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Biden And Putin To Speak Amid Tensions Over Ukraine; Delta And Omicron Contributing To Tsunami Of Cases; Cities Cancel Or Scale Down New Year's Eve Celebrations. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired December 30, 2021 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:19]

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Lynda Kinkade coming to you live from Atlanta.

Tonight, a high stakes call between US President Biden and Russia's President Vladimir Putin, it's just minutes away. The leaders is set to talk about Ukraine, as Western nations voice concern that Russia might be preparing to invade.

And later, we'll be in London where the government is building COVID surge hospitals.

And attorneys for the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell says they will appeal her conviction. We will speak to the journalist who helped expose her role as Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice.

This hour, the leaders of the US and Russia are expected to speak by phone about the Kremlin's massive troop buildup in Ukraine. It will be the second conversation between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin this month, and the White House is hoping this one will help deescalate smoldering tensions.

The U.S. and NATO fear that Moscow is preparing to invade its Ukrainian neighbor and it has threatened sanctions if it does. Russia denies it is planning to attack, but it is stepping up pressure on the West by demanding security guarantees.

I want to get more from our correspondents, Nic Robertson is joining us live from Moscow and John Harwood joins us from Washington, D.C. Good to have you both with us.

Nic, first to you, less than 30 minutes away, we will see the Presidents of Russia and the United States talk. A Kremlin spokesperson describing the issues on the agenda as extremely complicated.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, read that as President Putin would like to go over once again what he expects from President Biden. He has created the context for these conversations, the one in the beginning of December, where he really pressured the White House and NATO as well to come talk to him about his concerns.

He believes that NATO is getting too close to Russia's western border. Ukraine is at the sort of cockpit of that concern, if you will. He thinks that NATO might take Ukraine in as a member, NATO is putting military personnel and military hardware in Ukraine. That's his concern.

So he has created the context by having this buildup of troops over the border in Russia. He says, therefore, genuine military exercises in Russia, Russian sovereign territory up to them to do what they want when they want. But the concern over that allowed him to push for these talks.

He had that first route, he had that first telephone call, and then he issued what was essentially his plan for what the United States should do. And now, he is sort of coming back and having another phone call about that plan.

Pressure, pressure, pressure ahead of those talks that will start on January the 10th in Geneva, where there will be Russia representatives, U.S. representatives from both sort of military, state, and national security -- on all sides around the table. That's when the real negotiations begin.

But this is all about President Putin keeping up that pressure on President Biden, because he wants President Biden to swing NATO, the whole of NATO around to his view.

KINKADE: That's a lot of pressure as you describe it so well.

I want to go to John Harwood because President Putin has carried out invasions, annexations in recent years. Given Russia has amassed some 100,000 troops at the border in the Ukraine, how serious is he this time?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think he is very serious. And as you indicated, he's got a record of aggression. He invaded Georgia when George W. Bush was President; seized, annexed illegally Crimea in 2014 when Barack Obama was President, still has it. He has got 100,000 troops, so there is every reason to think he is serious.

On the other hand, President Biden, in the earlier call, tried to lay out significant consequences, including unplugging Russia from the global financial system, potentially sharp sanctions on oligarchs or Putin personally, not to mention the military consequences that Russia would face from an invasion of Ukraine.

It would -- they could certainly prevail in the long run, but it would be costly for them. So what the President is hoping is that the combination of those consequences will deter Vladimir Putin, but the administration is not asserting that it knows what Putin is going to do or that Putin has decided to do anything.

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HARWOOD: Yesterday when Vladimir Putin requested this call and the administration said yes, some people said well maybe Putin has blinked. The administration -- a senior administration official on a call with reporters said no, our interpretation is that anytime they want to talk, we'll talk; anytime we want to talk, they say yes.

They're not casting this as Putin buckling. And so we're going to have to see in this call, and then the follow on negotiations between the United States, NATO, and Russia that will occur in Geneva the week of January 10th.

KINKADE: All right, John Harwood for us in Washington, D.C.; Nic Robertson, for us in Moscow. We will be listening to your analysis once we get a readout from that call.

Thanks so much.

Well, the World Health Organization is warning that the omicron and delta variants are forming a global tsunami of new COVID cases. Worldwide, the average number of new cases per day is now at a record high.

The previous peak was back in April. People in Paris and are required to wear a mask outdoors as case counts soar across Europe. And the U.K. has been struggling to keep up with a staggering number of new cases, more than 180,000 yesterday with the seven-day average up more than 40 percent since last week.

The head of the World Health Organization warns that if the collective response to the pandemic doesn't get better, the situation will get worse.

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DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: This virus will continue to evolve and threaten our health system if we don't improve the collective response.

Right now, delta and omicron are twin threats. I'm highly concerned that omicron being more transmissible circulating at the same time as delta is leading to a tsunami of cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Well, that tsunami of cases has already led many cities to call off their New Year's Eve celebrations. Strict contact restrictions are in effect in Germany, New Year's Eve gatherings of 10 or more people are now forbidden, and there will be no fireworks in Berlin.

In London, the annual event in Trafalgar Square has been cancelled, and India has announced a ban on all social, cultural, and political gatherings in Delhi. Bars and restaurants are allowed to operate at only 50 percent capacity.

Rome is one of several Italian cities canceling events. Open air concerts and fireworks have also been cancelled in Venice. Spain is one of the few European countries allowing a large celebration to take place. Madrid will hold an event in the Main Square for up to 7,000 people.

Our Hala Gorani reports on New Year's Eve celebrations in the time of the omicron variant.

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HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The quick spread of the omicron variant is putting a damper on New Year's Eve celebrations around the world.

While some smaller events are still taking place, it will be a grim start to another year of the coronavirus pandemic. London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced in a tweet last week that the annual event in Trafalgar Square is cancelled, saying the safety of Londoners must come first. Some 6,500 people were expected to attend.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson decided against tougher COVID restrictions, but caution that people should be smart about how they ring in the New Year.

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think everybody should enjoy the New Year, but in a cautious and sensible way. Take a test, ventilation. Think about others, but above all, get a booster.

GORANI (voice over): In Paris, the traditional fireworks display over the Champs-Elysees that easy has been called off, and officials have implemented a mask wearing policy in outdoor public spaces starting Friday.

And in Atlanta, the New Year's Eve Peach Drop has been canceled for the third year in a row as positive cases are on the rise in Georgia's capital city.

But to the delight of many, the fireworks in Sydney will go on as scheduled. Attendees are strongly encouraged to be fully vaccinated and boosted and an indoor mask mandate is also in effect in New South Wales for those over the age of 12.

In New York, workers are preparing the traditional Waterford Crystal Ball that will drop over Times Square. This year's event will be scaled back to 15,000 people. There is usually about 60,000 revelers taking part.

After canceling its New Year's Eve celebrations earlier this month, Rio de Janeiro reversed course. There will be no outdoor concert this year, but the world famous fireworks on Copacabana Beach will go on. The city also announced precautionary measures to avoid mass gatherings.

And Dr. Anthony Fauci has some strong advice for those who do plan to attend large celebrations.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If your plans are to go to a 40-to-50-person New Year's Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a Happy New Year, I would strongly recommend that this year we do not do that. GORANI (voice over): Many were hoping for a return to normalcy as we

ring in the New Year, but thanks to COVID, we will have to wait a little bit longer.

Hala Gorani, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Well, England's National Health Service says it's on a war footing as the surge in cases leads to increased hospitalization. The N.H.S. is preparing new surge hubs like this one outside a London hospital to deal with the potential overflow of patients.

One study puts the U.K. on track to soon surpass 200,000 new cases a day. Salma Abdelaziz joins us now from London and Salma, another day, another record and we are hearing from England's Medical Director, who has described the health system is now being on a war footing. Just how bad is it?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, this N.H.S. chief say they simply can't wait to find out how many people are going to wind up in hospital with omicron. There are just too many unknowns, too many questions.

Yes, it does appear to be a milder strain, but still, these numbers are just so big that even if it's a smaller ratio of people that will wind up in hospital that number could still be enough to overwhelm the healthcare system. That's why health officials here say they must act now.

They've been spending the Christmas period putting plans in place, Lynda, to prepare for a potential wave of omicron patients. So what are these plans?

Well, they're going to be developing surge hubs. I know we have pictures of those to show you, these are going to be temporary stations that are outside eight different hospitals in England. Each of these stations should be able to accommodate up to a hundred additional COVID patients.

There's also plans in place for surge beds, up to 4,000 more beds for COVID patients. I mean, if you're looking at these figures, and of course, if you're a health official, you are absolutely worried and concerned about how this is going to translate in a few days or a few weeks' time when people do become severely ill, and England has already seen an increase in hospitalizations, an increase of about 65 percent over the course of a week, that is according to the latest figures on Monday.

It means that there's more than 10,000 people now in hospitals across England with COVID-19. It's the highest number of patients with COVID that this country has seen since March that was during a very deadly surge.

And then, as we're looking ahead to New Year's Eve, Lynda, London is one of the few cities where there are no real big restrictions around New Year's Eve celebrations.

Everyone has been told to be cautious. Everyone has been told to be vigilant, but again, there is no social restrictions so for these health officials, they are looking at tomorrow and they're wondering is it kind of get worse, Lynda, if people gather? If there are these social gatherings and people are in contact with each other, is this surge only going to grow because that peak, we are nowhere near the end of it -- Lynda.

KINKADE: No. Far from over, unfortunately. Salma Abdelaziz, thanks very much for joining us from London.

Well, still to come tonight, Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers plan to appeal her conviction for sex trafficking. The executive producer of "Chasing Ghislaine" joins me next to discuss.

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KINKADE: Welcome back, one of Ghislaine Maxwell's legal team says they've already started working on her appeal. The longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein was found guilty in New York on five counts, including sex trafficking a minor.

Annie Farmer was the only accuser to openly testify at the trial under her full name. She spoke to ABC's "Good Morning, America" after the verdict.

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ANNIE FARMER, GHISLAINE MAXWELL ACCUSER: I wasn't sure that this day would ever come, and I just feel so grateful that the jury believed us and sent a strong message that perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation will be held accountable no matter how much power and privilege that they have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Well, I'm going to get some insight now from someone who has been following the Epstein saga for a long time.

Vicky Ward is a journalist and the Executive Producer of the three- part special "Chasing Ghislaine," which is now streaming on his Discovery+. Good to have you with us.

VICKY WARD, JOURNALIST: Thank you for having me.

KINKADE: So, Vicky, you've investigated this for many years. Yesterday, Maxwell was found guilty of five of the six charges facing the rest of her life in prison. What was your reaction?

WARD: Frankly, having -- you know, having been in that courtroom every day of testimony, I wasn't that surprised. The reason I wasn't that surprised is that the narrative that was missing, I think for jurors was that of Ghislaine Maxwell's. What her defense team tried to do and they were very aggressive about

it was undermine the credibility of her four accusers, and what they did -- they did that by comparing interviews that the four women had given to the F.B.I. when the F.B.I. were asking them about Jeffrey Epstein while Epstein was alive, with what they then said about Ghislaine Maxwell after Jeffrey Epstein was dead and the focus was now on Maxwell and there were some discrepancies.

But it wasn't enough to fill in the missing gaps, to basically answer this enormous question that hung over the entire proceedings, which was why did Jeffrey Epstein, why Ghislaine Maxwell -- a sum total of approximately over $30 million. That was never explained.

And further, why did Ghislaine Maxwell stick with this man, stick around him in what was clearly a very complicated and at times, unpleasant, demeaning relationship?

And though, you know, she didn't take the stand, and in the absence of any kind of narrative from her, you know, the prosecutors told the jury, use your commonsense. Who sends somebody that amount of money? What else they have done? That's what the jury did.

KINKADE: And I want to ask you about the nature of their relationship, just for our viewers, I'd love to play some sound from your docu-series, "Chasing Ghislaine."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARD: My source says that he said to Ghislaine, "You don't have to put up with this, you really don't have to do this?" And she replied, "Yes, I do. My father taught me you do whatever it takes to keep your man."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: So you were talking there about how she pretty much put up with him turning up with some young model. How would you characterize the relationship she had with Epstein?

WARD: Well, you know, it became clear as we listened to testimony that she was prepared to put up with a very great deal. We heard how he would take down all her photographs, remove them from his house in Palm Beach when he had other women friends to say, we heard from her own assistant how Epstein had Ghislaine Maxwell's own assistant send flowers from Epstein to another woman.

You heard me there talking in the documentary about her father. Her father, Robert Maxwell was a notoriously cruel man -- cruel and unkind to his children. He was also very rich.

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WARD: There are many people I've spoken to over the years of my reporting who think that it isn't just coincidence that when the same year that Robert Maxwell dies, and is disgraced after it is revealed that he has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from the pension funds of his own employees, that Ghislaine Maxwell turns to another abusive man, another cruel man who is also very wealthy.

KINKADE: Yes.

WARD: And, you know, today, I did publish for the first time, the full transcript of a conversation I had with her in 2002 about Annie Farmer, and it is very revealing about what it says about Ghislaine Maxwell's real personality and what she really values.

She told me that she certainly wouldn't have had time to give massages to anyone, let alone to Annie Farmer. Well, we now know that was not true. But she also said that, how could I believe Annie Farmer, a stranger over Ghislaine Maxwell, who was someone I knew socially. There was that entitlement.

She also said that Annie Farmer and her sister should be much more appreciative of Jeffrey Epstein's great generosity to them, a sign clearly, that money in her eyes was the most important thing of all.

You know, what she didn't say was sort of dot, dot, dot, they should be grateful for his generosity despite the terrible abuse he does to them.

KINKADE: Yes. Vicky Ward, I would love to continue this discussion. We have to leave it there for now, unfortunately, but I hope to get you back on the show soon. Thanks so much.

WARD: Thank you for having me.

KINKADE: Mourners are saying farewell to a hero, paying their respects to Archbishop Desmond Tutu. We're going to go live to Cape Town with details about Saturday's funeral service.

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KINKADE: Welcome back.

Protests against military rule in Sudan turned violent again on Thursday. Live bullets and teargas were fired on the crowds in and around the Capitol of Khartoum.

According to one report, four people were killed and a large number of others were hurt during the demonstrations. Security forces also assaulted broadcast journalists and confiscated their equipment.

Mourners in South Africa are paying their final respects to anti- apartheid hero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Earlier, he was being taken out of the St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town where he is lying in state in a simple pine coffin.

Desmond Tutu was known around the world for his human rights advocacy, and tributes for the Archbishop have been pouring in all week.

The Archbishop's funeral service is set to happen on Saturday in Cape Town and that's where we find CNN's David McKenzie.

And David, obviously people are paying their respects to this remarkable man, a man who actually was involved in planning part of his funeral and is just another sign of how humble he was, he wanted a very simple, very inexpensive coffin.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, that's right, Lynda. And you saw that coffin, that pine coffin that he requested, traveling through the streets of Cape Town to the Cathedral -- St George's Cathedral where he had preached so often as Archbishop of Cape Town and fitting that ordinary South Africans getting an extra day to show their respect, remembrance, and the impact, remember the impact that this great man had on this country and the wider world.

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MCKENZIE: It was striking with the team talking to many people there are the very personal connection that he had with people. One woman saying she was in the Anglican Church here in Cape Town, said that he would point out the litter on the streets and would pick it up himself.

So he was always worried about the small and the big things that he thought were against how people should live their lives, how people should govern this country. And despite him effectively winning his biggest fight that there was to fight, the end of apartheid, he was still very willing to criticize those who he felt had trodden off the path of morality.

There will be a funeral, as you say, on the first of January, some hundred people in attendance because of COVID regulations, to give final respect. He'll then be -- his ashes interred in the Cathedral he so much loved. It's known as the People's Cathedral here because of its role in the anti-apartheid movement and a fitting tribute to a man who has had such a massive impact on this country.

KINKADE: He really has had a huge impact not just on the country, but it's such a worldwide legacy. And as you say, he didn't just preach, he led by example. Who will be speaking at the funeral on Saturday? What can we expect?

MCKENZIE: Well, we haven't had a list of people who are speaking yet, but it's certainly going to be senior members of the Church, which he loved and other significant figures here in South Africa.

It is interesting that there has been a shift since the new President who you will know now, but President Cyril Ramaphosa came into office. There was a lot of tension with the previous President, Jacob Zuma, because of the strident criticism that Tutu meted out towards them, including when South Africa didn't give a visa to the Dalai Lama, the leader of the Buddhists and he said it was kowtowing towards China.

There has been a warming of relations and certainly a reflection by the leadership of this country of how important Desmond Tutu is and that he should get the full State backing and State funeral he deserves -- Lynda.

KINKADE: He certainly should. David McKenzie for us in Cape Town. No doubt, we will speak to you again tomorrow. Thanks very much. Well, that does it for this edition of CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Lynda Kinkade. Thanks so much for watching.

Stick around, "MARKETPLACE MIDDLE EAST" is coming up next.

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