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U.K. Breaks Daily Case Record for a Third Day; Omicron Poses Global Health Threat during Holiday Season; Fighting Politicized Vaccine Hesitancy; U.K. "Stealth Lockdown" Hits Economy; A Deeper Look into Haitian Presidential Assassination; Moscow Offers to End Ukraine Crisis; Holiday Travel Heats Up Despite Omicron; Somali Refugee Elected to Italian City Government. Aired 2-2:45a ET
Aired December 18, 2021 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.
A new study shedding light on how quickly the Omicron variant may spread.
CNN has new information about the suspects of the Haitian president's assassination.
And as Russian troops pile up at the Ukrainian border, Moscow is making demands from NATO.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: A new study out of the U.K. says the Omicron variant might not be as mild as many thought. Researchers at Imperial College London found no evidence the Omicron variant is any less severe than Delta and also found the risk of getting infected again is more than five times greater with Omicron than with Delta.
Data shows the variant is spreading faster in the U.K. than it has in South Africa. Infections doubling in less than 2.5 days there. The U.K. reported more than 93,000 cases on Friday, breaking the record for a third day in a row.
In Ireland, the government is trying to stem its own Omicron surge. In addition to other measures, restaurants and bars will have to shut their doors at 8:00 pm on Sunday.
In Denmark, the country's prime minister announcing new restrictions to curb the spread.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) METTE FREDERIKSEN, PRIME MINISTER OF DENMARK (through translator): The epidemic commission has brought a very clear recommendation to the government and parliament, including the following: theaters, cinemas, venues, amusement parks, zoos, function rooms and other places where many people gather should close.
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HOLMES: Omicron might be the Grinch that stole Christmas for many around the world as cases spread rampantly and force people to cancel holiday plans. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz takes a look at the global threat the variant poses.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A depressing dose of deja vu, another holiday season in pandemic. And again, worrying scenes inside France's ICUs.
Coronavirus cases here and across Europe are exploding. Germany's government is warning of massive challenge from a potential fifth wave as Omicron spreads faster than any other variant of COVID-19.
URSULA VON DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: We know that the Omicron variant is really threatening us. It is spreading at a ferocious pace and potentially has the risk of escaping our vaccines, at least partially.
We know that our health care systems are over-stretched right now, and this is partly linked to the large number of unvaccinated patients.
ABDELAZIZ: The European Union will order 180 million extra doses of Pfizer vaccine, which may eventually be adapted to the Omicron variant. Fear is spurring action. Italy is vaccinating children as young as 5, part of an EU campaign to immunize the very young. New Year's Eve events impacted, too.
Rome's iconic street party cancelled this year amid fears the gathering could spike cases. British night clubs hosted a celebratory return to normalcy this Summer. Now the Welsh government says they'll be the first to close after Christmas.
MARK DRAKEFORD, WELSH FIRST MINISTER: People go there in order to be up close and personal and we know that Omicron is particularly likely to lead to super-spreader events where people are packed in together in that way.
ABDELAZIZ: Businesses across the world forced to shut as staff fall ill and cancellations skyrocket. "Hamilton," the hit Broadway musical, is one of several shows to close its doors due to COVID cases among actors and staff. New York suffering a surge of positive cases as President Biden offered this stark warning.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For unvaccinated, we are looking at a Winter of severe illness and death if you're unvaccinated, for themselves, their families and the hospitals they will soon overwhelm.
ABDELAZIZ: In South Africa though, some possible hopeful signs amid record case numbers.
JOE PHAAHLA, HEALTH MINISTER, SOUTH AFRICA: Although, there is a rapid rise in hospitalization because we come from a very low base at the end of the third wave, the large majority of also these hospitalized patients are fairly mild.
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ABDELAZIZ: While possibly less severe to the vaccinated with Omicron's rapid spread, it's the sheer volume of cases that could threaten all of us -- Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
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HOLMES: I am joined by Al Goodman in Madrid.
Good to see you, Al. Yes, really frightening case numbers. Bring us up to date.
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Michael. As the Omicron variant spreads rapidly across the European continent, it is finding fertile ground in France, Germany and Spain.
These three are among the top 10 countries in the world in the total number of coronavirus cases. In the recent days, Germany and France registering increases of 50,000 coronavirus cases per day. As you just mentioned in Italy, 28,000 cases recorded on Friday, the highest since the beginning of the year.
Now because Britain has their own big problem with the Omicron, France has imposed new restrictions on British travelers. They will need compelling reason to come into France and also will need a negative COVID test just 24 hours before.
The number of measures -- we heard about Germany, worried about the coronavirus and the Omicron. They are targeting the unvaccinated, measures aimed at them, which is starting to cause protests. There were 30 arrested in Munich this week so you are seeing a reaction as the restrictions come in.
HOLMES: Al Goodman, appreciate it. Thank you very much.
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HOLMES: Let's talk now with Anne Rimoin, an infectious disease expert and epidemiology professor at UCLA.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said we are just about to experience what he called a viral blizzard.
In the next three to eight weeks in the U.S., millions of Americans will be infected -- and that is on top of Delta. Do you share those thoughts and fears?
DR. ANNE RIMOIN, EPIDEMIOLOGY PROFESSOR, UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I absolutely agree. We are literally looking at a viral storm on our horizons. We are not only dealing with an ongoing Delta surge, killing more than 1,000 people a day causing more than 100,000 cases per day in the United States but we're now seeing the influx of Omicron.
The Omicron cases are happening faster. The doubling time is terrifying when you think about how quickly the virus will spread. So Michael Osterholm is right on. We're in for a very difficult time.
HOLMES: Yes. There is evidence that, having had COVID-19, gives a measure of protection. But British researchers found the risk of those that had had COVID getting reinfected is five times higher with Omicron than it was with Delta.
How at risk are unvaccinated people versus the vaccinated?
RIMOIN: It's very clear, across the board, if you are vaccinated, you are much less likely to get infected with COVID. If you do get infected, you are less likely to have a severe case of disease and less likely to be hospitalized or die. The data bears out with every variant.
However, when it comes to Omicron we see it is evading the immune response generated by vaccines and previous infection. While you may have some protection against the virus and will be less likely to get very sick and die, you are still likely to get the virus if exposed.
HOLMES: Yes. The political aspect of vaccinations, particularly in the U.S., still looms large. "The New York Times" made a pretty depressing point that if Democratic voters made up their own country, it would be one of the world's most vaccinated, more than 91 percent of adults with at least one shot. Only 60 percent of Republican adults are in that position.
What is the answer, given the firm political ideological positions?
RIMOIN: I think it's a complicated answer but what we can do right now, in the short-term, we have to get immunity up.
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RIMOIN: We have a very contagious variant circulating and another one that starting to co-circulate and will eventually take over. So we need to get the people willing to get vaccinated, vaccinated and those that need to get boosted, boosted.
The message should be very quickly, to people that have the opportunity to get the shots in arms, get them.
We are going to need a much longer-term strategy about vaccination in general. But we can't solve it in the short term to avoid what will be coming in the next couple of weeks. HOLMES: You touched on that British study that suggested evidence of
what the researchers called "to a very substantial extent" which Omicron can evade prior immunity given by both infection and vaccination. In other words, efficacy wanes.
They said that the level of evasion means that Omicron poses -- and just quoting here -- "a major imminent threat to public health."
What does it say about the need for boosters and eventually variant- specific ones?
RIMOIN: In the short term, we need to get as many people vaccinated as we can and get them boosted. That is what will help our hospitals from getting overwhelmed. That's really critical.
In the medium term we need better vaccines available. That means we need to work on the vaccines. We need vaccines that are effective against multiple variants and that can be improved over time.
In the long term, we need to do a much better job getting the vaccines into people's arms. We need to get them manufactured globally and we have better ways of distributing them so that we do better.
HOLMES: Yes. We literally only have a few seconds left. You have done and continue to do amazing work in Africa. Everytime I speak to you, I say we need vaccine equity.
RIMOIN: We absolutely do if we are going to get in front of this virus and get back to normal. We have to make sure that, globally, we have vaccination in arms. The more the virus spreads and the more it mutates, the more likely we are to end up with a more dangerous variant. We know this story and what we need to do.
HOLMES: Well put, as always. Dr. Anne Rimoin, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
RIMOIN: It is my pleasure.
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HOLMES: Now the record COVID surge in the U.K. hasn't spared football squads in England. The English Football League postponing 19 matches this weekend; 17 other matches will still go ahead. The EFL includes teams below the Premier League, which itself postponed nine of their matches in recent days, including five this weekend.
And the U.K. football fans might not be heading out in droves to watch the games still on as the government urges people to stay home and stay safe. As Anna Stewart reports, the directives to steer clear of big gatherings, while not a lockdown, is a distinction the U.K. economy does not seem to appreciate.
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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's being called a lockdown by stealth. Unlike previous waves of COVID-19, the U.K. government hasn't imposed restrictions on social gatherings or ordered businesses to close.
But it has advised the British public to work from home and this week their chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, advised people to limit their social contacts if they want to enjoy a COVID-free Christmas with loved ones.
A medical director for the National Health Service told the British public, if they are going to stadiums this weekend, it should be for a booster shot and not to watch a match.
The U.K. broke another daily case record for the third consecutive day on Friday. However, the rapid decline in people heading into towns and cities across the U.K. to splash cash before Christmas is hitting some businesses hard.
Bookings for cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants fell by a third in just 10 days and they are expected to fall further still. Some businesses may struggle to survive.
Business groups have called for more grants or even a return to the furlough scheme. But following a meeting between the U.K. chancellor Rishi Sunak, and business leaders on Friday, no new financial support was announced. The government will continue to engage with businesses and the sectors that are affected.
Meanwhile, the economic picture in the U.K. looks grim. The economy barely grew.
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STEWART: It came in at 0.1 percent and inflation hit 5.1 percent in November, the highest level in 10 years.
The arrival of Omicron and the surge of infections is likely to be a major drag on the U.K. economy and the government may need to spend more to support it -- Anna Stewart, CNN, London.
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HOLMES: Still to come, CNN uncovers more information about the possible motive behind the unsolved assassination of Haiti's president and some of the men held in the case are talking to us. Why they say they are innocent victims being denied their rights.
And Russian troops continue massing up near Ukraine's border. We will have a live report from Moscow just ahead.
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HOLMES: Now 17 members of a U.S.-based missionary group that survived a hostage attempt in Haiti seem to be doing OK after the former hostages flew back to the U.S. on Thursday. They were held by one of Haiti's most powerful gangs for weeks.
They Christian aid group say they kept their spirits up by signing (sic) and reciting Bible verses.
CNN also learning more information about the assassination of Haiti's president in July. The president was gunned down during the night at his home outside of the capital. Sources are now talking to CNN about the reasons behind the killing, which is still unresolved.
Some suspects say they're innocent and are being held under brutal conditions, Matt Rivers reports.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: New information about the investigation into the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise, who was killed inside the presidential residence back in July, a source close to the investigation tells CNN that the night that the assassins entered the home, one of their top priorities was looking for a document that the president has been compiling.
And inside the document allegedly were the names of some of the top drug traffickers in the country, according to the president. His plan was to take the list after it was done being compiled and bring it to U.S. authorities, with the hope that authorities in the U.S. would help him target some of the drug traffickers and their illicit activities here in Haiti.
That list and the president's plan is now being investigated as one of the motives behind the killing, adding it is not believed that Moise was able to give that list to the United States before he was killed.
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RIVERS: We also have exclusive new reporting surrounding the suspects in this case. We have been trying for months to get access to some of the dozens of suspects arrested. And this week, for the first time, Haitian authorities allowed us into the notorious national penitentiary, where several suspects are being held.
We met with five of the Colombian suspects. There are 26 that were arrested as part of the case. They basically say they are the victims of a setup, brought here under false pretenses and had no idea they were going to participate in an assassination and that they are the real victims in addition to the president himself.
They say, from the moment they were arrested, they were denied due process. They were forced to sign statements that they couldn't even read. They were written by police in a language foreign to them -- they only speak Spanish.
Yet under threat, they were forced to sign them anyway. The Haitian government spokesperson said that was not actually true. They denied that happened.
Beyond that, these men still do not have legal representation and have not been formally charged with a crime under Haitian law. They described consistent torture at various times after they were arrested.
Several of the men described how members of their group still have scars on their bodies from being tortured, from police, either being hit or being stabbed. Several of the men still have scars that the men say come directly from police torture.
And where they are being kept right now, the conditions are horrible. We went in and saw multiple people stacked in a single cell. We saw raw sewage flowing through a pipe under our feet that was an exposed pipe. So we saw that.
These men say they are only given one plate of rice per day. That is the only time they eat during the day. They say their lives are essentially worth nothing inside that prison.
The Haitian government responded by saying they do not single out the Colombians for these conditions, that everyone in the prison is treated the same, telling you a lot about how the prison is run if those are the conditions and the authorities don't even deny it.
So this is the latest we have been able to come here out of Haiti with, into the investigation into the assassination of the president Jovenel Moise -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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HOLMES: Moscow has presented the U.S. and NATO with a list of demands to defuse the crisis at the Ukrainian border. And even though the West already rejected the core demands, the Kremlin is calling for immediate talks.
Moscow wants a guarantee that NATO won't further expand east and that Ukraine never joins NATO. Now the U.S. says that Russia continues to send large numbers of troops near the border in a possible run-up to an invasion. CNN's Melissa Bell is in Moscow.
Melissa, last week, Joe Biden had his virtual meet with Vladimir Putin and gave stern warnings of consequences. And yet more troops.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is right, Michael. CNN learned from intelligence sources that the military build-up continues.
What we understand is that, according to the sources, 50 battalion tactical groups -- we are talking about groups of up to 900 people, Michael, involving a combination of things -- artillery troops, anti- tank weaponry, very self-sufficient groups that were crucial in 2014 and the war of the time.
What we understand is that 50 or so of the groups are massed along the border and six more are on their way. That tells you that Moscow decided not to go with the idea of de-escalation and the military buildup continues.
Extremely worrying in the circumstances for Ukraine. We have seen the West, the United States, Brussels and NATO, express their alarm at that. You are seeing that, the weaponry, the men heading south and, at the very same time, you are seeing the diplomatic push on the part of Moscow.
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BELL: These demands both to the United States and NATO, two different sets of demands, suggested treaties. Neither are likely to be accepted.
If you look at what is being asked of NATO, it is asked that they will promise not to engage in any further eastward expansion. But that is a nonstarter. It's not up to Moscow to dictate what NATO or Ukraine can and can't do.
The basis of the conversation simply cannot be accepted by any of those parties involved. The other treaty, the other part of the first treaty, is that it would essentially be dialing back the clock to before 1997, before any Eastern Baltic state had joined NATO.
Again, a non-starter for NATO. And essentially Moscow is demanding that neither Russia nor the United States would be able to deploy any nuclear weaponry beyond their national territories, taking away NATO's nuclear sharing ability.
So the question is why these demands are being put forward at this time, even as the weapons buildup continues. The basis for the conversation is not possible for any of those sides. We expect a formal reply to be given to Moscow at some point but, for the time being, difficult to see how a conversation will take place.
HOLMES: Yes, a complicated situation. Melissa Bell in Moscow, appreciate it. Thank you.
The United Nations will set up a commission of human rights experts to investigate alleged abuses in the devastating Ethiopian conflict. The organization's Human Rights Council is voting to establish an international probe on the, quote, "grave human rights situation in Ethiopia" on Friday; 15 nations voted against the resolution.
Ethiopia called the measure "politically motivated."
The United States is gravely concerned by new reports of abuses in Western Tigray, including mass detentions, killings and forced expulsions of ethnic Tigrayans by Amhara forces. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released a report on Thursday, finding many of those expelled still remain unaccounted for.
The U.S. State Department is calling on Amhara leaders to renounce all violence against civilians.
At least 14 people are dead and several others missing after a powerful typhoon swept across the Philippines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES (voice-over): Here's some of the devastation left behind, as it battered the islands with intense winds and torrential rains. It downed power lines and it flooded entire villages. As you can see some 330,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.
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HOLMES: U.S. airports are busy, despite the Omicron threat. After the break, what airlines expect for the holiday season.
And as some travelers rush home for the holidays, health experts are working to answer questions about the Omicron variant. We go inside a lab, racing to learn how dangerous the new COVID strain really is. That is coming up after the break.
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HOLMES: The Omicron outbreak is not really impacting the U.S. travel season, at least not so far. In fact, it is looking like pre-pandemic time. Airlines predict triple the number of travelers from last year. Pete Muntean has the latest.
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: United Airlines says we're already in the busiest few days of the holiday travel season. In fact, it says its passenger loads are projected to be 20 percent higher than what it saw over Thanksgiving, when we broke pandemic-era air travel records.
The TSA projects 20-21 million people will pass through security at airports between December 23rd and January 3rd. We already saw 2.06 million on Thursday, the highest number since December 5th.
Now the question is whether or not these numbers will slump off as infections go up. Airlines say they have seen a wavering in ticket bookings since the Omicron variant started to make headlines.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby says, yes, cancellations have gone up but not nearly as bad as when the Delta variant hit this summer.
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SCOTT KIRBY, CEO, UNITED AIRLINES: 2022 is still going to be a recovery year for the industry because COVID is not over yet. COVID-19 is never going to be over but it's still probably in the pandemic phase instead of the endemic phase.
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MUNTEAN: The CDC is now providing free at-home test coronavirus kits to international travelers as they arrive in the United States at Dallas, Miami, Minneapolis and Chicago. It could expand to other airports sometimes soon and it is imperative for international travelers to be tested within three to five days of arriving.
Bottom line from the TSA: wear a mask as you are traveling until March 18th, 2022. Bring a lot of patience and flexibility. If you have not booked a ticket yet, you might want to consider Christmas Day. That is when numbers are projected to be the lowest -- Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
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HOLMES: As holiday travel begins, the U.K. government is urging people to stay home. The U.K. reporting their highest number of daily cases since the pandemic began two years ago. Scott McLean went inside a lab in Scotland, where they are scrambling to answer the many questions remaining about Omicron.
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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the Omicron variant surging across the U.K., scientists at the University of Glasgow are racing to confirm in the lab what real-world data is already suggesting.
MASSIMO PALMARINI, DIRECTOR, CENTRE FOR VIRUS RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW: Omicron is able to escape far better immune induced by the vaccination than any other variant.
MCLEAN (voice-over): It also appears to spread much more easily but some indications say it causes less severe symptoms.
TONI HO, CLINICIAN, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW: We will possibly have a million people a day infected in the U.K. Even if it is a tiny proportion of that large number, that will result in quite a few hospitalizations.
MCLEAN: Because the lab we are about to enter contains live samples of the Omicron variant, we have to be decked out head to toe and sealed off with this respirator from any potential danger.
MCLEAN (voice-over): When the virus sample arrived here, it came in a very small vial. It has been left to grow and multiply in this incubator since then. Now they have enough to experiment with.
Omicron doesn't multiple as quickly as Delta. Under the microscope the dark spots are cells Delta infected in 24 hours. But after 48 hours, the Omicron variant hasn't spread as far, a potential encouraging sign.
AGNIESZKA SZEMIEL, VIROLOGIST, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW: It is slower in the lab and it does not seem to be killing the cells as the other variants. But this is all in the lab. So question is, now how does it translate into the actual patient?
MCLEAN: And sometimes things behave differently in a lab than they would in real life?
SZEMIEL: Yes.
MCLEAN (voice-over): In the real world, new infections of Omicron are doubling in as little as two days in some parts of the U.K.
BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: There is a tidal wave of Omicron coming.
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MCLEAN (voice-over): The government thinks every infected person infects 3-5 others. One not yet peer reviewed model suggests, in the worst case scenario, more than half of the English population could be infected with the Omicron variant over the winter months.
JENNY HARRIES, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, U.K. HEALTH SECURITY AGENCY: It is probably the most significant threat we've had since the start of the pandemic.
MCLEAN (voice-over): In response, prime minister Boris Johnson is resorting to plan B, reviving the indoor mask mandate and introducing a COVID passport for night clubs and large events.
But a vote this week to confirm the measure provoked a mutiny from within Johnson's own Conservative Party, passing only thanks to votes from the oppositions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So The ayes have it, the ayes have it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are segregating society based on an unacceptable thing. We are not a "papers, please" society.
MCLEAN (voice-over): But they are in mainland Europe. COVID passports are making life difficult for the unjabbed in places like Italy, France, Germany and Austria. They're now required for restaurants, public transit, going to work or even leaving your house.
Austria is making adult vaccinations mandatory. The new German chancellor is pushing for the same.
But when Johnson suggested even a conversation about that in the future, it was publicly shot down by his own health secretary.
SAJID JAVID, BRITISH HEALTH SECRETARY: Although we've seen plans for university mandatory vaccination in some countries in Europe, I will never support them in this country.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Instead, the government is reverting to a familiar approach: personal responsibility.
DR. CHRISTOPHER WHITTY, BRITISH CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: I think people should prioritize what really matters to them and cut down on the things that don't.
MCLEAN (voice-over): But with another record high of new infections on Friday and the threat of rising hospitalizations, Johnson may soon need to convince a weary public to go along with even more restrictions, unless some good news is discovered inside labs like this one -- Scott McLean, CNN, Glasgow, Scotland.
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HOLMES: A refugee in Italy is getting his voice heard and encouraging fellow migrants to get involved in their adoptive countries as well. Details when we come back.
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HOLMES: The scores of refugees flooding across the Mediterranean not only face dangers at sea, they have difficulty adjusting and being accepted sometimes in their new countries. But one migrant in Italy is trying to bridge the gap between his fellow travelers and Italians.
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HOLMES: As CNN's Ben Wedeman reports, he is using his new role in local government to help.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Today, Abdullahi Ahmed walks with corridors of power, local power as an elected member of Turin City Council. This 33 year-old Somali has come a long way since 2008, when he stepped ashore in Italy after a perilous seven-month journey across desert and sea.
"I arrived here when I was 19 years old," he says, "without a family. I didn't know Italian. I didn't know anyone here."
Under the gaze of the once high and mighty in the Turin City Council, Abdullahi insists migrants shouldn't shy away from public life.
"I've always believed you can't be a foreigner forever," he tells me. "You have to become a well-informed active citizen, working for the future of your city and society."
Abdullahi wasted no time. He became fluent in Italian, founded an NGO to help raise awareness about the challenges facing migrants, wrote an award-winning book about his experience, helped his siblings complete their higher education back in Somalia and ran for local office.
Not bad for one stranger in a strange land. In recent decades, Italy's migrant population has grown dramatically, changing along the way what it means to be Italian, something Pakistan-born community activist, Adnan Malik-Sher, and friend of Abdullahi knows only too well.
ADNAN MALIK-SHER, PAKISTAN-BORN COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: One Italian shouldn't be like black or one Italian should be like brown, one Italian should be white?
Why not?
WEDEMAN (voice over): Tunisian born Baker may have voted for Abdullahi in the last local election.
"Now we're going to give you something to do," he tells Abdullahi; 32 years in Italy, Hamid sees the presence of a migrant and local government as a step forward.
"Now maybe our voices will be heard," Hamid tells me. "In the past we weren't heard at all."
Finally, new Italians who are starting to raise their voices are being heard -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Turin, Northern Italy.
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HOLMES: What a great story.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I am Michael Holmes. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram. "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" starts after a short break. See you in about 15 minutes.
