Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Biden Pledges End To Nord Stream 2 If Russia Invades Ukraine; Macron To Meet Putin In Bid To Defuse Ukraine Tensions; Teenage Olympic Sensation Eileen Gu Wins Gold; Protests Against COVID-19 Measures Spread Across Canada; Ukrainian Forces Hold Drills in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone; Bedouins Fear Displacement in the Negev Desert; New Spinal Implant Helps Paralyzed People Walk Again; the Beijing Fortress. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 08, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:00:26]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, the U.S. president declares Nord Stream 2 a non-starter, saying the controversial gas pipeline from Russia to Germany was not going to happen if Putin orders an invasion of Ukraine, with a hesitant Germany kind of sort of onboard as well.
Freedom from truth, freedom from stability, freedom from reality. It's Canada's Freedom Convoy. The truckers protest over all pandemic restrictions. galvanizing far right groups worldwide.
And his spinal cord was completely severed years ago. His legs had no feeling and could not move, but he could walk out the medical breakthrough bringing hope to millions left paralyzed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center, this CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Great to have you with us for another hour. We begin with the military standoff on Russia's border with Ukraine and the natural gas pipeline hundreds of kilometers away, which could be the key to preventing a Russian invasion.
If Nord Stream 2 ever received final approval from regulators in Berlin, it will deliver natural gas directly from Russia to Germany, part of a system of a dozen pipelines crucial to making Europe's energy demands. But U,S, President Joe Biden warned Monday if Russia sent tanks and troops into Ukraine than the multibillion dollar project in his words will never happen.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his first official visit to Washington was walking a fine line, refusing to echo the tough talk from Biden only saying Germany is united with allies and will take the same steps.
And French president Emmanuel Macron is now in the midst of some old school shuttle diplomacy. Monday he was in Moscow where he talked at length to Vladimir Putin, related praise someone across proposals saying they may possibly lay a foundation for further diplomacy.
And in the coming hours, Macron touches down in Kyiv and will meet with Ukraine's president Zelensky.
In a moment, we'll hear from CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Berlin with a lot more on the German Chancellor's meeting with the U.S. President. But first, CNN International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is in Moscow with details about what could be if not a breakthrough, then maybe a hint of a possible breakthrough in ending this high stakes standoff through negotiations.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (on camera): Well, at the end of that more than five hours long meeting both Macron and Putin agreeing that there was an opportunity to continue the discussions forward. Although Putin also made it sound conditional.
Putin described the meeting as business like, interesting, useful. Macron described it as lively Putin heavily critical of NATO, saying that they were the aggressors, not Russia. Macron didn't appear to push back on that assertion.
Putin also heavily critical of the authorities in Ukraine, saying that the government there weren't living up to the terms of the Minsk agreement when it is widely believed. It is Russia that's failing in the Minsk agreement, not the authorities in Kyiv. But that was Putin's point to put pressure on President Macron for his visit to President Zelensky, Tuesday, saying that what happens next depends on how Macron gets on, on that visit.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): A number of his proposals and ideas about which it is too early to speak, I consider quite possible in order to lay a foundation for our further steps. Let's see how the meetings for the president will go in Kyiv after his trip to Ukraine. We will call each other again and exchange views on this matter.
ROBERTSON: Now, Macron's view on that was that there were a series of proposals that were discussed that there were some convergence on those series of proposals. But he was of the view despite the heavy criticisms of NATO and of the Ukrainian authorities, by Putin, Macron's view was that it was better to keep talking. That's where their joint responsibility lay.
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): Our duty is to work together in order to come up with solutions. I think that I can say that both of us are convinced that there is no reasonable and durable sustainable solution, which does not pass through diplomacy. It is up to us jointly to agree to concrete specific measures to stabilize the situation and to de-escalate.
ROBERTSON: Putin also said that he would soon be responding to the letters from the United States and NATO to Russia's original proposals. And he said it doesn't got much of what he'd be writing to them with President Macron.
[01:05:04]
For now, it seems there is a chance for a diplomatic track, but absolutely no indication that President Putin is anywhere close to pulling his troops back from around Ukraine, which was a fundamental, but President Macron's visit to get him to de-escalate tensions, no traction there, it seems. Nic Robertson, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): An important but also somewhat of a tough visit for Olaf Scholz to Washington, DC for the first time in his capacity as the German Chancellor going to the White House to meet President Biden and then also later going on CNN for an exclusive interview with our own Jake Tapper.
Now, the Germans all along have said that as far as the crisis around Ukraine is concerned with the Russians, of course, moving massive troops near Ukraine that Germany was absolutely on the same page as its allies.
However, there are some allies who believe that so far Germany hasn't been doing enough. Now one of the key topics is the Nord Stream 2 pipeline with the U.S. saying that pipeline will not go forward if Russia further invades Ukraine. Here's what President Biden had to say.
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again, then there will be we -- there will be no longer a North Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.
PLEITGEN: Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor so far has not been willing to go as far as President Biden went there. The German simply saying that all options would be on the table if there was a further invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
However, Olaf Scholz also saying he wants to keep some ambiguity in all of this, the discussions and of course, also keep diplomacy in play as well. But he also said that if there was that further invasion, that there would be a united front that Germany would be part of.
OLAF SCHOLZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: We are doing much more as one step we are and all the steps we will take we will do together. As the President said, we are preparing for that. And you can understand, and you can be absolutely sure that Germany will be together with all its allies, and especially the United States that we take the same steps.
PLEITGEN: One of the things that Olaf Scholz did point out several times, as he said that Germany has been a strong partner not just within NATO, but also for the Ukrainians as well being the largest single financial donor to Ukraine over the past couple of years. And the Germans also saying that that would continue as well.
Meanwhile, President Biden once again, sounding the alarm bells saying that he believes that Vladimir Putin could be ready to invade Ukraine at any point in time. He also said that he believes that American citizens who are currently in Ukraine should leave. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
VAUSE: David Sanger is a political and national security analyst for CNN. He is also White House of national security correspondent with the New York Times. He's joining us this hour from Washington. Good to see David.
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Great to be with you, John.
VAUSE: OK, we just heard from the U.S. president, and he was talking about, you know, Nord Stream 2 be cancelled if there is an invasion of Ukraine by Russia, an invasion in the traditional sense, he took tanks rolling across the border. Why did he phrase it that way? What's been the implications of that?
SANGER: It was really interesting. It jumped out at me too. He said, tanks and troops, which is, you know, the way the Soviet Union went into Hungary in '56, in Czechoslovakia in '68. And that may be what this is all about in a few weeks.
But there are other possibilities that we've been writing about that are filling his intelligence reports each day. There's the possibility of a coup they try to stage just to get President Zelensky and his government out and a friendly government in.
We've all been discussing for weeks now the possibility of a crippling cyber-attack that turned off the power and the communications, perhaps as a prelude to that traditional attack, but perhaps as a standalone to try to show that they could take control of the country destabilizing, change the government without sending in troops.
VAUSE: In terms of what is known at this point if there is any kind of, you know, escalation by Russia, one of the chances it will be tanks rolling across the border and sending in troops in uniform into queue.
SANGER: Well, certainly the briefings that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Director of National Intelligence, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, gave the Congress last Thursday, which we wrote about this past weekend, all focused on an increasing likelihood that it would be full scale invasion and that the troops now in Belarus would sweep down into Kyiv which isn't all that far away, maybe two hours or so.
[01:10:10]
But I think there is another possibility in which we see Putin do what he's done before, prior to sort of more asymmetrical attack, try to divide the NATO allies by having them say, Well, you know, we will risk our economies to sanction them for killing vast numbers of people, but not necessarily for crippling cyber-attack, and hope that it divides NATO. And so, you know, Putin has the advantage here that only he decides what the nature of the attack is going to be and what the timing will be.
VAUSE: Well, the U.S. president was warning Monday that it would not just be Moscow, feeling the pain from financial sanctions for any invasion of Ukraine by Russia. This is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I think he has to realize that it would be a gigantic mistake for him to move on Ukraine, the impact on Europe and the rest of the world would be devastating. And you'd pay a heavy price.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You'd like Senator John McCain famously called Russia nothing more than a gas station with nukes. It's a good line. But it's not entirely true. Russia is sort of the Walmart of commodities, if you like among nations, sanctions could see shortages in a range of things with nickel to fertilizer, increased energy costs will drive up inflation and food prices. So how much pain will there be for the rest of the world in its worst case scenario?
SANGER: Well, it depends on two things. One, how united the West would be in imposing those sanctions, including cutting off the shipments of gas to Western Europe. And that depends, of course, on whether President Biden can make a convincing case to Germany and other countries, that he can replace that gas with LNG that shipped in and so forth.
I think the second question is, who relieves the pressure on Russia? If that's what the visit to China was all about, if the Chinese work to relieve at least some of that trade pressure. That would undercut the sanctions a fair bit, you know, and when you read that 5,000-word document turned out about the sort of nature of a quasi-alliance between Russia and China was made to create the doubt in President Biden's mind that the sanctions would be fully effective.
The answer is we simply don't know. Because how fully the sanctions go on, probably depends on what kind of invasion he does, if any. And the next question is, who then works to undercut them? And how effective are they?
VAUSE: Yes, there's so many unknowns out there and the unknown unknowns and the unknown unknowns. David, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.
SANGER: Oh, it's great to be with you.
VAUSE: Day for all the Winter Olympics was a good one for China's snow princesses, also known as freestyle skier, Eileen Gu. the 18-year-old one golden Tuesday's Big Air competition. U.S. born but to a Chinese mother, Gu is representing the People's Republic of China after walking away from Team USA, and that has made her a local sensation. Appearing on magazine covers that in promotional videos for the games.
CNN's Beijing bureau chief Steven Jiang is standing by for us in Beijing. But first let's go to World Sports. Patrick Snell, he's here in Atlanta. Let's talk about this achievement, this gold medal that she's picked up. It's the first or possibly three gold medals for this young lady.
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: It is very possible indeed. John, yes, incredible. A golden moment you might say for the 18-year- old who's already without question, proving to be one of the breakout stars at these Winter Games in China.
Eileen Gu calling her gold medal triumph this Tuesday is within the women's freeski Big Air event the best and the happiest moment of her life so much attention right, John, you've just been outlining that florist the attention, the scrutiny on this teenager who chose to represent her mother's native China over the U.S. where she was born.
Gu who's nicknamed the Snow Princess, really becoming the poster child for these winter games of face just to elaborate a bit more, adorning on Billboard right across the country will earlier she showed her class has scaled a teen with a scintillating performance jumping into top spot with her third run. This was in the events debut remember at the Winter Games.
Gu actually the medal favorite in the big air, the slopestyle and the half pipe as well. She could well be just getting started. Exciting times for her. What an achievement already.
Meantime, a short while ago, the Austrian star Matthias Mayer emerging triumphant to take gold. This was in the men's Olympic Super-G, outstanding achievement for the 31-year-old who now becomes, listen to this, the first man to win an alpine skiing gold medal in three consecutive Olympics, having also won golden downhill in 2014 in Russia and the Super-G four years ago in South Korea.
[01:15:05]
Mayer holding off at the turning challenge, really determined challenge from the USA's Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who was just 400th of a second only behind him at the Norwegian competitor Aleksander Aamodt Kilde the World Cup supergene leader having to settle for bronze in the end. He'll be disappointed with that.
Meantime, at the dirt speed skater let's reflect more on Ireen Wust making history by becoming the first athlete ever to win individual gold at five different Olympics. In fact, her performance in the 1500 meters breaking all kinds of records. It was her sixth Olympic gold her 12 medal in total at the games. And this is amazing because it comes 16 years after her first at the Torino Winter Games in Italy in 2006. At the age of 35 now, she's the oldest speed skater to win Olympic gold.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IREEN WUST, NETHERLAND SPEEDS KATER: A lot of things happen to me during the last 16 years. And -- So this one is more emotional, I guess. It's more -- you overcome so many things and first time it's the easiest one to win, winning for the fifth time. It's the hardest one to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNELL: Amazing achievement. Amazing career. John, as I said, right back to you this Tuesday.
VAUSE: This Winter Olympics not disappointing with a special stories. We've had a few already many more to come later. Thank you, Patrick. Steven in Beijing. Let's talk about Eileen Gu and her decision to represent Team China as opposed to Team USA. There has to be one of the reasons why she has been such a local hit there amongst the Chinese people.
STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: That's why the Chinese reaction to her first gold medal even more excited than Patrick, you know, there was just nationwide jubilation within seconds of her winning her name top trending topic on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform temporarily crashing its servers because too many people were trying to click her name.
The authorities from Beijing where her mom comes from immediately send her a message of congratulations showering her with profuse praise. But you know, the thing that sets her apart is she's actually not a product of the country's state sponsored sports system. That's why she's refreshingly appealing because of her unique background, you know, racially and mixed but also fully bilingual and bicultural grew up both in the U.S. and China always telling a personal story of dreams and ambitions, talent and heart training and working play from both countries perspectives with such ease and grace. That's why she's now commending such a loyal and fast growing fan base. Not to mention all the endorsement deals and sponsorships worth millions of dollars.
So obviously a lot of people cheering her on from the stands today, including Chinese tennis star actually Peng Shuai, who of course has attracted worldwide attention last November when she accused a former Chinese leader of sexual assault in the now deleted social media post.
She actually gave a rare interview on Sunday to a French publication, again denying she had ever made such accusations calling the whole thing a huge misunderstanding. But of course, a lot of people around the world seem unconvinced including Steve Simon, the head of the Women's Tennis Association, which has suspended all tournaments in China because of concerns over Peng safety.
Now, Steve Simon in the latest statement saying that that interview does not alleviate any of WTO concerns about her and they would continue to call for an independent investigation into her initial claims. John.
VAUSE: Steven, thank you. Steven Jiang there in Beijing with two critical stories for very different reasons. Thank you.
Still to come, anxiety and frustration across Canada as thousands of truckers protest COVID-19 mandate. Some residents say they feel like they're being held hostage by the demonstrators.
Also, fearing displacement in the Negev desert we'll hear from villagers who believe the government wants them to leave their land even though they have Israeli citizenship. Those details also coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:21:05]
VAUSE: Hundreds of truck drivers and their big rigs continued to bring the Canadian capital to a standstill. This protest over all pandemic restrictions down to second week. And for far right wing groups worldwide from anti-vaxxers to QAnon, this act of defiance is becoming a beacon of resistance to all things government. Here's CNN's Paula Newton reporting it with the very latest from Ottawa.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This sound is deafening. Yet, protesters are demanding to be heard.
All day long. And all hours of the night. Those with the so called Freedom Convoy say they're staying put until vaccine mandates are dropped. The masks come off, and life returns to the way it was.
JAMES MACDONALD, PROTESTER: This whole event has gone beyond just vaccines and it is now about the entire ordeal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're asking for freedom. That's all we want.
NEWTON: So they've been free, free to park Big Rigs right next to the Prime Minister's Office, free to set up camp in front of the country's national parliament.
(on camera): As angry and frustrated as these protesters are residents say they feel like hostages and they want police to do more.
(voice-over): So desperate was this woman, she appealed directly to the protesters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) Residence, children elderly are suffering.
NEWTON: They heard her but they're not listening. It seems to anyone.
ADAM, RESIDENT: It has been nothing but like they're using. They're claiming their freedom. Well, I can't even like hear anything.
NEWTON: Ottawa police say they have learned much in the past week, especially after reports of assaults, intimidation, and allegations of hate speech and symbols.
CHIEF PETER SLOLY, OTTAWA POLICE SERVICE: Our goal is to end the demonstration. NEWTON: To try and do that they have called in more reinforcements moving to what they call a surge and contain strategy. But the police chief warns --
SLOLY: This remains as it was from the beginning, an increasingly volatile and increasingly dangerous demonstration.
NEWTON: And it is spreading like a contagion itself right across the country. A handful of protests now including a border blockade between Alberta and Montana. And now Canada's largest city, Toronto, closing a large section in front of the provincial legislature this weekend as truckers descend and more worrying closing off the adjacent hospital row, where exhausted health care workers carry on battling COVID.
CHIEF JAMES RAMER, TORONTO POLICE SERVICE: Anyone who attempts to disrupt hospital access and routes of emergency operations, including ambulance, fire or police will be subject to strict enforcement.
NEWTON: And yet both police and political leaders are warning, this now resembles an occupation. With no quick or easy end. Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
VAUSE: Joining us now, Kurt Braddock. He is an assistant professor at American University's School of Communication. Thank you for being with us.
KURT BRADDOCK, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATION, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: John, thank you for having me.
VAUSE: OK, so we just heard this report from Paula Newton. She said it talks about the trucker protests, which is now spreading across Canada. But to add to that, it seems to be spreading around the world as well.
Politico reporting is quickly escalated into a global movement, incorporating a loose set of anti-establishment causes coordinated on social media and encrypted messaging groups.
[01:25:05]
There are also vulnerable (ph) reports of similar protests being organized in New Zealand, the UK, Austria, almost every member state of the EU. There have been massive demonstrations before against lockdowns as well as mask mandates and, you know, anti-vaccine mandates that kind of stuff. They never went viral like this. So why this protest? And why now?
BRADDOCK: I think because relative to other kinds of protest and other kinds of movements, within the larger anti-establishment movement, there hasn't been as much visibility or as much success as this convoys had.
I think the fact that the convoy has had -- has set up shop in Ottawa and has now been there for 10 or 11 days without being cleared out. I think that shows many individuals, not just in Canada, not just in the United States, but elsewhere, that they now have a model for how to have some success with the kind of protests they want to enable, and they'd want to -- they want to enact in different countries.
So I think the fact that they've been relatively successful it gives them a model for how to act moving forward.
VAUSE: And loads (ph) publicity, a lot of the money to sort of fund this protest, if you like it's flowing north from the United States into Canada. And the right wing media seems to love this stuff. You remember a guy called Glenn Beck he has done a showdown on Facebook. Here he is talking about this protest on his show just over a week ago. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN BECK, THE GLENN BECK PROGRAM: This is massive, massive. B.J. Dichter is on the phone. He's a spokesperson from the Canadian Trucker Freedom Convoy. B.J., how are you, sir?
B.J. DICHTER, SPOKESPERSON, CANADIAN TRUCKER FREEDOM CONVOY: Good to talk to you, my friend. How are you?
BECK: Well, good. I wish you guys didn't have to do this. But I'm glad you are standing up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Glad you are standing up. You know, right wing commentators, is this purely about, you know, driving audience numbers? Is it less for viewers and listeners?
BRADDOCK: I think it has something to do with it. I also think that it is being latched on to not just by these commentators. But also we're seeing some politicians latch on to it as well as being a way of pushing back against what they've seen as overreach by the U.S. government. And that would explain why some of this money is moving forward and why some of the support is moving north.
We've seen some support from the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and the likes of people who are allied to her. They are showing support for this convoy. And I think that it shows that they believe that this can be a successful movement in the north and could be replicated elsewhere. It gives some visibility to some things they've been talking about for some time. So it doesn't surprise me that they're very excited about what's going on in Ottawa right now.
VAUSE: Canada's Prime Minister spoke in fairly blunt terms about the long pandemic and the restrictions, which came with it. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: This pandemic has sucked for all Canadians. But Canadians know the way to get through it is to continue listening to science, continuing to lean on each other, continuing to be there for each other. Everyone's tired of COVID. But these protests, these protests are not the way to get through it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It seems there's a lot more driving these protests and just pandemic fatigue.
BRADDOCK: I would agree. And I think in the last several days, especially we're seeing a number of different kind of right wing ideologies coming forward. And it's gone beyond just issues related to vaccine mandates. There -- There's been some chatter in some telegram channels and elsewhere, where we're starting to see some anti-semitic propaganda appear there. We're starting to see some far right propaganda pop up elsewhere from those in support of what is supposed to be an anti-vaccine or anti-vaccine mandate protest.
So it's gone beyond what it was originally advertised as in it's gotten much more dangerous. Just yesterday, we saw that a couple of individuals taped the door shut and tried to set fire to a building for reasons that haven't quite come out yet. But I think that goes quite beyond what we think of as normal protests related to vaccine mandates.
VAUSE: Yes, there have been a lot of issues like that, and it seems to be getting higher and intensity as this goes on. We'll see where it goes. OK, Kurt, thanks so much for being with us.
BRADDOCK: Thank you very much for having me.
VAUSE: Well, still to come, practicing urban combat in a nuclear wasteland. Ukrainian forces show they're getting ready in Chernobyl if Russia decides to invade and CNN has a first-hand look at the drills, that's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:42]
VAUSE: Welcome back.
In a joint news conference Monday, the U.S. president and German chancellor insisted there is no daylight between them on where they stand on Russia and Ukraine. But it seems the future of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Germany to Russia remains a gray area.
Europe is heavily reliant on Russian gas and Chancellor Scholz has not publicly committed to scrapping the pipeline if Russia invades Ukraine. There is no such hesitation from President Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Russia invades that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again, then there will be -- there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Meantime, after more than five-hours of talks in Moscow, French President Emmanuel Macron said he was able to find quote, "points of convergence" with Vladimir Putin. The Russian president described the talks as substantive and he did not rule out further diplomacy after Macron meets with Ukraine's leadership in a few hours from now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: As far as we are concerned, we will do everything to find compromises that suit everyone. Some of Macron's ideas and proposals about which I think it's probably too early to speak, I think form a basis for our further joint steps.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Amid this flurry of diplomacy, preparations for war continue. Russian forces continue to be deployed to the region. And Ukrainian soldiers are training for a possible war at an unexpected location, Chernobyl.
This abandoned area is now the sight of drills more than three decades after the world's worst nuclear disaster.
CNN's Melissa Bell has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Through the forest of northern Ukraine it appears -- the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, a monument to humanity's ability to unleash uncontrollable forces.
Suddenly the apparent calm left behind by the 1986 Soviet era accident is broken. Ukrainian forces run drills in what remains a radiation exclusion zone, free of any inhabitants. They are practicing urban combat.
Of course, this is also an information and propaganda war. Everyone waits for Russian President Vladimir Putin to decide even as Ukraine questions an earlier U.S. assessment of just how imminent a potential invasion is.
OLEKSIY REZNIKOV, UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: So we have the same facts, but the different perception, or different estimation.
BELL (on camera): The difference is on question of intention. You don't believe they intend to invade.
REZNIKOV: I hope that in Kremlin, they didn't make their decision still.
BELL (voice over): But Chernobyl is only ten miles from the border with Belarus where Russia has been holding joint military exercises.
These, just some of the 30,000 Russian combat troops that NATO has warned are on their way, welcomed with bread and salt and open arms.
[01:34:53]
BELL (on camera): To the east of Chernobyl lies this neutral zone between Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. It is known as the Three Sisters' Crossing in memory of a time when the three countries were all Soviet Republics.
But more than 30 years on from the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus is a staunch ally of Russia, while Ukraine fears an invasion.
Barely visible, through the freezing mist, across the border in Belarus, a Soviet era monument to the sister nations.
And at the three sisters cafe on the Ukrainian side there is more nostalgia for that past than there is worry about war.
Masha, a 64-year-old great grandmother, works here to supplement her state pension, worth the equivalent of just $77 a month she says.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will Putin go to war with civilians? He won't do that. I have brothers and sisters, living in Russia, in Belarus.
I would dissolve the parliament in Kyiv. Kick them out of parliament. Every last one of them. They should give the people proper pensions, so that people won't be beggars.
BELL (voice over): The nearby village of St. Kifka (ph) is only a three-hour drive from Kyiv, but feels much further.
This man won't tell us his name for fear of being labeled a separatist. He too, misses the unity of the past and certainly, doesn't appreciate visits to Kyiv from the likes of the British Prime Minister.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boris the Uncombed, comes here only whipping the tensions up. Only a fool would start a war.
BELL: "Nobody will come out a winner" he says, "Nobody".
Melissa Bell, CNN -- (INAUDIBLE) Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Supporters growing among Israeli lawmakers for a formal investigation into claims high profile public figures were spied on by the police, using the controversial Pegasus spying software.
The report from the business news Web site, Calculus, adds to the growing anger over the alleged misuse of the software. This latest reporting is just dozens of people who are under no suspicion of any wrongdoing but targeted. Police allegedly hacked their phones, fishing for intelligence without warrants, before an investigation was open.
The Israeli prime minister Neftali Bennet talked the seriousness of these allegations. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEFTALI BENNET, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The reports allegedly described a very grace situation that is unacceptable in a democratic state. These cyber tools were designed to fight terrorism and serious crime, not be used against citizens.
We will see to a transparent, in-depth, and quick inquiry because all of us, Citizens of the state of Israel, government ministers, and all establishments deserve answers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The public security minister who's portfolio includes the police is asking (INAUDIBLE) to approve a government inquiry into the use of the software following the latest allegations.
And in Southern Israel, Arabic speeding Bedouins have called the Negev Desert home for generations. They've long fought to keep their rights and their homes. Just weeks ago protests erupted over leaked documents which appears to show government plans for their location and revoking their rights as landowners. And now many say they are living in fear.
CNN's Hadas Gold has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the Bedouin village of Saawa, mostly unpaved roads, No street signs, off the grid. A consequence of what Israeli authorities say are unrecognized neighborhoods. One of several dozen in the Negev desert region of southern Israel.
In the eyes of the government, some of these homes were built illegally. Last month, a long running program to plant trees across Israel ran headfirst into this village and turned fiercely political.
They were met with protests, some of which turned violent.
Partly over land, Ali Atrash says has belonged to his family for generations but acres of which the Israeli authorities say is public land.
ALI ATRASH, SAAWA RESIDENT (through translator): We live from this land. We plant for our sheep. We have olive trees from which we sell olives and oil.
GOLD: Ali believes the government plan is not actually about the environment or the trees. He thinks it is a way to get him and his community to move.
ATRASH: They want to give us a cage of 300 meters that they can block us inside. We have big families. Each man is married to more than one woman, and have an average of 5 to 10 children. So we can't live in a cage.
GOLD: If he could, Ali says he would lead a nomadic life like his ancestors. But that is impossible in modern society which looms over them in the nearby city or Be'er-Sheva.
Inside of the village, sisters in law Isra and Nadia Atrash, who declined to show their faces because of cultural norms, say every day, they fear police coming to demolish their homes. Many built without permits they say are difficult to obtain.
[01:39:56]
GOLD: On the day we visited, a group of cars, people unknown to the villagers, gathered on a nearby hill top. Regardless of who they were, their very presence alarmed the villagers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our lives are full of fear. We never feel secure. Our children are traumatized. They all suffer from fear and anxiety.
GOLD: In Israel, conflict over land rights is nothing new. But, unlike most Palestinians, to whom many here feel aligned, these Bedouins have Israeli citizenship and they vote.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want to be recognized like any other citizen in the state.
GOLD: The man who largely represent them in the Israeli parliament is Mansour Abbas. He broke a decades-long taboo last year, taking an Arab party into government for the first time and is now vital in keep the rolling coalition in power.
The party flexed its muscles last month. Boycotting votes over the tree planting, so the government took a step back. And said any future work on the region will be negotiated carefully, with the locals.
For a long time environmentalist Alon Tal, a member of parliament for the centrist Blue and White Party, it was the right move.
But, he says ecological projects like this Yasir (ph) forest planted in the 1960s, are a benefit to everybody.
ALON TAL, ISRAEL KNESSET MEMBER: I think that all Israeli citizens, especially the Bedouins, have a right to preserve open spaces, and have those lands as parks for the future. Not give a few families control over the land, in what often is, a lawless kind of way.
GOLD: Those open spaces can be magnets for environmental damage, caused by waste dumping and illegal landfills, according to the Israeli land authority.
It says tree planning boosts conservation, and serves to counter squatting and illegal construction. For Alon Tal, the bigger issue is one of legal progress.
TAL: As these Bedouin citizens become more modernized, they are moving into communities, and cities and towns. And we need to provide them the educational opportunities, and give them the land resources they need, so they can have thriving communities, and become part of the Israeli mainstream.
GOLD: But many in the village don't want to change their ways and just want to be left alone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our land is our dignity. No human being and live without dignity. We would prefer to die than leaving it.
GOLD: For now, the planting has stopped. But for these residents, their fight continues.
Hadas Gold, CNN -- Saawa, Israel.
HOLMES: When we come back, the medical breakthrough which makes the paralyzed walk again.
I'll speak to a neuro scientist and coauthor of the research study behind this incredible moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: A medical breakthrough is offering hope for millions left paralyzed by spinal damage. A small electric device which stimulates spinal nerve appears to be game changer.
For the first time ever, a man left paralyzed when his spinal was completely severed is walking again.
And he could do so on the same day that the device was surgically implanted.
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen, explains how it all works.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN Senior Medical CORRESPONDENT: No one ever thought Michel Roccati (ph) would be able to do this or this. In 2017, Roccati was paralyzed after a motorcycle accident.
[01:44:45]
MICHAEL ROCCATI, SPINAL IMPLANT RECIPIENT: I tried to move the legs. I tried to change my position. It was impossible to do anything.
I fixed in my mind that it was just a situation. So I put in my mind, my behavior, to try to solve this problem and I never stopped.
COHEN: Now, he can walk about a mile without assistance thanks to this device. It sent electrical impulses to his spine. He can control it through his computer.
Scientists have been researching electrical stimulation as a treatment for paralysis for three decades.
In 2014, I visited the University of Louisville, where I saw patients using similar technology. They were able to wiggle their toes and move their needs.
Oh. There you go, oh my gosh.
COHEN: And even standup. And with months of assistance in rehab, some of them even begin walking.
The newest stimulator, this one from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, can reach more of the spinal cord. And allow people to regain movement on the same date that they received the spinal implant.
JOCELYNE BLOCH, STUDY CO-AUTHOR AND SURGEON: This technology is so precise that, immediately after the surgery, the patient can walk and stand.
COHEN: Within a week, three patients, men between the ages of 29 and 41, including Michel, were able to walk like this.
Their case is detailed in the study published Monday in the Journal "Nature Medicine". With hours, and hours of rehabilitation, for five months, the patients were walking, riding bikes and even boxing.
The research is still early. They have tried it out on only three patients. They plan to test it out on 50 to 100 more to make sure it's safe and to see if it works better in some people than in others. They hope, that if the device performs well in these test, that it will be widely used in the next 3 to 4 years. But these initial steps are still monumental.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Walking is super important. I just stand up, and (INAUDIBLE) and solve a lot of (INAUDIBLE) could solve a problem with a normal life.
Just to do -- choose the shower. Is that correct. Yes, stand up, go ahead, rush hour which is the (INAUDIBLE) I'm free. I can work wherever I want. In this moment --
COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTPAE))
VAUSE: Gregoire Courtine is a neuro scientist and the co-senior author of the Research Paper based on those clinical trials is live with us from Geneva in Switzerland. Thank you for being with, us and congratulations.
GREGOIRE CORTINE, CO-AUTHOR, STIMO CLINICAL TRIAL: Good morning, thank you.
VAUSE: I wonder if you could focus back, if you, would on is there one factor here, when you look at all of the studies, all of the decade long work that you have done, is there one factor which, essentially, made this possible that the technology stimulates the spinal cord. Is it the advances in what we know about the human body? What is it that makes this possible?
COURTINE: Yes, I think the critical step that we are still working today, that for the very first time we have developed (INAUDIBLE) technology to stimulate the human spinal cord. We're only (INAUDIBLE) technology originally developed to alleviate pain.
And now that we can really be so precise, access to the spinal core will emerge with better treatment efficacy.
VAUSE: This was thought to be impossible. But now those dormant neurons are being reactivated with this electrical stimulation at a truly happening in a stunning speed. Were you surprised by that?
COURTINE: Well, it was incredible. Individuals could relive spinal cord injury within a day able to step. Of course, the moment that they proved it in the beginning it provide a lot of body weights to go. But to see someone paralyzed for several years taking indefinite steps on day one, that was really historic.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to a little more from Michel Roccati the man who is walking again after having his spine completely severed. Here he is, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROCCATI: Every day, I work around two hours. Now, my training is to improve the quality of the step to be more fluid and also the speed.
For the moment, I can walk 5,000 meters. I'm going to reach 1 kilometer before the summer is here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Is there a timeframe on when you think Michael will be sort of walking freely without assistance? And, also, he kind of makes it sound like this is sort of bringing people confined to wheelchairs, those days coming to an end. But that's not really the case, is it? There's a lot more that needs to be done before we get to that point.
COURTINE: Certainly, we really need to (INAUDIBLE) expectations. Michel still lives in a wheelchair. With the current technology, he's able to turn up the simulation, standup, for at least two hours straight, he can, as we say walk almost one kilometer.
He keeps improving, every moment we see he has improved the length and walk yet, the wheelchair is still his main tool to move in society currently.
So only the future will tell us how far can we go with this type of therapy to restore independence in people's injuries.
[01:49:52]
VAUSE: For you, personally, it seems this is a moment which is a long way from 2013. I don't know if you remember, but you delivered a Ted Talk back then about paralyzed rat which walked. Here's a part of it. Here's a look back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COURTINE: Here what I called the spinal brain, could (INAUDIBLE) process the central information arising from the moving leg. And that decision has to who to activate the muscle in order to stand, to walk, to run -- (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That got quite the reaction at the time. It's been almost a decade since then. Well, you know, Michel, it is impossible to know his joy at being able to walk again. But after all these years, what is the joy that you've had? It must be fairly close to his.
COURTINE: I mean, this is an incredible journey from the paralyzed rat who followed me 15 years ago from Los Angeles to now many individuals -- a total of nine individuals with spinal cord injury we have treated so far. And my tool that I can see thousands of people benefiting from this technology in the near future so that we can change how we think about spinal cord injuries and its recovery.
VAUSE: Because, the future will be, I think, in your vision, that there will be specific devices for specific injuries for specific parts of the body for specific people at different times of their lives.
COURTINE: Yes, if we understood, the idea that we walk with onwards maybe the company will be dedicated to build lots of (INAUDIBLE) technology. To stimulate the human spinal cord. Not only to restore mobility but also all the important logical function affected by the spinal cord injury.
The paralysis of the individual when they are affected by this type of spinal cord damage. They'll be (INAUDIBLE) the bladder, it's the (INAUDIBLE), blood pressure is dramatically impacted, and now we have all these tools to dialogue with the spinal cord. How would you develop technology to reactivate this dominant neuro. And improve neurological recovery of many functions that for people with spinal cord injury.
VAUSE: Thank you so much for getting up early and being with us. And thank you for what you do. It's been a pretty bleak new s period at time, but this is certainly one very big bright (INAUDIBLE). Thank you.
COURTINE: Thank you very much. Have a good day.
VAUSE: Thank you.
Well, still to come, journalists in or trying to keep COVID out. A look at Beijing's tight restrictions inside the COVID loop at the winter games.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: A heroes welcomed in Dakar for Senegal's men's national football team. Hundreds of thousands of fans cheer, dance and party in the street as the country won its first ever continental championship.
Senegal on Sunday, defeated Egypt with a penalty shootout to take home the Africa cup of nations trophy. It was a long awaited redemption for a country that had finished second in years past.
The government honored the historic victory by declaring a national holiday.
Well, thousands of international journalists in town to cover the winter games. Beijing is limiting movement inside the Olympic bubble. Not just to control the spread of COVID but to also control the narrative during these Olympics.
CNN's Selina Wang and CNN's David Culver show us just how hard it is to move around the city.
[01:54:53]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been a long time since there were this many foreign journalists in Beijing. But we are strictly controlled under COVID rules. I can't just walk out of the hotel and my driver can't just take me wherever I want to go. We have to stay in our lane, literally.
This is the closest we can get to Beijing residents.
He said, the police would take me if I were able to walk out of the cage. It's really hard to get into China right now as a journalist. But to cover these Olympic games, we can get in. Without any visa issues. But the catches we have to stay strictly confined to what the organizers are calling, the closed loop.
Other than our hotel, our only options are the Olympic venues. The authorities know where we are at all times.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Restrictions, lack of access, a daily occurrence for journalists living in Beijing.
(on camera): I am from the U.S. But I live in Beijing.
(voice over): CNN has regularly had run-ins with the Chinese police, around Tiananmen CNN square in secretive Xinjiang. And throughout my coverage of the first COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. Oftentimes, our reports on subjects being sensitive by Chinese officials are censored in mainland China.
As the relationship between Chinese and western leaders has crumbled, so has the International Press Corps based here. Journalists have been forced to leave.
Perhaps, the most chilling case recently, Chinese state news anchor, an Australian citizen Zhang, Chang Lee, and Australian citizen detained in 2020 on an accusation of spying. We don't know where she's being held.
Now, the Olympic games, a carefully managed opportunity for China to re-introduce itself. Journalist like me who live here, now joined by hundreds of new faces. Albeit, separated by barriers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [interpreter] but our sources in China lived with much greater risk. Like human rights activists, a prominent credit of the communist party, speaking to me from House arrest, he says that authorities are frightened and might stage a demonstration during the Olympics while the world is watching.
He tells me he'll be locked in for months. They threatened to stop him from seeing his elderly mother if he doesn't comply.
He is used to getting a knock on the door from police. Who he said had visited him four times in the past eight days.
The security of the closed loop, clipping people stay from COVID as more cases are registered among Olympic personnel. But, also keeping journalist from telling their stories.
Selina Wang, with David Culver, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN newsroom. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Rosemary Church after a very short break. I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
[01:57:42]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
