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Russian Troop Levels at Ukraine Border Not Seen since Cold War; Ukrainian President Downplays Reported Rift with U.S. President Joe Biden; Concerns over Russia Weaponizing Cyberspace; January 6 Committee Subpoenas 14 Tied to Fake Elector Plot; Ten Injured in Pittsburgh Bridge Collapse; White House Says 60 Million Homes Have Requested Rapid Tests; U.K. Prime Minister to Discuss Ukraine Crisis with Putin; NATO Allies Begin to Question Germany's Reliability; Grieving Britons Angry at Partygate Scandal; China Warns against Supporting Taiwan; Freedom Convoy Protesters Descend on Ottawa. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired January 29, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, President Biden reveals plans to reposition U.S. troops in response to Russia's own buildup near Ukraine. We're live in Moscow and Kyiv for the latest.

China issues a warning after a casual encounter in Honduras involving U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Taiwan's vice president William Li. We'll have details and a live report from Taipei.

Plus, the U.S. East Coast braces for a bomb cyclone with a state of emergency already in place in some areas. We're monitoring the storm and we'll bring you all the developments.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. military says Russia's troop buildup near Ukraine is at a level not seen since the Cold War. The U.S. has been sending millions of dollars' worth of military aid to Ukraine and 8,500 American forces are now on alert and getting ready to move. Here's what U.S. President Joe Biden said about it on Friday.

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll be moving U.S. troops to Eastern Europe and the NATO countries in the near term.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: Russian troops have been amassing along Ukraine's border for months. On Friday, the Pentagon said the size of the Russian force is unprecedented in modern times and is capable of striking inside Ukraine at any time, with horrific consequences. CNN's Nathan Hodge joins us live from Moscow and Melissa Bell is standing by in Kyiv.

Nathan, let's talk about this. The U.S. doubling down on the assessment of Russia's capability to invade the whole of Ukraine. We heard Biden there about the timing of sending troops, all the while urging diplomacy. But Moscow so far is sending mixed messages about those prospects.

NATHAN HODGE, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, as President Biden raises the alarm about the potential for a Russian incursion into Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin is doing what he does best: acting presidential, staying above the fray and biding his time.

The day after the U.S. and NATO delivered their written responses to Russia's security demands, President Putin visited a cemetery in a publicly televised ceremony to lay flowers on the anniversary of the end of the siege of Leningrad in the Second World War and laid flowers at a grave.

On Friday he chaired a session of his security council, but the Kremlin gave us only a very anodyne read out of what was said there and President Putin hasn't directly addressed the crisis itself, remaining quite silent on the matter.

His foreign secretary, Sergey Lavrov, did say that Russia generally had taken a negative view of the answers that Russia had received, although did say that there could be some common ground found on some of the secondary issues, like arms control, troops in Europe.

But on the big issue, the big issue of whether or not NATO could open a path for membership to Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia stayed very far apart.

But the real issue here is what Putin decides to do. And at this point, he's remained silent on that subject. And the Kremlin has said he's read the letter from the U.S. and NATO; he's studied it and he'll give his answer in due course. But time is on his side in many ways and he has the initiative, the ball is in his court to respond.

BRUNHUBER: All right, thanks.

And turning to Melissa from the Ukrainian perspective, more criticism from president Zelensky of the U.S. response, not just the schism over how imminent an invasion might be but also about the timing of sanctions.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We know the two, Washington and Kyiv, have long been divided on that question, when sanctions should be put in. Essentially the idea of bringing them in after an invasion by Russia of Ukraine, the point of that would simply to be to protect Europe having sacrificed Ukraine. So, a fair amount of distance there. But also, as you say, distance on

the question of the level of threat. With President Zelensky repeating what his defense minister had told parliament the day before, that the Ukrainian assessment the threat hasn't actually changed that much since the spring of last year.

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BELL: The only real difference is the buildup of Russian troops in Belarus. So, we are hearing from Nathan, saying the Russian president is biding his time. That seems the be the clever strategy at the moment, since those divisions between Washington and Kyiv only become more clearly exposed.

Have a listen to what President Zelensky had to say yesterday.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I'm the president of Ukraine. I'm based here. And I think I know the details much deeper than any other president. It's important the president should know what the situation is from me, not from intermediaries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: And, of course, the point that he made was Ukrainians and the Ukrainian leadership understand the context in which the Russian buildup is happening. This is a war that's gone on since 2014.

They understand the context of it better than Washington. The other advantage for Vladimir Putin waiting and playing that longer game is that divisions begin to appear between European allies and the United States as well.

Vladimir Putin had a phone call with Emmanuel Macron yesterday. And Nathan's right, we hadn't yet heard from the Russian president's own voice, his response. But we do have a sense what he believes from the readout of that phone call.

He explained, reflecting what Sergey Lavrov said these last few days, that the American and NATO proposals don't go far enough, don't address that central concern of Russia. They want to see a guarantee that NATO will not expand further eastward, something that NATO allies are refusing to budge on.

But we also heard Vladimir Putin say that he hoped, and he believed there could be some room for progress within that Normandy format, revived on Wednesday after being paused since 2019.

So, Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany coming together. It was that format that allowed Minsk 2, the current cease-fire, to be found in 2015. The Russian president expressing his hope that those talks could be revived and some kind of de-escalation could be found.

It could be, by looking down that path, he's able to play a longer game still. BRUNHUBER: Really appreciate having you both on this developing story,

Melissa Bell in Kyiv and Nathan Hodge in Moscow. Thank you so much.

Britain is urging its businesses and other organizations to prop up their defenses against possible cyberattacks from Russia. A government watchdog says it doesn't see any specific threats related to the crisis in Ukraine but says groups in Russia have tracked records of weaponizing cyberspace in similar situations.

Earlier this month, a number of Ukrainian government websites were hit, in a move Kyiv blamed on Moscow. In the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security says a Russian cyberattack against the U.S. isn't out of the question, depending on the U.S. and NATO response to a possible Ukraine invasion.

All right, let's talk about Russia flexing its muscle in cyberspace with James Sullivan, the Director of Cyber Research at the Royal United Services Institute of British Defence and Security think tank and he joins us from London.

Thank you so much for being here with us. So any Russian act of war on Ukraine would likely take place, not just on the ground, of course, but in cyberspace as well. In fact, it's been going on, to a greater or lesser extent, for years.

But along with the buildup of Russian troops on the border, have the Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine have been ramping up as well?

JAMES SULLIVAN, DIRECTOR OF CYBER RESEARCH, ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE OF BRITISH DEFENCE AND SECURITY: Good morning. Well, thanks for having me. Obviously, this is a very serious situation we have at the moment. And we all really hope it deescalates in the coming days and weeks.

Onto the topic of cyberattacks, I think an important point here is that Russia is not going to install a new government or invade Ukraine through cyberattacks alone. So that's very important. We should move away from that hyperbole.

There isn't going to be one big cyberattack that is the tipping point. Instead, I think what we're looking at here is almost death by a thousand cuts. So, lots of low level attacks, which essentially build up to have a detrimental effect on the confidence in the Ukrainian government.

So, it's really psychological operations. And that's really the type of attack that we've seen in Ukraine since 2014.

BRUNHUBER: So basically, the aim is just to kind of destabilize, to make Ukraine look like a failed state, is that it?

SULLIVAN: Exactly. So, let's look at the history of destructive and disruptive cyberattacks by Russia and its affiliates. And this is really important. We can't attribute everything to the Russian state.

But the links are clear, with organized crime, like minded nations, et cetera. And at least since 2014, we've seen cyberattacks on the energy sector, the transport sector, state finance, the electoral commission, on businesses. Really the main aim here is to undermine the confidence in the Ukrainian government.

[04:10:00]

SULLIVAN: It degrades public trust in state institutions and also the industry.

BRUNHUBER: So, you're saying there won't be, you know, one massive cyberattack. But surely if Russia actually attacked with ground forces, there would be these types of cyberspace campaigns against military targets and things like that.

How would those actually be waged?

And what effects might they have?

SULLIVAN: Absolutely. So, it's really important to break these up into the different types of cyberattacks to really understand the nuance here. I think you could divide them into three types of attacks here, three types of cyber campaigns.

Number one, you've got traditional intelligence gathering by cyber espionage. This goes on -- Russia does it and the West does it, of course. This is age-old intelligence gathering, this time using data in cyberspace.

And that will benefit Russian foreign policymaking, because they will get information they need at the time.

The second you refer to are the operation disruptions between Ukrainian military and partners. What this does is tries to achieve a specific cyber effect at the time.

Let's say you've got some planes flying overhead. And you want to disrupt radar systems, you might want to take communication systems down at a specific time that will benefit your land troops, your air troops.

So that's a specific type of cyberattack.

And the third one I'm moving onto is one I think is actually the most relevant right now, which are these low-level attacks which are going on and on and on since 2014, to really undermine confidence and trust in our systems, in our industry.

And I think you referred at the top to the U.K. release. This doesn't just impact Ukraine; we've seen collateral damage how this has a global effect as well.

BRUNHUBER: So, is there anything that Ukraine, maybe with the help of its allies, can do to thwart or prevent these attacks?

Or is it sort of already too late?

Is there a way to maybe mitigate them by going old school, going analog?

SULLIVAN: Very good question. First of all, I don't think we're going to be able to take everything offline. Unfortunately, the world is too advanced at this stage to do that.

If I take you to what just happened most recently -- so the most recent phase of what's been happening in Ukraine. We had a bunch of messages that were put up on Ukrainian websites, saying, be afraid but expect the worst.

It's almost like me going into a building and just spraying graffiti on the front. But if you lift up under the hood, there was actually worse things done. So, in addition to the website defacements, government systems were wiped for data; you know, important files were deleted, which meant systems couldn't boot up.

What can we do about this?

I think you hinted at it in your question. You can't solve these things in 24 hours. This is why a cyber community goes on and on about good cyber hygiene, good cybersecurity.

So onto the solutions. It probably is a bit too late. But we're talking here about identifying and protecting critical efforts, segmenting your I.T. from your technologies. There's technology which actually helps operate the system and I.T. behind it.

You need to split those, patch regularly, have good incident response protocols, understand the threat. And what you just said there, move offline, you know, some things do need to be done offline. I'm not saying this means pen or paper.

But you know, you have to have some systems that are air gapped so they can't be accessed in this way.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, a lot of those warnings applicable here in the U.S. as well, as we hope we don't get similar attacks as well. James Sullivan, thank you so very much for your expertise on this. Really appreciate it.

SULLIVAN: Have a good day. Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol is issuing more subpoenas. It's seeking documents and depositions from 14 Republicans tied to the Trump campaign's efforts to subvert the Electoral College.

They submitted fake certificates declaring Trump the winner in seven states he actually lost. We've learned the committee has also subpoenaed Judd Deere, a former White House spokesman, believed to have knowledge of Donald Trump's behavior before and after the riot.

Law professor Kim Wehle explains why we may see those subpoenas now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KIM WEHLE, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE SCHOOL OF LAW: The United States Supreme Court last week rejected Donald Trump's claim that these documents or some of these documents were privileged.

So, 700 documents went from the National Archives to the January 6th committee. And they're reading them and they're finding out how to connect some of these dots.

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WEHLE: And these seven fake electors, just so people understand, we know going around in our everyday life, you cannot use a counterfeit $20 bill. You can be arrested and go to jail for that.

These are counterfeit documents to take the election, not from the Democrats, not from Joe Biden but from the American people. There are crimes that are involved here.

The question is, can the January 6th committee get to the bottom of this mountain of information?

These are not people close to Donald Trump. These are people with families, that have to hire expensive lawyers to go through this. They will get information.

Can they get what the American people need before the midterms?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Parts of the U.S. are getting hit by dangerous winter storms. I'll have details from the CNN Weather Center to come.

Plus COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the decline in the U.S. But the number of deaths is still alarmingly high. The latest coronavirus news after the break. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, you're looking at dramatic images of a bridge collapse in Pittsburgh Friday.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): At least 10 people were hurt. None of the injuries are life threatening. Rescue teams used ropes to rappel down more than 100 feet to reach some of the victims.

Now ironically it happened just hours before U.S. President Joe Biden was scheduled to speak in Pittsburgh about the nation's infrastructure. He said it's further proof the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill was desperately needed.

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BIDEN: Across the country, there are 45,000 bridges in poor condition. It's just simply unacceptable. That's why your governor and your members of Congress, your mayor have been saying for years, we have to do something about this.

I've talked about it every time I've come to Pittsburgh. And we finally got it done, a bipartisan infrastructure law, including the largest investment in our nation's bridges since the -- since the -- Eisenhower put together the interstate highway system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The bridge was inspected last September and received a poor condition rating. Public safety officials saying an investigation into the collapse is underway.

Dangerous heavy snow and winds are threatening the East Coast of the U.S. this weekend. At least 10 million people across 10 states are under blizzard warnings. Officials are cautioning of potential power outages and dangerous travel conditions.

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BRUNHUBER: COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the decline across the U.S. But according to Johns Hopkins University, more than 2,200 Americans are still dying every day.

A new study finds that a majority of Americans think that it's inevitable that COVID-19 will affect most of the country.

But if that's the case, what's an acceptable level of infection?

Here's what America's top infectious disease expert had to say.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER: When you have over 2,000 deaths, 150,000 hospitalizations and you have people who are now getting infected, to the tune of somewhere around 700,000 a day, we're not there yet.

Where we want to be is that sufficient control, a level of control that does not disrupt us in society, does not dominate our lives, does not prevent us to do the things that we generally do under normal existence, that would be a level of infection.

But, more importantly, concentrating on the severity of the disease, hospitalizations and deaths, that fall within the category of what we generally accept. We don't like it but we accept it with other respiratory viruses.

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BRUNHUBER: And Dr. Fauci says he's keeping a close eye on an Omicron spin-off variant as it becomes the dominant cause of cases in some parts of the world. But right now, he says, there's no reason for alarm.

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BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, the White House says 60 million households have requested free COVID-19 rapid tests so far. It's part of the Biden administration's program to mail out more than half a billion tests to Americans around the country.

Brazil is reporting a record number of daily coronavirus cases for the third straight day. The country had nearly 270,000 infections on Friday, compared to 228,000 the day before.

And Sweden says it won't recommend COVID vaccines for children age 5 to 11. The health agency says there's no clear benefit for those kids to get the shot.

Meanwhile one German official says Omicron infections are lower than anticipated due to the COVID measures the nation has already enforced. So for more on that, let's bring in CNN's Scott McLean, who joins us from London.

So Scott, what's behind this apparent German success story?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, not sure we can call it a success story just yet. But it is being framed in a pretty odd way.

German health officials, as you mention, saying that the number of new infections are actually lower because of restrictions and curbs in place, mask mandates and using COVID passes for bars and for restaurants.

But while they say -- the German health minister says that Omicron is under control, new infections are reaching record highs. They hit a new record on Thursday. And they're also warning of pressure on hospitals and ICUs.

What they have not seen is a spike in new deaths but that may come later. Now the German health officials are worried about the number of unvaccinated people. The health minister says that number is four times higher in Germany than it is, say, in the U.K.

And so they are really trying to push the vaccine on people. Right now, the parliament is debating a bill that would follow in Austria's lead, by mandating almost everyone in the country get vaccinated, though they wouldn't be set to vote on that until late March at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Russia is also seeing a surge of Omicron infections. In Moscow, for instance, new infections amongst children in particular is hitting hard. New infections amongst kids in Moscow are up -- are 14 times higher than they were just two weeks ago. Hospitalizations are also surging there as well. Now right now, health

officials in -- in Russia are calling on the different regions of the country to return to remote learning wherever they can. Right now, Russia vaccinates kids 12 and older on a voluntary basis.

Other countries in Europe vaccinate children much younger than that. But now Sweden, as you said earlier, says they will not recommend that.

So the Swedish health authorities says, while there may be a benefit to society overall, they are not convinced that there is a benefit to the children themselves, because, of course, most COVID infections amongst children are quite mild.

They do say they're going to monitor the rollout in other countries, keep their eye on the side effects. And it's possible they could change their minds.

BRUNHUBER: An interesting perspective for sure. Scott McLean, thank you so much.

Earlier I spoke with professor of surgery and ICU physician Dr. Andre Campbell and I asked him if now's the right time to ease COVID restrictions across the U.S. Here he is.

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DR. ANDRE CAMPBELL, VICE CHAIR FOR DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO: It is interesting, what is going on in Europe. And I'm hoping that in the future we can certainly see that things will move in that direction.

What's encouraging here in the United States is that the numbers on the East Coast and New York, in the Northeast and Washington area is beginning to go down. And the places that are turning the corner have a higher rate of vaccination.

The better vaccination rate is the more protection you have against the virus. And as we move forward, we hope we can get that number up now; only 64 percent of people have two and 30 percent of people have three.

We still have a long ways to go so we can make more of those parallels of those European countries that are turning a corner. We are beginning to reduce restrictions. But we still have a fair amount of stress on our health care system here in San Francisco.

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BRUNHUBER: We'll bring you the full interview with Dr. Campbell next hour.

Coming up after a short break, why Germany is taking a much softer line toward Moscow, as the threat of a Russian invasion looms over Ukraine. Plus growing anger in Britain over Boris Johnson's Partygate scandal.

How many are furious the prime minister broke the COVID rules they sacrificed to follow. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

NATO members in Europe still hope diplomacy in the threat of severe sanctions will dissuade Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine. Downing Street says British prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to discuss the crisis with the Russian president in the coming days.

French president Emmanuel Macron spoke with Putin on Friday. He later talked with Ukraine's president and expressed full solidarity with Ukraine.

But Germany has been taking a softer approach. The Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia isn't yet operational but it's weighing heavily in Germany's response to the Russian threat. That pipeline is part of the reason why some NATO countries are questioning Germany's approach to the crisis. Fred Pleitgen reports.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): As Russia continues amassing troops at Ukraine's borders, the U.S. and its allies have stepped up deliveries of defensive weapons to Kyiv, including armor-piercing anti-tank missiles.

Notably missing, though, NATO partner Germany; the Germans only offering 5,000 helmets for the Ukrainians facing Russian tanks.

CHRISTINE LAMBRECHT, GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): The German government has said clearly we will not send any lethal weapons or arms deliveries to conflict areas because we don't want to fuel these conflicts further.

PLEITGEN: But Germany is coming off a record year for arms export: top client, Egypt, despite its difficult human rights track record.

Ukraine's ambassador to Berlin says his country is not happy.

ANDRIY MELNYK, UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR TO GERMANY: I think that they have to reconsider and they have to start helping us with the weapons of defensive type, which we need right now.

PLEITGEN: Some NATO countries are questioning just how reliable an ally Berlin is when it comes to confronting Russian aggression, especially after the head of the German navy recently had to resign after saying Vladimir Putin deserves respect.

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PLEITGEN (voice-over): When dealing with Russia, Germany is still haunted by its past, says Sudha David-Wilp of the German Marshall Fund.

SUDHA DAVID-WILP, GERMAN MARSHALL FUND: They're afraid of sending weapons to Ukraine and those weapons being used, given the number of Russians that were killed during World War II. But let's be honest, there were huge amounts of Ukrainians that were victims as well during World War II.

PLEITGEN: Millions of Ukrainians were killed as Hitler's army overran what was then the Ukrainian part of the Soviet Union, nearly the entire Jewish population there wiped out.

But Germany also has hard economic reasons for going soft on Russia, its dependence on Russian gas and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the $11 billion undersea link between the two countries.

While Berlin recently claimed the pipeline was purely an economic project, at least now the government says a Russian invasion of Ukraine would have an impact.

ANNALENA BAERBOCK, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): If there is renewed congress, we have the full bandwidth of measures, including Nord Stream 2.

PLEITGEN: The U.S. has long urged Berlin to use Nord Stream 2, which is not yet certified for gas transit, as leverage to deter Moscow. Now the State Department says, if Russia invades, the project is dead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.

PLEITGEN: But currently the Germans are still very much moving forward with Nord Stream 2. In fact, a German subsidiary was just found trying to speed up certification here in Europe. All this as Berlin says it remains firmly in the U.S.' corner and says that it will support massive sanctions against Russia if there is a further invasion of Ukraine -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

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BRUNHUBER: London police say their investigation into Downing Street parties is now being aided by material from the U.K. Cabinet office. They're probing whether prime minister Boris Johnson and others broke COVID lockdown rules.

For many the gatherings at Number 10 are bringing back memories of the sacrifices they made during those difficult times. Salma Abdelaziz reports.

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Spring 2020: about two months into England's strict nationwide lockdown. The death toll mounting so quickly, mass graves are dug on the outskirts of London.

BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: To obey those rules...

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The prime minister consistently urges the public to abide by COVID restrictions.

May 15th: this photo is snapped in the Downing Street garden, Johnson allegedly hosting a wine and cheese party for his team. Johnson's government has denied wrongdoing, claiming this was a work meeting.

Bereaved mother Emma Jones says it's hypocrisy.

EMMA JONES, BEREAVED MOTHER: The date just jumped out at me. So the 15th of May 2020, which is an incredibly sad day for us.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): That day, her 18 year-old daughter, Ruby, died of blood cancer at home.

JONES: After Ruby died, we opened up our front garden and invited people to come. But they had to do in their household bubbles.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Because funeral attendance was severely limited, this is how loved ones said goodbye to Ruby.

ABDELAZIZ: You made the sacrifice of not having a funeral for your daughter.

JONES: It was very, very hard. But we didn't begrudge that. But now to realize that the people who set the rules weren't following them is absolutely infuriating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But this government needs to stop --

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): May 20th, 2020, police are out to enforce restrictions and break up illegal gatherings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to disperse this group and go about your business.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): But in the prime minister's garden, a party is allegedly taking place, after his top secretary invited more than 100 staffers to "make the most of the lovely weather" and "bring your own booze."

Johnson now admits to his attendance and has apologized but says he believed the BYOB event was a work function.

JOHNSON: Mr. Speaker, I want to apologize.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): That spring, Olufemi Akinnola followed the rules until his dying breath, isolating at home, his son, Lobby, told us. LOBBY AKINNOLA, OLUFEMI'S SON: You have someone who was so dedicated to the people he loves. And then the prime minister just doesn't care?

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): In the fall of 2020, Lobby met the prime minister with other bereaved families to share his story of grief.

AKINNOLA: I don't think the man can maintain his position as prime minister because I think he's betrayed us all so deeply.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): For many, the accusation their government broke COVID-19 rules to party is unforgivable. The inquiries into the alleged breaches, first by the cabinet office.

[04:40:00]

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): And now the police are set to make it unforgettable -- Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

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BRUNHUBER: Coming up, a rare, impromptu meeting between the U.S. vice president and Taiwan's vice president could add fuel to tensions between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan. That's ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The world is saying goodbye to Thich Nhat Hanh. A seven day wake for the prominent Zen Buddhist monk and peace activist has ended. Nhat Hanh died one week ago at the age of 95.

Disciples have been paying their respects since his body lay in state. And, on Saturday, thousands trailed his coffin as it made its way to a cremation site in Hue, Vietnam. His ashes will be scattered at his teaching centers around the world.

China is sending a direct warning to the U.S.: supporting Taiwan independence could spark a military conflict. Tensions flared after a rare encounter Thursday at the inauguration of the new president of Honduras.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris had a casual conversation with her Taiwanese counterpart. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also held a virtual meeting with vice president William Li Friday.

According to Taiwan's presidential spokesperson, they discussed security, economy, governance, specifically Taiwan's participation in international platforms and potential cooperation between Congress and the Taiwan legislature.

Joining me now from Taipei is CNN's senior CNN international correspondent Will Ripley. Will, China's ambassador to the U.S. had some pretty direct comments.

So take us through what was said and your read on the significance and timing.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ever since the United States normalized relations with China, part of that deal was acknowledging that Taiwan, at least on paper, is officially a part of China.

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RIPLEY: Even though this self-governing democracy has its own government, military, it operates autonomously. But China views the Taiwanese government as illegitimate and that it's a breakaway province that could essentially be taken back by force at any time if necessary.

And they say one of the red lines is the United States engaging in official government-level interactions with a government that Beijing considers illegitimate.

So you have two events that have happened in the last two days, that are undoubtedly highly irritating and perhaps even provocative in the eyes of Beijing.

The first was on Thursday; you mentioned that very casual conversation in Honduras at the inauguration of their new president between the U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and her Taiwanese counterpart William Li.

He approached Harris and they had a very brief friendly conversation that lasted about a minute, according to it the Taiwan spokesperson. And apparently he thanked Vice President Harris for U.S. support of Taiwan.

And Harris says they talked about some other policy issues regarding migrants in that region, where they were attending this inauguration.

But then on Friday, there was actually a much more substantive high- level meeting between the U.S. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Taiwan's vice president Li. It was a virtual meeting after the Taiwanese delegation landed in San Francisco, I'm told. And it lasted, as I said, half an hour.

They talked about security, economy, government; they talked about Pelosi supporting Taiwan engaging in international platforms like the World Health Organization, which Beijing has firmly opposed.

They talked about human rights in China, a huge red line for Beijing, just days before the opening ceremonies of the 2022 Winter Olympics when they've been accusing the U.S. of trying to cast China in a bad light on the global stage as they prepare to try to have this soft power victory.

So that leads us to this interview with NPR, where the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. spelled out probably more clearly than I've heard a Chinese diplomat say in quite some time what would happen, from the Beijing perspective, if this U.S.-Taiwan relationship continues to deepen.

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QIN GANG, CHINA'S AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: If, you know, the Taiwanese authorities -- emboldened by the United States, you know -- keep going down the road for independence, it most likely involve China and the United States, the two big countries, in a military conflict.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: Support for Taiwan is one of those rare issues in Washington, Kim, that seems to unite Republicans and Democrats, saying things like friends in the democratic world should stand together. Taiwan is counting on its friendships. It doesn't have formal diplomatic ties but it has friendships with big powerful democracies with big powerful militaries, including the United States, of course.

So these two encounters, Friday's virtual meeting with Pelosi, Thursday's rare, brief but highly symbolic vice presidential encounter, could really add fuel to tensions between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan.

BRUNHUBER: Will Ripley in Taipei, thanks so much.

Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, the women's final at the Australian Open is underway and a hometown hero is hoping to make history. I'll have a live report from Melbourne next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Anti-vaccine mandate protesters have arrived at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, ahead of a planned rally on Saturday. The so-called freedom convoy was started to protest the vaccine requirement for truck drivers entering Canada from the U.S. even though the majority of Canadian truckers are vaccinated.

The United States has a similar policy for truckers coming in from Canada. Officials warn the demonstration may draw far right figures, who are known to incite violence. And because of that, authorities promise there will be a large police presence. Organizers insist Saturday's demonstration will be peaceful.

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[04:55:00] BRUNHUBER: Well, the cat's finally out of the bag. The Bidens have a new family pet. The first lady says she saw the gray tabby at the campaign stop in 2020 after it jumped on stage. The two shared an immediate bond.

The feline's name, Willow, even refers to Jill Biden's hometown in Pennsylvania. Willow now lives with Commander, a purebred German shepherd puppy that the Bidens adopted in December of last year. And hopefully the White House will be big enough for the both of them.

Well, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber, I'll be back in just a moment with more news. Please do stay with us.