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Biden Urges Relentless Diplomacy Over Military Might; China Vows To Halt New Coal-Fired Power Projects Abroad; U.S. Working To Process Migrants, Accelerate Deportations. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired September 22, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:12]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause. Ahead here on CNN Newsroom, after shaking hands with the British Prime Minister who then met with the U.S. President, Brazil's Health Minister test positive for COVID. By so many fear, the U.N. General Assembly could be a super spreader event.
The unfixable problem, America's illegal immigration crisis once again in the spotlight, amid outrage over these images from the U.S.-Mexico border.
And inside Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and the notorious detention center built by the U.S. now under Taliban control.
Today's health experts have won the United Nations General Assembly just like any other mass gathering could potentially be a super spreader event only with dire consequences. Keep in mind more than 100 world leaders and high ranking government officials attended the first official day.
Among them Brazil's Health Minister, who is now in quarantine, after testing positive for COVID. Marcelo Queiroga is the second member of the Brazilian delegation to test positive. The first was with the advance team. It's been reported Queiroga was staying at the same hotel as U.S. President Joe Biden, who was also speaking at the U.N. Tuesday. Queiroga was in the audience for that. He tells our affiliate CNN Brazil, he's fully vaccinated and wore mask the entire time he was inside U.N. headquarters.
He was later seen wearing a mask and shaking hands with the British Prime Minister who was not wearing a mask, and he later met with the U.S. President at the White House. Queiroga was -- has not had a good trip to New York, he was already under fire for making obscene gestures to anti-Bolsonaro protesters on Monday night. A response which many say sums up the government's attitude when it comes to their utter failure in responding to the pandemic in Brazil, while his boss and other members of Brazil's delegation were forced to eat pizza on the sidewalk Sunday because of a ban in New York City on indoor dining for unvaccinated customers.
The U.S. President coincidentally will convene a virtual summit of world leaders in the coming hours to discuss the coronavirus pandemic. With Joe Biden his first address to the Annual General Assembly as U.S. President was a chance to call on world leaders to work together like never before, a new era of unity to confront urgent global problems, like climate change and the pandemic. But for traditional European allies, actions speak louder than words.
And after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the recent defense deal with the U.K. and Australia. It seems the message from the U.S. isn't so much America's back but America first. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've ended 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan. And as we close this period of relentless war, we're opening a new era of relentless diplomacy.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In his United Nations debut, President Biden committing to a new era of U.S. diplomacy and international cooperation to tackle everything from climate change to cybersecurity. As he look to turn the page on America's longest war, and some of the most tumultuous weeks of his presidency.
BIDEN: Today, many of our greatest concerns cannot be solved or even addressed through the force of arms. Bombs and bullets cannot defend against COVID-19 or its future variants.
DIAMOND (voice-over): But in the wake of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and a recent rift with France, Biden also looking to quell doubts about his commitment to restoring U.S. leadership and alliances.
BIDEN: As we look ahead, we will lead, we will lead on all the greatest challenges of our time from COVID to climate, peace and security, human dignity and human rights but we will not go alone.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Even as he vowed without naming them to vigorously compete with adversaries like China and Russia. Biden stressing he doesn't want a new Cold War.
BIDEN: We'll stand up for our allies and our friends and oppose attempts by stronger countries and dominate weaker ones. But we're not seeking, I'll say it again, we are not seeking a new Cold War, or a world divided into rigid blocks.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The President's speech coming against the backdrop of a new security partnership with Australia that will provide them with nuclear powered submarines. The effort to counter China's growing military footprint in the Indo-Pacific angering not only China but also France, which saw its own submarine deal with Australia implode.
BIDEN: The United States has no closer or more reliable ally than Australia. DIAMOND (voice-over): After sitting down with Australia's Prime Minister, Biden returning to the White House to meet with his British counterpart, also party to the U.S.-Australia pact, as for Biden's call with French President Emmanuel Macron still nowhere to be heard.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:05:11]
VAUSE: CNN's Jeremy Diamond reporting there. Well the climate crisis was the main focus day one, the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, during his address, he warned the world is on the edge of an abyss, facing a future on track for a hell escape of rising temperatures with warning signs on every continent. He also called for increased investment in renewable energy and end to burning coal and normal corporate subsidies for the oil and gas industries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: I'm here to sound the alarm, the world must wake up. We are on the edge of an abyss and moving in the wrong direction. Our world has never been more threatened or more divided. We face the greatest cascade of crisis in our lifetimes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And in a prerecorded speech, China's President Xi Jinping, announced an end to funding coal fired power projects abroad. But there was no word on the continued investment in the use of coal at home. Earlier this year, Beijing announced plans to build another 43 new coal fired power plants. Here's part of President Xi speech at the U.N.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
XI JINPING, CHINESE PRESIDENT (through translator): China will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. This requires tremendous hard work, and we will make every effort to meet these goals. China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low carbon energy and will not build new coal fired power projects abroad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Live down to Beijing is CNN's Steven Jiang. Steven, here's the thing about that promise to no longer finance those coal projects in other countries, it did not come with a lot of detail, nor it did come with a timeline of when it would be implemented. At the same time China continues to build coal plants at home. So when will we know if this is actually a serious commitment being made by Beijing?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Well, John, you're right, the devil is always in the details and details are lacking not only we don't know when this new policy will take effect. We also don't know for example, whether or not it's going to apply to private funding, as well as public funding, which potentially could be a loophole. But this is still encouraging news already welcomed by experts, as well as the U.N. Secretary-General and likely going to provide some momentum going into that all important COP26 Global Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.
It is a big deal because before this announcement, China was the only major funder of overseas coal projects left. And with this new policy, it could potentially shuttered dozens of planned coal projects in some 20 developing countries. So this is something a lot of people have been waiting for a long time. It is sending a strong message and signal to the global economy and the international community.
But as you touched on the major, the much bigger issue here is if and when China is going to stop building coal plants domestically, and start shutting down old ones, because last year alone, according to experts, China added as much new coal power as what it's just announced to potentially cancel overseas. So that's the scale of coal production and consumption we're talking about here in this country, which still heavily relies on fossil fuels to power its economy with coal actually accounting for almost 60 percent of its energy mix.
So this contradiction has long been, of course pointed out by experts and officials from other countries, including John Kerry, the U.S. climate envoy, who was here recently and telling me that it is counterintuitive and counterproductive for China to continue this building spree while insisting that it's going to stick to its very ambitious climate goals, which were announced by Xi last year, including a peak its carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.
So this is why I think Beijing is going to be under growing pressure not only from Washington, but also from other countries in the upcoming COP26 conference, but also even before that in the upcoming G20 in Italy next month, John.
VAUSE: Steven, thank you. Steven Jiang live for us in Beijing.
Jeffrey Sachs is the director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He's a senior adviser to the U.N. and author of "The Price of Civilization." He is with us this hour from New York City. Thank you for taking the time to be with us.
JEFFREY SACHS, DIR., CTR. FOR SUSTAINABLE DEV., COLUMBIA UNIV.: Pleasure to be with you. Thank you.
VAUSE: OK. Let's just start with some historical perspective here because that $100 billion a year plagues from wealthy nations for low income countries. It wasn't some sort of act of generosity laws. Yes, it was back in 2009 in Copenhagen when rich countries refused to directly compensate developing countries who'd been impacted by, you know, climate changing, causing carbon emissions.
And so this was basically kind of their way of getting out of any kind of direct responsibility, I guess. And even then, it seems they haven't kept this pledge which they made what, you know, 12 years ago.
[01:10:02] SACHS: It's actually extraordinary because $100 billion, well, it's a lot of money for you or for me, but it's not a lot of money for all of the world's rich countries combined, which have $50 trillion of annual output. And the fact is, Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state of the U.S. made that pledge in Copenhagen, as you said, it was to cover lots of reasons. It was very -- supposed to be practical, it should not be this hard. Then 12 years later, they're struggling for this very small amount. We're appropriating trillions of dollars for an annual, for response to COVID, or something else.
This is 100 billion from all of the rich world and they could not pull it off. It's just not serious, actually. It's a -- I mean, it's very serious that they couldn't, but it's not serious behavior on the part of the United States and other countries that this was so hard.
VAUSE: Well, one of the countries which has actually shortchanged this fund over the years is the United States. But if you are to believe the U.S. President and what he said at the United Nations on Tuesday, times might be changing. Listen to Joe Biden, here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: In April, I announced the United States will double our public international financing to help developing nations tackle the climate crisis. And today, I'm proud to announce that we'll work with the Congress to double that number again, including for adaptation efforts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know, the key words there seemed to be work with Congress. That never seems to end well.
SACHS: This is America's problem right now. We can't cooperate on anything. We have one political party, the Republican Party, which is so much in the hands of big oil and big coal that they vote against anything to do with climate. They're still literally in a state of trying to stop everything about this. The other party, you know, the Democrats, the President's party, they have -- most of them are there, but some of them represent coal states and so forth. And so it's very, very fragile. And that's why the President said, we'll work with Congress. Well, good luck. I mean rooting for it. But this is where things have gone so wrong for the United States. Congress has not voted a major piece of legislation on climate change in 25 years. So this is the grim reality.
VAUSE: What's another grim reality, it came to the U.N. Secretary- General, at the beginning of the UNGA about where the planet is heading in terms of climate. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTERRES: The world must wake up. We are on the edge of an abyss and moving in the wrong direction.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: You know, the U.S. has spent what almost $7 trillion responding to the pandemic, $100 billion to walk back from the Abyss seems like a bargain.
SACHS: And we spent $7 trillion on wasted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, just unbelievable waste. But then when it comes to saving the planet, oh, that's too expensive. We don't want to do that. It's incredibly short sighted. But this has been American reality for a long time. There's a lot of greed and a lot of corruption in our political system. A lot of money changes hands from the oil companies and the coal companies to congressmen and senators, and they vote the way their donors tell them to vote, even though the American people, roughly 70 percent now say this is serious. We want to go to renewable energy. We want to get away from fossil fuels. So the public is there, but the political system is really broken.
VAUSE: Well, that was Winston Churchill once said, you know, the United States will always do the right thing once every other option is well and truly exhausted.
SACHS: We're trying all of them. Thank you.
VAUSE: Thank you so much for being with us.
Still to come, well, Joe Biden tells the U.N., America is back. It seems many in Europe heard, American first. Plus, conditions at the U.S. border with Mexico are being described as inhumane and getting worse. How the Biden administration might be facing its own kids in cages moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:16:43]
VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. A rare powerful earthquake has rocked Australia's second largest city, damaging buildings and power lines in Melbourne almost 200 kilometers away from the epicenter, so far, no reports of serious injuries. The 5.9 magnitude quake is one of the strongest on record in Australia. Right now, there's no tsunami threat for the region.
The U.S. Border Patrol agent seen on video aggressively confronting migrants have been placed on administrative duties while the incident is investigated. Results are expected by the end of next week. All this happened on the U.S. southern border with Mexico with thousands of migrants are waiting in desperate conditions to apply for asylum. We have more details now from CNN's Rosa Flores.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): What was it like under the bridge Horrible, she says.
(voice-over): New video from under the Del Rio International Bridge showing the overcrowded conditions and thousand living in squalor. These images were taken by a Cuban couple who say they waited there for four days before being processed by U.S. immigration authorities and released at a nearby gas station.
Yuan De Arias (ph) breaks down saying it was his mother's dream for him to get to America. The American dreams of thousands of migrants still under the bridge, mostly Haitian say officials are expected to be cut short as U.S. immigration authorities increase the number of removal flights.
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: So we expect four flights to depart today. We are working very closely with Haiti and other countries to which the migrants are being repatriated.
FLORES (voice-over): This as DHS launches an investigation into this video showing Border Patrol agents on horseback using aggressive tactics against migrants.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Human beings should never be treated that way. And I'm deeply troubled about it.
FLORES (voice-over): Aliusca Romero (ph) says she crossed 14 countries and risked her own life to get here.
(on camera): Assaults, rapes, death.
(voice-over): She shows us cellphone video of the sharp cliff and the steep mountain she climbed in the thick jungles of Colombia.
(on camera): When you say that there's a lot of dead people, what do you mean? She says, you find people along the path who are dead.
(voice-over): De Arias (ph) says he counted 17 dead.
(on camera): He says that he saw dead women, dead children, that were already decomposing. He says the bodies were on the side of the river. Did you have to drink that water? He had to drink the water.
(voice-over): And inside this tent they say was a pregnant woman who was left behind. Romero (ph) says she started crying and De Arias (ph) says he left her his food. Despite the dangers, CNN has learned that up to 30,000 Haitians could be headed to the U.S. southern border.
GREG ABBOTT, TEXAS GOVERNOR: And that's exactly why we are here because we want anybody who's thinking about coming to Texas, whether it be from Colombia or any other country that Texas is going to be responding.
FLORES (voice-over): As for De Arias (ph) he was allowed to stay in the U.S. for now.
(on camera): He says that he lost his mother 15 days ago.
[01:20:00]
(voice-over): But his mom didn't live to see her son make it to America. He says she died unexpectedly in Cuba.
(on camera): As for the number of migrants who are still under the bridge waiting to get processed by U.S. immigration authorities, it's still in the thousands. At last check, the mayor of Del Rio says that there are more than 8,500 migrants still waiting.
Rosa Flores, CNN, Del Rio, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Theresa Cardinal Brown is managing director of immigration and cross border policy with the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington based think tank and she joins us now this hour from Washington, D.C. Theresa, thank you for being with us.
THERESA CARDINAL BROWN, IMMIGRATION & CROSS-BORDER POLICY DIR., BIPARTISAN POLICY CTR.: Glad to be here.
VAUSE: OK, so how did so many Haitians seeking asylum end up on the southern border of the Mexico border with the U.S., in particular around Texas, as opposed to maybe entering, you know, United States through Florida?
BROWN: Well, the thing to understand is that the majority of the Haitians that are arriving right now to the U.S.-Mexico border didn't come directly from Haiti. Many, if not most of them have been living and working in South America since they left Haiti oftentimes, after the 2010 earthquake, many of them had gotten jobs working in Brazil, for example, in Rio leading up to the Olympics there or the World Cup in Chile and other countries.
But as COVID has spread, as economic insecurity has spread, they have found it harder and harder to make a living there, and has started making their way north to the United States. And even though we're seeing large numbers arriving right now, this is a phenomenon we have seen increasing for many months, the countries south of us, Panama, Central America have seen the arrival of Haitians for many months now.
VAUSE: This has received a lot of attention in recent days because of the dramatic video of U.S. border agents on horseback, aggressively appearing to try and round up the migrants. I want you to listen to the Secretary of Homeland Security. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYORKAS: I was horrified by what I saw. I am going to let the investigation running scores. But the pictures that I observed troubled me profoundly that defies all of the values that we seek to instill in our people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The initial reporting, so the agents were using whips, it appears that they weren't and maybe the reins for the horses, but whips or no whips is any of this standard operating procedure on the border?
BROWN: Well, I think there's a couple of things. And I agree with Secretary Mayorkas there, what we saw was absolutely horrendous. And in modern day and age, we should not have seen that. The Border Patrol does have horse mounted agents. When I worked at DHS, I did border tours and I saw them operating usually patrolling remote stretches of the border. Rarely that I see them encountering actually migrants, much less trying to do what it seemed that these agents were doing and actually aggressively trying to corral migrants that way. That's not it.
So clearly, something has to be done here. The other thing I would say, though, is that the Border Patrol, whether they're on horseback or not, probably haven't been trained in how to manage hundreds and hundreds, in this case, thousands and thousands of migrants all at one time. And I think that's a significant problem, because increasingly, that is what they are having to deal with, families and children at the border, who are huddling and desperate and seeking asylum. And that is not really the historical role of the Border Patrol, which had been to arrest migrants who were trying to sneak in or drug smugglers or others bringing contraband.
And so I think we have an issue of a system that was designed for law enforcement purpose that is completely outmatched when we're talking about a humanitarian situation.
VAUSE: And whether you're talking about training for this kind of crisis, or whether it's just simply the infrastructure, which is on the border, both seem to be woefully inadequate, regardless of what the crisis might be.
BROWN: Yes, I mean, the thing to understand is that for most of the time that we have had security at the U.S.-Mexico border, which is only been half of our existence as a country, honestly, the primary function was to deter and turn back Mexicans, mainly single adults who were trying to sneak in and work for a little while, maybe because they could get a few more dollars.
It wasn't the kind of desperate fleeing or seeking of protection and asylum of vulnerable populations. And so the infrastructure that we built were essentially jail cells meant to hold people for very short periods of time before we can send them back to Mexico. So it's time really we have seen that this phenomenon of asylum seekers coming from not just Central America and South America, but now all over the world to the U.S.-Mexico border. We need to rethink what we're doing there. We need to have a different system involved because that kind of infrastructure and process is just not appropriate or adequate for the kind of migration that's happening right now.
[01:25:06]
VAUSE: Right now the Biden administration is using a pandemic regulation for legal grounds for mass deportations of Haitians. It's tied up in the courts at the moment. But the bigger picture here, it seems, it's kind of a hard sell, to go down that road. And then for the U.S. President turn up the United Nations and talk about respecting human rights and saying the future belongs to those who respect human dignity.
BROWN: Well, I mean, I would say that the Biden administration has had a series of difficult mixed messages when it comes to migration. I mean, they came into office saying they wanted a more humanitarian approach at the border. And yet, what we have seen is an increase in efforts to deter and deny people the ability to seek asylum at the border.
Migrants thought they heard a welcome message and yet then they sent Kamala Harris to Central America to say do not come. Stay where you are. So I think that's part of the issue here is that there's a lot of mixed messages, a set of policies that maybe they would like to put in place that they haven't been able to, and they're not able to keep up with what's happening at the border right now.
VAUSE: Yes. Theresa, thank you. Theresa Cardinal Brown there, we appreciate your time and your insights.
BROWN: You're welcome.
VAUSE: Still to come, a look at the U.S. military's abandoned hub in Afghanistan, inside Bagram Airbase and its prison now under the control of the Taliban.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Look at this. Take a look. Take a look. Prisoner's food, this bread is still hanging on the plate here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm John Vause. Well, at the U.N. General Assembly, the U.S. President spoke of global unity and cooperation, respect for human rights. In other words, the Trump era of America first is over. Problems he said should be solved by relentless diplomacy, not military might. Mr. Biden urged fellow world leaders to take on the climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic with innovation and cooperation. He made this thinly veiled reference to China.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: We are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocks. United States is ready to work with any nation and steps up and pursues peaceful resolution to share challenges, even if we have intense disagreements in other areas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, joining us is Max Boot is a senior fellow on the Council of Foreign Relations and columnist for The Washington Post. Max, welcome back, good to see you.
[01:30:03]
MAX BOOT, COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Good to be here. [01:29:56]
MAX BOOT, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Good to be here.
VAUSE: Ok. So I want you to listen to President Joe Biden on his visit to Europe back in June. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are committed. We have never fully left but we are reasserting, it's overwhelming the interest of the United States of America to have a great relationship with NATO and the European Union.
I have very different view than my predecessor. I am looking forward to talking to you all about what to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Oh, how times change. On Tuesday the European Council president Charles Michel told reporters "With the new Joe Biden administration, America is back. what does it mean America is back? Is America back in America or somewhere else? We don't know."
You know, Donald Trump had all the subtle of a (INAUDIBLE) you know, displaying contempt for all European allies and Joe Biden is certainly no Donald Trump, he is a new president, but that doesn't change what seems to be an old reality.
The threat from the Soviet Union is gone. And with it the loss of much of the value of European alliances. While the threat from China is rising and so that is shifting focus.
Is that something that the Europeans just seem to have trouble grasping at the moment?
BOOT: Well, there is no question that the U.S. And the European Union are going to have divergent views on the world. And in fact countries within the E.U. are going to have divergent views.
There is a tendency to focus on the extent to which Donald Trump was exacerbating the problems and the relationships and that was absolutely valid. Because he was making everything about 10 times worse.
But even with Donald Trump gone, that doesn't mean that everything is suddenly going to be perfect and we're all going to be singing Kumbaya together.
I think when Joe Biden went to Europe a few months ago to meet with European leaders and then with Vladimir Putin, that was still in the honeymoon phase of the Biden presidency. And everybody was just delighted that Joe Biden was not Donald Trump. And that was pretty much good enough and so they could embrace an American president who didn't stick a finger in their chest and go on about America first. But now, that we're a few months down the road, I think there is kind
of a post honeymoon phase which has begun where Europeans are realizing, wait a second, just because Joe Biden isn't Donald Trump doesn't mean that he is going to agree with us on everything. Or he's going to give us everything that we want.
And so I think that there is some disenchantment which has naturally set in.
VAUSE: Yes. It's not all happiness and complaining across the Atlantic. The British prime minister seems especially pleased with the U.S. President. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Then of course, there is the progress that we are making in defense technology partnership that you have lead with our Australian friends that I think has great potential.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It's not just that defense agreement, which is, you know, the reason for so much joy, there's a potential trade deal as well, right?
BOOT: Yes. There is no question of all the leaders in Europe, Boris Johnson may well be the one who is happiest with President Biden at the moment. Of course, Britain is no longer in the European Union, although it is still a physically located in Europe.
But you know, Biden has done Boris Johnson a good turn by including the U.K. in this U.S.-Australia nuclear submarine deal, which gives the U.K. a new role on the world stage, which is something that the Brits have desperately been seeking ever since Brexit.
And so there is, you know, it's sort of ironic, because Boris Johnson thought that he would get all of these benefits from being chummy with Donald Trump, his fellow right-wing populist. But in fact, Boris Johnson is getting more out of the Biden presidency, at least so far.
VAUSE: So very quickly, if this is how Europeans feel right now, after that defense deal, listen to this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THIERRY BRETON, E.U. COMMISSIONER FOR INTERNAL MARKET: The feeling in Europe is growing, for the population, that something is broken between our relation in Europe and the U.S.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: What will be your reaction to a trade deal which sees the United Kingdom join, you know, the U.S., Canada and Mexico in a trade deal?
BOOT: Well, if that were to happen, I think it is still a long way from being realized. But obviously there would be some real unhappiness on the continent because we don't seem to be making much progress on the U.S.-E.U. trade deal, so you know, if Britain managed to jump to the head of the queue, obviously there would be some jealousy and backbiting there. But, you know, I think we are a long way from achieving that.
[01:34:54]
BOOT: And there are real problems now with getting any kind of trade deal through, because Republicans have turned protectionist, and Democrats have also increasingly turned protectionist. So there is just not a huge constituency in Washington right now for free trade.
VAUSE: Ok. Max, thank you. Max Boot, senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations. Thanks for being with us.
BOOT: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: The Taliban are asking for representation at this week's General Assembly, a move which challenges the existing Afghan envoy who was an appointee of the former government. The U.N.'s credential committee will have to make the final decision.
CNN's Anna Coren following these developments from Hong Kong. I guess the question is, how influential could this decision by the U.N. ultimately be if they recognize the Taliban representative, do other countries follow suit in recognizing the Taliban government?
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well John, I think to be frank, I mean the Taliban has a lot of fronts (ph) in even asking this. I mean they want recognition from the United Nations. They want to appoint their ambassador to the U.N. And they also want their foreign minister, acting foreign minister, to speak at the U.N. General Assembly before it wraps up next week.
This is a government that is laying out its terms, what it wants, and yet making no compromises. So how is the international community, how is the United Nations going to play ball and just go along with this emboldened Taliban? You know, on the issue of women's rights, girls education, human rights. They are acting as the Taliban of old, of the 1990s. And that is causing great concern amongst Afghan women and amongst activists, amongst the international community.
And perhaps this is the only leverage, as well as aid, that the international community has in dealing with the Taliban. But let's have a listen to what Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson had to say as to why things are not moving ahead with women and girls. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZABIHULLAH MUJAHID, TALIBAN SPOKESPERSON (through translator): There are Sharia issues here, all the strategies will allow women to go to work and get educated so that women can fulfill their responsibilities and start their work. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Why aren't they working now? You know, that is the question. So many Afghan women who are now prisoners in their own homes. When the Taliban government came into power over a month ago they said that they would be an inclusive tolerant government that would consider women to be an integral part of society. That has not transpired as yet.
And we are hearing from Afghan activists, John, who are saying to the United Nations, do not fall for this game. Do not play their game, you know. They need to, you know, walk the walk, they can't just talk the talk. They have to walk the walk.
They have to deliver for women and for girls. And for human rights. They need to evolve.
Let me read to you something that the U.N. human rights chief had to say, Michelle Bachelet at the United Nations. She said there is real and palpable fear among Afghan women of a return to the Taliban's brutal and systemic repression of women and girls during the 1990s.
And you know, John, this is what we are seeing playing out, you know, on the ground in Afghanistan every single day. So real concerns.
Let's also have a listen to what an Afghan women had to say from Kabul yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Women want to have a profession and to work. But since the Taliban came in took Kabul they can't continue in their jobs. The Taliban have taken away their freedom to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: End of the day, John, you know, Taliban need to play ball if they're going to be recognized internationally.
VAUSE: If there's a message today, it's actions speak louder than words, I guess.
Anna thank you. Anna Coren live there in Hong Kong.
Well, for almost 20 years, the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan was the main hub of U.S. military operations. It was also home to a notorious detention center where some detainees were tortured to death, many others subjected to brutal treatment by the U.S. guards.
Two months ago with little fanfare and under the cover of darkness U.S. forces abandoned the base much to the surprise of their allies, the Afghan national government. Now, Bagram and all that was left behind by the U.S. military belongs to the Taliban.
Here's CNN's Nic Robertson reporting from Bagram.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice over): Behind Bagram's gates a wasteland. Military hardware abandoned.
(on camera): It's like driving through a ghost town here, completely deserted beyond Taliban vehicles and everything just the way that it was.
(voice over): But eerily really different, a mini city, hospitals, shops, cafes, restaurants, power plant.
(on camera): This was Route Disney, the main road through the base. The hangars at the side of the runway over here.
[01:39:52]
ROBERTSON (voice over): Where presidents and defense chiefs once landed, America's multibillion dollar Afghan hub is in the Taliban's hands. It's dark secrets are being revealed.
(on camera): Is it the handcuffs for the prisoners?
(voice over): Bagram's jail once feared by the Taliban that the U.S. handed to Afghan security forces in 2014, sprawling and trashed.
(on camera): Prisoner's identification, cover his face. But this is an ID photograph I'm looking at of a prisoner here just lying on the ground.
(voice over): The Taliban's victory freed the prisoners, not all of them were Taliban. They want us to see the harsh conditions.
(on camera): Even they're confused about how to find their way around this place. They really don't know it. We're going in.
(voice over): The way the prisoners got out.
(on camera): These are the cages inside here. These are the cages. Huge cages that have just been left as they are, look at this. Take a look. Take a look. Prisoners' food, this bread is still hanging on the plate here.
This looks like the place for putting shackles on, handcuffs. Food here. How many prisoners in here? How many?
(voice over): Thousands, he tells me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The prisoners escaped. And they left everything behind and didn't (INAUDIBLE) the --
ROBERTSON, (on camera): So this is everyone's shoes, hanging here? Blankets? Towels, books? The Quran? Phone numbers scribbled on the wall.
You really get an idea of just how many people were crammed in these cells, one mattress, another one, another one. It looks like at least 30 in each of these.
Wire -- look. Conditions in here were so tight the prisoners are hanging their possessions, there's not much in this bag, hanging them from these little ropes from the wire cage.
This was it, this piece of mattress, that was their personal space.
(voice over): Some prisoners were locked up here for years. And like Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, infamous for torture.
(on camera): So we pass one cage, 2, 3, number 4, 5, 6, 7 cages I can see here.
(voice over): What we don't realize until later is that this cavernous cell block just one of many.
(on camera): And when you look at all this now, how do you feel about the situation for the people that were held here?
(voice over): It was harsh, he says. They were beaten, there was torture. The U.S. Department of Defense said it investigated all credible allegations of abuse by its soldiers, some were convicted.
(on camera): So here are the rules. No throwing or assaulting guards, no fighting, no escaping, no damaging the cells, no disobedience. You will not touch my guards. No spitting in my house. Those are the rules.
(voice over): We're not the only ones getting a look. The Taliban are bringing their friends in, wandering on the top of the cages too.
(on camera): What do you think, sir.
(voice over): It should be destroyed, he says. So brutal people can't use it again.
(on camera): This is a staircase to the platform above the cells. When you get up here you get a sense of the sheer scale of this detention facility, how many people must have been in here. Just huge.
This is where they say the guards patrol so that they could look down to the different cells.
They sprayed it on the prisoners.
(voice over): The Taliban commander says the guards use water to break up flights or keep the prisoners awake at night.
(on camera): What I find a little surprising is that everyone here has come to look. Some of the guards here are familiar with this. But none of them seem angry, angry at us at least. And that's something I would have expected. Do you want revenge for this?
(voice over): We forced the Americans out, he says. That's revenge.
The other Talib says, but it doesn't mean we will forget them. (on camera): Can you shine the light on these so I can just have a
look in here.
(voice over): Room after room, documents scattered.
(on camera): And over here, a board with all of the prisoners numbers on.
(voice over): The remnants of an occupation in overdrive -- years and years of jailing Afghans.
(on camera): Look at this, this must have been the control room. Look at all the LCD monitors around the wall here.
(voice over): Around the corner, the psychiatric ward.
(on camera): It's a medical center. But it's still got cages inside, smaller cages.
Yes. Oh, ok. So he's showing us here the isolation cellar. If you put your camera up right next to here, John, with the torch shining in -- there. Isolations cell.
(voice over): The writing on the wall tells us two prisoners crammed in here.
[01:44:59]
ROBERTSON (on camera): And then there is this net which I can't figure out what it's is. Unless it's for putting on somebody to restrain them, just lying on the floor.
(voice over): What is clear here, individual trauma, collective anger, and from what we've been told, an unpaid score to settle with America.
Nic Robertson, CNN -- Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: With that we'll take a short break here on CNN. We'll be back in a moment. I
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: A third suspect has been publicly named in the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in n the U.K. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is demanding the Kremlin hand over all three alleged attackers.
Police say Dennis Sergeev is a Russian agent tied to the attempted assassination of Sergey and Yulia Skripal in 2018. Police have also confirmed the names for two other suspects, Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin.
Their alleged victims, the Skripals, were poisoned by an internationally banned chemical weapon. Both survived but this woman did not.
Dawn Sturgess died after handling a toxic substance which she thought was perfume. Her partner was also poisoned but recovered.
The Skripals weren't the first nor were they the last target of a poison attack allegedly carried out on the orders of the Kremlin. The European Court of Human Rights has just issued a ruling in the 2006 killing of Alexander Litvinenko and like earlier findings by the British, this court says Russia is responsible.
CNN's Matthew Chance has more on the Putin's critics assassination reporting in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alexander Litvinenko was a former Russian intelligence official turned Kremlin critic. He was living in London when in 2006 he was poisoned with a rare radioactive substance called Polonium 210 (ph) that British investigators at the time said the prime suspects were two former Russian colleagues that he met for a cup of tea in a hotel lobby.
A later British inquiry into the incident found that the Russian Security Services were responsible so it's no surprise that the European Court of Human Rights has reached the same conclusion.
Of course, the Kremlin categorically denies any connection with the killing calling the allegation of state involvement politically motivated.
At the time the incident soured relations between London and Moscow leading to diplomatic expulsions and a freezing of intelligence cooperation. But it's unclear what consequences there may be if any of the latest ruling.
What it does do however is remind us of how the agonizing death of Alexander Litvinenko was, perhaps an early sign of the kind of brutal state the critics say Russia has become under Vladimir Putin since the Litvinenko killing.
[01:49:57]
CHANCE: A prominent Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down outside the Kremlin. In 2018, another former Russian intelligence officer along with his daughter who defected to Britain was poisoned With Novichok, a powerful nerve agent.
And just last year Russia's leading anti corruption campaigner and Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny fell seriously ill on a plane with suspected Novichok poisoning and nearly died.
It all underlines the lengths that have been gone to, to silence the Kremlin critics.
Matthew Chance, CNN -- Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come, it has been almost two weeks since Denmark lifted the last pandemic restriction. And now for so many business owners, there's relief now as well as challenges ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: A pandemic success story in Denmark lifting the last COVID rule earlier this month with nearly three-quarters of the population fully vaccinated.
It's much welcome relief for so many small business owners. And last year, CNN's Richard Quest spoke with a Danish hair salon owner who was left struggling when Copenhagen shut down.
Richard recently spoke with her again to find out what's changed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The urge to actually just say do your wildest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, do you dare?
QUEST: No. Not too tight, don't strangle me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. Do you want your legs up and a back massage. Yes.
QUEST: When we spoke in May of last year, the salon -- you've been closed for a month and it was a week after you just opened.
SIDSEL RIISBERG, HAIRDRESSER, ZENZ SALON: Yes.
QUEST: You were very enthusiastic.
RIISBERG: Yes.
I was super happy.
It was nerve-racking to be in a lockdown for a month for us. And for some people's longer. So when finally coming back here (INAUDIBLE) and even though there's some little bit hassle to get everyone rebooked and figuring out how do we make time for everyone. It was a pure joy to welcome clients again.
Back then everything was so nervous, you know, we couldn't believe that Denmark would close down (INAUDIBLE). It was -- surprising that everything like got very serious.
QUEST: So then you go through May, June, July, August -- and you go through the year and things get worse in December. And you have to close again.
RIISBERG: Yes. So we suddenly have to close again. We're very worried about this. But in the beginning we think ok, it's just a month. It is just until new year. Maybe it is, maybe we can open again.
And everyone is kind of like this is just 2020. Next year everything's going to be better. We were living in (INAUDIBLE) infection. And then it's next year and we're still closed. And we're still closed all the way until April. So it's a very long period of time.
QUEST: How difficult was it to stay in business for the four months? Even with the government help?
[01:54:47]
RIISBERG: It was tough. And I think especially for smaller salons and Zenz is quite a healthy company, but for smaller salons I think it's -- it has been almost impossible. I think a lot of salons have had to close down or change the way they do things.
QUEST: So you have reopened now. What is your situation now?
RIISBERG: Now we are a little bit more relaxed. The face mask has gone off. Everyone still needs a corona passport but everyone's gotten one already and got new (INAUDIBLE). So, it is way more relaxed and we are almost back to normal.
QUEST: How many customers do you think you lost or gained?
RIISBERG: Oh I don't know how many we lost. I don't think we lost any really. I think everyone really started to value us a little bit more. It became very popular supporting your local hair dresser and showing, you know, showing everyone that showed up.
I feel like our company has really dealt with this in the best possible way. I do a lot of our social media and I've really been happy that we have the time and we have --
QUEST: You told people to come and get your color. You did tutorials, how to cut your own hair. And people responded.
RIISBERG: Yes there was a great response and yes especially for the color they could take home instead of going to some drug store and get a (INAUDIBLE) and then we have to fix it after. Trust me we do have a lot to fix after five months of lock down in the first place.
So for someone to come in with green hair, they dyed themselves or whatever, I mean that's just tough.
Yes, it's good, isn't it?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN's Richard Quest getting a free haircut in Copenhagen.
Well, two sisters in Japan have been certified as the world's oldest ever identical twins. They're almost 108 years old, that's according to the Guinness World Records, born in November 1913, a few months before the start of World War I. The sisters live in separate care homes and their families say they are both sociable, positive and they joke about the record they have set.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. I'll be back with another hour of news right after a short break.
[01:57:11]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Hello. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
