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100 Plus Leaders Agree To End Deforestation By 2030; World Leaders Accelerate Action At Critical COP26 Summit; Ethiopia Announces Nationwide State Of Emergency; At Least 14 Dead After Luxury Lagos High-Rise Building Collapses; Facebook Scrapping Facial Recognition Software; CDC Director Signs Off on Pfizer Vaccine for Kids 5 to 11; British PM: We See No Need to Deviate from COVID Roadmap; U.S., China Race to Lead World on Climate Solutions; Youngkin Wins Virginia Governor Race, Right Race for NJ Governor. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired November 03, 2021 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:00]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Republican gubernatorial candidates that were on the ballot this evening.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Where do you want to start?
TAPPER: Let's go to New Jersey just because it's more -- the more of the shocker, not Pennsylvania.
KING: There we go, touch the board -- touch the board, that's what you get. It is a shocker but we're not done here, Virginia --
[00:00:31]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm John Vause.
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, a blow from Beijing as world leaders in Glasgow haggled over a global plan on climate change. China's climate negotiators says limiting temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius might just be too ambitious for now.
The company formerly known as Facebook does an about face on facial recognition, shutting it down over privacy and ethical concerns?
Alive and well and reunited with mum and dad. West Australian police who found a missing 4-year-old girl not far from where she vanished more than two weeks ago.
The first few days of COP26 in Glasgow have seen a flurry of commitments to net zero carbon emissions and major agreements signed among nations all with one goal, limiting global warming to an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
On day two, more than 90 countries announced they would reduce methane emissions by 30 percent within eight years, but a notable absence on the list of signatories was China. Also notable, comments from Beijing's climate negotiator who
criticized the goal of 1.5 degrees is too ambitious, suggesting two degrees would be more doable.
China is the world's biggest carbon polluter. If it does not cut emissions quickly and significantly, many experts say the fight against climate change will be lost.
Soon, day three begins with expectations the U.K. will announce plans to become the world's first net zero financial center.
Banks and other financial institutions as well as listed companies will be required to publish plans on how they will reduce their contribution to global warming.
And from the British prime minister came a warning about rising expectations from the summit leading to a false dawn.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We must take care to guard against false hope and not to think of it in any way that the job is done because it is not. There is still a very long way to go.
But all that being said, I am cautiously optimistic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: For more now, CNN's Max Foster reports from Glasgow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): End of the great chainsaw massacre of the world's forests, the words of Boris Johnson, host of the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow as global leaders more than a hundred on Tuesday announced a pact to end deforestation by 2030.
JOHNSON: End the role of humanity as nature's conqueror and instead become nature's custodian. We have to stop the devastating loss of our forests.
FOSTER: Crucially, signatories include Brazil and Russia. Two states previously singled out for allowing deforestation to accelerate in their respective territories. Russian President Vladimir Putin prerecorded a speech to rubber stamp the deal.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): After all, our country accounts for around 20 percent of the world's forest land, we take the strongest and most vigorous measures to conserve it.
FOSTER: The pledge is backed by almost $20 billion in public and private funding, including two billion from Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos.
JEFF BEZOS, FOUNDER, AMAZON: Well, we in this room work together. FOSTER: And it covers an area of more than 13 million square miles
from the northern forests of Canada to the tropical rainforest of Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Climate activists in Glasgow expressed healthy skepticism on the news.
JO BLACKMAN, GLOBAL WITNESS SPOKESPERSON: This is the problem with a lot of these commitments, if it's an accountability gap, governments made similar pledges in 2014, with the New York Declaration and forests, but they didn't lead to anywhere near the progress that was expected.
FOSTER: How can you guarantee that this forest deal will work better than the last one in 2014?
IVAN DUQUE, COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT: I think we have very concrete actions. In the case of Colombia, we have committed to declare 30 percent of our territory, a protected area in 2022.
And I think the next challenge is going to be mobilizing green financing to ensure that we conserve the land and that's why we're promoting natural conservation contracts with peasants and indigenous communities.
FOSTER: There are reasons to be optimistic. U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry told CNN.
JOHN KERRY, U.S. CLIMATE ENVOY: I will tell you there is something bigger, more engaged, more urgent in what is happening here than I have seen in any other COP.
And I believe we're going to come up with record levels of ambition and different from all the past, we have private sector coming to the table in ways that we've never seen before.
[00:05:18]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cutting back on methane emissions.
FOSTER: Also on Tuesday, more than 80 nations launched an initiative to reduce global methane emissions committing to cut emissions by 30 percent by 2030.
U.S. President Biden said the set was amongst the most important things we can do to keep global temperatures in check and a cornerstone promise of his administration.
That promise now extends to the deal signatories, can they hit the target? That's the question.
Max Foster, CNN, Glasgow, Scotland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, to Anchorage, Alaska now. Professor Rick Steiner with the Oasis Earth project, which works with governments, industry, and private groups to speed the transition to environmental sustainability.
Professor, thank you for your time.
RICK STEINER, PROFESSOR AND MARINE CONSERVATION BIOLOGIST: Thank you for having me. Hi.
VAUSE: Thank you. The two key action plans we've heard so far from the summit is this commitment to end deforestation within eight years, will stop destroying the equivalent of 30 soccer fields -- 30 soccer fields of forest, I should say, every minute, as well as that commitment to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent also, by the end of this decade.
There are questions over accountability and enforcement. But overall, it said it's better to have a deal than no deal. So, what would the impact be from this?
And also, is this just kind of the low hanging fruit action, which most can agree on without too much rancor?
STEINER: Yes, I believe it is that, it is the low hanging fruit, but it's important fruit to pick. Nonetheless, we should have done this about 20 or 30 years ago, both of these agreements.
Regardless, these are important agreements. I celebrate that. Many of us in the scientific community celebrate this.
However, where the -- whatever is agreed at Glasgow and these U.N. summits, has to then get brought back to the member governments for adoption in law and regulation. That's usually where these things go off the rail. Many governments go home and do nothing with what they agreed with. And some go home and can't pass it in regulation and law.
So, what will determine whether these two agreements, the methane agreement and the deforestation agreement, are robust and really make a difference is whether each government then can take it home and adopt it in regulation and law and that remains to be seen.
The methane regulation, the U.S., the Biden administration has already done by executive order and we celebrate that, so.
VAUSE: Well, the U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, he told CNN that he believes the world can actually still limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees, here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KERRY: I believe that if people do what they've laid out as their specific plans, yes. Is it hard? You're right, it's damn hard. It's very hard.
But it is better to push for that. It's better to make that your target, better -- what we've done -- and we've had all the major environmental modelers check our numbers and our plans, they have come up and said, yes. If you do what you say you're going to do, you've got a nearly 60 percent chance of achieving the 1.5. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: There are a lot of caveats there and I saw you shaking your head, just as we went into that soundbite from John Kerry, you don't think it's possible, that ship has sailed?
STEINER: No, that ship has sailed that cake is baked, I think there will be enough carbon by my math, enough carbon in the atmosphere within the next two years to surpass that threshold, there will be a lag time to reach 1.5. But I think the 1.5 degrees Celsius target is history, we are going to blow right past that.
However, every carbon atom we keep out of the atmosphere is going to make it easier for our descendants in the planet to survive this chaos, this climate chaos this century.
So, it's never too late to do everything that we can and we have to do that. But the 1.5 C target is gone, in my view.
VAUSE: When China's climate negotiator is suggesting a new goal of two degrees of warming because it's easier. But I want you to listen to the difference between 1.5 degrees and two degrees and what it means to the Western Pacific island nation of Palau, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SURANGEL WHIPPS JR., PALAU PRESIDENT: Frankly speaking, there is no dignity to a slow and painful death. You might as well bomb our islands instead of making us suffer only to witness our slow and faithful demise. Leaders of the G20, we are drowning and our only hope is the life-ring you are holding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So, right now, the world's biggest emitter of carbon emissions now says it's all too hard to try and reduce it to keep it down to 1.5. Even if it's possible, not possible, let's all aim a little lower.
And the reality is China is basically seen as the country which can make or break any action on climate change.
[00:10:08]
STEINER: Yes, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Eastern Europe all objected to the (INAUDIBLE) coal deal. And that was a spectacular failure of COP26 so far, despite the few other successes.
The problem is, is these hundred poorest nations in the world contribute about three percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions. And they are the ones bearing the brunt of the impacts of climate change.
So, it's entirely immoral and unethical and just absurd and unconscionable that the G20, which is responsible for 80 percent of the emissions, and 80 percent of world GDP, cannot step forward and reduce our emissions sufficiently to take care of this problem and put up the money necessary that we promised 10 years ago, the $100 billion a year Green Climate Fund, and it needs to be 10 times that to support these hundred nations like Palau in their climate adaptation efforts, and it's going to be a struggle over the next few decades without question.
VAUSE: Just very quickly, we're almost out of time. But as far as that financial deal goes to help those low-income countries deal with the cost of (INAUDIBLE) to net zero emissions, as well as the other impacts from climate change, how do you see that playing out in the next day or so?
STEINER: Well, tomorrow, Wednesday will be the day that they bring start to discussion of this. What I'm really worried about is this carbon mark global -- carbon market and offsets and credits, which would allow industry to continue to emit just by buying some forest somewhere.
Buying forests is great, but you -- we have to cut emissions in half by the end of this decade, or there's really no hope to even remain below two plus Celsius.
So, these governments can do this, they know how to do this, we know how to do it, science knows how to do it. The question is whether they can bring these agreements back home to their countries, adopt them in law and regulation, and get there.
And the other thing they have to do is impose a carbon tax, a global minimum carbon tax, like the G20 did with corporate tax, as well as stiff penalties for nations that are not, you know, bringing their A game into this and that includes China, Russia, India, Eastern Europe, Brazil. There has to be consequences for governments not stepping forward and committing to sufficient greenhouse gas reduction, so.
VAUSE: Professor Steiner, it was great to have you with us. We really appreciate your time, Sir. Thank you.
STEINER: Thanks very much.
VAUSE: Well, Ethiopia has announced the national state of emergency as forces from the northern Tigray region join with another rebel group and threatened to march on the capital.
The government has now advised more than three million residents of Addis Ababa to register their weapons with authorities and prepare to fight. The U.S. State Department advising against travel to Ethiopia urging Americans there to prepare to leave.
CNN's Larry Madowo has details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The state of emergency just announced in Ethiopia comes just days before the conflict in Tigray in the north of the country turns a year old.
In fact, a joint investigation by the United Nations and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission will announce the report on Wednesday.
And the background for that is that the United States believes that the parties to that conflict are validating internationally acceptable human rights. And that is why Washington is warning that it will pull Ethiopia out of a preferential trade deal unless it changes course not in weeks, in days.
If it does not do so by January 1, Ethiopia will be out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. And this is how the U.S. explains it according to the U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman.
JEFFREY FELTMAN, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR THE HORN OF AFRICA: It is worrisome to see a continuation of military -- of military advances by the TPLF, airstrikes by the -- by the government against targets in Tigray that will only increase the human suffering. When in the end, there's going to have to be talks.
So, the sooner we get to talks, the better. The fewer people will suffer in Tigray and Amhara, the closer we get to talks.
MADOWO: The Ethiopian government says withdrawing the country from AGOA would punish ordinary people. This is what the trade ministry put out in a statement: We are extremely disappointed by the threat of AGOA withdrawal currently under consideration by the U.S. government. These actions will reverse significant economic gains in our country and unfairly impact and harm women and children.
The Ethiopian government claims that the two biggest exports in the AGOA into the U.S., leather and apparel. employ 200,000 people directly, 80 percent of them are women and they're the ones that will be worst affected.
Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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VAUSE: That's the scene from Nigeria as an ambulance evacuated survivors after a deadly building collapsed. Almost two days after the Lagos high-rise collapsed disaster which left at least 14 people confirmed dead.
The tower that was being built as a high-end apartment block but there were warnings about the structure before it collapsed.
CNN Stephanie Busari reports now from Lagos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN SUPERVISING EDITOR, AFRICA (voice over): It was built as a place where future residents who could afford the minimum $1.2 million price tag could live the seven-star hotel experience.
Before one of the three towers of the so-called Luxury in the Sky high-rise complex came crashing down into a heap of concrete rubble. Monday, in the middle of the affluent Ikoyi neighborhood of Lagos.
Now, rescue workers are painstakingly moving through what remains of the collapse building looking for survivors.
Rescue officials say they are using the latest technology to find signs of life of those trapped in the rubble in this building, giving hope to hundreds of volunteers desperately waiting for news of their loved ones.
IBRAHIM FARINLOYE, NIGERIAN NATIONAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Two excavators are deployed to the areas where we are hearing voices and those ones are getting closer to the people who are trapped, who are till speaking with us.
BUSARI: Rescue teams dropping oxygen tanks beneath the debris to sustain those people they believe to be alive until they can simply reach them.
FARINLOYE: Hope is high. Their voice are still very, very strong and we are keeping hope that we will be getting them.
BUSARI: As the hours pass, relative standby agonizing, hoping that the sound of voices coming from beneath the debris means their loved ones have survived and may still be rescued.
MOTUNRAYO ELEGBEDE, BROTHER TRAPPED UNDER COLLAPSED BUILDING: That's why we are here since yesterday. he is still inside. We are waiting for news, for them to bring them out alive. We want him alive.
BUSARI: Yet fearing the worst with each new body pulled from the rubble.
Their anger rising over just what caused the more than 20-storey building under construction for the past few years to collapse.
Authorities say they're investigating what could have caused the structure to suffer such a catastrophic failure.
But CNN has confirmed red flags were raised about the project last year. In February of 2020, Prowess Engineering sent a letter Fourscore Homes, the developer of the three-tower 360 Degrees complex, withdrawing from the project, saying, they no longer share the same vision on how the project is being executed.
And Lagos State Deputy Governor telling CNN that the building had been sealed off for several months last July amid structural concerns.
FEMI HAMZAT, DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE: It was sealed because our agency came in to do an structural test, and they saw some anomalies and shut it down until those things were corrected.
BUSARI: Fourscore Homes has so far not responded to CNN's requests for comment.
On Monday, local residents tells CNN that they believe dozens of workers and project officials was still inside the complex working when the building collapsed.
As rescue workers call out for survivors, the exact number of those still missing remains unknown.
Stephanie Busari, CNN, Lagos.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Election Night in America with the focus on two key races for state governor. In Virginia, the vote remains technically too close to core but is not looking good for incumbent Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who's apparently gone home for the night and that is not a good sign.
Virginia has been training Democrat in recent years but Republican Glenn Youngkin is hanging on to the lead, while the 95 percent of the vote has been counted, and Youngkin is ahead by about three points.
In New Jersey, a much closer race than many expected. Democratic incumbent Phil Murphy trailing his Republican rival former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli by a very slim margin. More than 70 percent of the vote is in but Democrats believe much of the votes still to come is from Democratic suburbs.
We'll take a short break. When we come back, an Australian girl, 4 years old went missing from a family camping trip more than two weeks ago is found alive and police say a man is in custody in her disappearance.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:21:48]
VAUSE: Facebook is scrapping facial recognition software which identifies who's in a photo and video. The technology has fueled privacy and ethical concerns among critics since it was first introduced a decade ago.
Facebook says all the data gathered through the software will be deleted including about a billion face prints. This comes as Facebook is under scrutiny for how its platforms have fueled misinformation and potentially harmful effects it has on younger users.
Meantime, the social media platform says it's shut down a troll farm run by the Nicaraguan government and the country's ruling party, claiming hundreds of fake accounts, almost a thousand were used to push pro-government and anti-opposition content.
Facebook says this was one of the most cross government troll operations we've disrupted to date, with multiple state entities participating in this activity at once.
So far, no response from the government in Nicaragua.
So, we'll head to San Francisco now. And Mike Isaac Technology Correspondent for The New York Times. Mike, thanks for being with us.
MIKE ISAAC, TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES: Thanks for having me, of course.
VAUSE: OK, so it took three years -- three years for Facebook to find this network, which apparently targeted domestic audience, was linked to the governor of Nicaragua, and the Sandinista National Liberation Front.
And it was spreading this pro-government opposition -- anti-opposition disinformation. The obvious question is, why did it take so long?
ISAAC: Yes, I mean, it's a great question. I think you could -- Facebook I think, would argue, you know, we've gotten much better over the years considering the 2016 election, kind of woke them up to the amount of coordinated -- what they call coordinated inauthentic activity, or basically fake account trolling, that was on the platform before.
I do think they're getting better over time, they started to figure out different types of activities. But, you know, they have described it as a sort of oppositional battle where one side gets better, and then the other side improves.
So, I don't -- I don't know if they're ever going to get perfect at it but I think it's worth continuing to pressure them to see how long it takes them to find some of these groups.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. She was explaining last week before British lawmakers, how so called bad actors manipulate the social media platform, here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCES HAUGEN, FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER: Bad actors have an incentive to play the algorithm and they figure out all the ways to optimize Facebook.
And so, the current system is biased towards bad actors and bias towards people who push people to the extremes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Does that essentially describe what was happening here in Nicaragua? And is there any idea of what impact it might have on, you know, the weekend election?
ISAAC: Totally -- no, I think she's absolutely right, bad actors are folks who exploit these networks use it, usually it's to financial gain of their own. So, often, people will sort of make fake Facebook accounts, sell them off, or do something that can basically make them some money on a scam.
But I think the rise of this sort of ideological, you know, hacking and cyber warfare is more worrisome, just because you know, you're not -- you're not shutting someone off for profit motive, you basically have these groups that are doing something for, you know, because they believe in a cause. And that is much harder to tamp down on because these beliefs aren't going to go away, they're just going to really try to find other alternate ways to do that over time.
So, I don't think the the battle is by any means over quite yet.
[00:25:16]
VAUSE: Well, from 2018, when this all began until 2020, Facebook sort of steady increase in the number of users in Nicaragua, up about 100,000 or so each year from 2.7 million to 2.9 million.
At the same time, we now know that this sort of divisive disinformation, especially around politics keeps users online for longer and more often. We also know that until now, Facebook has had very little investment in removing harmful content in markets outside of the United States.
So, did this troll farm, either directly or indirectly, ultimately improve Facebook's bottom line?
ISAAC: Well, that's a great point. I think -- I think you're absolutely right that for most of the company's history, they had not invested a whole lot of money on taking down some of these troll farms or other sort of manipulators.
Now, I believe they said they're going to invest up to $10 billion this year, significant part of their expenses in their annual earnings report.
But they -- you touched on an exact thing, which is the big problem, which is that politically divisive content and things that people that make people upset, go viral very quickly.
And so, Facebook is torn in two, it has this incentive to make stuff on its platform go viral, but also doesn't want to incentivize people to manipulate it and use it the wrong way.
And so, I think it has to balance those two things that are really in contrast with each other and decide at the end of the day, what's most important to them to keep the users happy and or to keep the users safe and are those mutually exclusive.
VAUSE: Yes, it's a good question. I guess one would say have to work out and I guess we'll find out because it's now called Meta. So, everything --
ISAAC: That's right.
VAUSE: Mike, thank you. appreciate your time.
ISAAC: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: Pleasure.
Well, a 4-year-old girl who went missing in Western Australia has been found alive more than two weeks after she disappeared from her family's campsite. Police say a 36-year-old man with no connection to the family is now
in custody over Cleo Smith's disappearance. This case led to a nationwide search but just hours ago, a clue led police to a home not far from Smith's, about 50 kilometers from their campsite. They say the house was locked. They broke down the door and found the girl inside.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COL BLANCH, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, WESTERN AUSTRALIA POLICE FORCE: One of the officers picked her up into his arms and asked her what's your name? She said my name is Cleo.
Cleo was reunited with her parents a short time later. This is the outcome we all hoped and prayed for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Cleo Smith is now back with her family. Her mother posted on Instagram, our family is whole again.
Well, still to come, the CDC signs off on giving the Pfizer vaccine to young children with millions of kids' size shots available. What happens next?
Also, despite a rising COVID cases in the U.K., British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the government's plan is working. He sits down with CNN in a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Because there's a big spike in COVID in this country, and it's - - the record here is worse than it is elsewhere around Europe.
JOHNSON: Well, I would dispute that.
But, anyway, go on.
AMANPOUR: Well, but the facts and the figures show it. The --
JOHNSON: Again, I would dispute that.
AMANPOUR: OK. Should I read them?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the director there has given the final greenlight for the immediate rollout of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. It's the youngest age group cleared for vaccination in the U.S.
[00:30:57] The CDC's Vaccine Advisory Committee voted unanimously in favor of the kid-sized shots on Tuesday. We have more now from CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We've just seen the same four-step process for the authorization of this vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds, as we've seen for the last year and a half now.
The FDA Advisory Committee recommended to authorize. The FDA officially authorized. The CDC advisers unanimously voted to recommend this vaccine, and now you hear from Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, to make it official.
What it really comes down to, when they make these decisions, is does the reward of recommending this vaccine outweigh the risk? Let's take a look, specifically, at the benefits of getting the vaccine.
What they find is that, for every million kids that are vaccinated -- and remember, there's about 28 million children who fall into this age range -- they find that close to 60,000 cases of COVID can be prevented. A hundred and 90 or so hospitalization, 130 cases of multi- inflammatory symptom, and 60 ICU admissions potentially prevented as a result of a million kids getting vaccinated.
Again, you know, close to 28 million kids fall into this category.
Also, there's the impact on the pandemic overall. One of the studies that came up a couple of times was a modeling study, showing that if you get about the same rate of vaccination among these 5- to 11-year- olds as you had between 12- to 17-year-olds, you could decrease the acceleration of the pandemic by about 8 percent over the next few months, potentially preventing 600,000 cases of COVID by March of next year.
Keep in mind, it's not just the kids we're talking about, but it's all the other people they might potentially transmit to over the next several months. That's why so many cases could potentially be prevented.
So, next steps, you know, these vaccine doses have already been going into pediatricians' offices and hospitals and clinics, so they should be available soon.
One thing that jumped out at me, listening to the discussion today, was overall, the side-effect profile for the vaccine for 5- to 11- year-olds was even better than you saw in older children. Fewer incidences of fever, for example, and lower incidences of myocarditis, which has been a big topic for teenagers. Myocarditis typically seems to happen after someone reaches puberty, so it really wasn't an issue in this younger age population.
Obviously, there's a lot of hesitant parents out there, but we want to be thoughtful about this, and I think the data is pretty clear, as provided right now by these two organizations. As we get more information about this, we'll certainly bring it to
you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: On the sidelines of COP26, the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, sat down with CNN's Christiane Amanpour to talk COVID and prevention and if tougher restrictions are needed to avoid a surge in COVID infections in the coming months. He's part of their discussion.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: There's a big spike in COVID in this country. And this -- the record here is worse than it is elsewhere around Europe.
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Well, I would dispute that, but go on.
AMANPOUR: Well, the facts and the figures show it. The --
JOHNSON: Again, I would dispute.
AMANPOUR: Should I -- should I read them?
JOHNSON: You can read whatever you like, but ...
AMANPOUR: Well, first of all, let me ask you the question.
JOHNSON: Yes.
AMANPOUR: You have said you're going to stick to Plan A, which is no mandatory masks, keep the vaccines going, none of the social distancing or vaccine proofs that some of the other countries are doing.
But the NHS Confederation and the British Medical Association had just come out and said, Plan B should be implemented now. In other words, masks when it's appropriate in private places, some sort of social distancing. And they -- and they're saying, you know, maybe even -- maybe even vaccine proof.
Why would you not -- it's a very cheap and easy, and people are used to mask. Why would you not do that? They say there will be, potentially, another terrible pressure on the NHS this winter.
JOHNSON: I'm watching the data the whole time. Frankly, we're all looking at the data. We've got to remain very cautious. We've got to remain humble in the face of the -- of the nature of the disease, what the disease can do.
[00:35:14]
At the moment we don't see any reason to deviate from the plan that we're on that began, really, at the beginning of the year, with the roadmap for rolling out the vaccine and getting -- getting ourselves off to a different footing. Starting to deal with COVID as something that is part of our lives but using vaccination as the primary tool. And that's what we're doing.
And I think that the most important thing for our U.K. viewers, is that they should -- they should get their third jab, get their booster. The booster is the thing.
I had a very interesting conversation with Naftali Bennett of Israel. And, you know, it's that third jab gives you a huge amount of protection. And conversely, if you don't have it, then the protection starts to wane.
And so you -- even if you've had two jabs, people need to wake up to the fact that, without the booster, they are -- they are going to be less protected.
AMANPOUR: Less than they are now --
JOHNSON: And we need them to -- to get the boosters in the way that they -- they got their first two.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And you can see more of Christiana Amanpour's interview with the British prime minister next hour, including his thoughts on the climate crisis and experience at COP26. Right here, only on CNN.
And with that, we'll take a short break. Back in a moment. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
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VAUSE: Well, more now on our top story this hour. As the third day of these crucial climate talks begins in Glasgow, we have a number of key announcements which we want to look at. These are already in the books.
More than 100 countries have committed to ending deforestation by 2030. It's a pledge which is supported by about $19 billion in public and private funding. That's crucial.
Now, of that, more than $1 billion will be earmarked specifically to protect the Congo basin.
More than 100 nations have also joined a U.S. and E.U. effort to cut methane emissions by 30 percent in the next eight years, by the end of the decade. This is important, because methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, which has a much bigger impact on global warming compared to carbon dioxide.
And the U.S. and the U.K. and the E.U., promising more than $8 billion to South Africa, to transition away from an addiction to coal. Officials say the agreement could pave the way for similar deals with other developing countries which are struggling with the financing, like South Africa was. Well, if there's to be any hope of avoiding a climate disaster, then
full commitment from the world's biggest producers of carbon emissions, the U.S. and China will be crucial.
In the United States, President Biden is pushing now for green initiatives, which is in his infrastructure bill, which is stalled before Congress. And China is now outpacing every other country in the world with producing electric vehicles.
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As CNN's David Culver reports, the race to green supremacy is finally getting started.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Devastating scenes of destruction no longer needing a Hollywood portrayal. This is real. And it's happening now.
The world turning to the U.S. and China for leadership in battling climate change. The two largest economies, also the biggest emitters of carbon. Combined, they are responsible for more than 40 percent of all global emissions.
Both sides making big promises. The U.S. pledging to reduce emissions by half of 2005 levels in 2030. China aiming to reach their peak emissions by then.
America's targeting net zero by 2050. China hoping to be carbon neutral a decade after that.
But these are promises, not guarantees. Within the U.S., energy has become more efficient. About 20 percent of electricity comes from renewables, like wind and solar. But politics has forged a void in creating consistent climate solutions.
MICHAEL DAVIDSON, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO: The U.S. has a credibility challenge. There's a lot of just tension on the U.S. and its domestic political challenges to achieving and fulfilling those climate promises. China, for its part, tends to under-promise and over-deliver.
CULVER: Under the all-powerful central government, China's challenge is its size and rapid growth.
(on camera): Shanghai, China's most developed city, is home to more than 24 million people. And keeping all of this up and going? Well, it relies on a constant power supply.
(voice-over): In recent decades, China's economy has soared. Nearly everything, it seemed, made in China. Giving this once rural, agrarian nation a massive economic boom, built mostly on fossil fuels.
(on camera): China is still heavily reliant on coal. In fact, coal provides more than 60 percent of this country's power. (voice-over): In 2019, we traveled to one of China's coal hubs, Inner
Mongolia. Coal mining, still very active. And we found continued construction of new coal power plants.
More recently, though, attempts to rein in emissions here sparked a power crisis. Chinese social media chronicling outages across the mainland. People trapped in elevators, traffic lights going dark. Panic spread as the winter cold moved in.
LI SHUO, SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR, GREENPEACE: The power crisis is a reflection of things getting deeper and real (ph). Right? We are really trying to rearrange certain parts of our economy and our power system.
CULVER: But that is all changing fast. More than a decade ago, green energy solutions on a major scale were relatively new. Today, China is the world's largest investor, manufacturer, and employer of wind and solar power.
China even promoting its green solutions as it hosts the upcoming Winter Games, pledging this to be the first Olympics with competition venues fueled 100 percent by green energy.
LI: The Chinese manufacturers are getting very competitive. The key question is for the U.S. to really carefully think about where it can play, you know, a leading role in the supply chain of renewed energy.
CULVER: The new technologies motivating nations to get creative in securing sources of energy, a power struggle on multiple fronts.
China and the U.S. competing to battle climate change might ultimately benefit the rest of the world. But at this point, it's out of necessity.
David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.
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VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. Please stay with us. I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. In the meantime, though, WORLD SPORT is up next.
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DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: -- party from responsibility for that in the minds of voters. And so, you know, they're going to have to, I think, probably try and pass these bills. It's going to be harder now. But pass these bills and show progress and be able to come back and say, We can get things done, we are moving on these issues.
And I think -- I would also advise them, if I were there, that I'd focus on these sort of day-to-day issues, the price of gas, the supply chain. I would really emphasize those things that are affecting people.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: But Gloria, I mean, if you're Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema watching this --
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. You're saying, I'm right. You're saying, look. Look at the voters in Virginia; 53 percent of the voters in Virginia think the Democratic Party is too liberal. There you go. We're on -- we're on the right side of this. If I'm a moderate running for re-election, I'm a little nervous, if I'm a moderate Democrat.
Let me say one thing here, which I think is important about Virginia, which is that there was a record-shattering turnout for an off-year election in the state of Virginia. So the good news here for everyone is that, despite the fact that Donald Trump is still trying to relitigate the last election, whatever, people came out to vote, because they thought that their votes would count.
And maybe it's because it's so-called easier to vote now. We've made it more convenience for people. I think that's a good thing. But people did vote. No matter how dysfunctional the political system is that they're seeing, they say, We've got problems. You need to fix them. And they thought that Glenn Youngkin was going to be the guy.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There's not an enthusiasm issue. You raise a great point about turnout. Because -- because on the one hand, you could argue, well, Democrats are demoralized that Biden hasn't gotten things done, so why would they show up?
Well, they did show up. I mean, it looks like Terry McAuliffe is going to get about 1.6 million votes.
BORGER: More than Northam got.
JENNINGS: Northam had 1.4 million and won running away. It's not about enthusiasm; it's about persuasion. And I think a bunch -- quite obviously, a bunch of Democrats who once voted for Northam, who once voted for Joe Biden just a year ago, showed up and voted for Glenn Youngkin tonight.
And obviously in New Jersey, the same thing happened. And so you have people who are motivated to show up. By the way, I agree. It's never been easier or more in vogue to vote, and it's a good thing.
But you obviously have people who showed up, who had been voting Democrat and said this country is off the rails, and I have to send a message. And I can't change what's happening in Washington in the Virginia governor's mansion, but I can send a message. Now, where do they go again next year? I don't know. But for right
now, the message is, there's a leadership vacuum in the United States.
BORGER: Well, and the question is, the Donald Trump. I mean, you know, they showed up to vote, and it wasn't about that they really wanted support -- to support Donald Trump. What they wanted to do was support Glenn Youngkin in this race. No matter how many press releases Donald Trump sends out.
AXELROD: Or they wanted to vote against -- or the Trump voters wanted to vote against Joe Biden.
COOPER: Van?
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think a couple things. First of all, there is no such thing any more as a low turnout election. You have that much pent-up desire for civic participation, that an off- off-year -- this is an off-year. This is off-off-year election. You have record turnout.
So that means the audience is paying attention. That's a good thing.
I'm waiting to hear now about voter fraud. I'm waiting to hear about it. Because it's all -- voter fraud, you can't trust the elections. When Republicans win, suddenly, everything's fixed. So that's going to be -- I don't want to hear about voter fraud anymore. People are participating. The system works.
But I think what David said just a few minutes ago is really important. This is a big deal. These numbers are bad. This is not some -- these are -- these are our voters. These are voters that came to us in 2018, came to us in 2020, and have abandoned us in droves in two states that should be in our column. That's a big deal. That's a -- that is -- that is a five-alarm fire.
And I think that -- look, I hope we can pass these big bills. Bill Clinton was able to turn his ship around and survive after his shellacking in '94 by doing a lot of small stuff that just let you know he was on your side.
He was talking about school uniforms. He was talking about V-chips. He was talking about all kinds. But you know what? For ordinary folks, that guy cares about me. That guy understands what I'm going through.
If this party doesn't wake up tomorrow morning and figure out how can we run back to regular folks and regular folks' issues. Now, some say what we've been talking about is good stuff, you know, helping grandmas, helping kids. But it's been buried, it's been lost in this cold, big D.C. conversation about trillions of dollars.
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We have got to, both from a legislative point of view and from a messaging point of view, start resetting with ordinary folks that we get it. Otherwise, look, we're a year out from the Trump election, looking back. And we're a year away from the midterms looking forward. You've got --
you can see how much stuff can turn in 12 months. That's the good news. That's the good news. But we've got to take this message very, very seriously tonight. It's a big deal.
JENNINGS: I just wonder. You make powerful arguments for your party's ideas. And your counsel to Democrats is to show up and have a debate about ideas, programs, plans and policies.
What McAuliffe did tonight was show up and try to turn Youngkin into Trump and make the entire thing about white supremacy, racism, Donald Trump, Glenn Youngkin. I mean, they're even talking about the fact that he was wearing, you know, a fleece vest. And that's evidence of -- you know, that's the new uniform for white -- So what you're saying is we need to have a debate in this country over policies and ideas. Which by the way, I agree with. I think that's healthy.
And the Democrats did literally the exact opposite. And they're paying for it tonight. And I wonder, will they learn that lesson going into the midterms?
BORGER: But the political system is so dysfunctional right now. The margins are so small. And the Republicans are not voting for anything. How do you get -- how do you get anything done?
JENNINGS: That's not entirely true. You had 19 in the Senate for the infrastructure.
BORGER: On the infrastructure bill, but let's talk about the second package. The second package, which you would agree contains some stuff that is interesting to a lot of Republicans. And how do you get -- how do you get any of that done?
JENNINGS: If Van is right -- if Van is right and this stuff is popular, then no Democrat should fair a debate on the issues. But in these races tonight, no Democrat wanted to debate the issues. They want to talk about Donald Trump. And I wonder, if it's as popular as you say, why aren't they willing to engage?
JONES: I appreciate, and I always have, that you do want to talk about the issues. And I think you've been true to that your whole career.
What I will say is, it's not just Democrats that sometimes wander off in those other directions. The Republican Party, mixed in with some of the stuff that I think you would like.
I don't think that this CRT stuff -- and I'm going to keep beating the drum, because it really lands badly with me -- is good. I think some of this stuff is dog whistling.
And so, look, both parties can see now that there's -- that there's a way forward. This guy was more substantive and less inflammatory than Donald Trump. It paid off for him. I hope Republicans take that seriously.
But for Democrats, I think that we've got some ideas that we have not even been able to communicate, in terms of making some errors ourselves. We need to get back to that.
COOPER: In a healthy Republican Party, I assume some Republicans would -- if the party was health, would look at this and say, Oh, well, you know what? The path -- there's a path away from the former president. We don't need to be beholden to this guy.
But I mean, you're not -- you don't believe that that -- I mean, your happiness tonight is because Donald Trump is not front and center right now in the Republican Party. Glenn Youngkin in.
JENKINS: I'm happy tonight. No, I'm happy tonight, because the Republican Party proved you can run an issues-based campaign, compete in a blue state, and win. That's what I'm happy about. Whether it was Glenn Youngkin or somebody else.
The fact that he had the wherewithal to run a platform on the issues that people care about and put it forward and have enough confidence in that to run a race in a blue state and say, I've got conservative solutions to the problems you care about. He did it in a blue state, and he has won the race. That's what I'm happy about.
Because Trump never did that. Let's be honest. He had ideas about certain things. And it touched nerves in the electorate. He never even had a platform last year. And so in this race, there's an issue agenda. It was put forward to the voters, and they accepted it. And that's what I want Republicans to do.
AXELROD: Listen, he was a good candidate. He ran a good campaign. Candidates and campaigns matter. OK. And you know, I always look at a campaign, and I think, who is dictating the terms of the decision when you get to the polling place? Who's message is resonating for?
And Youngkin seized control of this race. Now, he scooped up the football when McAuliffe fumbled it on the issue of parents and schools and took out of context somewhat what McAuliffe said and did do what Van said, which was dog whistling.
So to the extent that Republican candidates take away the message that you can have a P.G. version of Trump, arouse his base, and still win, that wouldn't be a good outcome here. But that, I don't think, is what's going to happen.
JENNINGS: I have to say, you guys, this idea, you all keep saying it's dog whistling, and they're touching on these race issues. Glenn Youngkin ran around the state of Virginia with an African-American woman, who's now the first lieutenant governor, African-American female, and an Hispanic candidate for attorney general. It was a diverse ticket. It looked and sounded like America.
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And you all keep saying the only reason he's winning is because he's doing racist dog whistling. Meantime, he's put together this diverse --
(CROSSTALK) AXELROD: I didn't say that was the only reason he was winning. I just said that he did do that. And the fact is --
JONES: He did pick on Toni Morrison. Look, I love -- you see the good in your candidate. I think that's great. But you also have to acknowledge, if you really want to run issues, what the heck does Toni Morrison have to do with anything? Why do you think he decided to jump on Toni Morrison?
JENNINGS: Because he did not like or approve of the content that is in the book or think that it is appropriate for children. That's why.
JONES: It's a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a national treasure.
JENNINGS: Could you read it on this air right now?
JONES: First of all, it would be very, very long. I mean, first of all, it's a very long book. So we wouldn't have enough time.
BORGER: There's lots of great books you couldn't read on the air.
JENNINGS: I know. And that was the issue. Was -- Is it appropriate? That's why he put it forward.
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JENNINGS: Was it the decider of the race? I don't know. But that's why he put it forward.
JONES: I -- I just can't believe that you actually believe that there's a reason that this tough works. And he's poking at stuff, and he's picking at scabs. And for all of the good that he did, he also did that. And that is bad, and it shouldn't be. You should apologize for the dynamic. It is happening.
You've got to get more of that out of your party. I've got to get the elitism out of my party. I get -- I've got to get the moralizing out of my party. But you've got to get some of this racial dog whistling out of your party.
AXELROD: Well, also, let's get -- I mean, when we're talking about schools, parents of course, should be involved in their schools. But politicians shouldn't be involved in their schools. You've got a legislator down in Texas, who has a list of 825 books that he would -- that he thinks are inappropriate for the schools and he's calling school boards and investigating which school boards -- which -- and some of the books are classic books.
That's not where we want to be as a country. And I'll tell you something, if you push that too hard, you're going to kick those suburban voters right back to the Democrats. So I would just be cautious about this.
BORGER: Here's another thing, which is that Youngkin was an outsider and not involved in politics, didn't have a long political resume, won a convention, not a primary. Didn't know a lot about him. Looked passable enough. Very hard to kind of say, Oh, he's Donald Trump. You know, he didn't appear like Donald Trump.
And I think that helped him tremendously.
AXELROD: Yes.
BORGER: And I think, as you look towards other races, I mean, Donald Trump was an outsider, to a great degree. As you look towards other ways, the question is what happens to professional politicians, versus people who are coming into a very dysfunctional political system.
And I think that Youngkin in another way may be a template for 2022 for Republicans, if they -- Or Democrats, for that matter.
Will outsiders sort of say, OK, the system is broken. It's ridiculous. It doesn't work. Joe Biden had been in politics for -- in the Senate for 36 years and politics forever. And maybe that is something also to take away.
AXELROD: One of the -- I mean, one of the reasons that Republicans did well in 2020, in the House races, is they recruited in a different way. They were all male, all white, basically, in the House, with very few exceptions. They went out and recruited a bunch of candidates who -- women, some candidates of color and so on.
And you're touting, as you should, the diversity of your ticket. I suspect they will learn some lessons from that.
The question that just looms over all of it is what do you do about Trump? What do you do about Trumpism?
And you know, I agree with you that you would have to say that the strategy failed. It failed -- it will end up failing narrowly in Virginia. But there is a real issue, which is where do you stand on Trump? Because Trump is, you know, clearly setting up to run again. He's made that clear.
And ultimately, do you feel any obligation to stand up to someone who is basically suggesting that the -- not basically. He's suggesting the election is stolen, that the system is corrupt. He is encouraging, you know, insurrectionists, or has.
You've been very outspoken on these things. And I think the idea that you can, as a party, say we're just going to put that aside, and we're not going to talk about it. And if we don't mention it, it's all right, even as he is the most -- and anybody would acknowledge this -- the most powerful force in your party. You cannot be a nominee in the Republican Party without his imprimatur, which is why Glenn Youngkin accepted his imprimatur.
