm sending a clear message to the world, America is back.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Joe Biden moves firmly away from Donald Trump's America first foreign policy in his first summit as president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching here, in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
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BRUNHUBER: Millions of Americans in the state of Texas are struggling to find drinking water after deadly winter storms left them without power for days. While the lights have largely come back on, more than half of the state's residents are being told to boil their water, if they have any at all.
Long lines are now the norm at mass water distribution sites as store shelves run bare. The damages are adding up, as frozen pipes burst and frigid temperatures persist. U.S. President Joe Biden says he'll sign a national disaster declaration to provide more resources. Omar Jimenez has more from the state capital, Austin. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So you never even used your fireplace before this?
JENN STUDEBAKER, RESIDENT, AUSTIN, TEXAS: Oh, no.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Jenn Studebaker and her family, in Austin, Texas, were burning chairs, pieces of bookshelves, before eventually scavenging for bits of wood without even a means to cut it.
STUDEBAKER: That hammer, actually is what we were splitting wood with.
JIMENEZ: Using their nearly abandoned fireplace now as a means of survival.
GRAYSON CRUISE, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: We would bring the head of a futon bed and put it right here. So --
STUDEBAKER: Get closer to the heat.
CRUISE: And get closer to the heat. And I would sleep right here. So we would all just kind of be huddling together.
JIMENEZ: Restless from the new mentality they've now had to adopt.
STUDEBAKER: Everyone's just, you know, thinking like we just make one more day, just get one more day. And it's like, well, what if it happens again tomorrow? Now we got to -- OK, we can't burn all of this.
JIMENEZ: And even though the powers on,
STUDEBAKER: No waters, not even bubbling, nothing.
JIMENEZ: The water isn't. And it's not just Austin, as they are among the millions across Texas under a boil water advisory.
In Houston, miles of long lines to pick up water at mass distribution sites.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I talked to the President last night and he called to let me know that he was going to go ahead and approve the major disaster declaration that Texas would be submitting.
JIMENEZ: In San Antonio, this apartment complex burned to the ground as firefighters struggled to get enough water to fight it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our main concern is water supply. All these hydrants out here is dry. There's (INAUDIBLE) just frozen. There's no water.
JIMENEZ: Even members of Congress forced to get creative.
REP. SYLVIA GARCIA (D-TX): I'm going to fill my toilet with water so that I can be ready for later today. JIMENEZ: Without water and her Houston home Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia collected rainwater to flush your toilet.
And hospitals are struggling to care for an influx of patients amid an ongoing pandemic.
DR. ROBERT SALDANA, MEDICAL DIRECTOR EMERGENCY MEDICINE, HOUSTON METHODIST HOSPITAL: As more of our area hospitals were without power and water, many of their patients ended up at our facilities.
CHIEF CANDE FLORES, ABLIENE FIRE DEPARTMENT: Earlier today we had a situation where an elderly female walked out of her home and she was found in her backyard deceased. And that was directly related to the weather conditions.
JIMENEZ: Emergencies merging and leaving those already affected by the pandemic wondering where to go next.
STUDEBAKER: I lost half my income. And then finally we're getting here. What am I going to do? I mean, we can barely live here.
Sorry. It's like it just keep going and going and just this whole year, just keep going. And if we just make it one more month, then my tax return will come in or we get some funding. I can't pay my utility bills.
So, let us just have this tiny apartment. Please. Maybe some water. That would be nice to.
JIMENEZ: And water is that next frontier. It's still expected to be a multiday process but officials, at least here in Austin, are optimistic that they can get it restored by the end of the weekend.
Now on the electricity front, we are still seeing outages across the state but we're in a much better place than we were days ago. The good news, overall, is that Friday night was supposed to be the last night of freezing temperatures that we would see this week, giving Texans, this weekend, the chance to play offense for a change -- Omar Jimenez, CNN, Austin, Texas.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, as Omar mentioned in his powerful report there, hospitals are struggling as supplies run low. So to get some perspective from the front line, Dr. Owais Durrani joins me now.
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BRUNHUBER: He's an emergency medicine resident at the University of Texas Health Science Center.
Thank you so much for joining us. We heard yesterday from the mayor of San Antonio, where you are, that 50 percent of the city either has no water or low pressure.
So how is your hospital and the others there coping with this? DR. OWAIS DURRANI, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER: Yes, thanks for having me. As you mentioned, water is a huge issue. We're under a boil water advisory. There is also lots of pressure issues. So I will get you an example.
Lots of patients get dialysis at outpatient clinics. Over the past weeks or past week or so, those clinics have all been closed. And so, missing a session of dialysis can be life-threatening. And so, we are seeing a lot of those patients come into the hospitals.
My hospital, in particular, thankfully, has good water. But lots of hospitals around the city and maybe, about 25 to 50 miles outside of San Antonio, don't. We're seeing lots of those patients because they can't get dialysis, which is a water intensive treatment being transferred to our hospital.
Water is also necessary to keep many surgical tools and equipment cool. And then it's needed for boilers and kind of more of the mundane things like washing linens and getting uniforms clean for staff members.
So, water is crucial and it's going to be a main thing that we need to get back to make sure that hospitals like mine, that still do have water, are not overburdened. All the hospitals need to be able to kind of take care of those patients in their areas.
BRUNHUBER: And on top of the normal patients you see, what kind of injuries and conditions are you treating now related to this crisis?
DURRANI: Yes, so I would break it down into two phases. During the earlier part of the week, we were seeing a lot of injuries related to the cold itself. So, folks were warming themselves up using their car heaters in garages. They were using propane gas tanks indoors and in poorly ventilated areas. So, lots of carbon monoxide poisoning.
We were seeing lots of hand burns because people were burning things. And then, in San Antonio and a lot of the urban areas in Texas, we have a lot of homeless populations and so we were seeing lots of frostbite and lots of hypothermic patients coming in with extremely low body temperatures.
Over the last few days, as I mentioned, we have seen the results of clinics being closed and pharmacies being closed. And so, we are seeing patients missed dialysis, patients don't have diabetes or blood pressure medications and they are coming in with uncontrolled high blood pressure or uncontrolled levels of their sugar.
And they are needing to be admitted to the hospital. So, lots of downstream effects that we are seeing.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, it's a real failure by the state here that's -- that's literally cost lives.
DURRANI: Absolutely. You know, on kind of the surface level, you see, you know, a certain number of deaths that are related to the hypothermia or whatever the case may be. But there are so many downstream effects.
And then, we've, you know, essentially, not been providing any COVID vaccinations over the past week or so because clinics and pharmacies have been closed. And so that is going to add up to lives lost as well. And so, the entire picture of how much damage this has done to the health of Texans is immeasurable at this point.
BRUNHUBER: I mean, everyone at the hospital, you know, nurses, doctors like yourself, hospital staff, you're part of the community. You're, also, affected by the -- the lack of power and water and so on.
How are you all coping and helping each other through this?
DURRANI: Yes, it's been a long week. You know, it's been a long year, to be honest with the pandemic. And then, this last week has felt like a month or a year in itself. We, as you mentioned, are Texans. We are not used to driving on icy roads. And so, it was a challenge over the past week.
It was inspiring to see my colleagues, you know, lots of them, doctors, nurses, ancillary staff, sleeping at the hospital overnight to make sure that they could be there for their jobs and their patients in the mornings.
Those of us that were lucky enough to live near the hospital, we would, you know, bring food and board games and other, you know, kind o, essentials to our colleagues, who could not go home. And so, Texans are resilient. It's been a tough week. But we've come together, and it's been inspiring, for sure.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. Listen. I know you have family as well in Houston. And everyone's going through this together. So, we wish you, your family, all your patients, of course, everyone there, at the hospital, all the best as you deal with this -- with this crisis. Thank you so much, Dr. Owais Durrani of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio. Appreciate it.
DURRANI: Thank you. I appreciate it.
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[05:10:00]
BRUNHUBER: Well, El Paso is one city that avoided the disaster playing out across Texas. While much of the state has been struggling with power outages and water shortages, El Paso learned a hard lesson from a decade ago. CNN's Dianne Gallagher has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No power. No water. It's been the same story across the state of Texas this week. Well, most of it.
RALPH LOYA, EL PASO RESIDENT: They're freezing in San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Rio Grande Valley. We're very, very lucky. GALLAGHER (voice-over): The reason the lights never really went out in a major way here in El Paso is a bit more complicated and rooted in experience.
LOYA: We had gas shortages, water shortages, power outages.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Ralph Loya, like everyone else in El Paso, can't forget the 2011 deep freeze.
LOYA: It was a catastrophe that hit the city that we just weren't prepared for.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): El Paso Electric Company's Senior Vice President of Operations Steve Buraczyk was in the control room 10 years ago this month when it all came crashing down.
STEVEN BURACZYK, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS, EL PASO ELECTRIC COMPANY: We actually had over three days where the temperature in El Paso never got above freezing. And we lost most of our local units. Those impacts lasted for weeks and weeks after. And so, we made that decision that we were going to harden our assets, that we were going to invest in new technology and invest in new infrastructure.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): The winterize plant that manager Albert Montano is showing us around today exists in part because of that big freeze.
ALBERT MONTANO, PROJECT ENGINEER, EL PASO ELECTRIC COMPANY: Were designed to run in the summer. But there's these few times where we have an overnight low that we really got to get all the systems up and ready. Then our team was able to do that.
BURACZYK: It's a lot easier like with a brand new plant because now we're designing it for minus 10. You have the top technology, its state of the art. And so you can design in these redundant systems.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): And built-in redundancies that needed to be tapped into this week when natural gas supply dropped.
MONTANO: We went into diesel operations with the first unit on Monday of this week. And that's when we started seeing issues with gas pipeline pressure.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): But another risk in El Paso isn't in the dark. It's located so far from other Lone Star cities that it's not on the same power grid is 90 percent of the rest of Texas. There were three power grids in the country, western, that's what El Paso was on, Eastern and Texas, the only state to have its own grid in part to avoid certain federal regulations. This week, the Texas system which is operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT failed and has faced accusations of being unprepared for the storm.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I'm taking responsibility for the current status at ERCOT. Again, I find what's happened unacceptable.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Planning for a once in a decade storm is expensive, but it is possible and worth it, says El Paso Electric, if it prevents disasters like what we're seeing in Texas this week.
BURACZYK: When we saw what happened to our community in 2011, we made a decision and we said never again.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, bad weather in the U.S., as we heard, is forcing a delay in the shipments of millions of vaccine doses. So, we will find out when they're likely to get delivered. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Brutal winter weather here in the U.S. is taking a huge toll on the fight against coronavirus. It's delayed the delivery of vaccines to many areas and it's slowing down the rate that people are getting the shot. CNN's Alexandra Field has more.
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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All 50 states, now feeling the impact of the deadly winter storm, 6 million vaccine doses, now delayed. Shipments of more than 700,000 shots to California alone, still not arriving, creating a ripple effect and leaving people who need shots, waiting.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): We're working with provider network, complicated 1,100-plus providers in the state, a lot of increase -- a lot of calls, a lot of stress.
MICHELE ROBERTS, ACTING ASSISTANT. HEALTH SECRETARY, WASHINGTON STATE: We estimate more than 90 percent of this week's allocation will arrive late because of the weather out east. FIELD: Weather derailing every part of the process from vaccine manufacturing sites to distribution hubs, power outages across the country affecting as many as 13 vaccination sites. Until the power is back, they can't get new supplies.
But 1.4 million doses are final on the move again today. Health officials say UPS and FedEx will make Saturday and Sunday deliveries this week.
[05:20:00]
FIELD (voice-over): And they're tasking states with making up for lost time next week.
GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D-LA): It appears that next week we're going to be trying to double up.
DR. MARC BOOM, PRESIDENT AND CEO, HOUSTON METHODIST: It will be a little slower than usual. But we'll catch up.
FIELD: The delays coming just as so many states across the country were starting to close the gap between doses received and shots in arms. 37 states now say they've administered more than 75 percent of what they've received. Four states are over 90 percent.
GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): We've now got over 200 vaccine distribution sites. We're ready for more. We have been told to expect a significant increase.
FIELD: The latest estimates suggest the U.S. is in for a big increase in vaccines. If Pfizer and Moderna are able to provide what they've promised in the next three months, the U.S. should have three times as many shots on hand. New study suggests even a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine could be highly effective, but Dr. Anthony Fauci says just one is just too risky.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The reason is even though you can get a fair degree of, quote, protection after a single dose, it clearly is not durable.
FIELD: Also, on the vaccine front, Dr. Anthony Fauci is saying we should have data on vaccine safety on high school age students, perhaps, by the fall or around the time school starts.
Data concerning even younger students, elementary school age students, unlikely to arrive before the first quarter of 2022. Certainly, something so many families are anxious for -- in New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: On Friday, President Biden took a tour of Pfizer's vaccine manufacturing plant in Michigan. Despite the delays in vaccine shipments, President Joe Biden has promised to have enough vaccines available for nearly every American by the end of July.
But he struggled to answer when the country might return to some semblance of normal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Getting the vaccine and having it available is not the same as putting it in someone's arms. This is going to be a continuous rolling effort. So, we'll have had -- we'll have ordered, much of which will have been distributed, over 600 million doses by the end of July. July 29th is the expected date. But that could change.
Look what is happening with the weather now, for example. It's slowing up the distribution right now. But I believe we'll be approaching normalcy by the end of this year. And God willing, this Christmas will be different than last. But I can't make that commitment to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: Countries across Europe are hoping they can get back to normal, too. But Germany is being cautious about easing its lockdown measures. The health minister says the variant, first identified in the U.K., has been found in one out of every five people in Germany who tests positive.
Meanwhile, Wales is extending its COVID precautions. The first minister says the lockdown in place since December will last another three weeks, but some measures would be relaxed a bit.
And French president Emmanuel Macron is urging E.U. members to allocate 4 percent to 5 percent of their supply of vaccine to developing countries.
All right. Let's turn now to CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, who is joining us from London.
Salma, I wasn't sure about this, one of the fears health experts raised was that, with several vaccines being used, people would start saying, you know, basically, I don't want this one. I want that one instead, based on -- on the perceived effectiveness. And we're already seeing that playing out in Europe and especially in Germany. Tell us about that.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: Absolutely, Kim. It's -- it's an interesting and concerning trend that we're seeing in Germany. Essentially, the Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine there, those doses, only 17 percent of them have been used.
That's according to government reports in German media, 17 percent of those doses. German media calling the Oxford University vaccine a shelf warmer.
The mayor of Berlin, so upset about this that he went out and said, I will not have tens of thousands of doses of a vaccine sitting on shelves while people need these immunizations.
If you don't take this vaccine, this is the mayor of Berlin, if you don't take this vaccine, you can stand in the back of the line. He is going to turn you around, essentially. That was his threat because there is so much concern, literally, about these tens of thousands of doses sitting on the shelf.
And all this originates from a spat between the E.U. and the U.K. over the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. Some critics saying the original data on efficacy was unclear, confusing, maybe even incorrect.
Germany has, of course, now approved that vaccine for use but only for people under 65. So it's being used among the young, among health care workers.
But still, that sense of that debate has, obviously, really imbued people with doubt and at a time of vaccine hesitancy, of course, Kim, that is concerning.
And we are not just seeing this in Germany. There's been reports out of France, Sweden, Austria of local authorities, local groups, asking for the Moderna vaccine over the Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine.
[05:25:00]
ABDELAZIZ: Now there is a difference in efficacy. The Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine is about around 63 percent effective. The Moderna vaccine, around 95 percent effective, according to the figures.
But of course, all of these doses have to be used. I can give you an example, just here in London. I actually sort of witnessed the opposite of that, at a vaccination center, where people were asking for the Oxford vaccine because of national pride. Of course, developed right here, in the U.K.
And it's important to remember, in these vaccination centers, a lot is going on really quickly. You have a few-minute slot with a medical worker. You have to explain your medical history. You have to explain any symptoms that you might be having.
And now, you might have to explain the efficacy of a vaccine. I was at one vaccination center, where the primary language wasn't even English. So imagine having to do that in multiple languages at a vaccination center. It is a complicated picture, Kim, and it's only going to raise that vaccine hesitancy concern around the globe.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. Just crazy to hear, you know, people talking about a vaccine as a shelf warmer where, you know, some people here, in the U.S., were dressing up as grandmothers to -- to get their hands on the vaccine. Incredible. Thanks so much for that reporting there, Salma Abdelaziz, in London.
In Moscow, detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny has had his three-year prison sentence reduced by 1.5 months. Navalny was in court to appeal an earlier decision to convert his suspended sentence in a 2014 embezzlement case into prison time.
Navalny's lawyer petitioned the court to release him from detention but, considering time served, his current sentence in prison is now around two years, six months and two weeks.
Navalny earlier also asked the judge to allow video recording for the hearing for the sake of transparency. The judge denied journalists permission to do that but said there would be a recording of the verdict. Navalny has another court appearance, later today, on an unrelated defamation case.
Joe Biden stepped onto the virtual world stage on Friday as he renewed America's solidarity with its oldest allies and tried to erase all doubt that the Trump era was over. We'll have that story, straight ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you watching here in the U.S., Canada and around the world.
U.S. President Joe Biden left no doubt on Friday that the America first foreign policy of the past four years won't be part of the present. He drew a line between himself and his predecessor in speeches before the G7 and the Munich Security Conference.
It was held virtually because of the pandemic, of course. CNN's Alex Marquardt reports from Washington.
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BIDEN: America is back.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): It might have been virtual, but Biden's first return to the world stage was no less of a seismic shift for U.S. foreign policy.
BIDEN: America is back. The transatlantic alliance is back. And we are not looking backward. We are looking forward together.
MARQUARDT: In a speech alongside the leaders of France, Germany and Britain, Biden vowed to reengage with Europe, to confront the rise of China, Russia's bullying and the threat to democracy around the world.
BIDEN: Democracy doesn't happen by accident. We have to defend it. Fight for it. Strengthen it. Renew it.
MARQUARDT: Biden's first visit to an agency as president was at the State Department, a clear signal that he plans to reverse or dramatically change course from Donald Trump's inward looking, self- centered approach.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: From this day forward, it is going to be only America first. America first.
BIDEN: American and alliances are our greatest asset and leading with diplomacy means standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies.
MARQUARDT: One of Trump's first moves was to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and impose the so-called maximum pressure campaign. Now, the Biden administration says it is ready to talk again.
TRUMP: This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made. It didn't bring calm. It didn't bring peace. And it never will.
BIDEN: The threat of nuclear proliferation also continues to require careful diplomacy and cooperation among us. We need transparency and communication to minimize the risk of strategic misunderstanding or mistakes. MARQUARDT: Today, the U.S. officially re-entered the Paris climate accord which Trump had withdrawn from and repeatedly criticized.
TRUMP: I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.
BIDEN: Together, we need to invest in the technological innovations that will power our clean energy futures and enable us to build a clean energy solutions to global markets.
MARQUARDT: President Biden was speaking to a friendly European audience, welcoming him with open arms. The British prime minister even saying that the U.S. is unreservedly back as the leader of the free world. Now, that does not mean however that they're going to be in lockstep and that Europe is going to simply follow the U.S.
Europe has become more independent during the past four years of Trump, forging its own path and will, in the future, have significant differences with the U.S. on the key issues of China and Russia -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Well, anyone who's sat through a virtual meeting knows how important the mute button is. But even world leaders forget sometimes. Listen to this moment from the Munich Security Conference when the German chancellor had to be reminded to hit her mute button.
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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: (INAUDIBLE) wave (ph) at the enemy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
JOHNSON: All right.
ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY: (INAUDIBLE).
JOHNSON: Turn your (INAUDIBLE) off, Angela. That's OK. It's all right. You need to mute.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The White House says it's prepared to begin talking with Iran about nuclear issues as part of an international group, if Iran is willing. But President Biden's national security adviser also says Iran needs to show some good faith as a route to reopening diplomacy.
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JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: One of our concerns right now is that Iran is presently threatening to move even further out of compliance, to refuse to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the work it is trying to do to ensure nothing in Iran's program is being used for weapons purposes. So, I think the first order of business here would be for the Iranians
to take the decision to stop the process of moving further out of compliance.
[05:35:00]
SULLIVAN: And then I do believe that there is a diplomatic pathway to getting to an ultimate agreement in which we can all have confidence that Iran's nuclear program has a lid on it, the kind of lid that was on it when we were actually all in the joint comprehensive plan of action together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And with me now from Tehran is journalist Ramin Mostaghim.
Thank you so much for joining us. So Biden making overtures to Iran with that offer of a joint meeting. The White House spokesperson said, basically, the ball's in Iran's court.
So what's been the reaction?
Will Iran accept if the U.S. doesn't lift all sanctions?
RAMIN MOSTAGHIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, what is regarded in American administration as a overture or a path -- diplomatic pathway for negotiation here, official thinks that it is actually forming coalitions against Iran because they believe that they have done everything they -- they should have done.
And also, they have left no stone unturned to save nuclear deal. Even one year after President Trump pulled out from the nuclear deal, they stop -- they didn't stop cooperating.
Now they say, enough is enough. We do not want any negotiation, unless all the sanctions are lifted and lifting sanctions are verified by us. And then, we can start negotiation.
Therefore, we can say, on Tuesday, Iran is going to and is determined to stop what is your cooperations with IAEA, meaning, no more additional protocol, no more IAEA inspectors to have a snap inspection inside Iranian soil, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, thank you so much for that analysis, Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran.
MOSTAGHIM: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: Pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar have now entered their third week. And despite the military's efforts, they don't show any sign of letting up.
Anti-coup demonstrators are out in the streets again this hour, demanding a return to democracy and the release of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The military leaders who deposed the civilian government on February 1st are trying to put a stop to the flow of information online. And they've cut off internet access for the sixth straight night.
CNN's Paula Hancocks is monitoring the situation from Seoul.
Paula, tell us more about the young woman who was shot and what affect her death is having on the protest movement there.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, this was a 25-year-old woman, Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, and she had been shot on February 9th. She was shot in the head and has been in critical condition since that point.
On Friday, her family members confirmed that she had succumbed to her injuries and -- and had died. Now we did have video of the protest itself. You can see the water cannon being used by security forces. And as protesters are running away, a woman collapses to the ground.
Now just a little earlier this Saturday, I spoke to the two doctors who were treating the protester. And they said that she never regained consciousness and that the -- the bullet was, in fact, a live bullet, a real bullet. And what we'd heard from police, of course, was that they said that they were using anti-riot procedures.
But the doctors said it was definitely a live bullet. So, this has galvanized the movement over the past 10 days. She has become somewhat of a symbol of the pro-democracy movement. And now, of course, with her passing on Friday, that is just increasing.
We've seen a number of vigils for this particular woman. She is the first casualty, since the -- the February 1st military coup. And certainly, when people are out on the streets, you hear them chanting for Aung San Suu Kyi, for the leaders that they want to be released but also for this protester who lost her life. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: So then, what about the regional players in Asia?
Can we expect China or the other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to -- to exert any pressure on the military in Myanmar here?
HANCOCKS: Well, China and Russia have actually been reticent to do so. We've seen some -- some very strong condemnation from much of the rest of the world, from the U.N., the U.S., many other leaders, saying the world is watching and saying there will be consequences if you use force against protesters to the military.
We're not hearing that from the likes of China and Russia. China, for example, does have strong business interests and strong connections to Myanmar although, worth pointing out, that they don't -- they haven't just worked with the -- the previous military dictatorship.
They also worked with the civilian government. But protesters are particularly angry at China. We have seen a number of times and today as well, this Saturday, they've been protesting outside the Chinese embassy.
[05:40:00] HANCOCKS: They believe that China's playing an undue role in what is happening and is supporting the military. So certainly, I don't think that anyone is really expecting China to be overly critical of the coup.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Thanks so much for that. Paula Hancocks, in Seoul.
Straight ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, some right-wing extremists are going underground to profit off their hate. So we'll explain how they are getting away with it next. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, social media sites have been cracking down on hate speech. But despite this, some right-wing extremists, including some who livestreamed the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol and some who are still hiding from the law, are continuing to fundraise online and spreading hate. CNN's Sara Sidner shows us how they're doing it.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Jews are the terrorists.
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some neo-Nazis evading the law are profiting from their hate.
ROBERT WARREN RAY, FUGITIVE: The whole concept of civic nationalism is just ridiculous.
ANDREW ANGLIN, "THE DAILY STORMER": And the fact that Jews control the media.
SIDNER (voice-over): Making money from online donations and getting away with it. They've been gaming the system for years. But after the deadly white supremacists' rally in Charlottesville --
RIOTERS: Jews will not replace us!
SIDNER (voice-over): -- mainstream social media sites like Twitter and Facebook and payment systems like PayPal started banning them. Since then, they've been jumping from platform to platform soliciting donations in cryptocurrencies for their racist and anti-Semitic tirades.
JOHN BAMBENEK, CYBERSECURITY EXPERT: Kind of a form of social media influencer gone wrong.
SIDNER (voice-over): Cybersecurity expert, John Bambenek, has been following the donations.
SIDNER: What kind of money are these known neo-Nazis and white supremacists making?
BAMBENEK: Most of them, the prominent ones that - that have made the news, so they're making six figures, over six figures worth of Bitcoin, in terms of U.S. dollar equivalence.
SIDNER (voice-over): This streaming and gaming site called DLive became a new favorite with extremists.
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SIDNER (voice-over): Users tip in so called Lemons, which can be converted into cryptocurrency or cash.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, let's go.
SIDNER (voice-over): Far-right extremist Tim Gionet, known as "Baked Alaska," used DLive to livestream the deadly Capitol breach.
RIOTERS: America first!
SIDNER (voice-over): Collecting donations as it happened.
MEGAN SQUIRE, ONLINE EXTREMISM EXPERT, ELON UNIVERSITY: It's a video gaming system platform mixed with cryptocurrency, mixed with video livestreaming and all of that with this layer of white supremacy and neo-Nazi actors.
SIDNER (voice-over): Take this guy...
ANGLIN: It's a lot easier to just say, "The Jews did it"
SIDNER (voice-over): -- Andrew Anglin, a Holocaust denier, who runs one of the most prolific neo-Nazi websites on the internet and gets donations online.
SQUIRE: He was in the top 10 though, as far as earnings on the platform.
SIDNER (voice-over): Anglin is also in hiding, running from a $14 million civil judgment against him. A judge found him liable for encouraging his online troll army to harass a Jewish mother and her young son.
We first visited Tanya Gersh in 2017, after Anglin published her name and address online, leading to non-stop threats and intimidation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope you die.
You worthless (INAUDIBLE).
You stupid, ugly (INAUDIBLE), Ms. Tanya Gersh.
TANYA GERSH, HARASSMENT SURVIVOR: I had a lot of phone calls with gunshots. That sound kind of still makes me sick.
SIDNER (voice-over): To this day, Gersh is incensed about what happened.
GERSH: We are not worthy of being hated. We are very loving. And it's so important that the world knows that, Sara.
It's so important, because haters don't know who they're hating. They're making money off of our pain. It's time to set some boundaries. Not all speech, not all writing is free. It is not free, if it terrorizes another human being.
SIDNER (voice-over): Tanya Gersh and her family haven't seen a dime of the $14 million the court says Anglin owes them.
Anglin is holding on to about a half million dollars in Bitcoin, according to Bambenek's latest review of his crypto wallets. And Anglin received Bitcoin valued at nearly $600,000 over the past six years.
Another neo-Nazi getting crypto donations for hate, Robert Warren Ray, nicknamed "Azzmador." We caught up with him in 2017, as white supremacists gathered in Houston, saying they were there to protect Confederate monuments.
SIDNER: You said that the Holocaust, you don't believe that the Holocaust happened?
RAY: No. Show me a piece of evidence. Nobody has shown me a single --
SIDNER: There is evidence everywhere.
RAY: -- piece of evidence.
SIDNER: Why do you hate Blacks and Jews so much?
RAY: Well, I don't hate Blacks. I hate the Jews because they are behind all this.
SIDNER (voice-over): The 54-year-old neo-Nazi is a fugitive. Ray was indicted for illegally using tear gas against counterprotesters during the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally. He failed to show up for all of his video court appearances.
While evading justice, he did show up here, on DLive, getting donations, while spewing hate.
Megan Squire also studies online extremists and their earnings at Elon University.
SIDNER: How successful have neo-Nazis and white supremacists been in making money on DLive?
SQUIRE: Unfortunately, they've been very successful. I was taken aback by the amount of money that was being donated from this much younger demographic.
SIDNER (voice-over): In a statement, DLive told CNN, after January 6th, the company established a new policy, under which community guideline violations will trigger automatic suspensions. DLive also said it was appalled that a number of rioters in the U.S. Capitol abused the platform to livestream their actions.
Experts say the gamelike arena of DLive is introducing young people into a dark world of hate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, teammates.
SIDNER (voice-over): And having cash on hand could make extremists even more dangerous.
SIDNER: Tim, who you saw livestreaming while breaching the Capitol on that streaming and gaming service, DLive, well, he was eventually arrested and accused in the January 6th insurrection.
As for Robert Warren Ray and Andrew England, both neo-Nazis, they have not been found and they did not return any of our requests for comment -- Sara Sidner, CNN, Los Angeles.
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BRUNHUBER: Unbelievable.
We'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have made their break from British royal duties official. The not unexpected news comes as the duke and duchess work out career deals and prepare for a high-profile interview that has the U.K. abuzz with anticipation. Max Foster takes a look.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It has been nearly a year since Harry and Meghan waved goodbye to royal duties.
Their aim?
A more peaceful life in North America. Now, after months of talks, the split is final. The couple agreeing with the queen not to return as working members of the British royal family.
The news came in a statement from Buckingham Palace.
"The monarchy was saddened by their decision," it said, but the pair were still much loved members of the family.
Touching words yet there have been months of tense discussions over what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will have to give up in order to pursue their own careers and private incomes.
The queen confirmed that her grandson and his wife will be stripped of their honorary tighter and patronages. Prince Harry, an ex-soldier, who served on the front lines of Afghanistan, will have to cut cherished official roles with the military, as well as the commonwealth and sporting associations.
It is a blow to the couple but not a surprise. They signed a raft of lucrative media deals. The palace has long said, they could not represent the queen after leading, what it said, was a life of public service.
The couple responded through a spokesman, saying, pointedly, "We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.
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FOSTER: But for Harry and Meghan, who still make front page news in the U.K., there is no way back now to royal life. Less than three years after a fairytale wedding and a royal welcome for the birth of their first child, Archie, it is clear they are heading in a different direction.
They have moved to California, built an independent life, all whilst pursuing legal battles against the British media. And a new baby is on the way. So there is a lot for the couple to talk about when they sit down for an interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey, to be broadcast next month.
And they are no longer restricted in what they can say, now that they have cut official ties with the British monarchy -- Max Foster, CNN, London.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, NASA is posting amazing photos of its Perseverance rover, which landed dramatically on Mars on Thursday.
So just look at the picture there on the right. A different spacecraft in orbit caught this view of the parachute, which carried the rover down to the Red Planet's surface after its 300 million mile journey from Earth.
And then, this selfie here. The rover being lowered on cables from the spacecraft's sky crane before transmitting a color view of the landing area in an old lakebed. And Perseverance also showed off one of its six wheels. The rover's mission is to look for signs of ancient Martian life.
And we have some breaking news here. Japan's Naomi Osaka has captured the Australian Open in Melbourne in her typical powerful style. Moments ago, the 23-year old dominated American Jennifer Brady in the women's singles final, winning in straight sets.
This is Osaka's second victory of the tournament and her fourth grand slam title. She is truly unstoppable right now. That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For viewers
in the U.S. and Canada, "NEW DAY" is ahead. For our international viewers, it's "AFRICAN VOICES CHANGEMAKERS."
