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Drone Kills Civilians, Not ISIS; Secondary Education Resuming Without Afghan Girls; FDA Panel's Booster Shot Plan Awaiting Final Review; Pregnant Mississippi Women Dying Of COVID-19; Right-Wing Capitol Protest Mostly Peaceful; Google And Apple Under Fire For Removing Navalny App; Texas Town Faces Migrant Crisis; Chinese Migrant Workers In Myanmar Trying Desperately To Return Home; All-Tourist Space Flight Ends Successfully. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired September 19, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, new revelations about a deadly drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians, including seven children. CNN speaks to the family mourning their loved ones.
Plus, a plea when it comes to pregnant women and the COVID vaccine and the grim figures that back it up.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And they're back on Earth: crew members of Inspiration4 return home after their historic three-day mission.
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BRUNHUBER: A warning from the CIA came too late to stop a U.S. airstrike that killed 10 Afghan civilians last month. According to three sources, the intelligence agency warned there were likely civilians in the area and possibly children just seconds before the missile hit.
The strike followed a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of Afghans at the Kabul airport but the Pentagon now admits no one in the car was linked to ISIS-K, calling the airstrike a mistake. CNN's Nic Robertson has been speaking to the relatives of those killed and he filed this report from Kabul.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's a lot of children. This is the blood of the children?
AMAL AHMADI, ZAMARAI'S BROTHER: Yes. Yes.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Amal Ahmadi shows me his family's shattered house.
(on camera): It's heartbreaking to see this now.
AHMADI: Yes.
ROBERTSON: And to know they say it was just a mistake.
AHMADI: Yes, yes, that's a big mistake. You know about it, yes.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): No one has had the heart to clean it up since the drone strike three weeks ago.
AHMADI: They are all of them. Like my cute daughter that I can't forget her. She was so lively for me that I.
ROBERTSON: The Pentagon late admission, that his brother, Zamarai, was not an ISIS terrorist, something positive.
AHMADI: The USA proved that they are targeting innocent people, because of that I am so happy about in.
ROBERTSON: But he still has questions. Five children he says were inside the car when it was hit.
AHMADI: The USA's know that inside the car was children. Why they targeted an innocent person? Why they target a civilian person.
ROBERTSON: So far, they say they've had no calls from U.S. officials. Are hoping for help to rebuild, even relocate to America.
(on camera): Can you forgive them?
AHMADI: Maybe. But how should I do? You know that I lost that my family. That who return them back perhaps.
ROBERTSON: That's impossible.
AHMADI: It's impossible. No one is able to return them back.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): To the world, this is a drone strike gone wrong. For the family, it's an irreplaceable loss.
Another brother, Romal, shows me the family graves, scattered in the unforgiving rocky ground of a dusty Kabul cemetery.
His own three children, daughter Farzad, 9; sons Faisal, 15, and Zamir, 19, all killed in the strike, buried here, too.
(on camera): What do you want for the person responsible?
AHMADI: Just give me --
ROBERTSON (voice-over): His answer, justice. The drone operators should go to court.
For now, prayers and the acknowledgement of their family's innocence, their only solace -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.
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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Sam Kiley reported from Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal and joins us now live from Abu Dhabi.
Sam, the family's pain so evident to see there. As we heard in that report, they want justice.
Any chance they'll get it?
I mean, this is far from the first deadly mistake like this by the U.S. military.
Any sense that there will be accountability this time?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right across the last 20 years of NATO campaigning, not just in Afghanistan but in neighboring Pakistan, too, there have been hundreds, in fact, thousands and thousands of civilian casualties, not just from drone strikes but from bigger airstrikes, from heavier weapons, ordnance dropped from aircraft.
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KILEY: And of course, people killed on the ground during combat operations, particularly in densely populated areas like Helmand.
I've seen for myself, over the period of that coverage, there have occasionally been ex gratia payments paid by units on the ground, right through to court cases launched particularly by foreign nationals against the United States, the United Kingdom in particular, for foreigners killed in these sorts of operations.
But it's very haphazard, Kim. It's a very complex process. There have been hints from the Pentagon coming by way of compensation to this family. But no response from the family on there. And they haven't been contacted as Nic reported, as how they might go about after seeking compensation.
Whether that amounts to justice, of course, is a very open question. And I don't think there's any real question that these sorts of strikes, that the heavy civilian death toll that has occurred at the hands of the NATO operation, of course, an operation led by the United States, has inevitably fueled across that region yet more recruits going into the Taliban and other militant groups.
It mercifully does not appear to be the case at all with this family, with them saying that they would like to emigrate to the United States, at least some of them. But in many, many other cases, in intelligence reports -- and human rights groups have been reporting on this for two decades now -- when these incidents happen, very frequently, you get a surge, a spike in recruitment to extremist groups -- Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, adding to the tragedy there. Sam Kiley, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Well, the Taliban are sticking to their line that girls will be allowed to go to school this time. Some girls in Kabul headed back to primary school Saturday as the Taliban ordered classes to resume.
But secondary schools are reopening their doors only to boys. And so far, there's no mention when girls of that age will return to classrooms. Our Nic Robertson pressed the Taliban spokesman to explain why.
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ROBERTSON: Schools have started, boys in grade 6, to 12, have been invited. But not girls. We were told, there would be education for girls, up to higher education.
So what's happening?
ZABIULLAH MUJAHID, TALIBAN SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Well, we are in the process of laying the groundwork, since girls, from grade 6, until 12, need secure transportation. And, also, there are certain rules for their class and lessons, that must be observed so that they could be safe.
We are working on this and the process would get completed and they will be allowed. We do have girls at universities, continuing their education, both in, private and government funded universities. But from grade 6 to 12, we are in the process of laying the groundwork. Work is being done on a process, in this regard.
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BRUNHUBER: For more on this, we're joined by Pashtana Durrani, who founded the non-profit Learn, which focuses on girls' education in Afghanistan. And we're not disclosing her location for security reasons.
Thank you so much for joining us. So we just heard there, the Taliban tells CNN that girls will be allowed to study, just not right now. That sounds a little bit like the arguments the Taliban used the last time they were in power.
PASHTANA DURRANI, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LEARN: Thank you for having me. I was just listening to the same report.
I wonder, what sort of transportation arrangement are they inventing that has not been in place for the past two decades that they are going to be putting in place now, which is not needed by boys, from grade 7 to grade 12 but is needed by girls grades 7 through 12?
The second thing is, what were girls doing when you were not in power before that, how did they go to school?
How did that work out?
The mere reason of saying -- excusing transportation as a way to sabotage girls' education and lives is not a good excuse. They need to come up with better ones.
The second thing is, when they say, OK, we're going to make it more safe or whatever, schools were safe. The only thing that was standing in between school safety and girls was you attacking the schools or other terrorist groups.
So we have to understand, when we talk about education, when we talk about girls, they should feel more safe now that the war is over, that the Taliban are in power and that there's no cross-party war going on.
So how are they justifying that right now?
I don't understand.
What sort of security?
What do girls need security now from?
BRUNHUBER: I'm wondering, how are girls reacting to all of this in Afghanistan?
DURRANI: I personally am in touch with my students.
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DURRANI: The reason that we don't see it as like, you know, something that we didn't saw it coming. We knew that this was going to come. They're going to find excuses. The fact that nobody wants to like -- you know, I don't want to put the word "ban," because it will enable them to make it -- you know, make it a ban.
So for us, it's like girls right now, they knew this is going to happen.
Now the reason is, who is going to stand up for those rights?
Who's going to make sure that girls go back to school?
Who's going to make sure they don't waste another six months or six years, like they did the last time they were in power?
That's how we want to react right now. We need solutions, we need a timeline, we need a deadline that by this date, girls can go back to school. You already wasted their three weeks and you're in the process of wasting their fourth week, which is one month.
And not every girl can grasp algebra and circles and properties of circles in just one month. Not everybody has that mental capacity. So they just need to go back to school. That's all I'm asking right now.
BRUNHUBER: You said, who's going to support these girls?
I read that some boys decided to stay home in solidarity with the girls.
How important will support from boys and men be in trying to fight for quality under the Taliban?
DURRANI: I appreciate that there is at least a campaign that says, I won't send my son if my daughter doesn't go school. But Taliban are OK with that. They're OK if you don't send your son to school. They don't care if your son is graduating high school or not.
We need to push for measures that work, which means we need to ask the international community, they are giving all that aid, you are supporting them in a sense.
Why don't you ask them to let the girls go back to school?
Why can't we ask them a simple question?
Why is there no consensus on letting girls go to school in a whole group?
It is a moderate group that wants to send them to school and then there is another group that's not OK with that, because that like loses the whole momentum.
So you have to understand, are we at war with girls from class 7 to class 12?
Is that the enemy that they want to pick right now?
Is that what they want to do right now?
And they're coming up with excuses for that?
BRUNHUBER: Widening this out a little bit, you know, in Kabul, it was quite a striking symbol, the building that housed the women's affairs ministry has now been converted to the ministry for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice, basically the ministry meant to help women now turned into one that will repress them.
Has that already started, besides what you're seeing in schools?
DURRANI: For me, I'm going to be honest. For me, things like work rights, educational rights are more important. And I see a lot of (INAUDIBLE) in that. I cannot confirm only for myself what they are going to do with the (INAUDIBLE) or what are they going to do without that.
For me, the workers, when they say our fighters will like, you know, will know how to behave with the women, then women can come back.
What is the timeline for that? And how does he know that this is the perfect solution, you know?
That women won't be harassed in the future?
How does he know that there is a transportation solution that is going to let the girls go to school perfectly and safely?
How did girls and women manage to go back to their work and schools the past two decades, even though the schools were attacked?
Those things are important. For me, the resumption of those things are important. Right now, ministries, whatever they are doing, that's a political crisis and we need to see how we move forward before we move forward with schools and workplace.
And then we can talk about the political ministries and all of that. For me right now, the 50 percent of my country is sitting at home, not learning. That's more important.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, you talk about moving forward. We don't have much time left but I did want to ask you this. You vowed to -- I'm going to quote you here.
"It doesn't matter if the Taliban are in power or not, girls will continue to learn."
How are you going to try to make that happen?
DURRANI: We already have come up with a solution. We are supposed to be sending in satellites that are going to cost very less. And every time you go to a connected device, you will land on a page, which is translated. And you can continue learning in microbytes and microlearning.
So we already have that solution in place. But it's time for Taliban to realize that learning is not a crime. And they need to move forward with accepting women as part of Afghanistan. It's not just their country. It's country for everyone.
We, of course, have solutions in place but it's high time for them to realize that they're not the only ones entitled to Afghanistan.
BRUNHUBER: Listen, what you're doing takes tremendous courage and we wish you the best of luck and to stay safe to you and all of your students. Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it.
DURRANI: Thank you for having me.
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BRUNHUBER: Still ahead, doctors in Mississippi are pleading with pregnant women to get the vaccine as COVID deaths rise among mothers- to-be. We'll hear from a doctor about why it's been so hard to get more pregnant women vaccinated. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: More Americans could soon be eligible for a COVID booster shot after a panel of FDA advisers voted to recommend the shots for older and high-risk Americans. They've stopped short of recommending a third dose for everyone else, though a final decision is still on the way.
Now it comes as parts of the country are seeing a surge in COVID hospitalizations, driven by unvaccinated Americans. Some hospitals in Idaho, Montana and Alaska are so overwhelmed, they've had to start rationing care.
We're also seeing a devastating new trend emerge, unvaccinated pregnant people dying in higher numbers than sometimes their unborn children as well.
The reality of just how dangerous COVID can be is unfolding right now in Mississippi. The state is coming off a peak that saw an average of 3,500 new cases per day. Even now, that number is hovering close to 2,000 a day.
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BRUNHUBER: And since late July, at least eight pregnant women in Mississippi have died from COVID. Officials say none of them were fully vaccinated. The state is also investigating dozens of stillbirths among women infected with the virus. Health officials describe the situation as a tragedy.
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DR. THOMAS DOBBS, MISSISSIPPI STATE HEALTH OFFICER: Throughout the course of the pandemic, we have lost 15 moms to COVID-19 during their pregnancy, very much a tragedy. But of that number, eight of them have been lost since the end of July.
And so, really important to consider the risk that pregnant women might have when it comes to COVID-19. We know it's -- it can be deadly for moms. And also, too, to make sure folks remember, that we have had late pregnancy loss after 20 weeks among 72 COVID-19 patients in the state of Mississippi.
That's far higher than the background rates for stillbirths that we've seen.
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BRUNHUBER: And consider these findings by the Journal of the American Medical Association Network.
It found that compared to pregnant women who don't have COVID, women who are infected are more likely to have a preterm birth, are five times more likely to need ICU care, 14 times more likely to need intubation and are far more likely to die in childbirth.
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BRUNHUBER: Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf is an obstetrician/gynecologist and professor of global health at the University of Washington.
Thank you so much for joining us. We're getting more and more tragic reports of pregnant women dying of COVID-19, women who, most, if not all, weren't vaccinated. Some really sad stories out there.
What have you been seeing?
DR. KRISTINA ADAMS WALDORF, OBSTETRICIAN/GYNECOLOGIST, PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: We've been seeing exactly the same thing, a lot of tragedy.
Pregnant women are filling up our intensive care units. Our hospitals are overloaded. We're seeing about a 22 times greater risk of dying for pregnant women that contract COVID-19, about a 60 percent higher risk of preterm birth.
And some of those babies do very poorly in the intensive care unit. This is a very sad situation that we have on our hands right now.
BRUNHUBER: And the cause of this. I mean, pregnant women have one of the lowest vaccination rates in the United States, according to the CDC. Only about a quarter of pregnant women, 18 to 49, have got at least one of the vaccine dose compared to the national average for that age group, which is about 61 percent.
Why is that, do you think?
WALDORF: I think that this is the most tragic piece of all of this, because these deaths, these pre-term births, are essentially preventable. But I can understand that most women want to feel like they have a normal pregnancy, they're not putting anything into their body and they think by doing this that they are actually protecting their fetus.
The safety data we have on these vaccines is remarkable. And we do not see any adverse effects. In fact, what we're seeing is that it is protecting the life of the mother, the health of her fetus and even of her entire family. The best way for a pregnant woman right now to protect herself and her baby is to become vaccinated, hands down.
BRUNHUBER: Part of the problem here might have been, the approval for vaccinated pregnant women, which came relatively late. I understand, clinical trials are usually held back for that group, because you don't want to risk a fetus.
But some bioethicists argue excluding them is the real danger, because then you get that lag that we saw with the COVID vaccine, where it wasn't approved for pregnant women and then the impression was unfortunately created that it wasn't safe. By the time it was approved for many, the damage was already done. WALDORF: I agree. This was a huge problem from the very beginning.
Pregnant women should never have been excluded from the vaccine trials. And this really has set up kind of a lot of misinformation that has, you know, created this problem.
I mean, right now, as obstetricians, we are getting a crash course on how to take care of pregnant women on ECMO, which is a heart-lung bypass machine. We have never had to do this before.
This is only because of COVID-19. And it just shows you just how severely ill many of these mothers are. And this is what is so heartbreaking, when you know that, if they were vaccinated, that this could have been prevented. This is the most important thing in our field right now.
BRUNHUBER: You brought up misinformation, so I wanted to touch on that, because there have been so many false claims on social media, saying that the vaccine will make women infertile or sterile, for example.
What role is misinformation playing here?
WALDORF: Oh, it's just incredible. It's -- it's really been one of the greatest foes for public health.
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WALDORF: The problem is when someone says, you know, vaccines cause infertility, they don't have any data to back it up. And a lot of people will just take them at their word.
When we have looked at studies and actually done rigorous scientific research, we don't see that vaccines are causing any problems in pregnancy, at all. In fact, they are the -- they are the one thing that's really protecting pregnant women and their babies.
When a pregnant woman dies, it rips the fabric of her family apart. You know, we're seeing fathers taking home their babies alone. This is so sad and also preventable. We really need pregnant women to get the message that this is not only the safest thing that they can do, it's also the most responsible thing that they can do for their families.
BRUNHUBER: I'll make this the last question then.
What advice do you give pregnant women about giving the vaccine, you know?
Obviously, get the vaccine.
But when?
Is timing important here?
WALDORF: I would do it absolutely immediately. We don't see any, any spike in miscarriage rates in the first trimester. Just like the influenza vaccine, we recommend it at any time in pregnancy, including the first trimester.
And I don't want pregnant women to wait, because it's during this waiting time that sometimes they become infected and tragic outcomes happen. Right now, we're seeing a spike in stillbirths after women have had COVID-19.
And this is what we're kind of focusing on right now, the impact of COVID-19 on the placenta. I need pregnant women to take this really seriously, to think about their responsibility to their family and to doing the very safest thing that they can for themselves and their baby and that is to become vaccinated.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, this is literally life-saving advice you're giving out there. Very valuable. Thank you so much for coming on and talking to us, Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf, really appreciate it.
WALDORF: Thank you so much.
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BRUNHUBER: Still to come on CNN, protesters at the U.S. Capitol rally in support of the pro-Trump rioters who ambushed the building on January 6th.
Plus, Russian voters go to the polls in legislative elections that look like they've been stage managed by the Kremlin. We'll have a live report from Moscow, coming up. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Trump supporters rallied outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington Saturday, in what police called a mostly peaceful event. The protest was organized by Matt Braynard, a former Trump campaign staffer in his organization.
Demonstrators Saturday say those arrested after the January 6th attack on the Capitol, which left five people dead, are political prisoners. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz reports.
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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER: A peaceful end to the rally. So much of D.C. concerned; police, Capitol Police, Washington, D.C., police were so concerned over the level of chatter and threat. The protest came to an end with no incident.
It lasted just over an hour. Some police officers still remain here. You can see here along the Capitol.
Some of them are now sitting, I don't know if you can see that in the distance. But for the most part, this went as well as police had expected. They said it would last just over an hour and that's exactly what happened.
The event organizer, the rally organizer, at the end, spoke to the crowd, told them it was time to leave, that they should thank the police for being here, told them to wave at the police officers as they left.
He was saying that one of the reasons why perhaps they didn't have a bigger turnout was because of all the police presence, people being afraid to come here because of so much attention on the security and the police.
The other thing that they were talking about was kind of blaming the media, perhaps, that the attention that we were giving to the fact that there could be potential violence here.
Also blaming that perhaps this was some kind of a false flag thing, that this was rumors out there that this was a setup for the police and the FBI to arrest those attending. In the end, not the biggest turnout, well under the 700 that this event was permitted for. Best- case scenario for police, which have been out here all morning and preparing for all of this.
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BRUNHUBER: Voting is underway in the final day of Russia's parliamentary elections. People are casting ballots for the state duma or lower house of parliament. Analysts expect most seats will go to the party that backs president Vladimir Putin. This after many potential viable candidates were prevented from running.
Meanwhile, Google and Apple face criticism for removing an app created by allies of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, making recommendations for candidates most likely to defeat the ruling party's candidate.
For the latest, let's bring in CNN's Matthew Chance, who's live in Moscow.
Matthew, already there have been plenty of accusations of voting violations and other problems. Explain why Russians may not really have a real choice here.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In terms of those allegations, there's been plenty of them across the 11 time zones in this vast country. And the things where people have been caught on closed-circuit television, for instance, apparently putting in multiple ballots into ballot boxes, ballot box stuffing, as it's referred to.
There's also been examples of people voting allegedly multiple times. And critics have said, look, the way the election has been set up this time in Russia, where 450 people are going to be chosen for the country's parliament, plus a bunch of other local politicians as well, means it's much more susceptible to those kinds of abuses.
For instance, the voting isn't taking place on one day as it usually is but on three days. So it makes it much more difficult to monitor. International election monitors from the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, have essentially been barred from monitoring as well.
And the fact that an electronic voting system has been put in place, which means that people can vote remotely from their computers because of the COVID pandemic, means, according to critics, there's plenty more opportunity for the vote to be rigged and the ballots to be falsified -- Kim.
BRUNHUBER: And as I mentioned earlier, Google and Apple removed an app created by allies of Alexei Navalny that sort of encouraged strategic voting. Take us through what led to this decision and what impact it might have.
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CHANCE: Yes, well, first of all, the vast majority of opposition candidates or would-be candidates in this country have essentially been barred from standing in the election. There's only a handful of people on the ballots across the entire country.
So what Alexei Navalny did along with his associates is put out an app, which gave people advice on what they called smart voting, which candidate to vote for, that had the most chance of sort of unseating the incumbent, you know, government candidate.
That app has now been removed by both Google and Apple. Somebody close to Google has told CNN, because they're not speaking about it officially, that there were legal threats made to Google if they didn't do that and that local employees inside Russia would face arrest if it had stayed online.
The company along with Apple as well both complied with that. But of course, it's made the process of ousting or unseating government candidates in this election that much more difficult.
BRUNHUBER: Indeed. All right, thank you so much, Matthew Chance. Really appreciate it.
Australia's prime minister is defending his decision to cancel an order for French-made diesel submarines and instead pursue nuclear- powered subs with the U.S. and U.K. On Sunday, Scott Morrison said he understands why Paris is upset but said the French subs no longer fit with Australia's long-term strategic goals. Here he is.
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SCOTT MORRISON, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: I think that they would have had every reason to know that we have deep and grave concerns that the capability being delivered by the attack class submarine was not going to meet our strategic interests.
And we had made very clear that we would be making a decision, based on our strategic national interest.
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BRUNHUBER: The French government is furious over losing the $65 billion contract and the language from Paris is the harshest yet. Here's France's foreign minister on Saturday.
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JEAN-YVES LE DRIAN, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): There has been lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt. This will not do. Things are not going well between us. They aren't going well at all. It means there is a crisis.
And at that point, first of all, there is a symbolic aspect. We are recalling our ambassadors, to try to understand. Too, at the same, time show or former partner countries that we are very dissatisfied, that there is, really, a serious crisis between us.
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BRUNHUBER: Healing the rift with France will likely be on the agenda this week when President Biden meets with the British prime minister.
Well, more help is coming in to deal with a wave of migrants overwhelming a town in Texas. But for some, the end game will be a flight out of the country. That story is ahead.
Plus, why China is accusing -- being accused of forcing a large number of Burmese migrants to leave the country and return to war-torn Myanmar. Our CNN exclusive report coming up next. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: U.S. immigration officials are changing strategy to deal with the migrant crisis in a town in Texas. Some 15,000 migrants are crammed under a bridge in Del Rio, just across from the border in Mexico. Some of them stay there for days while they're being waited to process by immigration officials.
But as Rosa Flores reports, more help is now on the way in and more deportation flights will go out.
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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Resources from the United States of America and also from the state of Texas are descending here in Del Rio, Texas, as officials try to expedite the processing of thousands of migrants, who are practically living under a bridge. Now the Department of Homeland Security, which is part of the federal
government of the United States, announcing their new strategy on Saturday, saying that it will include things like a surge of agents and officers to make sure that there are plenty of personnel on the ground.
They're expecting about 400 officers to arrive here in Del Rio, Texas. They're also upping the humanitarian action, closing the point of entry here in Del Rio and then also increasing the capacity of the removal and expulsion flights from the United States to Haiti.
Look, local officials here are very concerned about one thing and that is the public health issues, the potential public health issues that could arise, because there are so many people living in close quarters, practically living under a bridge.
Now I can't go beyond the fence, the border fence that you see behind me. We're not allowed to. So I can't take our cameras there.
What I can show you is this, what we can see beyond these gates. Take a look at this video. You'll see that there are federal Border Patrol agents, rendering medical attention to a woman in the back of a pickup truck.
Now I was close enough to hear what these agents were telling this woman. They were telling her, (Speaking Spanish), meaning "Stay with me, stay with me."
I asked a local mayor if the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency gave them any guidance, told them if there was a timeline that they were going to have for him, for when all of these migrants were going to be processed. And the mayor says no -- Rosa Flores, CNN, Del Rio, Texas.
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BRUNHUBER: China is accused of forcing a large number of Burmese migrants to leave the country as part of its plan to control the COVID outbreak.
Many of these migrants have worked in China for years and fear returning to Myanmar, which faces a worsening COVID crisis and a civil war. The Chinese foreign ministry denies it's forcing migrants away. CNN's Paula Hancocks has our exclusive report.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Heading home to Myanmar, these migrants carry all the belongings they can to the Chinese border city of Ruili. For many, it is not by choice.
They are being sent home due to China's fears of COVID-19. Chinese officials are seen speaking to the local community by loudspeaker. The message is clear.
"It's a city wide policy," he says to persuade the Burmese to go home because, of the pressing epidemic situation.
In other communities, the order is far more harsh. Here, early on, some Burmese migrants forced to leave in the middle of the night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They came to our place at night and asked us to sign the exit document, no matter we want to sign it or not.
[04:45:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They forced us to sign and sent us back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS (voice-over): She doesn't want to show her face because of fear of Chinese government retribution. She works in a Chinese furniture factory. She told CNN that all the Burmese in her village were forced to leave in early August. They were bused to the border gate and from there they were told to walk back to Myanmar.
She lays out all her Chinese permits that she says proves her legal status in China. Now back home in Myanmar, she's without a job or a hope.
Since the Myanmar military seized power in February this year, more than 1,000 people have been killed by the junta, according to an advocacy group. NGOs and the U.N. said the actual number is likely far higher.
For decades, Burmese migrants have been crossing over to China, seeking job opportunities in the border city of Ruili. They've been blamed for the city's several COVID outbreaks this year, putting pressure Chinese overall epidemic control.
This Burmese girl, Su Su, and her friends have packed up their bags.
"We are willing to go back to Myanmar," she tells CNN. "We've been out of jobs for 4-5 months because of the lockdowns. We don't even have the money to pay the electricity."
But many others do not want to leave. This Burmese man also showed CNN his full set of Chinese legal permits. He's been working for years in China as a truck driver. He had hoped to earn enough money so he could marry his girlfriend.
But he and other Burmese migrants were suddenly evicted from their rental home, the door sealed, forcing them to leave.
The Chinese foreign ministry denies deporting the Burmese migrants. In a faxed reply, it says some Burmese citizens have requested to remove to Myanmar due to job losses. And they are returning to Myanmar voluntarily. The statement contradicts the appeals we are hearing on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I want to request the Chinese government to postpone the plan. We want to stay longer here and don't want to be sent back home.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): It is unclear if any of the people we spoke to have tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile on the other side of the border, Chinese migrant workers are rushing back into China from Myanmar, fleeing war and COVID-19, they find themselves stuck in a long queue outside of the border gate, waiting to be processed.
This person worked as a freelance fighter, hired by a local government militia in northern Myanmar and he didn't want to wait any longer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The epidemic control measures were very poor there. The medical facility's standard was poor as well. If I get COVID, I don't think they would be able to save me.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): He says he walked for four days through the jungle before reaching the border and crossing illegally. In order to prevent the virus coming in this way, China has built a long barbed wire fence along its border with Myanmar.
But the fence is not stopping everyone. Some try to illegally cross back into China. Chinese state media reports that many are suspected of internet fraud and gambling operations in Myanmar. A migrant homecoming on both sides of this border, some less welcoming than others -- Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: A historic day in manned space travel as four intrepid adventurers returned to Earth after three days in orbit. We'll bring you the dramatic splashdown of this first-ever all-civilian space mission. Stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there they are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is such a great shot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How incredible. Lots of waves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:50:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inspiration4, on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home to planet Earth. Your mission has shown the world that space is for all of us and that everyday people can make extraordinary impacts in the world around them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Yes, OK. It was the thrill ride of a lifetime and so much more for four regular citizens, none with formal astronaut training. Saturday's splashdown marked a historic moment in spaceflight. CNN's Kristin Fisher is in Cape Canaveral.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: You could hear the sonic boom here at Port Canaveral as the Inspiration4 crew made its way through the atmosphere inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Florida, ending what had to be the adventure of their lifetimes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ignition. (INAUDIBLE).
FISHER (voice-over): Commander Jared Isaacman and the crew of SpaceX's Inspiration4 giving the world a glimpse into their historic three-day trip to space.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome, everybody, to Crew Dragon resilience.
FISHER (voice-over): Hayley Arceneaux, a physician's assistant back on Earth, explaining some of the scientific experiments the crew has been conducting as they orbit at an altitude even higher than the International Space Station.
HAYLEY ARCENEAUX, INSPIRATION4 MEDICAL OFFICER: It's been really interesting to see how fluid shifts with this microgravity environment.
FISHER (voice-over): Sian Proctor, a geology professor, poet and painter, showing off some of the art she has made while weightless.
SIAN PROCTOR, INSPIRATION4 PILOT: My art of the dragon capsule being carried by a dragon off of Earth.
FISHER (voice-over): And Chris Sembroski, an engineer and musician playing the ukulele.
It's a journey less than 600 humans have ever experienced. But the crew of Inspiration4 has a way of making it feel almost ordinary, as if anyone could do it and that's precisely the point.
JARED ISAACMAN, INSPIRATION4 FLIGHT COMMANDER: Few have come before and many are about to follow. The door is opening now. It's pretty incredible.
ARCENEAUX: We can see the entire perimeter of the Earth, which is so beautiful. [04:55:00]
FISHER (voice-over): Opening up space travel to the masses and making it more affordable, with the invention of reusable rockets. It's been Elon Musk's goal ever since he founded SpaceX nearly 20 years ago. And now, for the first time, NASA had little to do with a crewed launch from the Kennedy Space Center.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have a very big role here. This is SpaceX's show and we're really happy for them.
FISHER (voice-over): It's a milestone, years in the making, as the government's decades-long monopoly on sending humans into orbit ends.
Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4 payments, funded the entire trip and put up the first half of $200 million that he's hoping to raise for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.
ISAACMAN: We know how fortunate we are to being up here. We're giving all of our time right now to science research and some ukulele playing and trying to raise some good awareness for an important cause for us back on Earth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looks like a smooth ride for the crew.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: And we'll talk more about this historic event next hour with David Livingston, founder and host of "The Space Show."
But that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber and I'll be back in just a moment with more news. Please do stay with us.
