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U.S. FDA Recommends J&J Booster; U.K. Police Designate Fatal Stabbing Of MP A Terrorist Incident; U.S. To Open Borders To Vaccinated Travelers; COVID-19 Is Now Top Killer Of Police; Biden's Stalled Agenda; U.S. In Talks About Compensation For Botched Drone Strike; Global Oil Prices Spike; Chinese Astronauts Dock With Nation's Orbiting Station. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired October 16, 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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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A warm welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Paula Newton.
Police in the U.K. are calling the killing of a lawmaker an act of terrorism.
In the United States, a Capitol Police officer faces charges in connection with the insurrection.
And protests over one of the strictest vaccine mandates anywhere in the world and why some say it is a form of discrimination.
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NEWTON: We begin in the U.K., where police are calling the fatal stabbing of a member of Parliament an act of terrorism. The suspect has links to extreme Islamism. It's the second member of Parliament to be murdered in five years. Police quickly arrested a 25-year-old man believed to be a British national of Somali heritage. CNN's Phil Black has the latest.
But we begin with Nada Bashir in Leigh-on-Sea.
The police say this was a terrorist incident. The murder so gruesome, this must be so much for the community to take in.
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, the outpouring of shock and grief has been great. We've seen people coming to leave flowers and expressing sadness at the loss experienced.
They are waking up to this terrible news that this incident is being treated as a terrorist incident, being taken over by the counterterrorism policing unit and they have said the early evidence is that this attack could be linked to Islamic extremism.
They don't suspect any other individuals were involved. They are not looking for any other suspect. They have arrested the 25-year-old British national and are appealing for any evidence that the public can provide, including CCTV footage and dashcam footage.
You can see the nation's media is all here. This is an incident that has captured the country's around the table and created shock waves and people are distressed by this. A few meters behind us is the church where Sir David was stabbed. It is a shock that, in this small seaside town, something like this could happen.
NEWTON: Gruesome to think he was brutally stabbed and even though first responders were there quickly, they were not able to save him.
Phil, I want to point something out, after Jo Cox's murder, she was murdered in 2016, something was supposed to be done.
Her husband tweeted, "My thoughts and love are with David's family," but also saying how the pain has come back and remembering how much the public gave us after the loss of Jo and I hope we can do the same here.
He also tweeted that this is an attack on democracy itself.
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's the concern we are hearing from the statements, not just tributes to him and grief but what does this mean for British democracy.
In talking about Jo Cox in 2016, you mentioned Amess was not the first to be killed this way.
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BLACK: In 2010, another MP was killed in a meeting with voters in a similar circumstance although he survived. There is a concern about how things can continue.
It is not just these violent events, the discourse, the mood where harassment is very much a part of an MP's daily life. It is in great tension with a core part of their job, which is meeting the people that they represent, intimately, one on one, spending time and listening to them.
So a key dynamic and core pillar of how parliamentary democracy works in this country. Even before the death of David Amess, there were concerns that prioritizing accessibility over security is perhaps out of date and unsafe.
So we are hearing promises to address this and it does seem that a tipping point has been reached. In the event that changes happen, they will ultimately be viewed as diminishing British democracy.
NEWTON: You are right to point out about everything going on online. We've heard about abuse and threats they get on a consistent basis. Phil Black and Nada Bashir, thank you.
The murder of Jo Cox we were talking about, shocked the U.K. days before the Brexit referendum. And it drove for calls for more protection around lawmakers. Here is what a colleague of Sir David and Cox said on Friday.
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TOM TUGENDHAT, BRITISH CONSERVATIVE MP: Well, I do know people who stood down in the 2017 election, because of threats against them, more than they were prepared to take, quite rightly, quite understandably.
And I know of others who decided not to stand. And, frankly, that's why this matters so much. The murder of Jo Cox or David Amess is not just an attack against them, a horrific attack against them; it's not just against their family or their friends.
It's a fundamental attack on the British people and the right of communities across our country to choose who they wish to represent them.
What we have seen in recent years is the ability to communicate rage, to communicate visceral anger, more easily than it has been for years. Before, you had to pick up a pen, write a letter, find an envelope, find a stamp. You know, it just took you a while to do it. And so many people didn't get around to it and people calmed down before they fed it into a wider context.
Now we all know that we can do it much more quickly, on social media or however you choose to do it. So finding ways in which we remember that our words have actions and it doesn't matter how important or how unimportant we think we are, the reality is that we are part of the zeitgeist that shapes the (INAUDIBLE) era.
And it's very much up to us as individuals, wherever you live, whoever you are, to conduct yourself as you would like as you would like your democracy and your country to operate. And we can all poison the well or we can all save it.
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NEWTON: All right, for some perspective on this, I want to bring in Peter Neumann. He is a professor of security studies at King's College London. Good to see you again, I wish was under different circumstances.
What's your take away from the fact that police very quickly determined this was a terrorism investigation?
What evidence do you believe they've already uncovered?
PETER NEUMANN, INTL. CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF RADICALISATION AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE: I think the reason they did that was because they discovered the name of the suspects in a prior investigation.
They probably came across him or he was reported into the sort of Prevent scheme, the preventing radicalization program of the British government. He must have come up somewhere. And what they are doing now is probably they are going through all of
his possessions, especially through his laptop, his mobile phone, to see who else he is connected to, to make sure that this was really an act on its own rather than part of a campaign.
Whether he received instructions from other people, whether there were other people involved in preparing this act of terror or something else, that's what they are busy with right now.
NEWTON: It does seem that so far they don't believe they're searching for another suspect. The history of the U.K.'s battle against extremism runs deep, right?
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NEWTON: And police, while they might be heartened by the fact that he acted alone, you've been covering this for the better part of 15 years, you mention that prevent strategy. That's the U.K.'s counterterrorism strategy. You yourself have spoken that, even that strategy, as comprehensive as it can be, can only go so far.
What elements do you think have still been so difficult to grasp for the U.K. and law enforcement?
NEUMANN: Well, we've seen over the past 15 years, when we had 2005, the terrorist attacks in London, 7/7, that was a coordinated attack. They were talking about groups that were organizing it in a hierarchical fashion. That isn't so easy anymore. That doesn't happen anymore in U.K.
What we're seen now are lone attackers, that are part of a sort of jihadist or extremist milieus; they are hovering around, there's plenty of them.
But it's often not quite sure to what extent they are connected, to what extent they are actually ready to do it. And for the police to have several thousand people like that, it's impossible to monitor them all the time.
So you always have the risk of one of them basically doing something on their own in a place like Essex, where you have not necessarily a lot of police on the ground. It's a very different sort of structure and dynamic than 15 or 20 years ago.
NEWTON: Yes, absolutely, the threat of the posture keeps changing. Peter, you've given your expert opinion here in the United States about what should be done about these lone actors.
But extremism in general, the story has resonated beyond the borders of the U.K. So many local, federal, national politicians, thinking of their own security because they see the extremism every day in their social media feeds.
What can you tell people to try and quell this amplification?
NEUMANN: Well, it's really hard and, you're right, this is been reported all over Western Europe and Northern America, social media has really led to a polarization of the discourse between people and politicians, which is really at the heart of democracy.
If you can't have politicians speak in a normal way to people anymore, then you are really striking at what's democracy is all about. And social media has certainly not made it easy. Politicians have had to leave politics because of the discourse on social media.
I think the only chance is to protect politicians better on the ground. And this is really sad because you want them to interact as freely as possible with their constituents. To put policeman there or to make people register before they're going to an event is all impeding that.
So it's a really sad thing about democracy but, unfortunately, it seems to be necessary.
NEWTON: It is the new reality as we continue to deal with, as it changes every day. Peter, so good to have your perspective on this, we appreciate it.
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NEWTON: We want to go back now to Leigh-on-Sea. We see Boris Johnson there. Members of the community are so shocked by this crime. The details are so gruesome. This was a man, an MP in his office, taking open office hours. And he was brutally stabbed several times.
Despite the fact that first responders arrived, they were unable to save him. You see Boris Johnson there, called the MP, Sir David Amess, one of the nicest, kindest people he had known.
He was in politics nearly 40 years, a member of Boris Johnson's Conservative Party. Boris Johnson really reflecting a lot of the shock over what happened and now the sobering reality of this death and murder and the investigation to follow.
We remind you, as you see there, the officers paying respect with flowers, those investigators now saying this was an incident of terror, which widens the scope of investigation. We still believe police are searching two addresses in London. We'll continue to stay up on the story and see if Boris Johnson has more to say after this visit.
We return to the United States, where the U.S. House is embroiled over legal deportation over subpoenas.
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NEWTON: But now an indictment has been laid against one of their own. CNN's Ryan Nobles has details.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A Capitol police officer is being charged with obstruction of justice, accused of warning someone who participated in the riots on January 6 to pull down their pictures of the insurrection from social media.
Michael A. Riley, a 25-year veteran of the force, is accused of spending private Facebook messages to Jacob Hiles, with posted pictures from that day and wrote, "Feeling cute, might start a revolution later," after tagging himself on Capitol Hill.
Riley told him he was a Capitol police officer who, quote, "agrees with your political stance."
In one message Riley allegedly wrote, quote, "Take down the part about being in the building. They are currently investigating and everyone who is in the building is going to be charged."
Chief Tom Manger responding quickly to the arrest, placing Riley on administrative leave. Obstruction of justice is a very serious allegation. The department was notified about this investigation several weeks ago. Upon his arrest the officer was placed on administrative leave pending the completion of the case.
The arrest comes as new video emerges from that day that shows Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone being pulled from inside the Capitol out into the mob by a rioter.
At one point, another rioter puts what prosecutors say is a Taser on the back of his neck. Fanone suffered from a heart attack that day and is still dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Meanwhile, the investigation into the attacks is heating up on Capitol Hill.
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): Steve Bannon shouldn't hide behind executive privilege when he wasn't even in the government just because former President Trump says it.
NOBLES: Select Committee Chair Bennie Thompson said his team will use every resource at their disposal to hold the people behind the insurrection responsible. The committee meets Tuesday to formally refer criminal contempt charges against Bannon who says he is following Trump's directive not to testify.
Next Thursday is the deadline for documents to be submitted by two Stop the Steal rally organizers. Then on Thursday and Friday, the committee has scheduled depositions of three different people who planned and executed the event. Thompson making it clear, no one, including the former president, is above the reach of their investigation.
THOMPSON: I would say this at this point nobody is off limits to a subpoena from this committee.
NOBLES: And the committee is hoping their aggressive stance with Bannon will send a message to other potential witnesses that they are not messing around.
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): We have the power, basically equivalent to the court, to get to these answers and we are dang determined to do that.
NOBLES: As for that Capitol Police officer charged with obstruction of justice, his attorney sending CNN a statement, saying that he plans to fight the charges.
And he's also getting support from his police union, the chair of that union putting out a statement saying there shouldn't be a rush to judgment against Riley and that he is innocent until proven guilty -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, on Capitol Hill.
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NEWTON: Joe Biden says those who refused subpoenas should be prosecuted.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I hope that the committee goes after them and holds accountable.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Should they be prosecuted by the Justice Department?
BIDEN: I do, yes.
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NEWTON: To be clear, those comments are the strongest from the White House.
Still ahead, the U.S. CDC says masks and vaccines are a must this holiday season and many are dying from COVID and many still refuse to get vaccinated. That's still ahead.
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NEWTON: So for the millions of people in the United States that got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a booster dose might soon be available. For those people unvaccinated, those numbers don't lie. CNN's Nick Watt has the latest news from Los Angeles.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do have 19 out of 19 unanimous yes votes.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): FDA advisers just agreed with Johnson & Johnson, a second dose of their vaccine is a good idea.
DR. PENNY HEATON, GLOBAL THERAPEUTIC AREA HEAD OF VACCINES, JANSSEN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: It will increase efficacy against severe disease. It will increase efficacy against all symptomatic COVID. And it will increase the breadth of the immune response against variants.
WATT: And they say adults should get that second shot at least two months after the first. Now Johnson & Johnson says their vaccine's protection against severe disease and death remains robust.
But the V.A. study found that back in March, vaccine protection against all infections was high across all the vaccines. By August, there was erosion. And look at Johnson & Johnson, fell from 88 percent to just 3 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this frankly was always a two-dose vaccine. I think it's better as a two-dose vaccine.
WATT: More than 9 million Americans have already had a booster. Great. But this isn't. More people are getting a booster every day than getting their first shot. And unvaccinated adults are 19 times more likely to be hospitalized and 11 times more likely to die.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I urge everyone who's eligible for vaccines to get them.
WATT: In Chicago, starting tonight, cops must submit to testing or prove they're vaccinated. Their union says half haven't had the shots.
JOHN CATANZARA, PRESIDENT, CHICAGO FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE: But even the ones that are still, like myself, believe that a forced mandate is absolutely wrong.
MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D-IL), CHICAGO: What we've seen from the Fraternal Order of Police and particularly the leadership is a lot of misinformation, a lot of half truths and flat-out lies in order to induce an insurrection. And we're not having that.
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WATT: Finally, good news for the U.S. tourist trade. November 8th, fully vaccinated foreigners can enter this country. This policy is guided by public health, says the White House, stringent and consistent.
On the news you probably didn't want to hear but the CDC and the U.S. just updated its guidelines for the upcoming holiday season. Outdoor gatherings still best. If you're inside, still wear a mask or, top of their list, just get vaccinated -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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NEWTON: We heard about the police in Chicago. Chicago isn't alone. It is a problem across the United States. A new report says COVID has killed more police officers in the last two years than anything else. CNN's Ryan Young reports.
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KAREN WEISKOPF, HUSBAND DIED DUE TO COVID-19 COMPLICATIONS: This was horrible. This did not have to happen. RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Weiskopf was a beloved officer with the police force for 18 years.
WEISKOPF: He was so strong. He was so healthy.
YOUNG: His wife says she pleaded with him to get the vaccine but he remained skeptical.
WEISKOPF: I felt like Mike -- did not get vaccinated because he didn't have all the facts. There was a lot of information just kind of moving around. Moving parts, you know?
And when that happens, you can see rumors, miscommunication, information. Science leaves -- leaves the picture. It just becomes chatter. It attacked his lungs. It made them look like baby Swiss cheese.
YOUNG: Over a thousand miles away in Massachusetts, Jessica Desfosses also lost her husband Stephen in January, about a month after he contracted COVID-19 on the job with the Norton police department. She says Stephen wanted to be the first in line to get the vaccine but never had the chance.
JESSICA DESFOSSES, HUSBAND DIED DUE TO COVID-19 COMPLICATIONS: It's just absolutely sad as you would imagine, raising two small girls without their dad. And if he had had the choice to give himself that extra -- extra protection so he could continue to serve the public and still come home to his family, he absolutely would have done it.
YOUNG: Jessica shared the final heartbreaking text messages the couple exchanged on Facebook hoping to plead with police officers to get the shots.
DESFOSSES: If you are serious about your commitment to protect the public and if you are serious about your personal commitments to your family, then that should be enough.
YOUNG: COVID-19 is the number one killer of American law enforcement officers over the last two years. Taking over 470 lives, according to Officer Down memorial page. Since the start of the pandemic, more than four times as many officers have died from COVID 1 as from gunfire, that memorial page says this despite being among the first groups to have access to the vaccine.
CHIEF DAN YANCEY, OWASSO, OKLAHOMA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Obviously, get vaccinated. It's an individual ride and I firmly still believe in that. But I would certainly encourage people to do that.
YOUNG: Across the U.S., some officers remain hesitant to get vaccinated. In Miami, officers are resisting a potential vaccine mandate.
In San Francisco, at least 120 officers will be off the street after failing to comply with the city's order that high-risk employees be vaccinated. The San Francisco Police Association said the national police union is encouraging vaccinations but is not in favor of a mandate.
JOHN CATANZARA, PRESIDENT, CHICAGO FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE: We are going to keep fighting this mandate and this dictatorship. You would think that there's no crime in this city to worry about. You would think that there's no murder, no robberies, no guns being fired.
YOUNG: Up to half of Chicago's police officers could be placed on unpaid leave after this weekend if they didn't disclose their vaccine status. The police union is telling officers to ignore the deadline and Mayor Lori Lightfoot is accusing the union president of trying to induce an insurrection.
As Karen Weiskopf watches the battles raging across the country, she hopes her husband's death is a lesson to his fellow officers.
Do you think mike dying helped other officers in this department get the vaccine?
WEISKOPF: Absolutely. To this day, I still -- I get -- I get letters.
I get calls. I'll get copies of people's vaccination cards in the mailbox that I don't know.
YOUNG: When you hear Karen talk about the idea that other officers and their families have been sending in their vaccination card, you can understand the amount of impact this has had.
The two cars behind me actually belong to some of the unit that was a part of Mike's unit as well. This really hit his department hard.
But at the same time, she doesn't want to see mandates forced on officers across the country. She believes that people need to start talking and be more direct with some of the information to encourage officers to take the vaccine.
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YOUNG: But moving forward, less of the talk about mandates forcing them to make decisions -- Ryan Young, CNN, St. Petersburg, Florida.
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NEWTON: To New Zealand now. It is holding a super Saturday event to get people vaccinated against the coronavirus. The goal is to vaccinate one in 12 residents eligible for the shot in a single day.
Kiwis, like the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, are taking part in the vaxathon to help build support. Right now just over 53 percent of New Zealand's population is fully vaccinated.
In Italy, the COVID-19 vaccine green pass is now mandatory for all workers. And some Italians think a government mandate like this has no place in health care. Barbie Nadeau has the latest from Rome.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Italy has become the first Western democracy to mandate a government-issued health pass on COVID. Starting Friday, everyone who pulls a paycheck in the public and private sector have to pull a green pass to prove they're fully vaccinated or have a recent negative COVID test to go to work.
If they show up without it, they can be fined up to 1,500 euro. Employers who don't demand it face fines of 1,000 euro.
Most Italians are compliant. More than 80 percent of the population is vaccinated but not everyone is happy with the government playing such a role in health care. Some have taken to the streets to protest the mandate, violently smashing a labor union office last weekend and gathering here in Rome's Circus Maximus to make their voices heard -- Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.
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NEWTON: Just ahead for us, while the U.S. President is optimistic about his expansive spending package, he is also suggesting some programs may have to be dropped if it is to be passed.
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NEWTON: Joe Biden is acknowledging he's not going to get everything he wanted in his $3 trillion spending plan. While visiting Connecticut, Mr. Biden emphasized the importance of investing in child care.
But he suggested free community college might have to be cut from the plan. The president's Build Back Better agenda has hit a brick wall, as moderate Democrats disagree with progressives. More now from CNN's Phil Mattingly.
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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden hitting the road and the playground to unlock his stalled agenda.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Too many folks in Washington still don't realize it isn't enough just to invest in our physical infrastructure. We also have to invest in our people.
MATTINGLY: Seeking to rally support for the child care component of his dual-pronged and currently frozen multitrillion-dollar package.
BIDEN: Both bills are not about Left versus Right. They're not about, you know, moderate versus progressive.
MATTINGLY: Facing criticism for not selling that agenda, Biden using public remarks in Connecticut to press the urgency of the moment.
BIDEN: These views are about competitiveness versus complacency.
MATTINGLY: While privately, top advisers have made clear they've grown impatient with the pace of the talks. As two key moderate Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, remain on the fence.
SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): My number has been 1.5.
MATTINGLY: Either senator committing to a top line price tag which they've sought to keep at roughly $2 trillion. Sinema privately insisting on a vote on the bipartisan $1.2 trillion Senate-passed infrastructure proposal first, a nonstarter for House progressives.
Manchin's sources say he has laid out a series across the package from the scale of the paid leave and free community college proposals to an expansion of Medicare and the coal state Democrat opposed to many of the proposed climate measures.
Biden has spoken to both this week, according to officials and talks remain ongoing. As the calendar ticks toward the end of the year, two critical dates are consuming Democrats.
The October 31st expiration of surface transportation funding, an unofficial deadline of sorts and the November 2nd Virginia governors race where pressure is mounting to pass the infrastructure proposal.
SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): I hope the House will get that to President Biden's desk ASAP. It will really help here.
MATTINGLY: Democrats concerned inaction could have electoral consequences.
KAINE: We will get both done. I'm confident. Obviously, the sooner we can get one and then the other done better for people and the better for this race in Virginia.
MATTINGLY: While the president was pitching his proposals in public, behind the scenes for the last several days, White House officials have been engaged in intensive negotiations with key outstanding lawmakers, I'm told, going to a granular level into each plank of the proposals, basically trying to close out the proposals.
It's not something necessarily they had a timeline at this moment. But one thing that's made clear by officials over the last few days is time is not unlimited and it's time for decisions to be made -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.
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NEWTON: An ISIS affiliate says it is behind Friday's mass murder at an Afghan mosque in Kandahar. A warning some of what you are going to see is disturbing and graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON (voice-over): ISIS-K says the carnage you see here is its doing, two suicide bombers killed 32 people at the city's largest Shia mosque. This is the second week in a row that ISIS has claimed responsibility for a bombing during Friday prayers. The U.N. secretary general is calling for action, saying the perpetrators must be brought to justice.
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NEWTON: One of the final acts of the U.S. military in Afghanistan was a botched drone attack that killed 10 people. Most of the victims were children. Now the United States says it is in talks with one of the employer of one of those killed. Oren Liebermann has more from the Pentagon.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The Defense Department held its first virtual meeting about possibility compensation payments with the employer of Zamarai Ahmadi, one of 10 Afghan civilians killed in the drone strike on August 29th.
Initially the Defense Department defended the strike, calling it a righteous strike. But about three weeks after that, the commander of CENTCOM came out and said it was a tragic mistake.
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LIEBERMANN: The U.S. and Pentagon believed they were taking out an imminent threat from ISIS-K. They then came to admit it was not a threat of ISIS-K, that they had targeted in fact 10 civilians, including seven children killed in that strike.
This conversation took place on Thursday. The founder of NEI, where the man worked, talked to the undersecretary of defense for policy. Dr. Kahl noted that strike was a tragic mistake and the man and others who were killed were innocent victims.
In terms of where this goes from here, this was a preliminary step in what could be a long process. No other U.S. troops speak directly to the family but also the desire of the family to relocate to the United States is not purely a Defense Department question but also a State Department question. And that's already a difficult process but a process moving forward now -- Oren Liebermann, CNN, in the Pentagon.
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NEWTON: Stay with us. We'll be right back with more news.
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NEWTON: Go to any gas station here in the U.S. and you will hear a common complaint, the prices are just too high. Motorists are suffering through this, facing a degree of sticker shock at a time of the year when gas prices typically cool off a bit.
U.S. crude finished at over $82 per barrel on Friday, a seven-year high. Prices are up 30 percent and according to the motoring association AAA, the national average gas price in the U.S. climbed to $3.30 on Friday, up more than a dollar this time last year.
Drivers in the United States, misery likes company apparently.
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NEWTON: Many people around the world are feeling the pinch. It's not only the cars but natural gas prices, home heating soaring as well. Mike Fulwood is a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
I appreciate you joining us. I'm getting you to weigh in on the great debate.
Are these price spikes temporary?
Some are saying the prices have peaked.
Do you think something more structural is going on here?
MIKE FULWOOD, OXFORD INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY STUDIES: I think temporary is probably where I would think we are. Demand has been rising. The cold weather we had last winter, some in the U.S., has led to the spike in prices.
The demand in China, the natural gas prices have been very high. We also have around the world a number of supply constraints. So that has been seven or eight different countries and that's taken a lot of the supply off the market.
NEWTON: You hear from analysts again and again that we do have enough resources.
FULWOOD: In Europe, gas production is down quite a bit compared to last year or a couple of years ago. And exports from Russia have not recovered back to 2019 levels. The Russians have their own problems in terms of cold weather and Russian production is at record levels.
They've been accused of holding supply but I don't think that is the case. And they are short of supply for their own market. In the next few months, we are at the mercy of the weather.
Last winter was cold, particularly for northern Europe and Asia. If we get a cold winter like last winter or worse and then prices could spike again.
On the other hand with a mildish winter like a couple of years before, then we could see prices come off quite a bit. I think the market is waiting a little bit to see what the situation is like. NEWTON: Again, we are at the mercy of the weather here. It has been
interesting to see how much repercussions from Europe and Russia are fueling increased prices all over the world. Appreciate your insights on this.
FULWOOD: Thank you.
NEWTON: Ahead for us, Chinese astronauts are orbiting the Earth again. We'll have news on the crew and their program's ambitious goals straight ahead.
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NEWTON: Three Chinese astronauts have docked their capsule with the nation's space station after launching from the Gobi Desert a few hours before. They're on a six-month mission to help build the uncompleted orbiter. As CNN's David Culver tells us, it's part of the Chinese aggressive space race with the United States.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ninety-year-old "Star Trek" actor William Shatner blasted into space, becoming the oldest man to reach such heights amid great fanfare in the U.S.
WILLIAM SHATNER, ACTOR AND ASTRONAUT: Oh, wow.
CULVER: Thousands of miles away, here in the Gobi Desert, China's latest space mission may not set any records but it does show a major step forward in this country's fast-growing and increasingly ambitious space plan.
CULVER (voice-over): CNN gaining rare access to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China. Shenzhou-13 carrying three Chinese astronauts to the soon to be completed space station, called Tiangong or Heavenly Palace.
China has touted their space station as next generation, an alternative to the International Space Station. But the 15-country ISS has already been occupied for more than 20 years. The U.S. passed a law barring China from participating, leading some experts to question --
PROF. DAVID BURBACH, U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE: If we brought China in to work with us on ISS, would China have felt as compelled to develop their own fully independent program as quickly?
CULVER (voice-over): It's Hollywood coming to reality. Sandra Bullock spared during "Gravity," saved by a Chinese space station on her way back to Earth. Wang Yaping told us in 2015 it's her favorite film. She's one of three
Chinese astronauts on this mission. The mission also including a newcomer to space travel, Ye Guangfu, who took part in cave training with astronauts from five countries in 2016.
YE GUANGFU, CHINESE ASTRONAUT (through translator): I hope one day I can fly with other international astronauts in space and welcome them to visit China's space station.
CULVER (voice-over): But Western astronauts will need to study up first. These operation interfaces are in Chinese and Chinese state media reports European astronauts are already taking language courses so they can visit the Chinese space station.
Despite a late start in the space race, China is rapidly catching up. It has returned samples from the moon and, like the U.S., put a rover on Mars, all within the last year.
It's also got big plans for commercial ventures and for deep space exploration, including to build a base on the moon with Russia and send humans to Mars in the 2030s.
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CULVER (voice-over): From launching billionaires to cosmic explorations, the U.S. is still leading.
With plenty of headline-grabbing launches and a long history of success, putting 12 men on the moon. But the more pressing challenge: prioritizing the multibillions in funding needed for the U.S. to hold onto that lead.
Some experts believe the added competition from China might fuel more innovation.
BURBACH: If you're somebody who wants to see humans land on Mars and more scientific probes throughout the solar system, geopolitical competition is probably not the worst thing in the world.
CULVER (voice-over): While Captain Kirk is helping capture U.S. imaginations to propel the U.S. forward in its tightening space race, China's three astronauts now embarking on a six-month mission, the country's longest yet, to secure their footing out of this world -- David Culver, CNN, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China.
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NEWTON: Partygoers are on their feet dancing their hearts out in Amsterdam. You hear it there. Clubs and bars are reopening after the government lifted COVID restrictions. One enormous event, Amsterdam's dance music festival, is underway through Sunday.
The party has been scaled back, with COVID precautions, including onsite testing. But still, business owners are thrilled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAN-WILLEM VAN DE VEN, DIRECTOR, ADE MUSIC FESTIVAL: We have been closed for 20 months, so it's good to see how resilient this business is. And how many people are eager to dance and feel connected through music.
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NEWTON: Finally, some relief there for many people.
I'm Paula Newton. Thank you for joining us. I'll be back in a few minutes with more on CNN.
