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U.S. Says Putin Has 70 Percent Of Forces For Full Invasion; Beijing Olympics Update; DOJ Releases New Violent, Profanity-Laced Videos; Ottawa Residents Fed Up With "Freedom Convoy"; Queen Elizabeth Announces Charles' Wife Will Be Queen Camilla; Biden Sets Record With 6.6 Million Jobs Added In First Year; Power Outages Linger In Wake Of Powerful Storm. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired February 06, 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 AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, with U.S. troops now in Europe, are we close to seeing war break out on the Russian-Ukrainian border?
We'll have a live report from Kyiv.
Plus --
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Some truck drivers in Canada want vaccine mandates removed. So they're swarming the streets for a second straight weekend.
Is Trumpism taking root in Canada with these protests?
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And Queen Elizabeth just announced a new future title for Camilla, wife of Prince Charles. We're live at Buckingham Palace with all the details.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: U.S. officials now believe Russian president Vladimir Putin has assembled about 70 percent of the military force he needs to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The latest satellite images show Russian forces gathering force in Belarus, some positioned less than 50 kilometers from Ukraine's northern border.
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BRUNHUBER: U.S. troops have began arriving in Poland to help boost NATO's defenses there. American forces have also been sent to Romania and Germany. France's president is heading to Moscow on Monday to try to discourage further Russian aggression. CNN's Melissa Bell is standing by live for us in Kyiv.
Melissa, on one hand, Russian troops positioned in Belarus and U.S. troops on the move. On the other hand, hope for diplomacy still alive.
What's the latest?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Vladimir Putin has, according to Elysee transcripts of his recent phone calls with President Macron, said that he's the one Western leader that he can speak to and go into detail on several dossiers with.
So Macron feels he's the one person who can actually make progress with him. There is a certain amount of trust between two men.
And the point is, about this visit, he'll be in Moscow tomorrow, here in Kyiv on Tuesday, is that it is a narrowing window of opportunity, really, that we're seeing for diplomacy, generally, because of that military buildup that you mentioned.
Now American officials have been briefing both lawmakers and European allies these last few days about their latest assessment. And Kim, the point is that it is the most dire yet in terms of the combined forces that are now amassed on Ukraine's border.
We know that Ukrainian officials believe that the point of this is to rattle NATO, is to test it, is to divide it, is to challenge it. And that certainly seems to have been accomplished. NATO is definitely paying attention to what's happening here.
There has been this difference of assessment between the United States and Ukraine in terms of just how serious the threat is. But we've been seeing these satellite images coming through these last 24 hours, Kim, from Maxar, the independent satellite image provider, showing that, just on that border between Ukraine and Belarus, forces have been moving south.
So they are now within 50 kilometers of the border and they are not just men in weapons but aircraft as well, at several of those airfields along the border. The point here is that, even as the world wonders whether Vladimir Putin has actually made up his mind about whether or not to invade Ukraine, the point is that he can.
And what the American officials are briefing is that it would really take a matter of days now, at this stage, given the weaponry, given the manpower that is amassed on the border, for Russia to make it to Kyiv and take the Ukrainian capital.
Such an assault would cost the lives, it is estimated by American officials and intelligence assessment, it would cost the lives of tens of thousands of people and create many thousands of refugees as well.
So that is the warning from American officials, not so much that it is a certainty that this is going to happen but the very possibility that it might is something that should certainly have the world paying attention to and again, that window of opportunity for diplomacy, crucial that Emmanuel Macron is able to make the most of it, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: The world watches and waits. Melissa Bell in Kyiv. Thanks so much.
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BRUNHUBER: Day two of the Winter Olympics is now well underway, speed skating, ski jumping and luge among the medal events to come today. Sunday kicked off with a historic gold medal win for New Zealand in women's snowboarding. And the Russian Olympic committee just snagged gold and silver in the men's cross-country skiathlon.
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BRUNHUBER: But it's not just the athletes making headlines. Controversy is all casting a shadow over this year's games, including concerns over Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. Her well-being was thrust into the spotlight last year after she accused a top Chinese official of sexual assault and then disappeared from public view.
On Sunday, the International Olympic Committee confirmed plans to meet with her during the games.
This year's Olympics also comes amid simmering tensions between Beijing and the West, with several countries declaring diplomatic boycotts of the games over what they say are China's human rights abuses.
We're covering all of this here on CNN. Coy Wire is standing by in Beijing but first let's go to Ivan Watson in Hong Kong.
Ivan, let's start with Peng Shuai and the IOC confirming that they do plan on meeting with her.
What more do we know?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that the IOC president, Thomas Bach, is planning to meet with her. But it is possible we will not hear very much about the content of that meeting. Take a listen to this spokesperson from the IOC.
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MARK ADAMS, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: You'll appreciate that we're not going to release details through the media of that meeting but the meeting will take place. And I think as the president very eloquently said, we would talk with her and it would be up to her to decide what would and wouldn't be said. (END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: Just a brief recap, Kim, Peng Shuai, several months ago, set off a firestorm when she published this very emotional accusation, that a former senior Chinese government official had allegedly sexually assaulted her. And she kind of then disappeared from public view.
We saw the very heavy-handed Chinese internet censors erase that from the Chinese internet and comments about her from the Chinese internet. There were real public appeals of concern from her colleagues in professional tennis as well as from the Women's Tennis Association.
And when she finally resurfaced, she recanted. She said that she actually hadn't published those accusations, which has led to concern about how freely she's actually able to speak publicly.
And that's part of what the appeals are, for Thomas Bach to meet with her face-to-face. Of course, as the IOC president, he has been very concerned about avoiding embarrassing or angering the host country of the Winter Olympics, China.
BRUNHUBER: Thank you so much, Ivan Watson in Hong Kong.
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BRUNHUBER: Still to come, we have more graphic video from the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. It's just been released. It comes as some Republicans say those events were part of legitimate political discourse.
Plus --
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): That noise is what many people in Canada's capital have been enduring for more than a week. Now they say they've had it with the so-called freedom convoy. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Justice Department has just released graphic new video showing several attacks between police and rioters outside the Capitol building on January 6th. The video also contains profanity- laced material, so we want to warn you some of this material is violent and disturbing to watch. CNN's Annie Grayer reports from Washington.
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ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Department of Justice released new videos on Friday that show just how shocking and frightening the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th was.
Now as hard as these videos are to watch, they're important to show because, just Friday, the Republican National Committee released a statement, referring to January 6th as, quote, "legitimate political discourse."
Now be warned but take a look at this video we're about to show you, just to see how much this day was not political discourse. Take a look.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm hearing reports that Pence caved. I'm telling you, if Pence caved, we're going to drag motherfuckers through the streets. You fucking politicians are going to get fucking drug (sic) through the streets because we're not going to have our fucking shit stolen.
GRAYER (voice-over): These videos that are newly released from the Department of Justice are part of their larger investigation, where they've already arrested hundreds of individuals, who are affiliated with the January 6th attack.
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GRAYER: Annie Grayer, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: Protesters are on the streets across Canada this weekend, pushing back against COVID restrictions.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): These trucks blocked a major intersection in Toronto for a few hours Saturday, in line with what was seen in Quebec City as well.
In the capital, Ottawa, where noisy demonstrations shut down the parliament area for a week, some protesters showed up on horseback. The protests were started by truck drivers opposed to a federal mandate requiring those crossing the border into Canada to be vaccinated. They expanded into a pushback against all COVID restrictions.
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BRUNHUBER: But a poll conducted last week shows only 28 percent of Canadians support the truckers' main demand, while 72 percent believe truckers either should be vaccinated or have a recent negative COVID test before crossing the U.S.-Canada border.
The poll was conducted by Maru Public Opinion for City News.
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BRUNHUBER: Marieke Walsh is a political reporter for "The Globe and Mail" and joins me now from Ottawa.
Thank you so much for being here with us. I have to say at the outset, as a reporter, I've covered all sorts of protests in Canada, so we have to issue the disclaimer here that we can't tar all of the protesters we're seeing there with the same brush, especially this protest, which has united some very disparate elements.
But looking at that so-called freedom convoy, I was struck by the number of elements that reflected what we've seen in similar protests by the pro-Trump right wing in this country, whether it's literally people carrying Trump signs, Confederate flags, people calling for a January 6th-like overthrow of the Canadian government.
What do you make of it all?
MARIEKE WALSH, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE GLOBE AND MAIL": It's certainly been quite surreal, I think, to watch in Ottawa, which is usually quite a sleepy town for a G7 capital, Kim. You're right it's really a cross-section of people. Lots of families with kids. Lots of people comparing the vaccine mandates to the persecution of the Jews.
We saw Trump flags out there today for his yet to be announced 2024 campaign. So it really is a cross-section. And what's making it interesting in terms of Canadian politics is how much the Conservative Party, which is to the right of the governing Liberals, is tying themselves to this protest, given how disparate it is.
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WALSH: Given that there are elements that are more risky to be tying yourself to.
BRUNHUBER: Well, exactly. As far as I know, no prominent Conservative has really dared to criticize the extremism that's been seen there -- Nazi symbols, aside. And we heard the interim leader of the Conservative Party saying that we're -- that there were, quote, "good people on both sides," which obviously echoes Donald Trump's infamous comments in the wake of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
So what do you make of all of this?
You know, a lot of the hyperbole that we're hearing from Canadian conservative politicians, it wouldn't be out of place on FOX News.
What does it say about the direction that Conservative politics there is going? Is it becoming more Trumpian?
WALSH: It's certainly a big question right now, especially amplified because we actually, at the same time this week, have started a Conservative leadership race. So we're having this race to lead the party at the same time we're seeing this really inflamed and heated moment in Canadian politics, in Canadian society.
I will say, though, that the Conservatives have disavowed the hateful symbols that we've seen at these protests. However, they're saying that a few bad apples don't make a bad bunch, is essentially what they're saying.
And they're tying themselves to the broader movement. The question that Canada has faced many times now, since Trump took office in the White House and since the end of his administration, is whether or not that populism and that style of politics can take root here.
And it's been the perennial question of the last two federal elections and it's now happening again, because, as you mentioned, some of the rhetoric that we've seen from Trump and some of his allies is now also being echoed here at these protests.
At the protest today, there were people chanting, "Hold the line;" there's music saying, "Hold the line," which, of course, we now have other memories, historic memories of that, that are an echo of that Trumpian politics.
I think what we saw in the last two elections is that there's been an inching growth in the populist movement, in particular of a splinter party from the Conservatives to the right of their base.
But they've never really been able to take hold in a meaningful way because they haven't won a seat in the House of Commons.
The question is, now, does that change?
Are they continuing to grow?
Because we know that about 30 percent of Canadians who had been polled recently align themselves with these protesters or at least are sympathetic to the protesters' perspective.
BRUNHUBER: So what role do you think these protests will play going forward?
Some have argued that the freedom convoy could become the seed of Canada's version of the tea party movement, which here eventually led to the transformation, some might say, the destruction of the traditional Republican Party.
Is that possible?
Or is that giving what we're seeing now a bit too much clout?
WALSH: I think that's the open question as to where this goes. We're in a pretty unique and particular moment, given the pandemic. People are incredibly angry, incredibly frustrated in Canada, unlike other countries, including the U.S., where there are far fewer restrictions.
We are just now, in some of the biggest provinces by population in Canada, coming out of lockdown. That really angered people, especially because we do have such high levels of vaccination.
At the same time, vaccine mandates really dictate how much you can participate in society, whether it's to get on an airplane, get on a train to go across the country, go to a restaurant in your own local town, at your own local pub.
So people are angry. And the question is, does the anger, does this political moment that's come from this anger dissipate with the end of the pandemic or the petering out of the Omicron wave?
Or is there a political figure who can capitalize on this groundswell and actually turn it into a movement that permanently changes or permanently affects the direction of Canadian politics?
BRUNHUBER: Yes, you put your finger on it exactly. It seems like things are changing there in Canada. How much, that's the question. We'll have to see. Marieke Walsh, thank you so much for being here with us. Really appreciate it.
WALSH: My pleasure, thank you.
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BRUNHUBER: Coming up, Britain's Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee with a major royal announcement. We'll have details on that and a look back at her historic 70 years on the throne, next.
Plus, a new minimum wage is in effect in more than 20 U.S. states. But many say the focus should be on addressing the living wage. I'll discuss with an expert, next. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: 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.
It's a historic weekend for Britain's Queen Elizabeth as she makes a major royal announcement while celebrating her Platinum Jubilee. The 95-year-old monarch chose the landmark milestone to say it's her wish that the Duchess of Cornwall be known as Queen Camilla when Prince Charles becomes king.
She would have been expected to consult with her direct heirs, Charles and William, before making such a major announcement. When the couple married in 2005, they announced that she would be known princess consort, despite having a right to the title of queen.
That was due to the sensitivity surrounding the title that was once destined for Charles' first wife, Diana. CNN royal correspondent Max Foster joins us now from Buckingham Palace in London.
Max, take us behind this maybe surprising decision by the queen.
MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's something Charles has wanted for a long time. He wanted Camilla to be known as queen when he becomes king, he wanted her crowned alongside him.
It's something somewhat controversial, as you suggested, because Camilla was seen as one of the reasons why Diana and Charles separated and there are still a huge amount of Diana fans out there who just won't accept Camilla.
So the queen, Queen Elizabeth, is really stepping in here, saying, Camilla does have her support in being known as queen. It's a reward, perhaps, for years of loyal service to the queen but also a real gesture to Prince Charles' future monarchy, saying, I'm going to support the future shape of the monarchy that you're creating.
And Camilla is definitely part of that. So the queen really using her jubilee day, marking 70 years on the throne, to throw forward to the next monarchy. But again, we are taking stock of that incredible reign as well.
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FOSTER (voice-over): During her reign, Queen Elizabeth has celebrated three landmark jubilees: Silver in 1977, Golden in 2002 and her Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
This year, having already surpassed the record-breaking reign of Queen Victoria, Elizabeth becomes the first British monarch to mark a Platinum Jubilee. That's an unprecedented seven decades of service. During her historic reign, she has appointed 14 prime ministers and met 12 U.S. presidents.
ELIZABETH II, QUEEN OF ENGLAND: I have been privileged to witness some of that history.
FOSTER (voice-over): She has been a beacon of continuity through an unprecedented period of change, not least the media revolution.
Her greatest achievement, perhaps, has been her ability to remain relevant and popular. Approaching her 96th birthday, for almost everyone living, she is the only British monarch they have ever known.
With no path to retire, a series of celebrations will take place throughout the year, culminating in a four-day public holiday weekend in June, when the public can join the jubilee-themed festivities. Expect blockbuster pomp and pageantry, street parties and parades, a
concert with some of the world's biggest stars slated to attend.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's going to be some surprises that leave really, the palace is aware that this as much as everybody as it has been a long time coming. No one has really been able to party for quite a long time. So hopefully there will be a big party. COVID-19 will be behind us and people can celebrate outdoors and indoors in the way they like.
FOSTER (voice-over): After one of the most tumultuous years in modern royal history, the queen will be hoping to put the focus back on the future of the monarchy. The family have been engulfed by a series of rifts and scandals. But the institution still appears to project strength through its unwavering and revered figurehead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The significant thing that we do have remember, that when she came to the throne in 1952, it was really not a very enlightened time in terms of working women. A lot of people thought that a woman was not up to the job, despite the fact that Queen Victoria and all the queens before her had been great queens on the throne.
She proved them all wrong and really has proved over and over again that a woman can do the job of a constitutional monarch just as well as, if not better, than a man.
FOSTER (voice-over): For the first time this year, Elizabeth will be without Prince Philip at a major royal celebration, the man who was by her side personally and professionally throughout her reign.
Prince Charles will step into play a major role as will Camilla, William and Kate. They are the future and will be front and center alongside the queen. Perhaps we will also be looking ahead to the next jubilee, when the queen surpasses France's Louis XIV to become the longest serving reigning monarch in world history.
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FOSTER: Prime minister Boris Johnson is up and awake, down the road here. He's just tweeted, saying, "Today marks a truly historic moment as Her Majesty The Queen becomes the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. I pay tribute to her many years of service and look forward to coming together as a country to celebrate her historic reign in the summer."
So the big celebrations will be in the summer. And there has been a very tumultuous period not just in the royal family but in British politics and with COVID-19. And I think what the queen is doing today, as she always does, rising above all of that chaos, showing continuity, showing, you know, a continuance of life, particularly when Boris Johnson is involved at the moment with so much chaos in British politics.
So lots of people asking me, is she affected by all of that chaos? She isn't, frankly. I think all it does is strengthen her position as a figurehead and keeping the ship steady, Kim. So a good day for her. But it's a very sad day, as well, because she's marking the death of her father, which is why we won't see her, possibly a photo coming out in the next couple of hours. But I think that will be it.
BRUNHUBER: Thanks so much for the reporting, Max Foster, really appreciate it.
Now earlier, we heard from royals expert Sally Bedell Smith, who is also the author of both "Elizabeth the Queen" and "Prince Charles," So here's what she said about the queen's announcement about Camilla.
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SALLY BEDELL SMITH, ROYALS EXPERT: It's a very big deal. The queen is nothing if not wise and shrewd and sensible. And when Charles and Camilla were married in 2005, his advisers really sort of made a mistake. I can understand why they did it, because there was still a lot of sensitivity about the Princess of Wales, about Diana.
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SMITH: So to kind of ease people's minds, they said that they -- that when Camilla -- when Charles took the throne, that Camilla could be expected to be something called a princess consort. In fact, by law and by tradition, she would become queen in any event.
But there was this ambiguity around it and this uncertainty and I think a lot of people were afraid that when Charles actually did take the throne, that it could create problems, so the queen, in something that was very unprecedented, made her very strong wish known that Camilla should be Queen Camilla, she should be crowned.
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BRUNHUBER: Royals expert Sally Bedell Smith joining us there.
India has announced two days of national mourning after the death of legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar at age 92. India's prime minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "I'm anguished beyond words. She leaves a void in our nation that cannot be filled." CNN's Ram Ramgopal has more.
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RAM RAMGOPAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She was known as the Nightingale of India. Lata Mangeshkar had a voice like no other.
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RAMGOPAL (voice-over): Often heard but not seen in films, she was the most popular playback singer in Bollywood history, reigning over the country's film industry for 70 years. Her talent also carried over to Hollywood. Her legendary voice can be
heard in movies like "Life of Pi," "Lion" and "The 100 Foot Journey." She has sung thousands of songs for hundreds of movies in dozens of Indian languages.
At one point, she was the most recorded artist in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. She told Indian station NDTV there was nothing she loved more than to sing.
LATA MANGESHKAR, LEGENDARY INDIAN SINGER (through translator): My voice is a gift of nature. Daily practice and discipline is a must. My only desire is to go on singing.
RAMGOPAL (voice-over): Born in 1929, she was the oldest of five children and their father was well known Indian entertainer and classical singer Deenanath Mangeshkar. At just 5 years of age, Lata Mangeshkar began singing in her father's musicals, recording her first song at the age of 13.
After his sudden death, she turned to acting in order to help support her family. Her unique singing style and unusually high-pitched voice transformed Indian playback singing in the 1940s.
Hit after hit, she became one of Bollywood's most sought-after playback singers, with India's most successful stars lip synching to her songs.
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RAMGOPAL (voice-over): She won award after award, including India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna, and Indian music's lifetime achievement award. Lata Mangeshkar, melody queen, a musical icon in India and around the world, known for charming millions through song for decades.
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BRUNHUBER: In a surprisingly strong January jobs report, the United States added 467,000 jobs last month. That defies what many economists predicted in the midst of the Omicron variant.
But the American public doesn't seem to be taking notice. A Gallup poll puts their satisfaction with overall quality of life at just 69 percent; that's down from 84 percent back in 2020.
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RICH LESSER, GLOBAL CHAIR, BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP: So many people are leading disrupted lives.
How stressful was January with kids in school and teachers being sick and all the rest?
I mean, it's a very challenging time for everyone, with a backdrop of a very negative discourse on many dimensions and the uncertainty. I mean, I think people are living through a very stressful time.
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BRUNHUBER: The new year also saw a number of states enacting pay bumps, ranging from pennies to dollars per hour. In New York and seven other states, the increases are part of scheduled raises in an effort to reach $15 minimum wages in the years to come.
Cities are also taking the initiative. The hourly minimum wage in Los Angeles will rise from $15 to $16.04 on July 1st. That's one of the highest minimum wages in the country and is more than double the $7.25 federal minimum.
But is it enough?
My next guest is an expert on the effects of minimum wage on public health and estimates that California's statewide living wage in 2022 is roughly $21 for an adult with no kids.
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BRUNHUBER: Professor Paul Lee is a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the UC Davis School of Medicine and joins me now from Davis, California.
Thank you so much for being here with us. Let's start with the good news. All of the rises in the minimum wages federally and across some 20-plus states. You've looked extensively into what effects increasing minimum wage has on folks.
So for all the people who argued against a minimum wage increase, that it would kill jobs and so on, what would you say to them?
PROFESSOR PAUL LEE, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH SCIENCES, UC DAVIS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: I've done a couple of literature reviews and made analyses of more than 50 studies. And there were some very interesting findings.
If you increase the minimum wage, you would find that mental health among employees increases. You'll find that the absenteeism decreases, smoking decreases, suicide decreases. The incidence of low birth weight among children decreases.
Overall, there's considerable public health benefits or health benefits to employees for raising the minimum wage.
BRUNHUBER: And it disproportionately affects women, African Americans and Latinos, is that right?
LEE: That's absolutely the case. It turns out, if you look at the people that are involved -- people that have minimum wage jobs.
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LEE: There's a disproportionate number of African Americans, Hispanics and women. So a lot of people, including myself, are interested in reducing the wage disparities across race and gender. This is one way to do it, especially if you want to affect the gender and race disparities among low-wage workers.
BRUNHUBER: So these minimum wage increases, some of them have been quite hefty but you argue, they don't go far enough.
Why not?
LEE: Well, because there's such a thing as a living wage. And a living wage looks at what you would imagine, as paying for rent, paying for groceries, paying for utilities and so on. Turns out to be a living wage is considerably higher than a minimum wage. Turns out the MIT has a living wage calculator.
And so we have done some work on looking at the minimum wage calculator with respect to California. And it turns out, for one adult with no children, it's $21 an hour.
BRUNHUBER: So they're trying to make up for that shortfall but that's not even enough. And the inflation we're seeing now, I guess, that's making the discrepancy even worse.
LEE: Absolutely. I mean, if you look at gasoline prices and rent prices and the price of meat, these things, as your viewers know, are going up quickly so that the idea of the $15 per hour was -- made a lot of sense two years ago. These days, I would imagine that $20 an hour would be more in line with something that you could call a living wage.
BRUNHUBER: So you'll have to explain this, then, because there's the Great Resignation or the Big Quit, right?
People have left their jobs in record numbers. So if inflation is going up, there's this discrepancy between the living wage and minimum wage, people are getting more money as wages are going up, so why are so many people quitting then?
LEE: Because some people call it the great rebellion, because, if you look a back over 40 years, you'll see that wages for middle and low- wage workers have been stagnant, if not falling.
At the same time, the wages for higher income people have been increasing and the wages for the people at the very top have been soaring. And then, of course, now in the last two years, we've asked these low-wage workers, many of whom are front line workers, to expose -- to be exposed to COVID while they're on the job.
Plenty of them are fed up. I've done a fair amount of research on quit rates, absenteeism rates and job satisfaction. And one of the strongest predictors there is wages. So if you increase wages, you will decrease quit rates, you'll
decrease the absenteeism and this can result in a more productive workforce.
Now it turns out that, also, the effects on the health, as we said before, the health of the employees -- and this can be down to employers because if employers are healthier, this means that employer-provided health insurance premiums for the employer will be less. And this surely would be welcome news by the employer.
BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there but thank you so much for being with us, Professor Paul Lee, really appreciate it.
LEE: Thank you so much for interviewing me.
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BRUNHUBER: And we'll be right back.
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BRUNHUBER: Efforts to rescue a little boy trapped in a well in Morocco have come to a heartbreaking end. On Saturday, rescuers managed to dig their way to the spot where 5-year-old Rayan had been stranded for days. But state media said he did not survive the ordeal.
Rescuers had to dig a separate tunnel to reach Rayan because the well was too narrow for adults to go in. The rescue operation gripped Morocco. After the news of Rayan's death, the nation's king offered condolences to the boy's family.
Parts of South Texas and Louisiana are shivering this morning and under freeze and hard freeze warnings.
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BRUNHUBER: In Denmark, artists are offsetting the gloomy Nordic winter with the largest light festival in Europe. Have a look at this.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The festival opened on Friday in Copenhagen and features some 50 installations. Most of the works are fitted along the wharf and on bicycle bridges.
Several will light up at dawn, a bright sight for many who go to work early in the morning. Last year, more than half a million visitors attended over a three-week period. And with COVID restrictions relaxed, organizers are hoping to welcome more visitors this year.
PETER GANCE, EXHIBITION VISITOR: Simply, it does something to your heart, it opens your mind. It makes a feeling inside of you of optimism, because the winter, in the last two years, has been kind of a closing. And now we are opening up. And this light is helping you.
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BRUNHUBER: And the festival will run until February 27th.
And talk about a bird's-eye view, a mischievous parrot in New Zealand snatched a family's GoPro camera and took it for a ride. Look at this.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The bird captured stunning aerial views of the hiking trail at the Fjordland National Park, flying in a straight line over trees and lush greenery before landing on the ground. And as for the camera, the family followed the sound of squawking to recover their GoPro.
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BRUNHUBER: That's amazing. I kind of want to let the bird have it and see what happens.
Anyway, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber, for viewers in the U.S. and Canada, "NEW DAY" is next. For the rest of the world, it's "CONNECTING AFRICA."
