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Russian Troop Levels at Ukraine Border Not Seen since Cold War; Snow and Winds Threaten Millions on East Coast; January 6 Committee Subpoenas 14 Tied to Fake Elector Plot; Oklahoma Bill Would Allow Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients to Receive Visitors; ICU Physician Says Omicron Infections Not Harmless; French President Speaks with Russian and Ukrainian Counterparts; Germany Sets COVID-19 Record; China Warns against Supporting Taiwan; Ex-Astronauts Fear Impact of Russia-Ukraine Tensions on International Space Efforts. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired January 29, 2022 - 05:00 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): Hello and 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.
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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.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Tensions in Eastern Europe continue to grow as President Biden lays out his plan to reposition U.S. troops. We're live in Kyiv and Moscow with the latest.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Plus, millions of Americans in the Northeast are bracing for a bomb cyclone with dangerous heavy snows and winds. We have the latest from CNN's Weather Center.
And a shot of hope here in the U.S. as daily COVID cases and hospitalizations are dropping. We'll look at whether it's time to start easing restrictions.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: America's top military commanders say the Russian troop buildup near Ukraine is the largest seen since the Cold War and capable of invasion at any time.
Video from Thursday shows some of the 200 million in U.S. military equipment and munitions now being flown to Ukraine. And even though the U.S. has ruled out sending combat troops to Ukraine, Pentagon officials 8,500 U.S. forces are on alert and President Biden will soon send them to the region.
Russian forces have been massing along Ukraine's border for months. On Friday the Pentagon detailed why it views this particular buildup with alarm.
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GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN, U.S. JOINT CHIEFS: Given the type of forces arrayed, the ground maneuver forces, the artillery, the ballistic missiles, the air forces, all of it packaged together, if that was unleashed on Ukraine, it would be significant, very significant, and would result in a significant amount of casualties.
And you can imagine what that might look like in dense urban areas, along roads and so on and so forth. It would be horrific. It would be terrible.
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BRUNHUBER: In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Zelensky insists a Russian attack isn't imminent and downplayed reports of a rift with President Biden on Thursday.
He said there was no misunderstanding between him and Biden but he went on to say that, as Ukraine's leader, he knows what he's talking about when it comes to the Russian threat. Here he is.
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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.
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CNN's Nathan Hodge joins us live from Moscow and Melissa Bell is standing by in Kyiv.
Nathan, the U.S. is bullish on Russia's capability to invade Ukraine. You heard Biden there about the timing of sending troops, all the while urging diplomacy. But Moscow is sending mixed messages about these prospects.
NATHAN HODGE, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Kim, you're right. While President Biden is raising the alarm for the potential of invasion by Russia, Russian president Vladimir Putin is doing what he does best: staying above the fray, acting presidential and biding his time.
The U.S. and NATO delivered letters on Wednesday to the Russians, basically outlining their response to Russian security demands. And we have yet to get any response from the Russians, from Russian president Vladimir Putin, about how Russia will respond in turn.
Now of course, we've seen Putin public; he appeared on state television on Thursday, laying a wreath at a memorial to the victims of the siege of Leningrad during the Second World War, on Thursday. On Friday, he chaired a meeting of his security council.
But the Kremlin gave us only a brief readout. And Putin's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has come out in public and said a few responses, basically giving a rather negative initial assessment of the U.S. and NATO response, saying it's generally not welcomed.
There may be some secondary issues where the U.S. and Russia can find some common ground on things like arms control. But on the big issue, whether or not Ukraine has a path to membership in NATO, the U.S. and Russia are very, very far apart.
And this is where the ball is really in President Putin's court. He's the person who is the main decision maker.
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HODGE: We need to wait and see how he responds. And he's not under intense domestic political pressure, as some other international leaders are. So really, we're waiting to hear what he says. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Until we get to that, let's turn to the Ukrainian perspective.
Melissa, more criticism from President Zelensky about the U.S. response, not just the schism over the imminent invasion but also the timing of sanctions.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kim. There's a difference about the timing of sanctions and the level of the threat. Now they're really out in the open. According to one senior Ukrainian official, the conversation had not gone that well but also much more openly.
As you just explained, on one hand, we had that language from President Biden, doubling down on Friday, talking about the fact that it could be in the near future, those 8,500 troops would move toward NATO's eastern flank.
Also the chief of the general staff explaining the level of danger and the Pentagon's assessment of the threat.
On the other, we've heard from President Zelensky himself, being very clear about the fact that, for him, in the context that is Ukraine's and that is much easier to understand, for Ukrainians that have lived through these last few years since 2014, of a conflict at times that has gone low level, but other times got escalated.
They understand much better what exactly those troop movements mean. We heard both from President Zelensky last night and his defense minister, that the Ukrainian assessment is Russian force movements are not that different than what they would have been in the spring of last year apart from what they have been in Belarus.
So a much more cautious approach to what exactly may be happening and what the Russian president may be planning. For now, the longer this lasts, the more starkly exposed these
differences are. For the White House's strategy, Kim, presenting a tough united front, very bellicose language toward Vladimir Putin, that's a massive problem going forward.
The longer this lasts, the greater and more open divisions appear, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: I appreciate both of your analysis of this fraught story. Melissa Bell in Kyiv, Nathan Hodge in Moscow, thanks so much.
And thousands of U.S. troops are on alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe to support NATO allies. So far, Biden hasn't given a timeline, other than it could happen in the near term. Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling spoke with CNN about the potential of U.S. troop movement.
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LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I suspected that it would happen, when the early discussions were ongoing, the president and the national security apparatus were talking about waiting for a NATO call forward for the NATO response force.
We don't need that. United States does not need that. We have alliances and partnerships in many of the Eastern European countries.
And what I would say is, for the last six years, in fact, even when I was there as commander of Europe, we were beginning to build bases in many of the Eastern European countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, the Baltics.
So, yes, you can move forces to those locations without having them go under NATO control and we've been practicing that for the last six years.
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BRUNHUBER: Nearly 55 million people are under a winter weather alert in the U.S. right now as heavy snow and hurricane-force winds are threatening the East Coast. Officials are also reporting at least 10 million people across 10 states are under blizzard warnings. Officials are warning of potential power outages and dangerous travel conditions.
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BRUNHUBER: Dramatic images of a bridge collapse in Pittsburgh Friday. 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.
The bridge was inspected last September and received a poor condition rating. Public safety officials saying an investigation into the collapse is underway.
All right. Still ahead, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the decline in the U.S., with the number of deaths still alarmingly high. We'll have the latest coronavirus news coming up.
Plus, more subpoenas issued in the investigation of the U.S. Capitol attack. We'll have the latest moves made by the January 6th committee coming up. Stay with us.
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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. Now we've learned that the committee has also subpoenaed Judd Deere. He's a former White House spokesman believed to have knowledge of Trump's behavior before and after the riot.
Democrat Adam Schiff sits on the January 6th committee and he appeared on CNN earlier to explain what they are hoping to learn about the fake elector plot.
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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), CHAIR, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: There were multiple lines of effort to try to overturn the election.
And this appears to be one of them; that is, having these alternate slates of electors meet on December 14th to present themselves to the Congress, to the National Archives, which is where these supposed certificate of electors should go and these fake ones did go.
And have the vice president use these alternate, these false certificates to justify either delaying the counting or to count some of the alternates instead of counting the real ones.
So we know these people that were the chairs and the secretaries, who have been asked to come in from the seven states, have information about it.
In particular, we want to know who was organizing these efforts, who brought them together, who assembled them?
What role did the Trump campaign play?
How much of this was centralized, organized?
Because so many of these certificates look quite identical with other states. So we want to know about the level of coordination and who was really running this show.
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BRUNHUBER: According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 2,200 Americans are dying from COVID-19 every day. But there is some sign of hope. Daily numbers of infections and hospitalizations are dropping and more people are getting vaccinated. CNN's Alexandra Field reports.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER: My message would be just hang in there.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Easier said than done for many Americans. But as exhaustion with the pandemic grows, so do signs of hope. Omicron cases coming down in much of the country and, promisingly, new data shows vaccination numbers are going up a bit during the Omicron surge.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation study finds 77 percent of Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, compared to 73 percent in November, when vaccination rates had stagnated.
And more proof of how well vaccines work, according to the CDC, unvaccinated seniors were 52 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID in December than seniors who were fully vaccinated and boosted.
DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Let's keep working on improving therapeutics and vaccines and make sure there's plenty of them so, whenever the next variant hits, we'll be ready. We won't have to shut down schools, we won't have to shut down our lives. We'll manage our way through it.
FIELD: There's now a sub-variant of Omicron but public health officials say it's not yet cause for alarm.
FAUCI: We're keeping a close eye on it. It looks a bit more transmissible but not necessarily more severe.
FIELD (voice-over): Sadly, some 2,200 Americans are still losing their lives to COVID daily. Thankfully, hospitalizations are lower than they were a week ago but it remains an isolating disease.
To counter that pain in Oklahoma, a lawmaker is calling for a new law to ensure COVID patients can receive visits from loved ones --
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FIELD (voice-over): -- saying many Oklahomans have had to endure the horrible heartbreak of not being with loved ones while they were hospitalized with COVID-19.
This adds stress and trauma onto an already fraught situation, the stresses of the pandemic not behind us yet. Children under 5 still aren't eligible for vaccines.
And COVID cases among children are hitting new highs, the rate of infection nearly five times higher than at the peak of the surge last winter. But in another sign of hope, two new Israeli studies show children living in vaccinated households have significantly higher protection.
FIELD: More than 2 million children have been infected with COVID just this month, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is saying schools should stay open for in-person learning. But they're also saying that students and staff should continue to wear masks -- in New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: Dr. Andre Campbell is a professor of surgery at the University of California/San Francisco School of Medicine and an attending trauma surgeon at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
He's also the vice chair for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Department of Surgery and he joins us now.
Thanks for being with us, Doctor. I want to start with the good news, such as it is. Cases going down across the country here in the U.S. Some places like San Francisco, where you're lowering some COVID restrictions.
On that theme, I want to talk about Europe. We're now seeing countries lowering their COVID restrictions, in some cases dropping them entirely. Leaders in Spain talking about finally making that pivot from COVID as a pandemic to treating it much as you would the flu.
I'm sure you talked to many patients who believe it's about time for the U.S. to do the same.
Is it?
DR. ANDRE CAMPBELL, VICE CHAIR FOR DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO: What's encouraging here in the U.S. is that the numbers on the East Coast and New York and the Northeast and Washington area is beginning to go down. We're actually still at the high number that we had before out in San Francisco.
And it's interesting how different parts of the country are peaking and then they go down. So it is interesting that things are beginning to go down. But the problem we have now is that we still have a lot of stress on the health care system.
So it means, in my hospital, where, a year ago, we had a peak of about 71 or so patients, we're still in the 60s with 10 in the ICU. So we still haven't peaked yet.
The numbers in the community are going down and I think that's encouraging. But there's still stress on the health care system. There are places where there are a lot of people in the hospital. There's 150,000 or so in the hospital, 26,000 in the ICU.
And what's happened with our place is we've had hundreds of staff that have been out with COVID this time. So it is really causing a big stress on our system.
BRUNHUBER: In many of those countries, even though they have cases that are still rising, they're able to lower the restrictions because their vaccination rates are much higher than they are here.
CAMPBELL: That is true. We only have about 64 percent of people vaccinated. Fully vaccinated to me means you get three shots. It's a little bit of a misnomer; they say two but it's really three.
So you have that 80-90 percent protection against the virus. And patients that are turning the corner have a higher rate of vaccination. A better vaccination rate is the more protection you have against the virus.
And as we move forward, we hope we can get that up now. Only 64 percent of people have two and 30 percent of people have three. We still have a little ways to go; actually a long ways to go so we can make more of the parallels to 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.
BRUNHUBER: And in looking at how we turn the corner, some experts are saying, you know, especially when it comes to the Omicron variant, the fact that it's so contagious means that it's so much closer to becoming endemic and bringing us closer to the end of the pandemic.
Other people are saying, well, hang on; just because a disease is endemic doesn't mean it's harmless.
CAMPBELL: Oh, it's definitely not harmless. Omicron has actually put more people in the hospital than we had last time. Remember, last time we only had about 130,000 people. Now we've got 155,000 people, less than 155,000 people. So its still putting people in the hospital. Now there's a new variant BA.2 found in 49 countries and all the United States and we'll see how that pans out.
But whoever says it's less harmful, if you're vaccinated, it's certainly less harmful but if you're not vaccinated, it could still be equally as deadly as Delta was or the first strain. So the problem is the more people, if you have 50 million people unvaccinated, the virus mutates.
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CAMPBELL: And when it mutates, it changes that little covering on top of it. This new variant 20 or 30 different protein spikes that are different than the variant before it. And one is slightly different.
And that's what helps it attack people and make them become infected. So we have to hold on; we're not quite there. But you can begin to see, if we begin to parallel what has happened in Europe, we may have some hope for moving forward. But we're not there yet. So the expression is not there yet, we're not there yet right now.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, good to end on a note of hope there. Dr. Andre Campbell, thanks for joining us.
CAMPBELL: Thank you so much for having me, Kim. I really appreciate that.
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BRUNHUBER: Coming up, Germany's parliament is still debating vaccine mandates as the country's health minister declares that Omicron infections are lower than expected. We've got the latest from Europe.
Plus, the women's final at the Australian Open just concluded. And a hometown hero made history. Stay with us.
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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. Moscow is pouring more troops into areas close to the Ukrainian border. A short time ago, military officials in Belarus greeted a train load of Russian soldiers supposedly for military drills. Belarus borders Ukraine to the north and is politically aligned with Moscow. Downing Street said prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to discuss it in coming day.
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BRUNHUBER: French president Emmanuel Macron spoke with Putin on Friday and he later talked to Ukraine's president and expressed full solidarity with Ukraine.
But Germany is taking a softer approach. The Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline isn't yet operational but is weighing heavily on Germany's response to the Russian threat. The Russian buildup is alarming U.S. defense officials. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has the latest.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If Vladimir Putin goes for a full scale invasion of Ukraine, America's top general laid out just how grim war could be.
STARR: How disastrous could it be in your assessment? GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN, U.S. JOINT CHIEFS: If that was unleashed on Ukraine, it would be significant, very significant. And it would result in a significant amount of casualties.
And you can imagine what that might look like in dense urban areas, along roads and so on and so forth. It would be horrific. It would be terrible.
STARR: Russia's build-up increasing in just the last 48 hour, according to the Pentagon. Both the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, again, warning Putin, diplomacy is his best option.
GEN. LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: A move on Ukraine will accomplish the very thing Russia says it does not want: a NATO alliance strengthened and resolved on its western flank.
STARR (voice-over): Those comments come after a dust-up between the U.S. and Ukraine over the call Thursday between President Biden and Ukrainian President Zelensky.
A senior Ukrainian official tells CNN that the call did not go well, with Zelensky calling the threat from Russia "ambiguous" and Biden disagreeing, saying, an invasion next month is virtually certain.
The White House saying that's not true. A spokesperson telling CNN, "President Biden said there is a distinct possibility that the Russians could invade Ukraine in February."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you'd have to go back quite a while, into the Cold War days, to see something of this magnitude.
STARR (voice-over): Zelensky insisting a new invasion is not for sure.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I'm the president of Ukraine. I'm based here. And I think I know the details deeper than any other president.
STARR (voice-over): A diplomatic solution as uncertain as ever; the Russian foreign minister says he sees no room for compromise, as the U.S. is rejecting the demand that no new countries be allowed to join NATO.
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translation): The response is so full of itself. I feel ashamed for the people who wrote these texts.
STARR: What could be the next step?
Well, some 8,500 U.S. troops remain on a heightened state of alert. And President Biden could -- could -- decide to send them to Europe at any time -- Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
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BRUNHUBER: Johnson faces a growing political crisis as a police investigation into Downing Street parties moves forward. The police say they've received material from the cabinet office. That will be used to determine whether or not the parties broke COVID lockdown rules.
A separate report led by senior civil servant Sue Gray has been expected this week but hasn't been released yet. Police say they haven't delayed it but are asking that some details be left out as to not prejudice their investigation.
Russia is facing a staggering rise in daily cases of COVID-19. A short time ago, it registered more than 100,000 for the first time, a 10- fold increase since the beginning of the year.
China is reporting more cases related to the upcoming Winter Olympics. Canada said five members of its Olympic team were placed under COVID- 19 protocols since arriving in Beijing. It's not clear if they're in quarantine.
Brazil is reporting record daily COVID cases for the third straight day. Brazil had nearly 270,000 on Friday compared to 228,000 the day before.
Germany's health minister said COVID infection are lower than anticipated due to the measures the nations already has in place. It comes as German lawmakers debate whether or not to enforce a general vaccine mandate. All right. Let's bring in Scott McLean live in London.
Scott, fewer cases than expected in Germany but that doesn't quite tell the whole story, does it?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You can imagine how high they were expecting cases to be, considering, in Germany, they're hitting record high case counts. And the health minister, as you mentioned, Kim, said the Omicron wave is under control and that cases are actually lower than originally expected because of regulations and curbs they have in place.
These are things like indoor mask mandates and COVID-19 passes for bars and restaurants.
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MCLEAN: Germany has not seen a huge spike in deaths that have followed for previous waves but they are warning of pressure building up in hospitals and ICUs. And now the worry is also there are a lot of unvaccinated people in Germany.
The health minister says there's four times more in Germany than in the United Kingdom. The parliament is debating a very controversial bill to mandate vaccination amongst almost all of the population, although a vote wouldn't be expected until late in March.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, in Europe and Ukraine, they have reached a record number of new infections yesterday, across the border with Russia. Russia is also dealing with a surge in Omicron infections. And it's hitting kids particularly hard.
In Moscow, for instance, the number of infections amongst kids is 14 times higher now than just two weeks ago. Hospitalizations are also following. Now Russia is calling for the different regions of the country to return to remote learning where they can.
Russia right now, they're vaccinating kids 12-plus; it's on a voluntary basis. Elsewhere in Europe, they're vaccinating kids even younger than that, as young as 5 years old.
But Swedish health officials say they will not recommend vaccinating children between the ages of 5 and 11. While they say there's certainly a benefit to broader society, they are not convinced there is a benefit to children themselves, considering that COVID is generally quite mild amongst kids.
What they do say is they will watch the vaccine rollout amongst the younger kids in other parts of Europe, keep an eye on side effects, whatever they may be. It's possible they could change their minds. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Thanks so much, Scott. Appreciate it.
Well, 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 from the U.S., even though the vast 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.
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CHIEF PETER SLOLY, OTTAWA POLICE: We still do not have a confirmed number of trucks of demonstrators. We do not have an established end date for the demonstrations. They could go through the weekend and into next week.
We do not know all of the parallel demonstrations that may occur and/or the lone wolf individuals, who may insert themselves into the mix for various reasons.
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BRUNHUBER: Because of potential violence, authorities promised there will be a large police presence. Organizers insist that the demonstration will be peaceful.
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BRUNHUBER: Coming up, strong words from China as it tries to prevent the U.S. from encouraging Taiwan independence. We'll have the latest from Taipei ahead. Stay with us.
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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.
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BRUNHUBER: That was China's ambassador to the U.S. with a blunt warning to the U.S. and Taiwan. One move that likely irritated China, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris had a casual conversation with her Taiwanese counterpart at the inauguration of the new president of Honduras.
Meanwhile, tensions between Beijing has escalated in recent months. Days ago China launched 39 planes into the Taiwanese air defense zone. Joining me is Will Ripley.
Will, as we heard, China's ambassador to U.S. had strong words.
What's your read on the significance?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's probably the most direct messaging I've heard from a Chinese diplomat on what could happen because of these conflicts over the Taiwan Strait between the U.S. and China.
Of course, Taiwan, this self-governing democracy kind of caught in the middle. Whenever U.S. lawmakers take Taiwan up as one of their favorite issues --
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RIPLEY: -- and right now, it's one of the rare issues in Washington that unites both Republicans and Democrats, support of Taiwan, stand with a fellow democracy. But it puts Taiwan in a position where they potentially could be in some trouble with the mainland.
If they view, meaning the mainland, views Taiwan moving too close to some sort of declaration of formal independence. That's what you heard the Chinese ambassador talking about.
If Taiwan's leadership, which Beijing doesn't consider legitimate, since their civil war, the losing side set up their own government here in Taiwan and has since grown into this democracy of 23 million, with its own democratic system and its own military and a government that Beijing says is illegitimate. A government that Beijing calls a breakaway providence, that they
could take back by force basically at anytime. That's why when you see the flyovers in Taiwan's self-air identification zone, scores of Chinese warplanes, that's a show of force, it's propaganda.
It's also military intelligence and a not so veiled although unspoken threat that China could take military action against this island, which is counting on its not formal diplomatic ties because China made sure most countries around the world don't formally recognize Taiwan's government.
But Taiwan has money and friends in high places with big, powerful democracies and armies. So what has happened in the last few days is highly irritating to Beijing.
You mentioned, on Thursday, Kamala Harris, the U.S. vice president attended the presidential inauguration and her Taiwanese counterpart also attended. Vice President Lie reportedly approached Vice President Harris. They had a casual, brief conversation.
The Taiwan spokesperson tells me it was only about a minute. I mean, most of the time, this sort of thing would not really get on anyone's radar. But because of its high level of symbolism, to have the U.S. vice president talking to the vice president of Taiwan, that's infuriating for Beijing.
And what happened on Friday, when the Taiwanese delegation flew back to the U.S., they landed in San Francisco and they had a virtual meeting with the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Again, this is the kind of official interaction that Beijing has reiterated firm opposition to. They were talking about hot button issues, from the Beijing perspective, human rights in China, the U.S. support of Taiwan, Pelosi supporting Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization and other global international platforms, something that Beijing has repeatedly said it will not stand for.
So you have this continued deepening of ties between the U.S. and Taiwan. One former diplomat said Taiwan is at risk of kind of being loved to death by the United States, Kim. Because, if China feels that a red line has been crossed, they have a big military, about 100 miles across the Taiwan Strait, waiting to make it clear who has control over Taiwan, from the Beijing point of view.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. Listen, thanks so much for walking us through that complex story, Will Ripley. Thanks so much.
All right. Still ahead, a floating oasis 250 miles above the Earth.
While Russians and Americans worked and lived together for decades, will the Ukraine crisis spoil that spirit of cooperation?
Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The International Space Station is one place where U.S. and Russian interests have converged harmoniously for decades. But some former NASA astronauts fear the current crisis over Ukraine could sour that relationship. CNN's Kristin Fisher has that report.
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KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: The International Space Station has largely remained quite insulated from any geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Russia during its 20 plus years in orbit.
The last time that Russia invaded Ukraine back in 2014, I spoke with two of the NASA astronauts that were on board the space station at that time. And they say at no point did anyone in Mission Control in Houston or in Moscow ever even mention the ongoing tensions that were taking place about 250 miles below them.
But I also spoke with about a half-dozen former NASA astronauts, who say they are very worried that this time could be different. Garrett Reisman, who spent about 95 days up on the Space Station, told me that he's scared that if this becomes a shooting war that the space station might not survive.
But NASA administrator Bill Nelson is confident that, whatever happens politically between these two countries, that the partnership in space and at the space station will continue.
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BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Isn't that something, that when our politics on terra firma are causing us to be at odds with each other, that the fact that us Earthlings can overcome that around a common civilian space program and cooperate so beautifully in a friendly manner?
And this not just be recently but ever since 1975?
It is truly one of the remarkable, remarkable stories of our time.
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FISHER: Now NASA administrator Bill Nelson is also quite confident because the Biden administration just announced in December that it supports extending the International Space Station six years to 2030.
Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, still, though, has not explicitly committed to that. Talks are still ongoing. And, you know, if Russia were to try to pull out of the Space Station prematurely, it would be very difficult if not impossible to do that, because things up there are so interconnected. The U.S. astronauts and the Russian cosmonauts share everything, from
food, exercise, equipment, electricity, propulsion, even their urine. U.S. astronauts will actually take some of the Russian cosmonauts' urine and then recycle it and drink it.
[05:55:00]
FISHER: As one astronaut put it to me, if that doesn't transcend politics, I don't know what does -- Kristin Fisher, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: Elsewhere in space, a rocket crashing into the moon could actually happen in the coming weeks. A booster for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched in 2015, has been floating in space for seven years and now it's zeroing on the far side of the lunar surface.
Earlier astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson told our Anderson Cooper how big the impact could be. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST: Something could float for a long time, and be tugged slowly in one direction or another. In this particular case, it drifted towards the moon and in an arc that will take it to collide with the moon.
I did a fast calculation and it'll impact with about the energy of 2 percent of a stick of dynamite, if you want to get a sense of what that would be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: So the booster weighs at least three tons and, despite deGrasse Tyson's estimate, others say it could create a 65-foot crater when it crashes in March.
I'm Kim Brunhuber. Thanks very much. For those watching in North America, "NEW DAY" is next. For the rest of the world it's "AFRICA AVANT-GARDE."
