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U.S. President Joe Biden Holds Candlelight Ceremony at White House as U.S. Surpasses 500,000 COVID-19 Deaths; British Prime Minister Unveils Plan to Ease England's Lockdown; New York Prosecutor Gets Access to Trump's Taxes; Baghdad ICU Strained by Infection Surge; NASA Releases First Mars Landing Video. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired February 23, 2021 - 02:00   ET

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

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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome back everyone, I'm John Vause.

Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, it was unimaginable but now it is reality, 500,000 American lives lost to the pandemic and counting. We hear from one man who lost his family.

A cautious road map, the British prime minister lays out his plan to end England's COVID lockdown. The latest in a live report from London.

Also, a CNN reporter got access into an ICU unit in Baghdad where COVID admissions have tripled in just two weeks.

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VAUSE: It is a staggering number, almost impossible to grasp, more than 500,000 people dead in the, U.S. more than any other country by a long shot. Almost every expert and public health official now admits that the loss of life on this scale could have been avoided.

It happened, in large part, due to a former president who lied about the disease and downplayed the threat and to his supporters who made wearing a face mask a political issue.

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VAUSE (voice-over): The country's consoler in chief Joe Biden and the first lady, took part in a moment of silence of the White House. They stood by 500 lit candles, each one representing 1,000 American lives cut short by the pandemic.

President Biden, saying that the country cannot accept such a cruel fate and must not view each life as a statistic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: While we've been fighting this pandemic for so long we have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow.

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VAUSE: Here is the progression of how long it took for the U.S. to hit each milestone of 100,000 deaths, the most recent occurring in just over a month.

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VAUSE: No family knows more about the pain of losing a loved one during this pandemic than the Fusco family from New Jersey. In March last year, Rita Fusco became the second recorded death from the COVID- 19 in the state.

Within a week the coronavirus had claimed the lives of her mother, Grace, as well as brothers, Carmine and Vincent. A few weeks after that, her aunt also died. Five close relatives dead, at least 19 others in the same family all infected.

That included Rita's brother, Joe, who is with us this hour.

Joe, thank you for being with us. Appreciate it.

JOE FUSCO, BEREAVED COVID-19 SURVIVOR: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: It hasn't been a year since the virus claimed so many of your nearest and dearest.

How difficult was it on Monday, seeing that 500,000 mark pass?

And did the memorial at the White House make it any easier?

FUSCO: It doesn't make it any easier and it's not very easy to hear that 500,000 other people have died. It's not easy.

VAUSE: Tell us, what was it like back in March, when this first started, with your sister falling ill and then you and your mom and everyone else. Take us back.

FUSCO: It started, where a few of us got sick and my two brothers were sick and then everyone -- and we didn't understand what was going on. We thought we had the flu and we just thought whatever. And then they went into the hospital and then they were on ventilators instantly.

Then two days later, my mom and I took my mom and my sister to the hospital and then the next day me and my other sister went to the hospital. And Friday morning, I heard my older sister, Rita Jackson, she passed.

And the next thing I know was 30 days later and waking up with a beard and don't know what the hell went on.

VAUSE: So you spent a month on a ventilator, not knowing what was happening?

FUSCO: I was on a ventilator for a month.

(CROSSTALK)

FUSCO: I can't tell you what it was like on the ventilator. It wasn't good for my family though because they were on pens and needles, they had already lost 4 members. And they were lucky enough, my older sister, she didn't have to go on a ventilator, she was out in like 9 or 10 days. And my younger sister was on a ventilator for 20 days.

So they had some hope but I was just still there 30 days later. Easter Sunday I woke up.

VAUSE: What are the long term effects for you, any recurring symptoms?

FUSCO: Yes, the blood pressure is still an issue with me.

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FUSCO: I'm on more medication than I ever was to maintain a level that would be high back then. There is still numbness down my left side. It's still hard to do what I used to do strength wise.

Emotionally, it's tough, it's getting tougher now, as it gets closer to a year that I lost my brothers, my mom, my sister and my aunt. It's rough, it's rough. People just realize that maybe they would understand that this disease is no, joke

VAUSE: You think things have changed with this new administration in the White House, compared to the last one, in any way positive?

FUSCO: Well, it sure seems like it is. It sure seems that he's talking to good game right now but let's see. Let's see. I am a Republican and I don't agree with a lot of the stuff that went on in this last year. I think it could be done a lot better.

(CROSSTALK)

FUSCO: They say that it's being solved because we have a new government and a new president. And I can't agree with that yet.

VAUSE: Researchers have a hunch for your family there was maybe something more going on here than just transmission, something in the DNA. And Johns Hopkins University is looking into that.

What are the details there?

FUSCO: There are not many specific details. We have been told that they have been able to isolate some markers. But nothing that they would care to say, hey, look at this, we have figured it out. Nothing anywhere close to that.

But they have identified some markers and they are continuing to keep it up and keep informing us of what is going on. They do believe there is some genetic, hereditary something going on there. For me, there was 11 brothers and sisters and my mom and my aunt. And eight of us, six others were fine. It just went through them.

VAUSE: Well, Joe, thank you so much for being with us and sharing your experience. And I know it's not the easiest of days, to see so many people die from this disease, a death could've been prevented in so many cases. Thanks for being with us

FUSCO: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: After imposing restrictions too slowly and lifting them too soon, the British prime minister is now under a road map to gradually end the coronavirus lockdown. It comes amid a sharp decline in new infections and if that continues, Boris Johnson says restrictions will be slowly lifted over the next 4 months. CNN's Isa Soares, live, in London, this early hour.

Explain, this force to decline, how will it work?

What are the indicators that health experts look at to ensure everything is on track?

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is all about data and not dates. Good morning to you, John, good to see you. This is what the prime minister set out. Like you said, he's learned his previous lessons of opening up too quickly and then having to lock down.

This time, it is slow and cautious. He is putting a lot of his promises, a lot of his road map, on the vaccination program, the unparalleled vaccination program. He said that England is on a one-way route to freedom.

Like you said, that road is long and that road also has several barriers and several conditions to be met. Let me talk you through the road plan, first of all.

The first thing that will happen is March the 8th. That is when schools will reopen. Parents will be relieved, this is the third lockdown the parents have been home schooling since January, so schools reopen on March the 8th and then, on that same day, people from two households, so two people, can meet outside for a coffee.

That is the first date on that plan. It is 4 phases. March 29th becomes the second step and that is when two households can meet outside. That is phase I. Phase II will be on April the 12th. Between that phase and phase II, there is a 5-week gap where several conditions must be met, including the effectiveness of the vaccine, the pressure on the National Health Service and hospitalization. New variants and infection rate.

As you can see and then after that, April 12th, library sectors, nonessential retail opens, May 17th some of the restrictions are lifted. Finally, June 21st, I think a date everyone has in mind, when there will be no limits on social contact. Between each of those 4 phases, John, there is the four conditions

that must be met. The government will look at the data of a period of 5 weeks and analyze whether they should open or not. It is highly dependent on that data.

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SOARES: What the prime minister and the chief medical officer said yesterday, not just in the House of Commons but also speaking to the nation last night, was that he expects that the numbers of infections, the infection rate to go up. He expects, unfortunately, more to die. There is no credible route to a zero COVID world or a zero COVID Britain.

Unfortunately, this is something that they will be looking at. The key here, John, and I think from having heard Chris Whitty and Boris Johnson yesterday, it is being very slow, very cautious but not putting too much pressure on the National Health Service.

Take a listen to what the chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said. I think the changing tone yesterday to the nation was very striking. Have a listen.

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DR. CHRISTOPHER WHITTY, BRITISH CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: I am afraid, for the foreseeable future, coronavirus will be added to the list of things that those who are vulnerable, even despite vaccination, can be at risk of.

We vaccinate against flu, we vaccinate against pneumococcal pneumonia and, still, there are cases and deaths. I think people need to see it in that way, not to see it separate from others but to see it as, this is something where the vaccinations will take the rates down but we will not get rid of this.

And this is something we will see for the long term and will likely to be a problem, in particular, in the winter, for the next few winters.

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SOARES: So reality check there from Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer. What we heard yesterday was, clearly, a prime minister, who learned his lesson of not overpromising and then underdelivering.

The question of whether this will be irreversible or what he wanted may not be the case. He said, obviously, he would love that to happen but he cannot promise it -- John.

VAUSE: Thank you so much, Isa Soares, in London.

Even so, this cautious, slow approach taken by Boris Johnson has been criticized as too slow, especially for an economy battered by this pandemic. We spoke about all that with Dr. Eric Topol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. ERIC TOPOL, CARDIOLOGIST AND PROFESSOR OF MOLECULAR MEDICINE: If

the cases come down like we're seeing globally right now, and fast and this virus is at peak fitness and is going down and the damage it can do, it can be accelerated.

But unlike the U.S. where we got hurt by reopening too quickly. This happened in many other countries, in Israel during its second lockdown, in between the next one. So it's wise to be prudent and you can always go a little bit faster.

But setting expectations for a careful watch. Because if this is more of a lockdown effect, then there will be a resurgence of cases. The vaccine is unquestionably having an impact but that's mostly in people who are older. And obviously there's a ways to go to get to the herd immunity population level vaccinated there.

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VAUSE: Dr. Eric Topol, thank you for that.

Facebook has struck a deal with Australian lawmakers, lifting a ban on the sharing and viewing of news links on their site. The agreement comes after the government chose to modify a new law, which was intended to force the tech platform to pay news publishers for the content.

It is the end of the road for Donald Trump and his tax returns. Find out who gets to see them and, why after a Supreme Court ruling.

Also, an oil spill in Israel has volunteers cleaning up tar from the nation's beaches.

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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are picking up, almost, microscopic bits of oil, tiny little half marble sizes, that they then stick together into bigger pieces.

VAUSE (voice-over): Live in Israel after the break, we look at where all of that oil actually came from.

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VAUSE: A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court says that U.S. prosecutors now have access to 8 years of Donald Trump's tax returns but the public will not get to see them. The former president says the Supreme Court never should have let this fishing expedition happen but they did. CNN's Pamela Brown has more on the investigation. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A criminal investigation, spanning more than 2 years, that could threaten former president, Donald Trump, his businesses and members of his family.

Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, investigating whether the Trump Organization violated state laws which could include tax fraud, insurance fraud or other illegal schemes.

Now a break in the case, with Vance's office being granted access to eight years of Trump's tax returns and financial records, concluding a legal battle that lasted for 16 months. And, two trips to the Supreme Court.

Originally, focusing on allegations of hush money payments made to two women who said that they had sexual encounters with Trump before the 2016 election. Trump has denied the affairs and knowledge of the payments.

The Trump Organization has said that it has paid all applicable taxes and is in compliance with the law. Trump himself has called it a, quote, "fishing expedition."

TRUMP: This is a continuation of the witch hunt, the greatest witch hunt in history. Never been anything like it. People want to examine every deal you've ever done, to see if they can find that there's a comma out of place.

BROWN (voice-over): Vance's been pursuing other lines of investigation as well. Prosecutors have subpoenaed one of Trump's creditors, Deutsche Bank, which has lent Trump more than $300 million, interviewing 2 of its employees.

They also interviewed Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who testified to Congress how Trump would exaggerate or minimize, the value of his assets when seeking loans and insurance or favorable tax treatment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the president or his company, ever inflate assets or revenue?

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And was that done with the president's knowledge or direction?

COHEN: Everything was done with the knowledge and at the direction, of Mr. Trump.

BROWN (voice-over): Also subpoenaed, records relating to fees that the Trump Organization paid to consultants, including one to a company owned by Trump's daughter, Ivanka.

According to people familiar with the matter, who tweeted that the investigation was, quote, "harassment, pure and simple."

The investigation, recently expanding to include the Trump family compound in Westchester County and tax deductions related to development plans for the property, according to lawyers and people familiar with the investigation.

Trump himself, seeming worried about the legal jeopardy he may face, now, as a private citizen. A source telling CNN he has been asking his associates about the potential criminal exposure he may face after his impeachment trial is over -- Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.

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VAUSE: Elliot Williams is a CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, former deputy assistant attorney general and is with us this hour from Washington.

Elliott, thank you for being with us.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hi, there.

VAUSE: It is pretty safe to assume that the incredible lengths Trump has gone to prevent the release of these tax records is a reflection of how damaging the information would be if they were received by the public?

WILLIAMS: It's hard to say. The president was the first in, I think, 40 or 50 years, since Richard Nixon, in the United States, to have not submitted his tax returns for public view.

So whether it is simply a fear of disclosure to the American public or something else, we will never know.

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WILLIAMS: The simple fact is, he's an outlier right now among former Presidents of the United States.

VAUSE: From a legal point of view, what's Vance looking at here?

WILLIAMS: It's hard to see how there is anything but legal peril facing the former president of the United States, because of the fact that his foundation, the Trump Organization, and that he, personally, all had investigations into them looked at, both in terms of financial irregularities, irregularities and how he is financing soft financing on real estate deals.

So whether one of them turns into either criminal or civil liability or all of them do, the simple fact is, when multiple investigations are being brought against the same person, the risk is significantly high that one of them may pan out and turn into something.

VAUSE: You mentioned multiple legal investigations, which are underway, so let's look at some of them right now. There are many problems for the former president.

Just like the Manhattan DA, Cyrus Vance, New York's attorney general is investigating how the Trump Organization valued property assets. There's also the investigation which is a defamation lawsuit from women who say they were sexually harassed by Trump. Trump's niece, Mary Trump, has filed a lawsuit. There is also a

possible charge of incitement by the D.C. attorney general. There is also what we're looking at here with possibly two investigations in Georgia in Trump's attempts to pressure state officials to overturn the election results in the state.

Trump has always played the long game when it came to legal cases, delay, delay, delay and will that work this time?

It's a bit harder to take on the -- to publish justice or the Manhattan DA as opposed to Joe the plumber who paints this in color (ph).

WILLIAMS: Excellent reference to Joe the plumber, who was someone who came up since the 2012 election in the United States. What is amazing about when you read off the litany of potential legal issues against the president, they are in every facet of life for the president of the United States.

So there are criminal investigations by the federal prosecutors that the U.S. government prosecutors of New York. There are civil investigations being brought by -- as well as criminal investigations, I believe, brought by the attorney general of the state of New York.

The state of Georgia is investigating the president for election violations and there is all of these questions about January 6th and the insurgence, the insurrection of the United States Capitol. The president's potential role in that.

So it is a mix of different forms of liability, it is almost a crash course in the American legal system. When the states can prosecute or when the federal government can prosecute.

But both personal, financial and official actions of the president are all under investigation now. And it is just hard to see how at least some of them or at least one of them doesn't turn into a quite significant legal peril for the former president.

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VAUSE: Our thanks to CNN analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams.

Israeli officials are looking for the source of an oil spill, one of the country's biggest ecological disasters in Israel. Beaches are closed and mass cleanup is underway. CNN's Sam Kiley, is there.

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KILEY: The Israelis have deployed an army of volunteers and, indeed, their own army to help clear up the oil slick that extends from Egyptian territory, right in the south, all the way up into Lebanon.

Indeed, the Lebanese authorities accused Israel or an Israeli ship of dumping this oil. An Israeli judge has, mysteriously, imposed an injunction on reporting of details of this whole story.

For the young people here, who are working incredibly hard, they are picking up almost microscopic bits of oil, tiny little half marble sizes, that they then stick together into bigger pieces.

There have been environmental impacts in terms of deaths of turtles and, in the last few days, also, a whale washed up on an Israeli beach, its lungs, apparently, filled with some kind of black matter. They don't yet know whether or not that was oil.

But clearly, this is an environmental disaster, as ever in this region, with international implications -- Sam Kiley, CNN, on Sharon Beach.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The wife of convicted drug, lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been arrested at Dulles Airport outside of Washington, facing charges of drug trafficking. The U.S. Department alleges that she was involved in conspiracy to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana, meth -- sounds like everything.

Prosecutors say she helped her husband escape from a Mexican prison in 2015. El Chapo, now serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison.

In Iraq, COVID cases are soaring, while ICUs are maxing out. Many hospital wards are relatively quiet. We'll explain why when we come back.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody.

The COVID-19 death toll in the United States, now topped 500,000. That's more than the number of Americans killed in WWI and II and the Vietnam War, combined. Staggering death toll marked at the White House by the U.S. President and a moment of silence.

The U.S. death toll, by far, the highest in the world. Even though daily case counts have declined significantly in recent weeks, experts are warning new variants could reverse that trend.

The death toll, worldwide, stands at 2.5 million. More than 111 million people have been infected.

Iraq is seeing another devastating wave of COVID infections, averaging 300,000 a day this past week. Health officials say more than 37,000 people are hospitalized with the virus and while some ICUs are filling it seems many are reluctant to seek hospital care. CNN's Arwa Damon, live, in Baghdad.

After years of war and all of the violence and unrest to follow, Iraqis have an uneasy relationship with their health care system, to say the least.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They do, John. It's fairly understandable, given everything they have been through but when we went to one of the ICUs in Baghdad, we found something unexpected. There was a certain, in some ways, uniquely Iraqi warmth to the entire experience.

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DAMON (voice-over): The constant beeping of the machines is mind- numbing. But at least here, there is something rarely seen inside a COVID-19 intensive care unit. Those struggling for each breath are not alone.

Amna's (ph) weak laugh is muffled, an inside joke shared with the doctors about how her daughter, Naba (ph), is constantly hovering over her. The family went to a wedding, no masks, no social distancing, a decision they all bitterly regret.

"I also have COVID, but I had forgotten about it with the state my mother is in," Naba says, as her voice starts to crack.

"We filled the house with oxygen tanks, but it wasn't enough. And then, we brought her here."

Amna (ph) nods her head, she is doing much better now.

Wafat's (ph) family also tried to treat her, using oxygen at home. They didn't want to bring her to a hospital, not an uncommon occurrence in Iraq.

DAMON: Why do you think people are reluctant to come to the hospital initially?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe because of culture, Iraq culture.

DAMON (voice-over): For some, it's a fear of being stigmatized, having caught a virus that has brought the world to its knees.

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DAMON (voice-over): "There are people, even now, who say, what is this, corona?" Wafat's (ph) daughter, Neeran (ph), tells us.

"They don't believe that the virus exists until it hits them."

But, it is also a misunderstanding, that oxygen and vitamins aren't enough to treat the symptoms of the virus. And, there is also a lack of faith in Iraq's health care systems, which have yet to fully recover from sanctions dating back to the Saddam Hussein era and, then, nonstop war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a very bad thing to keep patients in the home, or at home. Treatment at home.

DAMON (voice-over): Iraq's first COVID-19 wave devastated the country. Hospitals were overwhelmed. This particular infectious diseases hospital in Baghdad that the government facilitated our access to, saw its patient numbers triple in the last two weeks.

DAMON: Are you ready for maximum capacity, or more?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have beds, we have doctors, we have nurse.

DAMON (voice-over): And they do not have a choice.

HASSAN ALAA, CHIEF RESIDENT: Two months ago, the virus nearly -- from Iraq, I mean -- deleted from all Iraq people. So, all people leave face mask, leave sterilization, leave everything and neglected everything, neglected all of protection.

DAMON: Does this make you stressed?

Does this make you worried?

ALAA: Sure. We're afraid our family, ourselves from this new virus but we should do what we can and to the benefit for the patients.

DAMON: By that new virus, Dr. Alaa means a new variant. Iraq's ministry of health recently stated that 50 percent of the new infections are of the highly contagious B117 variant, first identified in the U.K.

The government only just made face masks mandatory and reimplemented stricter restrictions, like nighttime and weekend curfews.

"It should have happened before, not now, at the end," Neeran (ph) says of the government's measures, as her mother's chest heaves with each labored breath. She will not leave her side. No matter the risk, no matter the circumstances, in Iraq, no one stays in a hospital alone.

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DAMON: John, I have to say, it was quite a special experience to be inside of that intensive care unit. It felt quite intimate and it really makes all the different for the patients, those who are fighting against the virus and their family members, to be able to have that connection with one another.

Iraq's ministry of health is saying that they are hoping to begin vaccinations towards the end of the month. This is a country, like so many others, that has been absolutely, economically, devastated by this virus. It will take an extraordinarily long time to recover from it.

But at the very least, inside of these ICUs, you do end up witnessing something that is extremely special.

VAUSE: Thank you so much, Arwa Damon, with that report, live.

So far, so good for NASA's journey to Mars. After the break, heading to mission control for the new photo images which have a view of Mars like we've never seen before.

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[02:35:00]

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VAUSE: You're watching the first video, ever, of a spacecraft landing on Mars. The footage from NASA's Perseverance rover showing the rover traveling through the Martian atmosphere and then landing on the Martian surface.

NASA is also showing off some of the rover's video capabilities with a stunning panoramic shot of the Red Planet. It was composed by 23 onboard cameras. Then, there are the microphones, which recorded the planet's first sound we have ever heard. It is a Martian breeze.

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VAUSE (voice-over): Sounds just like wind noise.

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VAUSE: Perseverance expected to send back images of Mars like we've never seen before. The two new images, located just beneath the masthead, cameras much more advanced than the ones on the earlier rover Curiosity.

And additions which if, nothing else, it makes Perseverance look like everyone's favorite robot, Wall-e.

Jim Bell is joining us from mission control at Arizona State University, at the School of Earth and Space Exploration.

Jim, thank you for being with us. Last year, we got a hint of what we were to expect. Perseverance tweeted, with the keen eyes I've been given, I'll zoom in on Mars with a clarity like never before. My primary camera, will let me see details that even human eyes can't.

OK, what do we expect to hear?

What will we will see that we've never seen before?

JIM BELL, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY: We have these great zoom cameras that go from wide angle all the way to telephoto and then because there's 2 of them, like our eyes, they give a stereo. They give us 3D. We will use these cameras to do a lot of 3D imaging. It will help the rover drivers guide the vehicle across obstacles and

hazards and helps them put the arm down to drill into rocks and scoop up soil samples. It helps us, scientifically, to put the geology together, to put the story of this amazing place on Mars back together.

VAUSE: This is what's fascinating because we have been to Mars a few times, I've lost count but you probably know. Eight times, thank you very much. But we don't know for certain or at least we've never seen what the Martian sky looks like. What color is the sky?

What does the Martian sunset look like?

BELL: Yes, it's interesting because Mars as much like Earth in some ways but it is also very different. On Earth, we have these beautiful blue skies, the sun sets, the sky turns reddish.

But Mars is the exact opposite. The sky, in the daytime, is typically reddish, brown to red and, as the sun sets, it starts turning blue. It's because of this fine dust grains in the atmosphere that are there, constantly. You heard of the famous Mars dust storms.

Well, that is what gives Mars its interesting sky colors.

VAUSE: Just explain, because the primary mission here for Perseverance is to search for signs of past life.

Are any of these whiz-bang cameras that can actually see what the human eye cannot see, how will that move that mission forward?

BELL: We use the cameras for a lot of different things. It's especially important to use the cameras to guide a choice of where we go, to drill into rocks and to scoop up samples.

The rover carries these sample tubes inside, 43 of them. And they're about the size of a dry erase marker. When we drill, we take a piece of the rock out, we put it in the core sample tube, keep it in the rover.

And then we set the sample tubes down on the ground, in a very obvious place, that will be easy to find. And a future mission, sometime in the next decade, a small rover, a lander, a rocket on that lander, an orbiter waiting above, will bring those samples back to the Earth.

The difference here is we have never sent a mission out to Mars with the goal of bringing some of that stuff back. This is the first. And that's what makes this mission special.

VAUSE: This is a two-parter if you like. This is the start and about 10 or 20 years from now, we'll have the samples brought back.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: I guess, the question is, in terms of the 3D technology, this is actually being used in real time, right?

As the drivers at mission control guide it around the planet?

BELL: It is actually used on board by the rover's computer in real time. The rover has these navigation cameras and it builds a model of the surroundings, almost like a video game.

So it understands where hazards are. We can flip it into this mode of, auto drive, drive yourself, go from point A, to point B and take a picture when you get there. Phone home, let us know it's OK. Most of it happens quite autonomously. The rover is so far away, we can't joystick it.

[02:40:00]

BELL: It's too far away, at the speed of light.

VAUSE: It took 16 minutes, is that right?

BELL: That's right, 11 minutes to send the signal -- stop -- and then another 11 minutes before we can see that it has jumped over a cliff.

VAUSE: Very quickly, the images you will be getting back and the ones you are putting out, where can we see them?

Can everybody get an eye for this?

BELL: Yes, if you just Google NASA Mars rover raw images, Perseverance, rover images, it will take you to the NASA websites and jet propulsion lab and maybe Arizona State University website and you will be able to see all kinds of great pictures.

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BELL: How's that?

VAUSE: How important is it to get the images out there for everyone to see?

BELL: It's absolutely critical. The taxpayers in the U.S., around the world, other countries, who put effort into this. We are trying to help educate our children, excite their teachers, get the general public involved, so there's a large number of armchair astronomers, and image processors out there who follow along. We want to get those pictures out there for them.

VAUSE: Jim Bell, you're doing good work, thank you for that and thank you for being with us on CNN.

BELL: Thanks for having me.

VAUSE: One more thing before we go, musician Stevie wonder is moving to Ghana. The award winning singer revealed this intention during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, citing political turmoil in the U.S. and concern for future generations.

This is not the first time Stevie Wonder said he was considering moving to the West African nation. Back in 1994, the Michigan native said he felt there is a more sense of a community there than in the United States.

We rarely saw their face but you surely heard there music. Daft Punk, the futuristic French duo, redefining electronic dance music, calling it quits after 28 years. The publicist confirmed the split on Monday after they released a cryptic video called Epilogue.

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VAUSE (voice-over): The duo is known for hits like "One More Time," "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and "Get Lucky." But Daft Punk will forever be remembered for those metallic helmets, never appearing publicly without them.

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VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm John Vause. "WORLD SPORT" is next, then at the top of the hour, Rosemary Church takes over with 2 hours of CNN NEWSROOM.