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FBI: Remains Found Consistent with Description of Gabby Petito; U.S. Flying Migrants Back to Haiti After Surge at Border; Nearly 12,000 Migrants Still Under Del Rio Bridge; Afghan Women Protesting Taliban Restrictions; Unsanitary Conditions at Camp for Displaced in Afghanistan; U.S. Nearing 2,000 Deaths a Day for First Time Since March; FDA Panel Backs Boosters for Ages 65+, High-Risk Patients. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired September 20, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, I'm Rosemary Church. Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES JONES, FBI SUPERVISORY SENIOR RESIDENT AGENT: As every parent can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for the family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: A tragic end to the search for Gabby Petito. The FBI says the body found near a camp site in a national park matches her description.

Plus, the crisis at the U.S. border. A desperate scene as thousands of migrants camp under a bridge in the heat. What the U.S. government is doing to resolve the crisis.

And an uncertain future for those who remain in Afghanistan. We will take you inside the crowded and unsanitary camps for the displaced.

Thanks for joining us. Well, the family of Gabby Petito is asking for privacy as they grieve the loss of their daughter. On Sunday FBI investigators said the human remains they found Wyoming are consistent with the description of the 22-year-old Petito. She was reported missing more than a week ago after she didn't return from across country road trip with her fiancee Brian Laundrie. Authorities want to speak with him but don't know where he is. They've been scouring a vast nature reserve in Florida looking for him. CNN's Leyla Santiago is on the scene with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Northport police say that they will continue to work with the FBI in order to find more answers when it comes to the disappearance of Gabby Petito as well as the disappearance of Brian Laundrie. Now they have been searching here in this wildlife preserve where we are right now. 25,000 acres, by the way, a very lush terrain, all day long after the Laundrie family reached out to police on Friday saying the last time they had seen him was on Tuesday. The search continues to finding Brian Laundrie.

Now as far as Gabby Petito, FBI held a press conference with some very tragic news. Take a listen.

JONES: Earlier today human remains were discovered consistent with the description of Gabriel, Gabby Petito. Full forensic identification has not been completed to confirm 100 percent that we found Gabby but her family has been notified of this discovery. The cause of death has not been determined at this time.

SANTIAGO: Still lots of questions remain and there are still a lot of investigators as well as a community here that is hoping that if investigators can find Brian Laundrie, that perhaps they can get more information to what led up to the disappearance and death of Gabby Petito.

Leyla Santiago, CNN, Northport, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The Laundrie family expressed their condolences on Sunday saying through a family attorney the news about Gabby Petito is heartbreaking. The Laundrie family prays for Gabby and her family.

A migrant crisis is unfolding at the U.S./Mexico border. This is the scene at a migrant camp under the Del Rio International Bridge where nearly 12,000 migrants are waiting to be processed by U.S. immigration authorities. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has already conducted three repatriation flights from Del Rio, Texas to Port-au- Prince with more than 300 Haitians on board. But that's not deterring more migrants from arriving at the border. Now the head of U.S. Homeland Security plans to travel to the area to assess the situation.

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ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We moved over 3,000 people in the last day and a half. We intend to move 3,000 people today. And of course, we are increasing the frequency and size of the repatriation flights. We have sent a very clear message early on in light of the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic, that the border is not open and people should not take the perilous journey here. We are returning people to other countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

And CNN's Rosa Flores takes a look at the desperate living conditions at the migrant camp.

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[04:05:00] ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've never seen anything like this in the United States. Take a look. This is a migrant camp in Del Rio, Texas underneath the international bridge. Now days ago, there were a few tents out here. There was a small tent city. Now you can see that it has grown significantly. People have used what looks like tree branches, bamboo, blankets, plastics to create small huts so that they can protect themselves from the heat.

Now we are seeing state and federal resources arrive to make sure that these individuals can be processed in U.S. immigration facilities, but we don't have a time line. The federal government doesn't know exactly when they will be able to clear this camp out.

Now if you look closely, you'll see that these are men, women, children. I see pregnant women, infants in the heat underneath a bridge living here. You can see that they're drying their clothes, hanging them from wherever they can. Now the federal government said that they've brought in towels, toiletries and that I'm looking at them and that they're trying to up the humanitarian action, the humanitarian aid.

What I'm looking at, it doesn't look like much of that has arrived because these are huts. Take a look at this. They're huts that have plastic and blankets covering over them. Now the silver lining here is that the mayor of Del Rio who has been calling on the federal government to step in says that now there are the resources to take care of this humanitarian crisis. He says that both state and federal resources are arriving. We know that hundreds of agents are being sent here to Del Rio to make sure that these individuals are processed. Again, these are the gates of America. This is the immigration waiting room right now in Del Rio, Texas.

Rosa Flores, CNN, Del Rio, Texas.

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CHURCH: And earlier I asked the CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem what the Biden administration needs to be doing about this humanitarian crisis. Here's your response.

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JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think for Democrats there's particularly a no win. Because a huge part of the party is, you know, is pushing the Biden administration to allow more immigrants in, to allow them to have some sort of status just given why they're coming from Haiti certainly in response to the earthquake there in the last couple of weeks.

But the moderate wing of the Democratic party let alone the Republicans are very much into border enforcement. And so, the Biden administration is sort of trying to thread a very, very narrow needle. At the same time, these numbers just increase. What they can do, of course, is to make sure that they stabilize the detention status of these -- you know, this tragedy that's happening in Texas. Make sure that we have the resources to be able to protect people from COVID and then push hard in Mexico and further south to stop the mass migration that we're seeing. Otherwise, it won't go away because we'll just serve as a magnet. The more people that have been allowed in, and we've just seen historically, the more the U.S. serves as a magnet for others who might be considering it.

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CHURCH: Juliette Kayyem talking to me earlier.

An investigation is underway after a U.S. Navy training jet crashed in a neighborhood in Texas. It happened Sunday in Lake Worth just outside of Dallas. The instructor and student on board were able to eject safely. Debris from the crash fell into the yards of at least three homes but there were no serious injuries on the ground. Authorities say the instructor is in stable condition. The student's condition is unknown but the Navy says he is alive and receiving treatment at a medical facility.

Afghan women are defiant despite growing signs the Taliban government is sidelining them. A group of activists protested outside what used to be the women's ministry on Sunday. The Taliban closed that ministry and replaced it with their ministry for promotion of virtue and prevention of vice. The protests came after concerns were raised about girls being allowed to attend secondary school.

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TARANUM SAYEEDI, WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST (through translator): You cannot suppress the voice of Afghan women by keeping girls at home and restricting them, as well as by not allowing them to go school. You cannot suppress the voice of Afghanistan's women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:10:00]

CHURCH: The Taliban have claimed they will not rule as they did during the '90s but they have done little to calm fears that women will be denied basic freedoms and be shut out of jobs and schools. On Sunday Afghanistan's Ministry of Education ordered male employees to report today with no mention of female workers. And Kabul's mayor said women will only be allowed to work in city government jobs that cannot be done by men.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMDULLAH NOMANI, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN ACTING MAYOR (through translator): Initially we allowed all of them to be present at their duties on time but then the Islamic emirate decided it was necessary that for some time their work must stop. Then we only allowed those females whom we needed for jobs. I mean for jobs which males can't do or which is not a man's job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The future is uncertain for all Afghans under Taliban rule. In camps for the displaced around Kabul conditions are crowded and unsanitary and in the rest of the capital the economic crisis is clear. Nic Robertson reports now from Kabul.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): On Kabul's fringes, families displaced by fighting, abandoned by their new Taliban Islamic emirate government.

ROBERTSON: Literally just getting out of the car, coming into the camp people are surrounding us. They want to know how we can help them and this is how bad the camp is. Human feces along the walk here. This is awful conditions.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The Taliban have won the war but their problems running the country are piling up.

ROBERTSON: It's the smell that hits you first. People literally forced to go to the toilet right next to their tents where they're cooking.

How many people in this camp here?

ROBERTSON (voice-over): 500 families he tells me. No sign here of any aid. No water, no food, no shelter, no toilets.

ROBERTSON: And anyone coming from the Islamic emirate offices to talk to them and asked them what they need?

ROBERTSON (voice-over): His answer needs no translation.

ROBERTSON: You're on your own?

ROBERTSON (voice-over): He shows me the long lists of the displaced. As he speaks, a man in a vest with his stick in his hand interrupts. It's clear we have to go.

ROBERTSON: We were told that we didn't have permission to film there. That's why we're leaving. In literally as we're leaving, we've been handed all of these numbers. People thrusting phone numbers into us. They're literally banging on the car now desperate for us to be able to help them in some way. And they think giving us their phone numbers is going to help.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Across town in the book market there is calm. Too much of it. Books, books, books but no one to buy them. No one is spending money, he says. They don't know what's coming. The only books that are selling well are religious ones. Of 300 stores here, only 20 remain open. Another market, this secondhand goods trader says everyone is selling off to flee the country.

So far, the Taliban is limiting cash withdrawals to $200 a week but that seems to be the only economic policy so far. During Friday prayers the call from the mosques, America is being blamed for Afghanistan's dire situation.

ROBERTSON: The reality, the economy is hurting. The International Monetary Fund that warns of a looming humanitarian crisis. The Taliban won the war but can they run the country? Right now, they could use international help.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The foreign reserves of Afghanistan are almost exclusively in banks here in the United States including the Federal Reserve. Other banks, about $9 billion. All of that has been frozen.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Early signs the pressure is taking its toll. The Taliban this week struggling to quell reports of a rift in their ranks triggered when the deputy Prime Minister, the main negotiator with the U.S., unexpectedly missing for several days. This week the Taliban's most powerful military commander, Sirajuddin Haqqani told the U.N. frozen money must be released. He has a $10 million FBI bounty on his head for ties to terrorism and al Qaeda.

ROBERTSON: The Taliban have got what they want, control of Afghanistan, but running the country and winning the peace, that's their biggest challenge yet.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And CNN's Anna Coren has reported extensively from Afghanistan including on a recent trip there. She joins me now from Hong Kong with the latest on the Taliban takeover. Good to see you, Anna.

[04:15:00]

Let's talk specifically about those brave women taking to the streets and pushing back against the Taliban's efforts to prevent them from working and attending school. What more are you learning about that?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's such courageous women, Rosemary. In doing it with the Taliban looking on. Like it was only a small protest of about a dozen women, but we've just got off the phone from one of those women who was there. And she says that this protest was designed to tell the international community, the United States, what is happening on the ground. She says that because the Ministry of Women's Affairs, who she worked for, and most of those women worked for has now been disbanded. They don't have a salary. They do not have a job. She said, I need to feed my children. I need the United States, the international community to tell the Taliban that they need to provide women with jobs.

And yes, we are hearing from the Taliban that whilst they're ordering women to stay at home, they can still receive salary, but, you know, we're getting I guess differing reports as to whether that is actually happening. We heard from the acting mayor of Kabul who said that women must stay home. That it's going to be men who will do those jobs unless it's a job that a man can't do like cleaning the women's toilets. I mean, that's how degrading it is now.

And then of course we're hearing about secondary school. Boys can go, girls can't. And they're saying that it's transportation issues, security of transportation for the reason why women -- young girls, I should say, can't go to secondary school.

Yet when the Taliban came to power over a month ago, Rosemary, we were hearing about this inclusive tolerant Taliban that wanted women to be an integral part of society, wanted girls to go to school, wanted women to work. That is clearly not the case on the ground. One human rights activist, Rosemary, told me that Afghanistan has become an open-air prison for women and girls.

CHURCH: Anna Coren, thank you so much for staying on top of this story and we will continue to do so. Appreciate it.

Well, investigators in Russia say at least eight people have been killed in a shooting at the Perm State University. It's not clear how many people were wounded. Investigators say the shooter was wounded by police before being arrested. He is described as a male student. It's not immediately clear if he's enrolled at that university. Perm is located more than 700 miles or about 1,100 kilometers east of Moscow. We'll continue to follow details on this story and bring them to you.

Well, still to come, FDA advisers give the green light for Pfizer booster shots but their plan doesn't include as many Americans as the Biden administration had hoped. How the White House is responding.

Plus, no matter who gets a booster, experts say it's the unvaccinated who are prolonging the pandemic here in the United States and the added stress is taking a greater toll on health care workers. We'll take a look at that.

[04:20:00]

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CHURCH: This was the scene in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday when hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters clashed with police. Ten officers were injured and more than 230 people were arrested. Frustrations are rising after weeks of tough COVID restrictions and lockdowns across the state of Victoria and its capital Melbourne. Victoria reported more than 560 new COVID cases Monday. Its largest daily rise this year.

Well, 18 months into the pandemic and the rate of new COVID deaths in the U.S. just keeps ticking up again. Data from Johns Hopkins University shows the country is once again approaching 2,000 COVID deaths a day. That is the highest seven-day average we've seen in more than six months. The country's overall death toll from the virus is now approaching 675,000. The high point set during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

And so many people have died in the state of Alabama officials say the population actually shrank last year. The state's top health officer says it's the first time in more than a century that annual deaths have outpaced births. Dr. Anthony Fauci says it's still possible for the U.S. to avoid reaching 1 million COVID deaths if more Americans get vaccinated. Around 70 million people who are eligible for the shot are still not vaccinated. Well, there's also new confusion over COVID booster shots. The Biden

administration had wanted to make them available for all eligible Americans as soon as Monday, but on Friday an FDA advisory committee made a more limited recommendation. CNN's Arlette Saenz has more.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The Biden administration is signaling it will follow the guidance and recommendations of the FDA and CDC when it rolls out COVID-19 booster shots. This week advisers to the FDA said that that plan needs to be more limited in scope. After the Biden administration has initially said they will plan on rolling out booster shots for all Americans by the week of September 20th.

The advisers to the FDA met on Friday and said that initially boosters should only be going out to those in higher risk categories, including individuals 65 and above. Dr. Anthony Fauci says he believes later on that decision may be revised. Take a listen.

[04:25:00]

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We fully anticipate that within a period of a couple to three weeks that there will be enough information on the data that will be presented to the FDA by J&J and by Moderna that we'll be able to proceed and get those data analyzed to be able to move with a booster in those categories. We don't believe it's going to be a considerable period of time.

SAENZ: Now these advisers were saying more scientific evidence was needed before they would authorize and recommend these boosters for the general population. Much of their focus right now is also on trying to get those first two shots to those unvaccinated Americans across the country.

This all comes as the COVID-19 pandemic remains a top priority for President Biden both domestically and abroad. On Wednesday, the president will be hosting and holding a virtual COVID-19 global summit where part of the discussion will include donating vaccines across the world.

The president wants to get a handle on this pandemic, both here, at home in the United States and helping those foreign countries around the world. Arlette Saenz, CNN, traveling with the president in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And as some Americans await those booster shots, others still have not gotten their first. And experts say it's those unvaccinated people who are driving a surge in COVID hospitalizations so severe some hospitals have had to start rationing care. The situation is also taking a big toll on the mental health of many health care workers. And earlier I spoke with the executive director for Piedmont Healthcare COVID Task Force, Dr. Jayne Morgan about what she's experiencing.

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DR. JAYNE MORGAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PIEDMONT HEALTHCARE COVID TASK FORCE: During this fourth surge and this is our first search that has been entirely preventable. We have had not only vaccines available but vaccines readily available and plentiful. So, this has certainly been a bit more of a psychological strain. I think, you know, people are beginning to talk about, you know, compassion fatigue syndrome and what do we see in physicians, nurses, others who are on the front line.

And certainly, it can be discomforting, discouraging to admit these patients, treat these patients, manage these patients, many of whom will be quite sick and then you leave the hospital and you see people right outside the hospital on sidewalks, at stores, without masks, without social distancing and literally you've been putting your life on the line for the entire day.

So, I think we're beginning to write about this compassion fatigue syndrome in this fourth surge a year and a half into this pandemic. And what does that really mean on the psyche and the mental and emotional state of people who are there risking their lives to make sure that they can save yours?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Dr. Morgan there talking to me earlier.

Well, Russians went to the polls for Parliamentary elections this weekend. Results are not in but some say they know what the outcome will be. We'll explain in a live report from Moscow.

We'll go live to Paris where fallout continues over the submarine deal between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia that left France out in the cold.

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