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W.H.O. Warns Governments to Prepare for Omicron; U.S. Extends Mask Mandates for Travel; Non-Profit Rescues 9-Year-Old Afghan Girl Sold into Marriage; IOC Says It Held Second Call with Chines Tennis Star. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired December 03, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: The variant had been found in five states. The U.S. president has laid out his strategy for COVID testing, as well as vaccinations. Mr. Biden said the U.S. will face the new variant without lockdowns and from a position he says of readiness. We'll of course have much more on those two stories in the next 20 minutes or so right here on CNN.
Now, more countries across the world are reporting cases of the Omicron variant. In Germany's taking a major step -- as we told you earlier in the show -- to really fight a surging COVID infections mainly driven by the Delta variant. Unvaccinated people there are now on lockdown. Banned from all but the most essential businesses.
European health officials say the Omicron variant could account for more than half the cases on the continent within the next few months. That as Africa has already seen a 20 percent rise in new cases in the past four weeks driven -- as you heard from David McKenzie at the top of the show -- by the new variant.
If we look at the Asia-Pacific region, China, which has a zero COVID policy, reported 80 local symptomatic cases on Thursday. The majority were reporting Inner Mongolia's border city of Manzhouli.
CNN has the Omicron variant covered from all over the world. Cyril Vanier is in Paris for us this morning. But first I'm joined by Blake Essig in Tokyo. And, Blake, these numbers out of China are, you know, (INAUDIBLE) we just reported, despite a zero COVID policy. What more do we know about the cases in particular, and what impact do you think this will have on the Beijing Olympics here?
BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Isa, with the Beijing Olympics just a few months away, even though China claims to have every confidence that the games will be held as scheduled, it will be interesting to see how this new variant impacts the upcoming winter games. And the good news in mainland China, is that they haven't reported any cases of the Omicron variant. But despite China's zero COVID policy, as you mentioned, we are seeing an increase in cases with 80 reported yesterday. Those cases were reported in Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin and Inner Mongolia. Again, no reported cases of the Omicron variant in China as of yet. The same can't be said for the rest of this region. So far, this new
variant has been identified in several countries, including two here in Japan, 13 in Australia, four in Hong Kong, five in South Korea, two in India, and Malaysia, which just reported its first case today.
Now the case in Malaysia involves a student studying at a local university who had arrived in Malaysia from South Africa on November 19th. That's before the first reported case of this new variant was reported to the W.H.O. Now that being said, the W.H.O. officials say that the variant is likely already circulating in many countries, more than what has been reported so far.
And now with this new variant starting to spread, officials point to our experience throughout roughly the past two years as a guide for what needs to be done now. And they say it is important for countries to focus on higher vaccination coverage, a continuing to promote public health and social measures like mask wearing and social distancing, ensuring strong health care capacity, strengthening active surveillance, and taking a risk-based approach to border control.
And although there's still a lot we don't know, we do know this variant seems to be more transmissible, Isa. And as a result, many governments across the region are tightening entry requirements and quarantine rules while others have outright banned the entry of travelers from certain countries.
SOARES: Yes, so lots of unanswered questions. We are waiting for that data. We might be another two or three weeks. Let me get to Cyril Vanier in Paris. Good morning to you, Cyril. I've seen in the last few minutes that France has reported its ninth Omicron case, but there seems to be no alarm so far.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think partly because this was inevitable, Isa. Over the last few days French authorities have said they had a number of suspected Omicron cases but they were waiting for the genetic sequencing to confirm them. And that's why there's been this drip-drip of additional confirmed cases since the beginning of the week. So, we now stand at nine confirmed cases. However, it is likely that there are more.
The health minister saying this morning that the Omicron variant has probably been circulating in France several weeks earlier than had originally been thought. So, authorities know that this will spread. They are aware and they acknowledge that they cannot stop it. They are only trying to slow it down with aggressive contact tracing. Matter of fact, the European Center for Disease Control has said that in the next few months, Omicron will probably account for more than half of the COVID infections in the European area.
With all of that said, Isa, France right now is more worried about the Delta variant because that is what is causing a surge in cases, almost 50,000 cases yesterday, not seen since the height of the wave that we had at the beginning of the year. And that is forcing France to now consider perhaps the stricter COVID measures. There is going to be a defense council next month.
[04:35:00]
Right now, Isa, France banking on boosters to give additional protection to those who are already vaccinated, and also calling on those who aren't vaccinated to finally please -- this is the government speaking -- come and get the jab.
SOARES: Cyril Vanier for us in Paris. Blake Essig -- if I get it right this time -- in Tokyo. Thank you, gents. Thank you very much.
Now, the United States is taking measures to stop the spread of the Omicron variant. The Biden administration is restricting travel from these eight countries. South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Mozambique and Malawi. There will be new measures for travelers in the United States due to newly detected Omicron variant. CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean has that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The Biden administration says these new restrictions are all about battling the Omicron variant. Two major changes. The biggest, the transportation-wide mask mandate was set to expire January 18, 2022. Now it's been extended two months. The new expiration date, March 18, 2022. This applies to wearing masks on board all forms of public transportation -- planes, trains, buses, boats, also in terminals.
Also, the administration says there is a big change when it comes to testing requirements for international travelers. This is U.S. citizens and non-citizens. Foreign nationals coming into the United States. Now they have to show proof of a negative coronavirus test of their airline within one day of departure. The U.S. Travel Association says it supports these moves so long as they are only temporary.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Dulles International Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES: And still ahead right here on CNN NEWSROOM, new details on a young Afghan girl sold into marriage while cameras rolled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: COREN: Hello, Parwana. I'm Anna.
PARWANA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BASIR: How are you? How are you feeling?
COREN: I'm very good, thank you. How are you?
PARWANA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BASIR: I'm fine.
PARWANA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) BASIR: I'm so happy.
PARWANA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BASIR: I'm safe. I'm rescued.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: She's now talking to CNN's Anna Coran. That exclusivity story just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:40:00]
SOARES: Now, last month -- if you remember -- we brought you a distressing story about child marriage in Afghanistan. Many of you were particularly disturbed by the case 9-year-old Pawana who was sold into marriage to a 55-year-old man for around $2,000. Her father said it was his only option to feed his family.
CNN was granted rare permission to document the disturbing sale as well as the hand over. After an international outcry following our story, the U.S.-based nonprofit Too Young to Wed got involved and rescued Parwana. CNN was there to document it and Anna Coren brings us this exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An Iranian love song plays from a cassette as a driver navigates his way through the snow-dusted Leman Valley in northwestern Afghanistan.
Crammed in the back of the station wagon is a mother and her six children, who've just left behind a life of constant struggle and hardship, all they've ever known. Among them, 9-year-old Parwana. Our cameraman, Sadiki (ph) asks her how she's feeling.
"I'm so happy," she says, with a beaming smile.
CNN met Parwana, dressed in pink, in an internally displaced camp in Badghis province back in October. Her father claimed he was selling her to feed the rest of the family as a humanitarian crisis grips the country. He'd already sold his 12-year-old into marriage, and told CNN that unless his situation improved, he would have to sell his four remaining daughters, as well, including the youngest, just 2.
"If I didn't have these daughters to sell," he asks, "what should I do?"
Parwana's buyer, who lived in a nearby village, confirmed he was taking the 9-year-old as his second wife.
QORBAN, BUYER OF PARWANA (through translator): I'm 55 years old. I have a wife with four daughters and a son. I bought her for myself. I will wait until she becomes older. COREN (voice-over): CNN was granted rare access to film the final payment and hand over. The buyer asked for it to take place at a house in his village, and not the camp, for security reasons. He paid a total of 200,000 Afghanis, just over 2,000 U.S. dollars, for Parwana in land, sheep, and cash.
"This is your bride. Please take care of her," says Parwana's father.
"Of course, I will take care of her," replies the man.
As he drags her away, she whimpers. Moments later, she digs her heels into the dirt, refusing to go. But it's hopeless.
CNN's story caused an outcry.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: And now a distressing story out of Afghanistan, showing the harsh --
COREN: The network was inundated with offers of help from the public aid organizations and NGOs wanting to assist Parwana and the other girls featured in our story.
The U.S.-based charity, Too Young to Wed, took the lead. Its founding executive director, Stephanie Sinclair, has been working to end child marriage and help vulnerable girls around the world for almost 20 years. She says the perfect storm is brewing in Afghanistan, and it's the girls that are suffering.
STEPHANIE SINCLAIR, FOUNDER, TOO YOUNG TO WED: I know these stories are difficult to watch, and they're difficult to do. And they bring around a lot of concern. But at the same time, we need to keep people understanding that this is happening. We need to keep ringing the alarm bells. Understand, these are real girls and real lives, and they can be changed.
COREN (voice-over): Within Badghis province, there was widespread backlash towards Parwana's father and the buyer after our story went to air, with claims they brought shame on the community. Even the Taliban told CNN the practice is forbidden.
MAWLAWI BAZ MOHAMMAD SARWARY, BADGHIS INFORMATION AND CULTURE DIRECTORATE (through translator): I request everyone not to sell their children. Child marriage is not a good thing, and we condemn it.
COREN (voice-over): Women's rights activist and U.S. citizen Mahbouba Seraj, who chose to stay in Kabul after the Taliban swept to power in August to run her women's shelter, says Parwana's case is just the tip of the iceberg.
MAHBOUBA SERAJ, AFGHAN WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST: There is a lot of misery. There is a lot of mistreatment. There is a lot of abuse is involved in these things.
[04:45:00]
And it will keep on happening, with the hunger, with the winter, with poverty.
COREN (voice-over): As a result of the controversy caused by the story and intervention from the charity, Parwana was allowed to return home after almost two weeks with the buyer's family.
"Since Parwana has been rescued, I'm very happy for that," says Parwana's father. He admitted to CNN, that under duress from the community and some local media outlets, he changed his story out of embarrassment for what he had done and apologized.
The buyer is unreachable for comment, but the debt is still outstanding.
Too Young to Wed then organized to have Parwana, her mother and siblings removed from the camp with the father's permission.
Their four-hour journey to neighboring Herat province was broken up with some childhood fun before arriving at the motel. For children who've only ever lived in a tent, the novelty of being warm, fed, and safe wasn't wearing off.
"They rescued me. They've given me a new life," says Parwana. "I thank the charity for helping me."
A few days later, they moved into the safe house. Parwana's mother, 27-year-old Reza Gul, has never lived in a house. She was sold into marriage at 13 and has since had seven children, six of whom were girls. Most days in the camp, she would beg for food, and often her family would go to sleep hungry. Now all she wants is to give her children a better life.
"I have a dream, a wish they go to school and start an education," she says. "I have a lot of wishes for them."
Too Young to Wed has already begun distributing aid to Parwana's impoverished camp, among others. While the small charity is prepared to bridge the gap, they're calling on the large aid organizations to step up.
SINCLAIR: These are communities that have relied on international aid for the last 20 years. And so, with a lot of that aid stopping, these people didn't stop needing support. And we can't let them pay the price. Because, ultimately, girls always pay the biggest price.
COREN (voice-over): I speak to Parwana on Zoom through my colleague, Basir.
COREN: Hello, Parwana. I'm Anna.
PARWANA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BASIR: How are you? How are you feeling?
COREN: I'm very good, thank you. How are you?
PARWANA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) BASIR: I'm fine.
PARWANA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BASIR: I'm so happy.
PARWANA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BASIR: I'm safe. I'm rescued.
COREN (voice-over): Then she asks, "When are you sending me to school?" She wants to study and become a doctor or a teacher. But fairytale endings are few and far between for girls in Afghanistan, even more so now than ever.
Anna Coren, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES: If you'd like to help girls like Pawana, you saw there, please visit tooyoungtowed.org. You can learn more about their work in Afghanistan and how you can be part of the solution.
Well, the Taliban have just released what it calls a special decree on women's rights in Afghanistan. It says women are free to choose their husbands without coercion. They cannot be exchanged as property. The declaration also says widows have the right to remarry without being forced into new marriages. As for men who have multiple wives, the document says they have to give the same rights to all their spouses in accordance with the sharia law. Of course, the Taliban brutally suppressed women's rights during their original rule in Afghanistan. A story we'll stay on top of.
Strong words from China after the Women's Tennis Association suspends events there. Coming up why the WTA says it's standing by its decision and is still concerned over Peng Shuai's well-being. That story next.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOARES: Now, for the last few weeks here on the show, we've been following every twist and turn as the controversy surrounding Peng Shuai intensifies. She is, of course, a Chinese tennis star who accused a retired top communist leader of sexual assault. Beijing is now criticizing the Women's Tennis Association of for suspending events in China. We brought you that story yesterday.
Well, the International Olympic Committee says it believes Peng is safe and well after holding another call with her on Wednesday. The head of the WTA says these chats are very much orchestrated. And while the association says it has received a third email from Peng, the concern still remains.
CNN's Will Ripley joins me now from Hong Kong. Will, the IOC having that second call with Peng Shuai, but do we know whether a transcript was released, a clip of the video provided? Because the IOC faced criticism with the first video for not providing any evidence that she was speaking of her own free will.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No transcript, no video, not even a still photo this time. Just a statement. A statement that echoed basically what the previous statement said, adding that they are offering wide-ranging assistance to Peng Shuai, that they set up a personal meeting in January for Peng Shuai and that everything is fine. That she's relaxed. She's not being held under duress. She's not being coerced. She's not being prevented from leaving the country.
The WTA, the Women's Tennis Association, getting an email and they say they're not convinced. They're still not convinced. Just like the first email and second email that Peng Shuai is actually writing these words without being under a considerable amount of pressure from who knows who -- sports officials, government officials, the police.
If you talk to people who have been detained inside China, they look at the videos, the propaganda videos, in their view of Peng Shuai that were released about three weeks after her initial post. Detailing emotionally allegations of sexual assault at the hands of a retired senior communist party leader. And they said the videos where she's there all smiles, they said that was stage managed, that was acting, carefully coached, scripted from start to finish. She probably even got a critique afterwards about her performance.
Because they had the same thing happened to them when they were forced to make forced confessions on state media.
[04:55:00]
The difference in this case is that state media is entirely silent about Peng Shuai's story. They are censoring this story. They are cutting off CNN's live feed in China as we talk about this like they do every single time we bring this up. But outside in English, on Twitter a platform that's brought to mainland China, they put their state media resources in overdrive to try to salvage China's reputation ahead of the Beijing Olympics to prove to the world that Peng Shuai is doing just fine. While ignoring the fact she did the unprecedented act of making an allegation of sexual assault against somebody so powerful, somebody seen in videos just sitting a couple seats away from Chinese President Xi Jinping.
That is so sensitive and potentially destabilizing they cannot let that story get out inside China. People are using code words, Isa, on Chinese social media to try to bypass the censors. And still within a matter of minutes those posts are deleted. They have literally assigned an army of online sensors to keep this quiet inside China and to try to make it look like nothing has happened by the time the winter Olympics rolls around in February.
SOARES: Well, we are committed to stay on the story. And I know that you are too. Will Ripley for us in Hong Kong. Thanks very much, Will.
And that does it for us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Isa Soares in London. Our coverage continues on "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett. You are watching CNN and I shall see you on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend. Bye-bye.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It is Friday, December 3rd. Happy Friday. It is 5:00 a.m. here in New York. Thanks so much for getting an EARLY START with us. I'm Laura Jarrett.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: It took a long time to get to Friday this week.
JARRETT: But we made it.
ROMANS: I think it's just me. I'm Christine Romans. Welcome do our viewers in the United States around the world.
