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U.S. and China's Leader to Meet Virtually; Steve Bannon Charge with Contempt of Congress; Belarus Facing Pressure from Polish Authorities; Car Explosion Killed One in England. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 15, 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 here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead on CNN Newsroom, real issues for a virtual summit. U.S. President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping will meet just hours from now to talk out their differences over Video Link.

Migrants stuck at the Belarus/Poland border could soon be on the move. Polish forces are on standby. And the E.U. is threatening new sanctions.

Plus, fears of holiday COVID surges in the U.S. and Europe, how countries on both sides of the Atlantic are preparing.

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

CHURCH: Good to have you with us.

Well, the highly anticipated virtual summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart is set to take place in the coming hours as both nations look to ease recent tensions. Mr. Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have spoken twice on the phone. But this will be the first meeting between the two men since the U.S. president took office.

And it comes after tensions have flared over Taiwan, trade, and human rights. President Xi has hinted at a slight warming of relations, saying his country is willing to boost cooperation and get the two sides back on track.

CNN's Steven Jiang joins us now from Beijing. Good to see you, Steven. So, what are the expectations?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Well, Rosemary, thorny issues are plenty as you mentioned, but expectations are low because this relationship often described as the world's most important diplomatic relationship has been in a nose dive for quite some time especially during the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump. But things didn't really pick up since Mr. Biden took office as some

had hoped or expected because Mr. Biden has kept most of Mr. Trump's China policies and measures and also stated his goal is to form this united front against an increasingly powerful and some would say aggressive Beijing with U.S. allies and partners especially among likeminded democracies.

And that obviously has upset many officials here in Beijing with them considering this approach would pose even greater threat to the Chinese government than Mr. Trump's going at it alone approach. That problem explains the ratcheting up of rhetoric and actions taken by both sides in the past few months on issues ranging from Taiwan to trade to cybersecurity, to tech, and human rights of course.

And that's something very close to President Biden's heart with him saying repeatedly he wants to put human rights and democracy at the forefront of his foreign policy agenda to blunt the rise of authoritarianism around the world. That obviously a trend led by China and its leader Xi Jinping.

So given how wide those gaps remain on so many critically important issues between the two governments, few expect to see major breakthroughs on their disputes and disagreements. So, the point of this meeting, according to many, is to put a floor on that freefall in this relationship to lower the temperature, and also to keep communication channels open including at the very top to avoid any strategic miscalculation that would cause harm not only to bilateral ties but also potentially global peace and prosperity. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Steven Jiang joining us live from Beijing, many thanks.

Joining me now with more on what we can expect from this summit is CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. Good to have you with us.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good to be with you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So, the White House down playing expectations for this virtual summit. But the two leaders will be discussing Taiwan, trade, cyber threats, climate change, human rights. So, which of these issues will likely prove to be the most pressing, and which ones are open to cooperation and perhaps progress, or presumably with all of that to discuss, there's going to be some progress here?

SANGER: Well, I think there are some areas of progress. I think it was a little bit of a surprise that China signed onto as much as it did in the end out of the climate conference, COP26. But the areas for cooperation are relatively thin here, Rosemary. And a few of them are new.

[03:05:00]

You know, while we're hearing the administration say we want to put guardrails on the relationship, we want to make sure that we don't trip into conflict, the competition is fine, but conflict needs to be avoided.

I think we -- they may be sort of whistling past what's happened in some past efforts of that. You may remember that it was just six years ago, six or seven years ago when President Obama had President Xi to Washington, and it had been right after a major cyberattack that the Chinese managed to steal a huge amount of data out of the Office of Personnel Management.

They came to a cyber agreement, and President Xi said don't worry about the South China Sea, we don't plan on militarizing it. Well, since that time, the degree of cyber conflict has risen in the South China Sea areas that are Chinese are working are highly militarized.

So, I think there is reason to question right now whether or not the kind of agreements they make here now are basically sort of papering things over or whether or not they would actually be substantive.

CHURCH: And what do you think is likely?

SANGER: Well, I think what's likely is that they're going to say that they came to understand each other better. These are two people who spent a fair bit amount of time together in a previous era. When President Biden was vice president and also when President Xi had not yet ascended

Xi is now obviously in a much more secure position. I think he's got reason to question after Afghanistan and other events whether or not President Biden actually would make a stand, say, to fully defend Taiwan with military forces as opposed to support or whether or whether or not the United States actually is going to be able to carry through on the set of industrial policies that are coming together in the U.S. to try to compete with China in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and so forth.

So, I think that what Xi wants right now is a period of calm between now and his party Congress. So, he'll probably say a few things that will lower the temperature.

CHURCH: Right. And of course, this will be the first meeting between the two leaders since President Biden took office apart from those two phone calls we mentioned. How significant is this, and how might their personal relationship play into this meeting, do you think?

SANGER: Well, it's a really great question. Because this question of how much personal relationship can you develop over what is essentially a secure Zoom call, right? And it's a little bit hard to read. The White House is saying this is better than just having a phone conversation that lasts 45 minutes or so. They expected this will probably go on for several hours.

Seeing somebody by video allows you to pick up body language and so forth and allow other members of President Biden's group, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, the national security adviser Jake Sullivan, to enter into conversations simultaneously with their counterparts will bring them into the conversation. But it's not the same as sitting down with somebody taking a walk with

them the way Ronald Reagan used to do with Gorbachev. So, it's something of an in-between, between a phone call and a real summit.

CHURCH: David Sanger, many thanks for talking with us. I appreciate it.

SANGER: Great to be with you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Ahead of the Biden/Xi summit, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the administration was closely watching China's real estate crisis.

Yellen spoke with CBS' Face the Nation about China's financial situation and how it could affect the rest of the world.

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MARGARET BRENNAN, MODERATOR, CBS: There are fears about toxic debt in China and a potential Lehman Brothers moment. How concerned are you about the risk to the rest of the world by what's going on inside of China right now?

JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: A slowdown in China, of course, would have global consequences. China's economy is large, and if China's economy were to slow down more than expected, it certainly could have consequences for many countries that are linked to China through trade.

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CHURCH (on camera): Today is also a big day for President Biden on the home front. In the coming hours he will sign off on the roughly $1 trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure bill, fulfilling a key campaign promise. The massive piece of legislation will help fix America's roads and bridges, modernize transit and rail systems and expand broadband access.

And now we know who will be coordinating all that spending. Mr. Biden has tapped former New Orleans Louisiana Mayor Mitch Landrieu to oversee implementation of the bill.

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Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to turn himself in, in the coming hours. He is facing two charges of contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

But Bannon may not be the last member of Trump's inner circle to face charges. Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows snubbed the same committee on Friday when he failed to show up for a deposition. And if he continues refusing to cooperate, one lawmaker says the committee won't hesitate to act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): We have been moving very quickly to make these decisions. And I'm confident we'll move very quickly with respect to Mr. Meadows. But when ultimately, witnesses decide, as Meadows has, --

UNKNOWN: Yes.

SCHIFF: -- that they're not even going to bother showing up, that they have that much contempt for the law, then it pretty much forces our hand and we'll move quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Zachary Cohen has the latest now from Washington

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN U.S. SECURITY REPORTER: Steven Bannon is expected to turn himself in Monday sources tell CNN, after he was indicted on two counts of contempt of Congress last week. A federal judge signed an arrest warrant for Bannon, but he's being given the opportunity to surrender voluntarily which should lead to an arraignment in court. If convicted, Bannon could face up to one year in prison for each count of contempt.

While conviction is far from certain, the indictment alone is a major win for the House select committee investigating January 6th as they're trying to understand exactly what took place around the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Members of the committee believe Bannon's indictment will send a message to other witnesses who have resisted cooperating including Trump's former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Meadows failed to show up for his own scheduled deposition last week. And the committee says it is thinking about moving to hold him in contempt as well.

Unlike Bannon, Meadows is working in the White House in the leadup to January 6th, making the potential case against him a little bit different than it is for Bannon. The committee clearly has a lot of questions for Meadows including, for instance, whether he used a personal cell phone during that time.

They'll also have questions about a memo that was allegedly sent to Vice President Mike Pence in the lead up to January 6th to try to convince him not to certify the election, that memo just now coming to light in a new book from ABC's John Karl.

Whether any of this leads to more cooperation from Meadows remains to be seen.

Zachary Cohen, CNN, Washington.

CHURCH: The pressure is building at Europe's border crisis. Coming up, thousands of migrants in the middle of a standoff between Belarus and the European Union.

Plus, counterterrorism officers are investigating a deadly car blast in England. The details, ahead. [03:15:00]

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CHURCH (on camera): With no resolution to the Belarusian/Polish border crisis in sight, a confrontation could be on the horizon. The Polish border guard claims dozens of migrants are getting help from Belarusian forces to try to break through the border.

They reported seeing tents coming down and migrants getting instructions from the Belarusian officials. Poland issued a mass warning to phones in the area on Saturday that the border is sealed and migrants should go back to Minsk. Many of the migrants are from Iraq and Syria.

And Lithuania is also reporting a spike in people looking to enter its territory from Belarus. Iraq's foreign ministry says it will send the first repatriation flight for Iraqi citizens in Belarus on Thursday. The Polish ministry of defense says its forces in the border area are on standby.

And we have the latest from Matthew Chance at a migrant camp in Belarus near the border with Poland, and Jomana Karadsheh is in Istanbul. Good to see you both.

So, Matthew, let's start with you. What's going on at the border right now, and where's all this going?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes. Let me paint a picture for you, Rosemary of where we actually are. You can see we are in Bruzgi refugee camp now essentially. It's right on the border with Poland.

You can see there the razor-wire fences that's been erected on the Polish side to prevent these migrants from mainly Iraqi-Kurdistan but also Syria and Afghanistan and other countries as well getting across into Poland into the European Union.

You can see the Polish police there, the border police that have lined up along this fence to prevent these migrants from cutting through the razor-wire fence and getting into European Union territory. A lot of them say that they want to go through Poland to Germany where they're looking for sort of economic opportunities.

Let me take you to a walk through this camp a little bit. You can see these makeshift shelters that have been built. There are some tents right now. But a lot of times people have gone into the forest, cut down bows of trees and built their own shelters. That's pretty poor conditions.

These sleeping bags have arrived quite recently over here. Look, so they weren't here where last time we came a couple of days ago. But the whole camp is filled with this choking smoke. People have been lighting fires to try and keep warm. The conditions are getting increasingly cold. It's about two degrees centigrade now. And at night it dips below freezing. And of course, the real depts of the winter have yet to arrive.

And so, you know, the people here are already desperate, caught in between this razor-wire fence. And the Pols -- excuse me, on this side and of course the Belarusian authorities on the other side.

Sorry, I've got smoke that's blowing into my eyes. It really is quite sort of overwhelming here. I don't quite frankly know how these people are standing it. But yes, they are desperate situation, the Pols on the one side, the Belarusians on the other. And these desperate migrants are caught in the middle, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Absolutely. Matthew, many thanks for that. Jomana, let's go to you now. Why are we seeing Iraqi migrants flooding the border, and what's the Iraqi government planning to do about this?

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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you saw there, Rosemary, in Matthew's report, a lot of the migrants and refugees who are ending up on the border are from Iraq's Kurdistan region. And a lot of people have been asking this question of why are Iraqi Kurds leaving in their thousands, and they have been for months right now.

This is a more stable part of the country. It has been seen as relatively more stable and more safe. But when you talk to people in the Kurdistan region, they say it is the economic situation, it is the high unemployment, it is that feeling that there is no hope where they are right now.

So, they are desperately trying to find that better life for them, for their children, for their future, and the only way people believe they can do this, Rosemary, is by getting to Europe. And people in the past and continue to use the sea route going through Turkey, for example, trying to cross the Aegean, crossing the Mediterranean also.

You see a lot of Iraqis and Syrians and Iraqi-Kurds still trying to do this journey. So, when this new route opened up basically a few months ago, a lot of people saw this as a safer way to try and get to Europe.

And you know, Iraqis have a difficult time obtaining visas for so many countries. So, when earlier this year Belarus made it much easier for them to get visas, so many people turned to this route. They started getting visas and trying to travel as we heard from Iraqi officials over the past few days and weeks, they say that they have been exploited by smugglers and traffickers inside the country and in Belarus.

They have also, they're being used by certain countries, they say, as political pawns in this standoff between the E.U. and Belarus. So, right now as we're hearing Iraqi officials in Baghdad and in the Kurdish region continuing to say that they are working to try and stop people from going.

They have -- the Iraqis stopped flights back in August. There were no direct flights to Belarus. People found a workaround. They got to other destinations like Istanbul or Dubai or Damascus. But this has become increasingly more difficult. More and more airlines now are restricting access to these flights.

They are stopping Iraqis and Syrians and others from getting on these flights to Minsk. So, it is harder, but a lot of people would tell you, Rosemary, that the Iraqi leadership, whether in Erbil or in Baghdad, they need to address the root cause of it, what is making people feel so desperate, so hopeless that they are continuing to try these very dangerous and desperate routes to get to Europe?

CHURCH: Yes. Exactly right. Jomana Karadsheh, many thanks for bringing us up to date on that story. I appreciate it.

In England, police have arrested three men under the Terrorism Act after a car explosion killed one person and injured another near a Liverpool hospital. The suspects are all in their 20s. And police say they're keeping an open mind as to what caused Sunday's explosion involving a taxi.

London's mayor tweeted this. London stands with Liverpool. My thoughts are with everyone affected by the terrible incident.

And for more on this we want to bring in CNN's Scott McLean. He joins us live from London. Good to see you, Scott. So, what more are you learning about this deadly car explosion, and of course the three men arrested?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Rosemary, yes. What's remarkable here is that we're almost 24 hours on and we have very little information as to what actually transpired. We are getting little bits, though, as time goes on.

The BBC is now quoting a witness who said that he heard an explosion, he was inside the hospital at the time, he looked outside and saw a bloodied man screaming and getting out of that car. There was a second person still in that vehicle. We can only assume that that was the victim who died.

We have no confirmation as to who that person was and what may have been inside that taxi to make it explode or catch fire. The mayor has advised that for the next 24 hours, possibly longer, no new appointments would be taking place at the hospital while police investigating and obviously there's going to be a stepped-up police presence inside the city for the next few days.

Now, this bears a lot of resemblance at least on the surface to past terror attacks. The mayor -- or sorry, the prime minister is calling it an awful incident. The mayor is calling it unsettling and upsetting. But no one is calling it terrorism, despite the fact that the anti-terror police are investigating as well.

[03:24:56]

What we know for sure is that the call to police came in just before 11 o'clock in the morning that this explosion had taken place outside of the Liverpool Women's Hospital. This is a facility, a massive facility, it takes up almost an entire city block. It specializes in women's health more broadly, and in delivering babies as well. And what's interesting, and you can see why police are, you know,

thinking that this perhaps could be terrorism, is that this call came in at 10:59 a.m. Yesterday across the U.K. was remembrance Sunday honoring Britain's war dead. There was a two-minute moment of silence, one minute after that call came in at 11 a.m., there was also a parade taking place, a small parade taking place at the liberal -- or the Liverpool cathedral.

Again, this is less than one mile from that hospital. And in the hours that followed, you mentioned, as well, police arrested three men in their 20s. That was about a mile to the north of the women's hospital. They also cordoned off and evacuated several houses on a street about a mile or so to the southeast of the hospital. But again, Rosemary, reliable information still even at this point is pretty tough to come by.

CHURCH: Yes. All right, we'll continue to stay on it of course. Scott McLean joining us live from London. Many thanks.

MCLEAN: OK.

CHURCH: Well, there's much more to come here on CNN. We will check in on the COVID vaccination numbers in the U.S. and hear why one expert says it's especially important to be fully protected going into the holiday season.

Plus, countries in Europe cut off the unvaccinated from public life. More on the new measures restricting what they can do and where they can go. That's after a short break. Back in just a moment.

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CHURCH (on camera): The pace of COVID vaccinations in the U.S. is picking up with millions more people now eligible for the shot. More than 195 million Americans are fully vaccinated. That's according to the CDC. And that is almost 59 percent of the total U.S. population. Among that group, about 29 million have now received an additional booster dose as well.

And as we've mentioned, more than a million children ages 5 to 11 have gotten their first dose just two weeks after the FDA authorized the vaccine for that age group.

Dr. Ashish Jha is the dean of Brown University's school of public health and joins me now from Providence, Rhode Island. Thank you so much, doctor, for all that you do and for joining us.

ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Thank you for having me back, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Absolutely. So, according to the CDC, nearly 59 percent of the total U.S. population is fully vaccinated. And more than one million children under 12 have received their first COVID shot. But former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb says there will be a

post-holiday COVID spike. And he thinks it will get worse before it gets better, particularly in those states that have very low vaccination rates. Do you agree with him, and when do you think we'll start to emerge from this pandemic?

JHA: Yes. Unfortunately, I think Dr. Gottlieb is right. I think we are looking forward to -- or looking ahead to about six to eight weeks of difficult times in the United States. We have about 80,000 infections a day right now. That's actually up a little bit in the last couple of weeks. I expect those numbers to rise in the upcoming week, especially with Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays that are coming.

I do think January will be better, but the next couple of months are going to be pretty tough.

CHURCH: So, with the holidays upon us, what would your advice be to everyone to sort of avoid the six to eight weeks that lie ahead of us and the problems that many people experience in those times?

JHA: Yes. So, number one is absolutely for people to get vaccinated. If you're not vaccinated, if your kids are not vaccinated, it is safe to get together over the holidays if you're vaccinated. It is much, much, much riskier if you are not.

For other who have been vaccinated I would say if you're more than six months out from your vaccine, get a booster shot. Those are widely available, and they offer another level of protection. And then just being careful around the holidays, particularly around vulnerable people is a good idea. But I do think this is a holiday where we can get together safely if we follow those precautions.

CHURCH: Right. And you did mention the booster shot. U.S. surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy is encouraging people to get vaccinated, of course, and for those who are eligible to get a booster shot. But there's still a reluctant portion of the population here in the U.S. and across parts of Europe, the anti-vaxxer who's don't appear to remember polio or smallpox. How do you educate and convince these people that getting vaccinated will end this pandemic?

JHA: Yes. It's difficult. Obviously, it's been an effort for a while now. But unfortunately, I think the misinformation directed towards Americans and Europeans and others is very well organized and done by parties with ulterior motives.

We've got to keep talking to people and engaging people and addressing the concerns that they have. I think there are a lot of legitimate questions that people still have that we still have to answer. I also think policies like mandates can make a big difference.

CHURCH: Of course, with COVID again surging in Europe, Austria is now ordering lockdowns just for the unvaccinated for the next 10 days or so, and any violators will be fined if they don't stay in their homes unless they want to get out and buy some goods, of course, food and other requirements. But is that what will ultimately need to be done in other countries as

well, given this is now a pandemic of the unvaccinated?

JHA: Yes. You know, I have to say I'm pretty skeptical of any policy that directs lockdowns just towards unvaccinated people. What I would much prefer is mandates for public gatherings, for workplaces. I think that's a much more compelling way to get people vaccinated. We'll see what the Austria experience is and if it works.

But I think taking one part of the population and treating them differently in that way is just hard to sustain for any extended period of time.

CHURCH: Of course, we've seen some work groups, some unions, some Republican governors push back on any effort to put vaccine mandates in place. So what would your advice be there? What should happen?

JHA: Well, advice is I think we're all getting tired of this pandemic. We're 20, 22 months in. We need to put this pandemic behind us. We need to bring the acute phase of the pandemic to a close.

[03:35:01]

There's really one major path out and that is vaccines. For Republican governors and others who are opposed to mandates, if they have better ideas for getting a lot more people vaccinated I think all of us would be open to it. But the ultimately, the key goal is to get a lot more people vaccinated so we can bring this pandemic to a close.

CHURCH: All right. Dr. Ashish Jha, always a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you so much.

JHA: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, countries in Europe are in crisis mode as rising COVID infections prompt new restrictions. And starting today, as we just heard, Austria is enforcing lockdown measures for the unvaccinated after reporting record case numbers last week.

Meantime, Germany is also restricting access to public spaces in Berlin for residents who haven't had the jab yet. Proof of vaccination is now needed to enter restaurants, bars, gyms, and other businesses.

Barbie Nadeau joins me now from Rome with the latest. Good to see you, Barnie. So, how exactly will this lockdown for the unvaccinated in Austria work? And what has the reaction to this strategy been so far?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, the reaction is mixed. Of course, those people who have been vaccinated think this is a great idea. They're vaccinated, they're protecting themselves and others. But the people who haven't been vaccinated for various reasons aren't quite so happy about it. Let's see what we heard in Austria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NADEAU (voice over): Protesters gather in Vienna ahead of new restrictions now in effect in Austria and other parts of Europe that target the unvaccinated.

Officials from the World Health Organization say Europe is once again at the center of the pandemic. And some governments are getting tough on those who have not been vaccinated by limiting what they can do and where they can go.

In Austria, anyone 12 and older who is not fully vaccinated is under a stay-at-home order. That means no going out unless it's for work, taking a walk, or other essential purposes. Though, children ages 12 to 15 who are regularly tested under government standards can participate in some public activities.

UNKNOWN (through translator): I think it's very discriminating because I'm allowed to go to work, but the rest of the day I have to stay at home.

NADEAU: With only 65 percent of Austria's population fully vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the lowest rates in western Europe, millions of people are now under lockdown, again. Though there are some exemptions for those who are recently recovered from the virus.

Officials say the lockdown will initially last 10 days, and there will be stiff fines for those who don't comply, which will be enforced through spot checks.

KARL NEHAMMER, AUSTRIA MINISTER OF INTERIOR (through translator): Every citizen, every person living in Austria must be aware that they can be checked by the police at any time.

NADEAU: Germany's capital Berlin also signaling out the unvaccinated who did under new restrictions called 2G can no longer dine indoors in restaurants or go to bars and other venues. Those privileges are now only for vaccinated and those who can show proof of recent recovery from COVID-19.

The targeted measures come as Germany has some of the highest daily numbers of new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. Not everyone is happy with the new tactics. Business owners must now turn away customers if they don't meet the criteria. But some who implemented the rules while they were still optional say there is a sense of relief that come from them.

UNKNOWN (through translator): For me and my employees, it makes things easier at work. The customers are also more relaxed. We don't always have to check if customers are wearing their mask when's they get up.

NADEAU: Tough consequences for the unvaccinated. But with soaring new cases of COVID-19 in Europe, some governments are shifting their tone for those who have not taken the vaccine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NADEAU (on camera): So, you see, it's really very variable with the reaction to this. You know, we've seen places like in Italy where the vaccination rates are very, very high. The numbers are not crawling up quite as quickly. You know, we've had a green pass here to go into restaurants and other establishments for quite some time.

Mask mandate has always been in effect here. So, you see the reactions based on each country are different, and then the people are very, very vulnerable to what the government of their countries have mandated. Rosemary?

CHURCH: It is pretty fascinating to see how all the different countries are responding to this. Barbie Nadeau, many thanks for joining us live there from Rome. I appreciate it.

Well, young children in Israel could soon be rolling up their sleeves for a COVID shot. The Israeli health ministry has accepted a recommendation from scientists to start vaccinating children 5 to 11 with the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.

Pfizer has said its vaccine was about 91 percent effective in preventing COVID symptoms in young kids in its trials. Experts will determine when these vaccinations will begin in the coming days.

And just ahead here on CNN, mixed reviews for the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow. Why some say it was an insult to millions of people.

[03:40:01]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH (on camera): Activists and world leaders are now setting their sights on COP27 next year in Egypt, and offering mixed assessments about whether anything was achieved in Glasgow.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is touting the COP26 Agreement that was reached in Scotland. He says the deal reaffirms the importance of trying to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and it's the first time they have published a mandate to cut the use of coal. Others are deeply disappointed. They argue the Pac did not meet the urgency of the climate crisis.

And for more on this we want to bring in CNN's Nina dos Santos, she joins us live from London. Great to see you, Nina.

So, mixed reviews on Glasgow's COP26 Climate Summit. What was the overall assessment, and was anything truly achieved here?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you ask the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, it was delight and disappointment. Others might put it more strongly in saying there was a mixture of grief and relief in the room, depending on which side of the climate change debate you stand and also which type of big country you are, whether you're an enormous emerging market like India and China that thwarted the attempt to try and phase out coal.

Or if you're an island nation say, in Micronesia, which is extremely worried about the effects change, it really is a life and death debacle. And those are the points that have been make consistently in Glasgow over in the course of the last weeks. Ultimately, the COP26 negotiations had to run into overtime over the course of the weekend on that contentious issue of fossil fuels, and in particular, of coal.

[03:44:52]

Now, you'll remember that eventually we saw Alok Sharma, the minister, the government minister of the U.K. responsible for hosting these negotiations having an almost tearful press conference over the course of the weekend, saying finally we've done it, but I am disappointed that at the last-minute plans to phase out coal in the final communique were watered down to phase down coal.

And that was said to be down to pressure coming from two economies in particular China and India, big carbon emitters here, saying that eventually they wouldn't back a statement that planned to phase out coal.

Some people might say well, if you look at the energy crisis, the places like China heavy reliant on coal are facing at the moment some factories having to shut down amid power shortages, perhaps that brought to attention how sharp this transition is supposed to be by the year 2030.

But those who are the optimists look at this deal and say well, it does two things. One, it's the first time that fossil fuel limits have actually been agreed upon in this type of format. And also, as Boris Johnson was keen to put out it keeps this concept of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrialize levels alive.

So, it keeps that 1.5 degree target alive. And that is an important thing. Also, it aims, as you said, to reconvene this party in a year's time in Egypt to try and reinforce some of those commitments that they've made here with more important targets.

They're also bilateral agreements on the sidelines of COP26, as you point out, Rosemary. Most notably, the United States and China are going to cooperate on methane reduction on decarbonization and things like that, and another hundred countries trying to pledge to stop deforestation and again control methane.

So, there were bilateral agreements that were helpful. There was eventually this attempt to try and keep the climate change movement alive and those targets.

Activists like Green Peace though say, and Greta Thunberg, of course, that this COP26 overall missed grasping the urgency of the climate emergency that the world is facing though.

CHURCH: All right. Nina dos Santos joining us live from London. Many thanks.

Schools and government offices in New Delhi are now closed for a week as severe air pollution blankets the city. Thick smog has hung over the Indian capital for days. And air pollution levels in and around the city are expected to remain poor. CNN's Vedika Sud joins us now live from New Delhi. So, Vedika, what is

latest on this severe air pollution that's closing schools and buildings? And what's government saying about it?

VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER: Rosemary, you can see a haze or smog behind me. It's not as thick as it was this morning. And over the weekend the pollution levels have come down comparatively when you actually think of the days that have gone by. The last two weeks they're having parts of Delhi and surrounding areas that have reported severe to very severe pollution levels.

Now children were just about to go back to school and they have since the first of November here in Delhi because the pandemic numbers have come down, COVID-19 cases have gone down in Delhi, and the Delhi government took a call to reopen schools just to shut them all over again and this time it's because of air pollution.

Rosemary, you and I have spoken about this in the last two years. We've spoken about how pollution seems to be a permanent problem in the winter season in Delhi in surrounding areas. A lot of reasons have been attributed for heavy pollution levels in Delhi. That's burning that's happening in surrounding states when farmers burn the crops to clear their fields to sow seeds for the winter season.

Along with that industrial pollution as well as also emissions from other sources. Now, according to the Delhi government, they have been taking steps to do whatever they can to reduce the pollution levels.

But clearly, if you look around me, there's been no permanent solution to this problem because the Supreme Court has once again intervened, this time because a 17-year-old student actually put in a petition in the Supreme Court asking what the government is really doing about pollution levels in and around Delhi, because it's impacting not only the students but also the economy.

Because construction work has also stopped now for the next three days here in Delhi. Dust is another factor along with open waste burning that attribute to the pollution levels. The Supreme Court has now intervened.

They are expecting both the Delhi government which is ruled by a regional party and the central government which is ruled by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party to come up with solutions and these solutions have to be very permanent in nature and not just a quick fix for the years to come.

Because it's seen that over the years both the state government as well as central government have been reactive more than proactive in finding solutions.

Now, when you inhale this smog and this pollution, it leads to a respiratory issue, and children and adults have been complaining of this. Also, air purifiers inside rooms is not helping. I live close to Delhi. I have three air purifiers at home. But still the air quality inside my home is very poor currently. Rosemary?

[03:50:10]

CHURCH: All right. Vedika Sud, many thanks for bringing us that report live from New Delhi. Take good care.

Well next here on CNN Newsroom, growing concerns over Queen Elizabeth's health after the British monarch cancelled what would have been her first public appearance in weeks. We're back with that in just a moment.

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CHURCH (on camera): Welcome back, everyone. Well, Cuba is bracing for protests on Monday. The same day the island nation begins to reopen to tourists. The government is ready to welcome foreign visitors once again following what it calls a successful COVID vaccination campaign.

But opposition groups plan to use the day to demand greater freedoms and the release of jailed activists. Cuba's government is already cracking down surrounding the homes of activists on Sunday, including well-known playwright Yunior Garcia.

[03:54:55]

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted his support to the opposition, calling on the Cuban government to demonstrate respect for human rights.

Buckingham Palace says a sprained back forced Queen Elizabeth to cancel her planned appearance at Sunday's Remembrance Day event. The ceremony which honors the U.K. war dead went ahead. Prince Charles, who turned 73 on Sunday, laid a wreath on his mother's behalf.

The ceremony has always had great significance for the queen. She is commander in chief of the British Armed Forces, and she served in the auxiliary during World War II. Despite growing concerns about the 95- year-old monarch's health, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said she looked well when he saw her last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I just wanted to reassure everybody by saying that I did see the queen from the audience last week on Wednesday in Windsor, and she's very well. So, I just, it shouldn't need saying, but I just wanted to say it anyway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): U.S. President Joe Biden has long paid tribute to his family's Irish roots. And on Saturday he celebrated the Irish rugby team's 29 to 20 victory over New Zealand All Blacks. The president called the Irish rugby football union from his retreat at Camp David. Team members chanted USA and asked for an invitation to the White House. On Sunday a pub in Ireland tweeted this clip from that video call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm proud of

you, guys. Great win, man. Great win.

UNKNOWN: Great win really.

BIDEN: By the way, when I was down in New Zealand not long ago, I was bragging about you guys. They almost didn't let me off the island. Do you know what I mean? Congratulations, fellas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): Yes, they loved that call. Thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. CNN Newsroom continues now with Max Foster.

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