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After a year-long delay it is the final sprint to the Olympics in Japan; Standing By for a Decision: The UNESCO World Heritage Committee on Australia's Great Barrier Reef Endangered Listing; U.N. Warning of Increased Threats from Terror Groups Linked with ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired July 23, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: We are live in Tokyo where the Olympic Games are set to get underway. Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Michael Holmes.
After a year-long delay it is the final sprint to the Olympics in Japan. We're now just about two and half hours away from the official start of Tokyo 2020.
As COVID cases surge the opening ceremony will look vastly different with only select VIPs and athletes in attendance. Australia's team says it will have about 63 athletes and officials in the ceremony. The team has about 470 athletes in all.
South Korea says 26 out of 232 athletes will take part. India says 50 out -- athletes and officials out of nearly 230. And Canada says nearly 30 to 40 athletes out of 370 team members will take part.
Now as Olympians gear up to take center stage so too, of course, is Japan. The world is watching how the country will host the world's biggest sporting event in the middle of a pandemic.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at the challenges it faces.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was never going to be easy, the Olympic Games in the middle of a pandemic in a city now in a state of emergency.
The usual fanfare muted, making way for concerns over COVID-19.
GUPTA: While it was true that no country in the world was really prepared for this pandemic, Japan fared better than most. They're an island nation. It wasn't that hard to get people to isolate here. People wore masks without much difficulty and they also have hundreds of these, hokenjo. Think of them like hundreds of CDCs all over the country. GUPTA (voice over): I spoken with the director of one of these
hokenjo, Dr. Eitaru Nishizuka.
DR. EITARU NISHIZUKA, DIRECTOR SUMIDA HEALTH CENTER (through translator): We have been preparing for seven years to prevent risks for the Tokyo Olympics.
GUPTA: According to a poll about 80 percent of residents here in Japan did not want the Olympics to happen here at this time. What about you? What do you think?
NISHIZUKA (through translator): In 1964, the last Tokyo Olympics, because Japan lost the war the games worked as an opportunity for us to come back. In this Olympics we have Fukushima.
GUPTA (voice over): He's talking about nuclear disaster triggered by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake that claimed nearly 20,000 lives. But coronavirus has been a different type of disaster, putting constant pressure on Japan to battle rising infections and to get vaccines into arms as fast as possible.
NISHIZUKA (through translator): The coronavirus cases may rise or fall, so we will think about what we should do when the situation arises.
GUPTA: Cancelling the Olympics at this point seems inconceivable. But there is one thing Dr. Nishizuka does worry about.
NISHIZUKA (through translator): I think Japan can be rated a C for its measure against COVID-19.
GUPTA (voice over): He says while there are 400 ICU beds in Tokyo only half are available for COVID-19 patients. That combined with the rising number of cases and hospitalizations doesn't leave a lot of room for a surge in a city of 14 million.
GUPTA: Is there a criterion by which you would start to become concerned?
DR. BRIAN MCCLASKEY, COVID-19 ADVISER TO INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Sure. Mostly what we look at is changes in patterns. So say if we started to see infection in people who weren't part of a close contact group.
If we started to see a rising number of cases, if we started to see the cases doubling more rapidly than we thought and particularly if we started to see cases appearing in the local population that seemed to be linked back into the village or vice versa.
GUPTA (voice over): So far that hasn't happened. But for the head of the World Health Organization the Olympics is a balance, the physical health of a nation versus the mental health of the world.
DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, W.H.O. DIRECTOR GENERAL: May the message of hope resound. Resound from Tokyo around the world in every nation, every village and every heart. GUPTA (voice over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Tokyo.
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HOLMES: And you can follow the games with CNN's instant coverage on our website. Just point your browser to CNN.com/Olympics.
And we are standing by for a decision from the UNESCO World Heritage Committee on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The marine wonder has been deteriorating for years due to climate change and natural disasters. But the Australian government is fighting hard against a possible endanger listing.
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CNN's Anna Coren is following developments for us live from Hong Kong. So what would a classification mean for the reef? And what -- what's Australia -- the Australian government worried about?
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Michael, I just got off the phone from another scientist who studies the reef and she said that if the listing went ahead, that if the Great Barrier Reef was to be listed as in danger that basically all that does is shine a global spotlight on the problems, the problems of climate change facing the Great Barrier Reef.
As you say, one of the, you know, great natural wonders of the world. It's the largest living infrastructure on the planet. You can see it from space. And people are sort of shaking their heads as to why won't the Australian government agree to this. Why won't they put in all measures necessary to safeguard and preserve this fragile, you know, delicate ecosystem, which is basically like the Amazon of the ocean.
It is such a special place, but the Australian government, as we know, has been fiercely fighting this listing. It's been lobbying other member countries of UNESCO. The Australian federal minister spent eight days traveling around the world visiting these places, visiting these members to lobby them to go with Australia. I mean, you can't image the amount of taxpayer dollars as well as carbon emissions that were spent on this trip.
They want the decision to be postponed until 2023. I mean that's, you know, two years away. The damage that -- further damage to the reef that could be done, Michael, is just mind boggling. But as you say, we should know in the next couple of hours. If, however, it goes to a secret ballot then that decision will be made tomorrow, Michael.
HOLMES: All right, keeping an eye on it for us, Anna Coren there in Hong Kong. Thanks so much.
All right coming up, after massive protests in Cuba and a crackdown on distance, the U.S. is imposing new sanctions on parts of Cuba's government. We'll have the response from Havana when we come back.
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HOLMES: The United Nations is warning of increased threats from terror groups linked with ISIS and Al-Qaeda. It just released a report detailing escalating Jihadist activity as efforts to combat it wind down.
It says North Africa is a particular growth area, as is an old familiar location, Afghanistan.
As Nic Robertson reports for us, the easing of COVID lockdowns may be providing Jihadists with additional opportunities.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice over): COVID-19 travel and other restrictions have kept international Islamist terror threats at bay, a new U.N. report reveals. But it hasn't killed their threat.
EDMUND FITTON-BROWN, U.N. MONITORING TEAM COORDINATOR: One of the things that we highlight in the report that's just come out is the possibility that the relaxation of the lockdowns might mean that some preplanned attacks can then take place.
ROBERTSON (voice over): The report 20 years after Al-Qaeda's horrific 9/11 attacks reveals a world of growing jihadist threats and waning efforts to counter them.
From Somalia in East Africa where U.S. forces backing the government left this year, Al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab is spreading its brand of violence south into Kenya. Other Al-Qaeda affiliates making gains through the Sahel Region of Africa too.
Meanwhile, in Central and West Africa ISIS is strengthening, crossing borders from Mali into Burkina Faso, Cote d'lvoire, Niger, Senegal and from Nigeria into Cameroon.
In Nigeria the death of an Al-Qaeda affiliated leader as ISIS affiliated fighters surrounded him likely makes the ISIS affiliate the biggest outside of Syria.
FITTON-BROWN: Part of their vision of these regional structures is that these will enable them to increase in interoperability of their global network and ultimately to mount a more effective threat in particularly in the west.
ROBERTSON (voice over): Another risk gaining momentum. The birthplace of the 9/11 attacks, Afghanistan.
Although it is too soon for the report to conclude the impact of the Taliban's recent gains and the U.S. drawdown, one member state estimates ISIS who claimed a rocket attack narrowly missing Afghan leaders attending prayers in the capital Tuesday to have 500 to 1,500 fighters and be focusing on the capital Kabul.
And Al-Qaeda, who U.S. forces chased from the country after 9/11, now have a presence in at least 15 of the country's 34 provinces are fighting alongside the Taliban and appear to be counting on a military victory.
FITTON-BROWN: That gives them time in which to stabilize to continue to use Afghanistan as a platform and then in the longer term to review whether it's possible to use it as a platform also for international attacks.
ROBERTSON (voice over): Twenty years on from the 9/11 attacks Al- Qaeda's then number two now is Chief Ayman al-Zawahiri is thought to be unwell. His expected replacement, Saif al-Adl is in Iran, likely assessing if Afghanistan is safe for his return.
Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
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HOLMES: The U.S. is imposing new sanctions on parts of the Cuban regime following massive protests on the island nation. U.S. President Joe Biden says the sanctions are just the beginning and now Havana has responded.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann with the details.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA-BASED CORRESPONDENT: The Biden administration slapped new sanctions on Cuba and Cuban officials aren't wasting any time firing back.
On Thursday President Biden announced there would be sanctions on Cuba's defense minister and a special brigade of Cuban troops. These are special forces troops, they dress all in black. They are known as the Black Berets. They are highly trained and highly armed.
And the Cuban government has sent them in the streets. Something you usually don't see here, to deter protesters from again going out and calling for liberty, calling for change, calling for better conditions and less shortages.
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The Cuban government doesn't seem like they're going to be deterred in any way by these new sanctions. Cuba's foreign minister tweeting out that the U.S. should sanction itself all the police violence that takes place in the United States he said.
So while the Biden administration is certainly hoping that sanctions and threats of more sanctions could force the Cuban government to allow these protests to go forward, already the Cuban government is saying they won't have any impact.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEO TAPE) HOLMES: We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, China's top ride-sharing company skidding into the regulator's crosshairs and that's just one of the reasons why Chinese IPOs are no longer the darlings of Wall Street. We'll explain why.
Also, the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony just a couple of hours away. And an Olympic record that stood for 25 years has been broke. We'll have all of the details coming up.
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HOLMES: Shares of the Chinese ride-hailing company DiDi are taking a nose dive, losing more than 11 percent as Bloomberg News reports. China is considering penalties against it.
The company has been in Beijing's crosshairs ever since it went public in New York last month. Before that IPO 2021 was shaping up to be a huge year for Chinese listings in the U.S. But as Clare Sebastian now reports for us, those expectations are changing.
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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In the spring of 2019 China's answer to Starbucks up trading in New York. Luckin Coffee promising to convert millions of Chinese tea lovers with low prices and high tech convenience.
RYAN CULLEN, CEO CULLEN INVESTMENT GROUP: It was just so attractive because on a per store basis its market cap was very low.
SEBASTIAN (voice over): Then 23-year-old Ryan Cullen a finance professional in Ohio was sold.
CULLEN: I saw it as an opportunity to get in early on a very fast growing company. And China for me has always been sort of the -- like a -- an untapped frontier.
SEBASTIAN: For years American investors have flocked to Chinese companies listing in the U.S. as an easy way to own a piece of China's fast growing consumer market. And for years China has resisted complying with a requirement for public companies here, would the U.S. be allowed to inspect the accounting firms that audit these companies?
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Everybody has to comply with that rule. American companies, British companies, Malaysian companies, Turkmenistan companies, except one, Chinese companies. They just say no.
SEBASTIAN (voice over): Compliance with that rule may not have prevented what happened next with Luckin Coffee.
SEBASTIAN: It turned out that the company had fabricated sales to the tune of about $310 million. SEBASTIAN (voice over): An accounting scandal that eventually led to
its delisting, a bankruptcy filing and big losses for U.S. investors like Ryan Cullen.
CULLEN: Luckin really came to the market, got a bunch of capital from its IPO and then just sort of left. And it left a lot of American investors like holding the bag.
KENNEDY: Now I have a bill, it's very simple.
SEBASTIAN (voice over): It did though help spur action in Congress. Last December them President Trump signed the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, forcing companies from countries which weren't allowed audit inspections for three consecutive years to be delisted. Right now China is the only one.
The SEC is still figuring out how to enforce the law.
DANIEL GOELZER, FOUNDING MEMBER PUBLIC CO. ACCOUNTING OVERSIGHT BOARD: It's always been clear that the situation of uninspectable auditors in one country just couldn't go on.
SEBASTIAN (voice over): And if U.S. regulators don't deter Chinese listings, Chinese regulators might. Two days after China's ride- hailing giant DiDi went public it was hit with a cyber security review in China. Then it was kicked off app stores.
PAUL TRIOLO, HEAD OF GLOBAL TECH POLICY EURASIA GROUP: They're handling huge amounts of data that is increasingly being considered sensitive by the Chinese government.
SEBASTIAN (voice over): China has now proposed requiring all large tech companies that want to list overseas to undergo a cyber security review. And all this complicated by tensions between the U.S. and China.
TRIOLO: DiDi and the recent events here have sort of given ammunition to those really in Congress, for example, the China hawks in Congress who really want to accelerate this process and are saying, you know, this is -- this is not good for U.S. investors.
But if it looks like the relationship is sort of going, you know, further south then I would say that the Chinese government may decide that, you know, hey why should we agree to auditing of our companies.
SEBASTIAN (voice over): It's clear, after years of a fragile but mutually beneficial status quo something has to give. And investors could be caught in the middle.
Clare Sebastian, CNN, New York.
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HOLMES: A U.S. sportscaster is making a case for COVID vaccines despite having a so-called breakthrough infection. NFL Network Host Rich Eisen contracted COVID despite being fully vaccinated. Research suggests breakthrough infections are rare and typically lead
to only minor symptoms. Eisen told CNN's Anderson Cooper that getting a vaccine was a good decision because he said, without it he could have ended up in a much worse position.
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RICH EISEN, HOST ON NFL NETWORK: But I'm not ventilated right now. I'm not in a hospital, I never was in a hospital. Also, my daughter got it. Nothing's more personal than your 7-yea-old daughter getting and it's entirely possible, it's very feasible I gave it to her. She's OK right now, but that is harrowing, that is as white-knuckle an experience as you possibly can get.
Plus, the fact that I attempted to have a normal summer. My wife and I were heading on vacation out of the country, which is why I tested. Otherwise I would have thought maybe it's just some sort of an allergy and I could have spread it around even worse.
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HOLMES: All right, right now we are around two hours away from the official opening of the Olympic Games. These are live images coming to us from Tokyo. Some events are actually already underway.
In fact, a record that stood for 25 years was broken a little bit earlier. That was in archery. Plus two football giants square off on the pitch.
CNN Sports Don Riddell has that and more in a minute in sports.
DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORT HOST: Many people thought it would never happen, but the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo are finally upon us. The competition actually is already underway in Japan, but within the next couple of hours it will be official, the opening ceremony due to get underway at 7:00 pm local time.
We've already witnessed a new Olympic record. It happened in the women's archery on Friday when South Korea's An San shot a score of 680 in the individual ranking round, as she shot 36 10s and 16 Xs to set the record which has stood since the Atlanta games way back in 1996.
The men's football competition has already witnessed a heavyweight clash in what was actually a repeat of the last Olympic final. Brazil played Germany on Thursday and Brazil, just like they did in Rio, they won it.
The Everton striker Richarlison stealing the show with a first half hat-trick as Brazil eased to a 40 (ph) win. In fact, all of his goals came in the first 30 minutes. Incidentally these two teams also played here in Yokohama back in 2002. That was the World Cup Final, Brazil won that as well.
Back to you.
HOLMES: Now thanks to Don Riddell and that is it for CNN Newsroom. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter at HolmesCNN.
Early Start coming your way next.
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