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India Will Give Compensation to Next of Kin of COVID Victims; Australia Permits Fully Vaccinated People to Travel; Novak Djokovic's Refuse to Admit if He Has Taken the Jabs; North Korea Tests Two Ballistic Missiles; No to Paying Ransom; Italy to Get Rid of Fascism. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired October 20, 2021 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead on CNN Newsroom, India's government is set to compensate families of COVID-19 victims but experts say the process may result in many who never get that aid. We're live in Delhi.

North Kora confirms they have successfully test fired a ballistic missile that threat pose by the new technology.

And TikTok maybe to blame for causing tics in teens. What an expert tells me about the apps impact on young girls.

UNKNOWN: Live from CNN center, this is CNN Newsroom with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: And we begin in India where concerns are being raised about a government program to compensate families of coronavirus victims. It plans to pay about $670 to the closest relative of every COVID victim in the country after thousands of lives were lost during the devastating second wave.

Base on India's current death toll, that works out to more than $300 million in total. But the paperwork required to get the compensation could result in many families losing out on that money.

And CNN's Vedika Sud joins me now live from New Delhi to talk more about this. Good to see you, Vedika.

So, what exactly do families need to do to receive this compensation for those who lost a loved one to COVID-19?

VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER: Good to be with you, Rosemary. Well, it is a welcome move for many, it is a step in the right direction is what experts see, but there are a lot of hassles really on the way to get that compensation for families, especially those who haven't made it, you know, their family members who died of COVID-19, haven't made it to the official list of those who have died of COVID-19 in the recent past.

Remember, this is not only going to be implemented retrospectively, but will apply to those who are losing their dear ones to COVID-19 in the coming days and the future. This also applies to those who have lost their dear ones to COVID-19 who have committed suicide in fact after being diagnosed with the infection.

But the cases in India, like many experts have said in the recent past especially after the second wave, have been hugely under reported, something that the Indian government has always denied.

Here's a look at the challenges that family members can face when it comes to getting this compensation from state governments across India.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUD (voice over): The tears haven't stopped. It's been six months since Pooja Sharma lost her husband to COVID-19. Manmuhon (Ph) died gasping for breath in a Delhi hospital in the peak of India's devastating second wave.

POOJA SHARMA, LOST HUSBAND TO COVID-19 (through translator): Why was there no oxygen? When you know there is a problem and everyone is troubled, why weren't there any facilities?

SUD: A compensation program by the federal government allows payment of approximately $670 to the next of kin of COVID-19 victims. This will provide immediate (Inaudible) to families but many Indians can't prove their loved ones died from COVID-19.

RAMANAN LAXMINARAYAN, SENIOR RESEARCH SCHOLAR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Well the main challenge is to show that your family member died of COVID. Unless they've had a COVID test or their cause of death is related to COVID, and for the latter you need the former, they are not going to get the compensation.

SUD: The Indian government has promised no families will be denied compensation if death certificates do not mention COVID-19. A mother of two Pooja pins (Inaudible) and stitches bags for a living. She barely makes $60 a month. She showed us Manmuhon's death certificate which cites COVID-19 as cause of death. But Pooja finds the application process intimidating.

SHARMA (through translator): I will definitely apply, but they need to ensure that we get it.

SUD: Realtor Sunil Maggon (Ph) who is the member of the country's main opposition political party lost his parents and brother to COVID- 19 within a span of just four days.

SUNIL MAGGON, LOST THREE FAMILY MEMBERS TO COVID-19 (through translator): My brother needed a ventilator, which wasn't available. Three family members couldn't get oxygen. For my mother we needed oxygen for one day. We just didn't know how to get it.

[03:05:02]

SUD: Maggon has COVID-19 reports to prove his family members were infected but he says he won't apply for compensation. The loss, the anger against the system, is still too raw, he says.

MAGGON (through translator): Why do I need $670 from them? Take double for me, take 10 times from me and give me my family back.

SUD (on camera): According to a report published by the U.S. based Center for Global Development in July of this year, India's excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic could be 10 times higher than the official death toll.

One reason for this is many states have attributed fatalities to comorbidities instead of COVID-19. India's health minister has gone on record to say the government has no reason to hide deaths. One state government are in the process of advertising details and setting up grievance to address those committees. Experts say the immediate need is to make the process less complicated and more empathetic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SUD (on camera): Rosemary, there's so many families who lost their loved ones especially during the peak of the second wave here in India between March, April, and May. And it was at that time that most of them can't even get to a testing center because there weren't enough and they couldn't even get a death certificate because of the comorbidities that were used in the death certificate, instead of just saying they died of COVID.

A lot of them said pneumonia. A lot of them had other reasons. This is going to be a logistical nightmare, not only for the states, but for the families as well who will once again be reliving the horrors of the second wave essentially, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, it is. It's heartbreaking for those families. Vedika Sud joining us live from New Delhi, many thanks.

A Brazilian Senate panel that was considering mass homicide charges against President Jair Bolsonaro over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic has now withdrawn that recommendation. In a draft report, the panel blames the president's policies for the deaths of more than 300,000 Brazilians, about half of Brazil's COVID death toll.

But instead of mass murder, panel members now say they will push for charges of quote, "epidemic that resulted in death." They say the president will also have to answer to allegations of crimes against humanity, incitement, and Charlatanism.

A leaked excerpt from the report says the Bolsonaro omitted and opted to act in a non-technical and reckless manner, deliberately exposing the population to a concrete risk of mass infection.

Well COVID booster doses may be available to Americans as young as 40 very soon. A source tells CNN U.S. health officials are likely to recommend lowering the age for Pfizer and Moderna boosters. Now this comes amid growing concern of hospitalizations among fully vaccinated younger people.

Booster shots are already available for those over 65, and for younger people with certain health conditions.

Russia is mandating new restrictions after the national COVID death toll hit another daily high. Moscow's mayor says seniors are especially vulnerable, with people over 60 accounting for 86 percent of COVID deaths in the city. Officials have announced a four-month stay at home order for all unvaccinated seniors in the capital. They are also proposing a weeklong workplace shutdown. The move comes amid a spike in cases and a slow vaccination campaign.

Sam Kiley will have the latest from Moscow next hour.

Well, people living in Australia's two largest cities are now able to gather more easily, as long as they are fully vaccinated. For the first time in months, the state of Victoria will let vaccinated residents of New South Wales enter without having to quarantine. Sydney, however, still requires visitors from Melbourne to quarantine for two weeks.

Melbourne maybe relaxing its rules for the world's number one tennis player, but the world's number one tennis player won't be allowed in unless he is fully vaccinated against COVID.

Novak Djokovic refuses to reveal whether he's received the shots, which means the defending Australian Open champ won't get to play in January or have a shot at breaking the Grand Slam record without proof of vaccination.

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ALEX HAWKE, AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRATION MINISTER: The government in establishing its borders has said that you'll need to be double vaccinated to visit Australia. That's a universal obligation, not just to tennis players. Every visitor to Australia will need to be double vaccinated.

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[03:09:59]

CHURCH (on camera): Djokovic recently told Serbian media he doesn't know if he'll go to Melbourne, and that his vaccination status is a private matter, and it's inappropriate to ask. Last year, he said during a Facebook chat he is personally opposed to vaccination.

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CHURCH: Well for more on this, we are joined by sports journalist Peter FitzSimons of the Sydney Morning Herald. He joins me now from Sydney. Great to have you with us.

PETER FITZSIMONS, SPORTS WRITER, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Nice to be with you, Rosemary, my fellow countrywoman. CHURCH: Yes, absolutely. I want to get an idea of what reaction there

has been to Australia's immigration minister saying Novak Djokovic won't be allowed in the country if he's not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 for next year's Australian Open. What's the world number one likely to do about this do you think?

FITZSIMONS: Well, it's funny you should say that. Because if you would look closely on my fingers, you'd see the blisters on the end of my fingers, because I have been pounding for my column for the Sydney Morning Herald for tomorrow on this subject.

And Alex Hawke is the immigration minister who said to Novak Djokovic, no, not now, not ever, double jab or don't come. I could count on the fingers of one finger the fingers the things that I agree with our immigration minister on, not many. But I agree with him on this.

So, every country chooses their path towards getting back to a post COVID life. Australia has chosen two paths. One is maximum jab. We want the maximum number of people as possible that can be jab as we can, and in the Australian capital territory the American equivalent of the district of Columbia.

We are at 99 percent nearly, 99 percent in Sydney -- in New South Wales, where I'm from it's now at 92. -- 92.3 percent. And we have some confidence it will get to 95 percent. Across the country it will probably get to 90, 91 or 92. So there is that way.

And the other way is we restrict access to important things, including the country itself to the end jab. So, if you don't want to be vaccinated, that's fine. That is your absolute right. And nobody is going to hold you down and put a needle in your arm.

CHURCH: Right.

FITZSIMONS: But you are not going to get on a plane. You are not going to go through customs. That's the way we've done it. And for Novak Djokovic to come in and say, you know, to want to have an exception in his regard, or indeed, other tennis players who are unvaccinated, we say listen, love you, but you are not coming in. That's the end of it.

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CHURCH: And many thanks to Peter FitzSimons, sports writer for the Sydney Morning Herald speaking to me earlier.

Well, police are looking for a missing 4-year-old girl who disappeared from a campsite in Western Australia on Saturday. Cleo Smith was last seen around 1.30 in the morning by her parents who woke up hours later and noticed she had vanished along with her sleeping bag. The family had been camping in MacLeod about 48 kilometers from their hometown. Cleo's parents say any small detail may help bring their daughter home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ELLIE SMITH, MOTHER OF MISSING CHILD: Everyone asks us, what do you

need. And really, what we need is our little girl home. If you see something, reported. It doesn't matter if it's small or big or if you are sure or not. Like, we want our little girl home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): Police have searched shacks along the coastline of the area, as well as nearby bodies of water, but have not turned up any signs of her so far. They are asking anyone who stayed at that campsite to please contact them.

Well, the U.N. Security Council will meet today to discuss North Korea's latest ballistic missile test. Pyongyang says the submarine launch missile is a new design with advanced guidance technologies.

Pictures from state media show a thinner, smaller missile than previous designs. The White House is urging North Korea to refrain from further provocations, but says the U.S. is open to diplomacy with Pyongyang.

And CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now live from Seoul with more on this. Good to see you, Paula. So, what are you learning about North Korea's new submarine launched missile ahead of this U.N. Security Council meeting today?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, what North Korea is saying is that they are pushing their capability further. They say that this was fired from a submarine itself, and they said they also did that about five years ago although analysts weren't so clear about that.

What has been done in the past is they've fired these missiles from an underwater barge or a platform. So, if in fact it was from a submarine, that would be significant. And this is what Pyongyang is claiming.

Now they've done over recent weeks, in fact, the past couple of months is they've really pushed forward testing new capabilities, new weapons, new missiles, the sorts of weaponry that they've been showing off in the past couple of military parades in Pyongyang.

[03:15:08]

And we've heard over recent months as well, even from Kim Jong-un, the leader himself, that what is being shown would be tested. In fact, just last week, we saw -- we heard from Kim Jong-un he was at a military expedition -- exhibition in Pyongyang and he was surrounded by the sort of the weaponry that has been tested over the past few years and also some that has not, really showing that Pyongyang is carrying on regardless of the fact that it's violating U.N. Security Council resolution.

And also, at the same time, reaching out to South Korea in some ways, saying that it is still willing to talk as long as South Korea does not criticize it for carrying out these weapons launches. Also, mentioning in from Pyongyang that they believe Seoul is being hypocritical for criticizing them for carrying out these launches when Seoul itself is pushing forward with its military capabilities as well. Although of course, no resolutions are in place against South Korea.

So, what we're hearing from North Korea at this point is that this is their sovereign right. They will continue to do so. It is being widely condemned though across the region, and as you say also in the United States. But it is a trend we have been seeing over recent weeks. That Pyongyang is really pushing forward with testing new capabilities.

So, it's not about quantity as it was several years, it's more about quality, making sure that new weapons have been tested. Rosemary?

CHURCH: And what exactly is North Korea's motivation here?

HANCOCKS: Well there are a number of motivations that we could imagine. For a start if they are creating these weapons, they have to test them to make sure that they work. It's as simple as that. And we've heard that from many experts and intelligence agencies in recent months when we've seen new weapons being showcased and unveiled at these parades.

There was an expectation that at some point North Korea would test them to make sure that they could actually do what they said they could do. And of course, it is a busy week with many sides talking about North Korea. We've had the intelligence chiefs of the U.S., Japan, and South Korea believed to be meeting here in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss North Korea.

You've got the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, coming here to Seoul later this week as well, again, to talk about North Korea. You have the U.N. Security Council meeting, talking about North Korea specifically because of the firing. But you always have to look at the timing when it comes to this kind of launches.

CHURCH: All right. Paula Hancocks joining us live from Seoul, many thanks.

Well, the Olympic flame has arrived in Beijing ahead of next year's Winter Games. A welcome ceremony was held at the Beijing Olympic tower after the flame arrived from Greece. The flame left Athens Monday after several human rights activists disrupted a traditional lighting ceremony with a banner reading no genocide games. When the games do kick off, the Chinese capital will become the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympics.

Well, a gang in Haiti is seeking millions to free the group of missionaries it's holding captive. Up next, why some Haitians say it would be a mistake to pay what they're asking.

And after violent protests, Italy's parliament will consider the future of far-right groups. We are back with that and more in just a moment.

[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH (on camera): Welcome back, everyone. Well, negotiations are ongoing in Haiti where a powerful gang is now demanding $17 million for the release of 17 missionaries kidnapped over the weekend. Haiti's justice minister says police negotiators and the FBI are advising the U.S.-based missionary group Christian Aid Ministries on how to proceed.

CNN's Joe Johns reports from Port-au-Prince.

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JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As the State Department and the FBI work behind the scenes to free the American missionaries and five children who were snatched in Haiti, a new warning about paying the $17 million ransom the gang behind the kidnapping is demanding.

LAURENT LAMONTHE, FORMER HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER: It would be very unfortunate for the $17 million to be paid, because that would only reinforce the gang and that would only finance further kidnappings. So, the solution is to short term to send, you know, experts, security experts to help the police in this particular situation.

JOHNS: The missionaries were believed to be staying at a compound in the village of Titanyen outside Port-au-Prince. On Saturday, they were kidnapped by a group of armed men while driving back from visiting a nearby orphanage in Croix-des-Bouquets. Haitian officials say the gang 400 Mawozo is responsible. We took a ride in a helicopter today to get a better view of the area.

I've been on many of these roads outside of Port-au-Prince, 10 years ago, but it's very different now, simply because of the kidnappings. It's not safe for a foreigner to drive on the roads. That's why we are in the helicopter. Four hundred Mawozo is creole for out in the country, outside the city. And that's where this group comes from.

An armed gang that has grown larger and larger and more powerful, particularly over the last several months since the assassination of the president of Haiti. They control the roads, in many ways. The police need help.

Kidnapping and robbery have become a part of life on the roads outside Port-au-Prince. But what's different this time is the massive amount of money being demanded in ransom, $1 million per victim. Four hundred Mawozo started small, first stealing livestock, then cars, and eventually becoming bold enough to carry out individual kidnappings.

Now, groups of people or collective kidnapping. Authorities blame the lack of law enforcement response for the group's sudden growth. There is a real reluctance from government authorities as well as many people who are part of the electorate to have another peacekeeping force on the ground to restore order.

But if they don't want that to happen, the question is how can Haiti succeed without getting control of the situation on the ground.

Joe Johns, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): The U.S. House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection has formally approved criminal contempt charges against one of Donald Trump's closest allies, Steve Bannon. Both Bannon and Trump have claimed executive privilege in refusing to cooperate with the committee.

The panel's chairman says it's ashamed Bannon put the committee in this position but he emphasized the committee's vote is meant to send a message to other witnesses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): Maybe he's willing to be a martyr to a disgraceful cause of whitewashing what happened on January 6 by demonstrating his complete loyalty to the former president. So, I want our witnesses to understand something very plainly. If you're thinking of following the path Mr. Bannon has gone down, you are on notice that this is what you'll face.

[03:24:52]

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): Mr. Bannon's and Mr. Trump's privilege arguments do, however, appear to reveal one thing. They suggest that President Trump was personally involved in the planning and execution of January 6, and this committee will get to the bottom of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The full House is expected to vote Thursday on referring the charges against Bannon to the Justice Department.

In a few hours, Italy's parliament will consider dismantling the extreme right-wing Forza Nuova Party. Neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups were involved in violent protests against the country's COVID-19 health pass early this month.

Some pushed through police lines and others broke into the headquarters of Italy's largest trade union. The union called on the government to dissolve the groups.

Well, Barbie Nadeau is in Rome. She joins us now live. Barbie, what is the latest on this, and what is the likely outcome here?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, this is a measurement to ask Mario Draghi, the prime minister to dissolve this Forza Nuova far-right party. But this isn't the only remnant of Italy's fascist past. We went around Rome and this is what we found.

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NADEAU (voice over): Tens of thousands of Italians gathered in this square in central Rome to demonstrate against fascism. Lionel Rivera (Ph) tells us the Italy of today is anti-fascist. He says fascism can't go forward. Recent attacks blamed on neo-fascist in Rome have sparked a debate on a topic many Italians would rather not discuss.

Here in Rome's Jewish ghetto, more than 1,000 Italians were rounded up by the Nazis and taken to concentration camps during the World War II.

SIMON MARTIN, HISTORY PROFESSOR: Because fascism never really went away in this country, despite the Constitution banning the reformation of the fascist -- of the fascist party attacking the --

NADEAU: Simon Martin is a professor of history who has written books on Italian fascism.

MARTIN: Italy has not confronted its past. It hasn't confront -- it hasn't -- it hasn't confronted its Italian fascist past.

NADEAU Italy's right-wing alliances anchored by the country's most popular party, the Brothers of Italy, currently led by Giorgia Meloni. Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's granddaughter Raquel is one of the party's members winning the highest number of votes in Rome's recent city council elections.

Meloni's party is often tied to fascism. CNN asked her why that is. She tells us her party is not a breeding ground for such a regime.

Here in Rome, there are remnants of Italy's fascist past everywhere. This floor mosaic is at the entrance of the train station Mussolini built to welcome Adolf Hitler to Rome. An almost 60-foot tall Obelisk with Mussolini's name still stands in front of Rome's main soccer stadium.

Italians spent two decades under Mussolini's iron fist, but almost 80 years later, the debate over his fascist legacy rages on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NADEAU: Rosemary, so you know, there are remnants of the fascist past here in this country. And every now and then you have a parliamentary debate that tries to make propaganda legal that tries to dissolve these far-right parties. But everyone we talked to also said it's going to take education of the younger generation to confront the fascist past to come to terms with it and to finally put it behind them. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right. Barbie Nadeau joining us live from Rome, many thanks.

Well the trial of a 96-year-old former Nazi concentration camp's secretary is finally underway in Germany. Proceedings were delayed for weeks after Irmgard Furchner went on the run for several hours just before she was due in court last month. She worked at the Stutthof camp in Nazi occupied Poland as a teenager. She's accused of aiding her superiors in the killing of more than 11,000 prisoners from 1943 to 1945. About 65,000 people died at that camp between 1939 and 1945.

Still to come, a doctor who has a medical license says the pandemic was planned to depopulate the planet. CNN investigates, that's next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: I just want to be straight with you. I think you're crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. Well, some physicians are knowingly spreading disinformation about COVID-19 and its vaccines, making outrageous statements that are both incorrect and very dangerous. But we think it is important for the public to hear them and compare them with the truth.

Here's CNN's senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Dr. Rashid Buttar, at one-time had more than a million followers and is considered one of the top spreaders of disinformation about COVID- 19.

RASHID BUTTAR, TOP SPREADERS OF DISINFORMATION ABOUT COVID-19: More people are dying from the COVID vaccine than from COVID.

GRIFFIN: That is not true. Neither is his tweet that the Red Cross won't accept blood from people who have had the COVID-19 vaccine. He posted, most who took COVID vaccines will be dead by 2025, but his biggest whopper is the overarching conspiracy theory that COVID was a planned operation which was politically motivated as part of a secret global plot to depopulate the earth.

Do you believe the pandemic was planned?

BUTTAR: I do.

GRIFFIN: OK. But you don't know by whom?

BUTTAR: I have no idea.

GRIFFIN: And you don't know why?

BUTTAR: Well, I suspect that the research that's coming now that would indicate that it's probably something to reduce the population or minimize reproduction rates.

GRIFFIN: It would be laughable if it wasn't so dangerous. Buttar compares COVID and the vaccine to World War II, and Dr. Anthony Fauci to Adolf Hitler.

BUTTAR: Fauci is a criminal. You talk about Hitler. OK. Well.

GRIFFIN: Whoever Dr. Fauci is in your mind, he is a government bureaucrat, and you are comparing him to Hitler, to Nazis -- BUTTAR: I am.

GRIFFIN: -- who killed 6 million Jews.

BUTTAR: I think, this number is going to be higher.

GRIFFIN: You think Dr. Fauci is involved in some kind of plot to kill millions of people? I just want to make sure I understand this.

BUTTAR: Drew, I'm a reasonable person. You asked me what I think and I said it could be this, but I can tell you that Dr. Fauci is not an innocent bystander. He is very well aware of what he's doing and the extent of it and his involvement, I don't know. I'm not privet to that information.

GRIFFIN: As atrocious as Dr. Buttar's fake conclusion and conspiracy theories are, he is just one of the doctors spreading dangerous COVID disinformation to millions of people across social media, according to the Center For Countering Digital Hate.

UNKNOWN: Let's be absolutely clear. Lives cost lives in a pandemic. If you are encouraging people not to vaccinate, you will cause people to lose their lives.

GRIFFIN: Buttar is encouraging people to distrust lifesaving vaccines. And like other dis-informers, he is using false, twisted information and unproven conspiracies to do it.

Do you think the COVID vaccine works?

BUTTAR: I think that the COVID vaccine is very effective at what it was designed for, perhaps, but it's not preventing death, certainly not.

[03:35:03]

GRIFFIN: It's not preventing death?

BUTTAR: No.

GRIFFIN: Even faced with indisputable facts, Buttar doubles down on his belief that lifesaving vaccines are more dangerous than the virus itself.

BUTTAR: People don't die from COVID. You've already seen the data, so why are we giving a vaccine that causes more deaths than the problem itself?

GRIFFIN: 6.34 billion doses of this vaccine have been given. If you are right, people would be dropping dead all around this (inaudible).

BUTTAR: It's not orchestrated to do that.

GRIFFIN: It's not orchestrated to do that?

BUTTAR: Each vaccine has been geared up. You can look at the ingredients of the vaccines themselves. It's all been published.

GRIFFIN: Complete the sentence. Each vaccine has been geared up for what? (Inaudible).

BUTTAR: Each vaccine is designed, it appears to be different. I don't know the details, because I'm not a vaccine developer.

Scientific corruption.

GRIFFIN: Because of his disinformation, Buttar has been removed from Facebook and Instagram, but he's still going strong on Twitter, Telegram, and his own website, all filled with falsehoods.

On September 5th, you retweeted a photo of AstraZeneca (inaudible) that seems to indicate the vaccine was made in 2018.

That picture that you re-tweeted was a doctored photo. It was fake.

BUTTAR: Perhaps it was fake.

GRIFFIN: Why would you do that?

BUTTAR: So, Drew, let me ask you something, are you saying it's not reasonable to question the same agencies that have resulted in numerous deaths i.e. FDA?

GRIFFIN: It's reasonable to ask questions. What I don't understand is how you get from your asking questions to your belief.

You had 1.2 million followers at one point.

BUTTAR: Yes.

GRIFFIN: They got false information from you. Not correct or challenging medical information. They got a doctored photo.

BUTTAR: If I sent a tweet out of a picture that was doctored and I didn't know about it, I'm not perfect. Maybe I did made that mistake. But I'm not making mistakes on the numbers.

GRIFFIN: The very latest vaccine studies show they remain 90 percent effective in preventing hospitalization and death. Buttar tells his followers it is the vaccine that is the danger.

BUTTAR: We already see thousands of people dying. This Delta variant is all vaccine injury. I mean, the CDC's own data is showing that now.

GRIFFIN: That's just is not true.

BUTTAR: I don't want to be part of this mass genocide that I see happening, and I think that what's going on right now will be remembered as a worst time in history compared to what World War II happened.

GRIFFIN: I just want to be straight with you. I think you are crazy. Before COVID, North Carolina's board of medicine reprimanded Buttar

twice for the way he was treating autism and cancer patients. The board accused him of charging exorbitant fees for his ineffectual therapies which he denied, including injecting a patient with hydrogen peroxide. The FDA also sent him a warning letter over products he made and sold that promised to do everything from treating chronic pain to improving sex drive.

BUTTAR: And yet I have an unrestricted license to practice for 30 years.

GRIFFIN: And that is the problem. Dr. Rashid Buttar repeatedly lies and dis-informs on matters of public health, yet that doesn't have an impact on his medical license held in North Carolina. Across the country, COVID-19 has created a subculture of disinformation among medical outcasts. State Medical Boards don't know what to do.

HUMAYUN CHAUDHRY, PRESIDENT, FEDERATION OF STATE MEDICAL BOARD: Those kinds of comments are very troubling to doctors who are on the frontlines and managing COVID. They are particularly frustrating. In fact, some of my colleagues are livid.

GRIFFIN: CNN contacted Medical Boards in all 50 states. Half of them responded. Only two, Rhode Island and Oregon, said they had actually disciplined doctors for coronavirus misinformation or related violations. That is despite hundreds of complaints.

The Federation of State Medical Boards issued a warning to physicians who generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation that they are risking disciplinary action, including the suspension or revocation of their medical license.

CHAUDHRY: Especially in a pandemic, your actions could lead to the deaths of thousands of individuals, because people trust what doctors say.

GRIFFIN: Buttar doesn't seem to care.

You have an outsized influence over just somebody who is living down the street in terms of people getting their medical advice. You have to admit that.

BUTTAR: Absolutely.

GRIFFIN: And you are raising doubt about a vaccine?

BUTTAR: I hope I am, because I hope more people take heed of the warning that is necessary.

GRIFFIN: And if you are wrong? And they died because of that?

BUTTAR: I am confident, more than confident, in my ability to have looked at the data and observe what's going on, and that if I'm wrong, so be it. Because I have to look at myself in the mirror every night when I go to bed and every morning when I get up. And I don't want to lose any sleep. [03:40:03]

GRIFFIN: YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook have all deplatformed Rashid Buttar. But he remains on Twitter, where he is dis-informing 88,000 followers and also directing them to his more private channels. Twitter did required him to remove some of his posts after CNN alerted Twitter about the disinformation.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: You just have to wonder, don't you? Well, still to come here on "CNN Newsroom," India has deployed the military to help rescue and evacuate people from intense and deadly flooding. We will have the latest on the extreme weather. That's next.

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CHURCH: Army helicopters are helping with rescues and evacuations in Northern India after days of heavy rain and flooding. At least 46 people have been killed in the region, where a big Hindu pilgrimage has been temporarily halted due to the extreme weather.

Dramatic images show military personnel forming a human chain to help people through the raging floodwaters. And our meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri has been watching this very closely, he joins us now.

So, Pedram, what is the latest on the flooding and, of course, the rescue effort there?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on camera): Rosemary, a couple more days of this year before conditions improve at least across the north of India. And we know the monsoon is reaching really their peak here in the last several weeks as the withdraw begins to take shape here. We've seen months, and months of tremendous rainfall. Parts of India are seeing about 90 percent of their annual rains happened between the months of May through September and October.

So, certainly not unusual to see rainfall at this time of a year, but the amount of it here has been as impressive as it gets. And anytime this comes down on saturated (inaudible) that is already been just -- getting rainfall, every single day since that period of May, June and July, it is going to be problematic.

Now, notice the amounts of rain we are talking here, three to four, even 500 plus millimeters. This is equivalent to the amount London sees in nearly an entire year. And this is just a 24 hour observation coming down across some of these areas of Northern and Eastern India.

Now, what's really most impressive here is looking at the moisture content in the atmosphere and kind of shows you the divide between the sub-continents. Because the North and West of India, that is dry air, lock in place as the monsoon begins to retreat.

The South and East monsoon, moisture firmly in place and you see the volumes of water come down here on a way about half a meter of rainfall in just a matter of a few days. There is the progression, there is the withdrawal, and typically by the latter portion of October into November, we see the monsoons peel away, conditions also begin to dry.

Now, the immediate forecast looks like this. And I want you to look at areas of Northern and Eastern India, because there's improving conditions across that region. But Rosemary, earlier in the week, we are talking Caroline and areas to the south.

Notice that area, heavier rainfall expected to return over the next 24 to 48 hours. So we do expect flooding, kind of shift out of that northern region, return towards the southern region. So the problem is not over with quite just yet. Rosy?

[03:45: 12]

CHURCH: Alright. Thank you so much for watching that so closely. Pedram Javaheri, I appreciate it.

Well, geologists say there is no way to predict how much longer the volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands will keep erupting. It's been spewing molten lava for over a month now, covering nearly 800 hectares and destroyed about 2,000 buildings. No one has been killed by the volcano, but thousands of people have been forced from their homes.

And still to come, doctors are trying to get to the bottom of a troubling trend where it appears more teenage girls are developing Tic like spasms. Why some doctors say there could be a link to TikTok.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, doctors around the world are trying to figure out why there seeing an apparent rise in teenage girls developing Tic like spasms. According to the Wall Street Journal, doctors say in addition to anxiety and depression, there could be a link to the video sharing app TikTok.

Several medical journals have found a majority of the girls who reported issues have been watching videos of people who said they had turrets syndrome, a disorder that causes involuntary movements or sounds.

John Hopkins Tourette Center says the number of pediatric patients with Tic like behavior increased as much as 10 times since the pandemic began. And the demand for video showing Tic behavior has sharply risen. In January, videos with the #Tourettes had more than 1 billion viewers. That number has since grown to nearly 5 billion.

So for more on this, we are joined by Dr. Tamara Pringsheim. She's a neurologist with the University of Calgary and is program lead for the Tourette Syndrome and Pediatric Movement Disorders Clinic at Alberta Children's Hospital. Thank you so much Doctor for talking with us.

TAMARA PRINGSHEIM, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF NEUROLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY (on camera): Thank you for inviting me.

CHURCH: So this is -- it is a very troubling trend, teen girls across the globe apparently developing severe physical Tics and verbal outbursts after watching Tourette Syndrome TikTok videos. What's going on here? And how can watching these videos create a Tic in another person who didn't originally have that disorder?

PRINGSHEIM: Well, it's a complicated problem. You know, the explanation is complex as well. But we know that over the course of the pandemic, there's been an increase in social media use among young people. In parallel to that, there's been an increase in young people posting videos under hashtags related to Tourettes or Tics, both on TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms.

We know that the pandemic resulted in a great deal of psychological stress for young people, and social isolation. And we believe there is a relationship between psychological distress and the development of these tech like behaviors after witnessing others having Tics on social media channels.

[03:50:24]

CHURCH: How big a problem could this prove to be for these young girls now? And of course, in the future, and how prevalent is this?

PRINGSHEIM: Well, we've seen a big -- there's been a big change over the course of the past year and a half. So, it was in the fall of 2020 that we started to experience the increase in referrals. Prior to the fall of 2020, I would say that we maybe saw one to two young people per year who developed the functional Tic like behaviors.

Starting in the fall, we started receiving up to six referrals per week. The volume of our referrals increased from 200 per year to, 300 per year over the course of 2020 to 2021. So, out of the last 300 people that I've seen, 100 of them have had these rapid onset functional Tic like behaviors.

And the experience of me and my colleague, Dr. Martino have had at our Tourette clinic is very similar to what is happening at Tourette syndrome clinics in other countries, including the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and Germany.

CHURCH: So Doctor, if I can just ask you what the solution is here, because other than telling these teens to lay off TikTok, which of course, any of us who are parents know that is probably not going to happen, what do you do? What do you do with these young, more vulnerable teens who seem to be more open to picking up these Tics?

PRINGSHEIM: Yeah, I think the important message is that there is help for this problem. I have seen so many young people whose lives have been derailed by these functional Tic like behaviors, young people who are no longer attending school, who are unable to work because of the severity of their symptoms.

We've taken the approach of providing psychological support in education about the functional Tic-like behaviors by making appropriate diagnoses of anxiety and depression where these coexist, and arranging for appropriate treatment and providing behavioral therapy.

CHURCH: That is good news, indeed. Dr. Tamara Pringsheim, thank you so much for talking with us, we appreciate it.

PRINGSHEIM: My pleasure.

CHURCH: Facebook has agreed to pay more than $14 million to settle claims that it discriminated against U.S. workers. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the social media giant last year for allegedly reserving jobs for foreign workers with temporary visas in 2018 in 2019. Facebook was also accused of using recruitment methods to deter U.S. workers from applying to certain positions. The money will pay a civil penalty and go toward eligible victims of Facebook's alleged discrimination.

The Dubai Expo is celebrating the biggest names in space and their accomplishments this year. But countries with up incoming space programs of their own are also making a mark in Dubai.

CNN's Scott Mclean reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When it comes to space, it seems some of the biggest countries have the most astronomical ambitions. China just sent its second crew to its newly launched space station. The Russians just wrapped shooting the first movie in space. The Americans made a 90 year old Hollywood astronaut into a real life one. And the Emiratis are planning their own colony on Mars.

All of them have been keen to use Expo 2020 to show off their past accomplishments and future plans, but they are hardly the only ones with goals out there.

UNKNOWN: Asteroids contain valuable resources, and maybe, one of these days, some of you will develop the technologies to extract and use these resources.

MCLEAN: That's the goal of Luxembourg, a state with the population of a city, but the space ambitions of a large country. Most people can't locate Luxembourg on a map. Why on earth does it have its own space agency?

(LAUGHTER)

[03:55:05]

MATHIAS LINK, LUXEMBBOURG SPACE AGENCY: Luxembourg has been active in space since many decades. We started in the 1980s in the satellite communication industry. And since then, actually the space sector in Luxembourg has grown year by year.

MCLEAN: Today, Luxembourg has no launch pad and no astronauts, but its home to some 70 space related companies totaling roughly 2 percent of the national economy. Five years ago, it set out to be a leader in mining resources in space to refuel satellites or build structures and solar panels, all with materials found in space.

You guys are really playing the long game.

LINK: We think that in the next year, we will see resources on the moon, which is basically driven by all these different plans that boost private and public (inaudible) to develop a more sustained and permanent presence on the moon, which is very much thing to the exploration. And then in the second step, we are certainly also try to use resources from asteroids.

MCLEAN: Other small countries are not letting small budgets get in the way. Rwanda just launched its space program earlier this year, not to look for life on other planets, but to improve life here on earth by using satellites to monitor crops and illegal mining. In Gabon, they are using satellite images to protect the forest.

TANGUY GAHOUMA, GENERAL DIRECTOR, GABON SPACE PROGRAM: What we want is that when a tree is cut, we can see it, you know, on-screen. And we can see if it's legal or illegal. This is very important for us.

MCLEAN: Otherwise it's difficult to do that?

GAHOUMA: It's impossible. You know, the forest is about 23 million of hectares and Gabon is about 2 million population. The satellite is the only way that we can do that now.

MCLEAN: But of those 2 million people, about one-third live in poverty.

A lot of people might be looking from the outside in and thinking, doesn't Gabon have better things to spend its money on?

GAHOUMA: Yes. Of course. We hear that a lot of the time, but this is because I think that people cannot understand the vision. Because today, for example, one of the most value for Gabon is forest, but if tomorrow you cannot prove that your wood is legal, you cannot sell it. We can prove to the world that our wood is legal.

MCLEAN: Gabon Space Program is growing, but it has no plans to send anyone to Mars.

Scott McLean, CNN, Dubai.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Enjoy the rest of your day. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Isa Soares.

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