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U.S. Reports Acceleration in Russian Troop Buildup; Russia Could Use False Flag Operation for Invasion; Los Angeles Rams Crowed Super Bowl Champions; Young Russian Figure Skater's Doping Hearing to be Known Soon; What Sewage is Revealing About COVID-19; Canadian Police Clear Bridge at Vital Border Crossing; Two Emigres Follow Escalating Crisis from Israel. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired February 13, 2022 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: Hello, and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Poppy Harlow.

Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM this hour, Washington is warning that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come at any time. And President Biden is staying close contact with his Ukrainian counterpart. Meantime, Super Bowl LVI goes down to the wire. We're live in California with the exciting finish and all the highlights from the big game. And a decision is expected in just hours for the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva. The latest on the doping scandal that is rocking the Beijing Olympics.

Good evening. The United States is warning tonight an attack against Ukraine could come at any time, at any day, as the White House reports an acceleration in the buildup of Russian troops on the border of Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden held another call with Ukrainian PRESIDENT Zelensky just hours ago, saying the U.S. will act, quote, "swiftly and decisively," if there's more aggression from Moscow.

But there has been no indication that the Kremlin is backing down. The reality is what you see here, heavily armed Russian troops surround Ukraine. Dozens of countries are telling their citizens to leave Ukraine immediately, and while the U.S. commits to arming and training Ukraine to fight back, the U.S. will not be sending in troops to help even if American civilians remain there.

Listen to President Biden speaking in a new interview with NBC News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESTER HOLT, NBC NIGHTLY NEWS ANCHOR: What scenarios would you put American troops to rescue and get Americans out? JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's not. That's a world

war. When Americans and Russia start shooting at one another. We're in a very different world than we've ever been in.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Meanwhile, European leaders continue to voice support for Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will head there on Monday and meet with President Zelensky. He'll then travel to Moscow. This comes, though, as Germany is under fierce criticism from some for not committing to cutting off the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline if Russia does invade Ukraine. And while many NATO countries are sending Ukraine more weapons, Germany is not. Ukraine's ambassador to Berlin slamming that decision just hours ago, calling it, quote, "German hypocrisy."

Meantime, Russia's military buildup is drawing comparisons to troop deployments during the Cold War but today we're not just limited to satellite images and reports from NATO. Our Scott McLean looks at what social media can tell us about the Kremlin's troop levels and what Moscow may plan to do next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is just one element of the Russian armor now gathered on three sides of the border with Ukraine. Tanks and infantry fighting vehicles parked up near Ukraine's northeastern border near the Russian town of Valuyki. These videos posted on social media confirmed from different angles and geolocated by CNN.

The Russian buildup includes heavy armor, including elements of the elite First Guards Tank Army that has now moved to within 20 miles of Ukraine. Also on the move a substantial number of short-range ballistic missiles known as Iskanders with a range of some 450 kilometers. Further south long columns of military vehicles rumble along a highway near Rostov-on-Don. A CNN analysis of Russian movement shows the extent of the buildup in Crimea to the east and north of Ukraine.

And in Belarus the Russians have released video of the large-scale exercises being conducted with Belarusian forces. Exercises that include top lien Russian hardware. Among the equipment being paraded, S-400 Air Defense Systems and SU-25 ground attack aircraft.

Those exercises are extensive. According to NATO, the largest Russian military presence in Belarus since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but CNN has also geolocated Russia military movements a long way from those exercises in the far southeast of Belarus and just over 10 miles from the border with Ukraine.

This convoy, including multiple rocket systems, headed south in the last couple of days. A long way south the Russian Navy has begun drills involving more than 30 ships in the Black Sea. They're exercising in the Black Sea a mix of forces that include several large amphibious ships. The latest satellite imagery also shows a buildup of troop accommodation and units close to the Black Sea in Crimea. All together the analysis of social media videos from Russia, when added to fresh satellite imagery, shows a relentless buildup of forces that seems almost complete, as bases are emptied and units take to the roads and rails.

JAKE SULLIVAN. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: What we've seen just in the last 10 days or so is an acceleration of that buildup and the movement of Russian forces of all varieties closer to the border with Ukraine in a position where they could launch a military action very, very rapidly.

[23:05:03]

MCLEAN: To Rob Lee in the Department of War Studies at the University of London, Russia's current military buildup near Ukraine is unprecedented. This is not like previous war scares or the buildup in the spring of 2021. The amount of Russian aerial, ground and naval military power near Ukraine now is quantifiably far greater. That's the view of Western governments, too. The capabilities have been assembled but the Kremlin's intent is still unknown.

Scott McLean, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Scott, thank you for that reporting.

It is not just troops on the ground that are of concern, U.S. officials saying Moscow is already engaged in an information war with the West over Ukraine and that could change what a potential Russian invasion looks like.

Let me bring in CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. He's also the White House and national security correspondent, of course, for "The New York Times," and Beth Sanner, a CNN national security analyst and former deputy director of National Intelligence.

Thank you both very much for staying up late tonight at such a crucial moment in this story, in these developments.

And Beth, let me just begin with you because I think you make such a good point, and that is it's critical to note that, you know, a Russian invasion of Ukraine is likely not going to begin with kinetic action, right? What would you expect before a movement further of ground forces?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, a lot of people have talked about a big cyberattack being one of the things, but it could really evolve in a much more low, kind of low intensity sort of way. One thing that I think is important to understand is that Putin still needs some sort of excuse to go in, some kind of reason to change his rhetoric, which is I'm not going to war in Ukraine. So there has to be some sort of provocation, and that could very well happen in the Donbass or along any other of the three border areas that the correspondents have just reviewed.

HARLOW: David, do you think the technique of revealing this U.S. intelligence about Putin and namely, you know, the false flag operations to try to, you know, make it appear that there's Ukrainian aggression? Do you think that that putting the intelligence out there has worked in terms of forcing Putin's hand to change tactics?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, we won't know because we won't know probably exactly what he was planning to go do, and he probably had multiple plans.

HARLOW: Right.

SANGER: But I think in general, it was a very good move, Poppy, and the reason was that it made Putin recognize that the United States is into his intelligence stream and into his communications, has some sources of information. It probably forced him to change course. It does make it more difficult for him, I think, to stage that false flag operation. And if they do begin with a cyberattack, something that turns off the power or something that hits Ukrainian communications, it will be harder, I think, for him to deny that this was the Russians at the beginning.

Now of course if this turns into kinetic action, what we fear the most, a physical invasion, there's no denying that, but I think Beth had it just right when she said he's going to need something to explain the narrative of why he's engaging in such a deadly war of choice. And so they've got to stage something. And I think the more the United States calls out that's the plan the harder it is to do.

HARLOW: Beth, so much of this comes down to intelligence, and American intelligence has been wrong in the past and it has led the United States into war, so listen to Jake Sullivan, the National Security adviser, this morning with our Jake Tapper addressing that concern from, you know, not just some Americans but many around the world, you know, does the intelligence have this one right? Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SULLIVAN: We're not putting forward this intelligence to start a war, which has happened in the past, Jake. We are putting forward this intelligence to stop a war.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That's the key distinction that he makes. And I want to ask you this specifically because you were an analytic leader at the CIA when the intelligence community got it wrong on Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction, and you talked about a lot of introspection then from all of you, and lessons learned. So what do you make when you hear that from Jake Sullivan making that distinction?

SANNER: I think it's an important distinction and it's something that, you know, I looked 80 years ago during the Cuban missile crisis and this very sort of thing unfolded with the Soviet leader Khrushchev, very, very similar. Iraq's WMD is also really different in that, you know, it's not that we made it up.

[23:10:07]

It's that we got it wrong. It was an intelligence failure and one that the intelligence community admits. In this case, you know, if people don't believe us, it's not because, you know, the intelligence community is lying. It's possible that we got this wrong. I mean, it's a very human endeavor but what's really different is that we can see things unfold on the ground in front of our very eyes. We can look at social media. We can look at propaganda and we can look at the Russian playbook, and it all makes sense.

So we have a lot of corroboration just looking from the outside in from my perspective right now, so I think these things are really different but I think we also have to take into account peoples' skepticism and that's just a reality.

HARLOW: David, one thing that I think is really notable and important, you know, for the world to watch here, is this is, you know, in a matter of months President Biden's second crucial test on the world stage following the chaotic withdrawal and failures in pulling out of Afghanistan, and the humanitarian toll to American lives and other lives.

So I just wonder what your thoughts are as you watch the president take these calls and the interview he gave Lester Holt and what he said in that as he faces, again, you know, his next huge test on the world stage.

SANGER: It's a great question, Poppy, because these two events both have the risk of conveying a sense of a lesser American influence on the world stage, and yet they are quite different. Afghanistan was about ending a 20-yearlong American engagement and that's why you saw the U.S. in there and that's why you saw the U.S. rescuing, as Mr. Sullivan pointed out this morning, 124,000 Americans and Afghans, but still not pulling enough people out of the country.

I think most Americans left the Afghan experiences thinking it had been 20 years of a messy war but the end of it was really messy. In this case President Biden has taken off the table the thought that the U.S. will go in militarily itself and you heard that in that earlier clip with Lester Holt. I think most Americans probably would support that. I don't think anybody is looking to get the U.S. forces in direct confrontation with the Russians, but because Ukraine is not a NATO country, because we don't have any treaty obligation to go and defend it, that's exactly why Putin is picking on Ukraine as the example.

And no one is watching this more carefully than the Chinese, who are looking at American resolve and wondering how this might play out should they decide to take Taiwan.

HARLOW: Taiwan. Yes, it's such a crucial point. And we saw the bond grow even stronger between Putin and President Xi in the phone call in just the past few weeks.

Beth, the line from the White House is swift and decisive. That is what it says the U.S. will do should Russia encroach any further on Ukraine, or certainly if there's any kind of incursion. That means the harshest sanctions possible I supposed, I mean, that Biden made clear no boots on the ground. I wonder if you think it is a miscalculation, though, by the Biden administration not to be doing even more of that preemptively, right? Is it wise to wait?

SANNER: Yes, I think smart people on both sides of this debate make some sense, and this is one of those times when I'm really glad that I'm not a policy maker having to make these decisions. I tend to personally fall down on the weight because I think if you go at Nord Stream 2 now and you take it totally out of the possibility, it really shows Putin, like, well, why not just go ahead and do it then since I'm not going to get that anyway?

So, you know, but I have a lot of smart friends who feel passionately on the other side, and I like arguing about these things over beer instead of over the policy-making table. I really can't say any more than that.

HARLOW: Well, Beth Sanner, thank you so much. It's nice to have you. David Sanger, great to have you, friend, as always.

SANGER: Thanks, Poppy.

SANNER: Thanks.

HARLOW: Coming up, the NFL's newest champions are crowned after a very exciting finish of Super Bowl LVI. We'll take you live to Los Angeles for more, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:18:46]

HARLOW: The Los Angeles Rams are now Super Bowl champions after a thrilling comeback win. The team rallied in the closing minutes of Super Bowl LVI to score the game-winning touchdown as they topped the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20. President Biden has now congratulated the Rams and invited them to the White House.

Andy Scholes has more now from outside the stadium. Always the best assignment. I remember like one year I got to go and cover it. But you get to go every year. This was a nail-biter and a great ending for Rams fans.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, and Poppy, Super Bowl LVI, it's going to go down as one of the best ever. I mean, it had it all. It had emotional lead changes, it had a heart-breaking injury, it had the amazing half-time show that got rave reviews, and in the end it had a fantastic finish.

Show you how it all went down. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow playing in his first Super Bowl and he showed up in style. Check out this suit he was rocking coming into the stadium, had the Walter White "Breaking Bad" hat with it. Now then we had The Rock come out on the field, hyped up all the fans, and all the fans in L.A. having a grand old time early in this game. Matthew Stafford, Odell Beckham, Jr. got the rams on the board. They took a 7-0 lead, but there was heartbreak for OBJ later in the first half, noncontact injury, went down holding his knee.

[23:20:06]

He would not return to the game. The Rams had the lead at halftime but the very first play at the second hard, here comes Burrow, goes deep for Tee Higgins. May have been offensive pass interference on that play. A lot of people were certainly calling for it on social media but it went for a 75-yard touchdown, gave the Bengals the lead. They would have the lead all the way into the fourth quarter before Matthew Stafford put together a 15-play 79-yard drive.

Got a little help here from a questionable defensive holding call, that gave the Rams their first down there in the red zone. Stafford, though, would take advantage finding Cooper Kupp for his second touchdown of the game. Burrow having one more chance to be a hero and win this Super Bown for the Bengals but Aaron Donald, Von Miller and that defense, just wreaking havoc all game lone. They sack Burrow a Super Bowl record seven times. Tied that record. There he forced incompletion to win the game for the Rams. 23-20 the final. Cooper Kupp, the MVP, and an emotional Aaron Donald was in tears after the win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON DONALD, LOS ANGELES RAMS DEFENSIVE TACKLE: I'm just so happy. I wanted this so bad. I dreamed this, man. I dreamed this and this is like it's surreal. Look at this. Look at this, man. This is -- I feel amazing. I feel amazing. But I feel great.

SEAN MCVAY, LOS ANGELES RAMS HEAD COACH: Those guys just did a great job, they took over that game, that offensive line did a great job protecting. You knew that we're pretty thrown it at second down in two, (INAUDIBLE) got his first down to get to the eight-yard line was big, but so many contributions and it's about the team. I'm so happy for these players. World champs, baby.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, Sean McVay getting that World Series championship. And a big reason why he got it, quarterback Matthew Stafford. Those two met on vacation in Cabo, in the offseason. That's when McVay decided he needed to trade for Stafford to try to get the Rams over the hump. Stafford had spent 12 seasons in Detroit, suffered through a lot of losing but now he's a Super Bowl champion and here is him after the game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW STAFFORD, LOS ANGELES RAMS QUARTERBACK: I'm so proud of this team. There's so many guys on our team that deserve this. So many great players. Guys who have just given their heart and soul to this team. Guys that are either playing in this game or not. You know, because of injury or whatever it is. But I'm just so proud of this group. I mean, our game today is the story of our season. You know, it's up and down. It's tough. And we're a freaking tough team. Showed up late and got it done. I'm just, I'm excited.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. Like I mentioned, Cooper Kupp, the Super Bowl MVP. What an incredible season for him. He won the Triple Crown as a receiver this year. That means he had the most receptions, most yards, and most touchdowns. He was named the offensive player of the year. He also the Super Bowl MVP. The only other receiver in NFL history to do those three things was Jerry Rice, and he did that over a career.

This is what Cooper Kupp did this season, Poppy. Just incredible for a guy that went to a small college, Eastern Washington, really had to work his way even to become a third-round pick. He missed the Rams last Super Bowl in 2019 with a torn ACL, came back from that injury to become the best receiver in the league, and now he's the Super Bowl MVP. And just an incredible season and an incredible ending for Cooper Kupp this year.

HARLOW: All sorts of Cinderella stories out of this Super Bowl. It's great. Andy, have fun tonight. Thank you.

SCHOLES: All right.

HARLOW: In just a few hours we will know the fate of teenage Russian figure skating star, Kamila Valieva. She tested positive for a banned heart drug in December but Olympic officials only found out about it last week. Since then it's been a whirlwind few days of suspensions, investigations, uncertainty, as it's unclear if Valieva will be able to keep her first gold medal or even continue in the Olympics.

That was a huge week ahead for women's figure skating there. The Court of Arbitration for Sport is expected to announce whether or not, she, again just 15 years old, will be able to compete in the women's single short program on Tuesday.

Our sports analyst, Christine Brennan, joins me now with more from Beijing.

Christine, thank you so much for being here. Let's just begin with this decision that is imminent on whether Valieva will be expected, will be able to continue. We're literally hours away from finding out. What is the big picture here?

CHRISTINE BRENNA, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Poppy, we're an hour and a half away and it will be probably in this room, this press conference room in the main press center here at the Beijing Olympic Games where we will get the news that really could rock these games and set a tone not just for these Olympics but for clean sports or doping for years to come. That Court of Arbitration for Sport, you mentioned them, they're set up here.

[23:25:01]

They come and set up shop at every Olympics, they will rule. And if they side with the 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, she will then be able to compete in the women's short program Tuesday night here, the women's long program Thursday night, and win a medal. Presumably she's the gold medal favorite. If, however, they side with the IOC, the International Skating Union, the International Testing Agency, all the organizations that are saying she doped and should be kicked out of these Olympics, then she will be out.

She will not be able to compete in the event that she's expected to win the gold medal in. It's a very big deal. That decision as I said will be an hour and a half and it literally will explode at these Olympic Games.

HARLOW: And Christine, I think it's important to know because she's a minor, you know, the authorities are not just looking at her, the World Antidoping Authority has announced they're going to investigate what they're calling her entourage. They were talking about the whole group of adults around her on this journey.

How do you expect that to play out? And is there any world in which anyone else could be found to have made violations but not her specifically and she could continue to compete, if that makes sense?

BRENNAN: You know, you're right, Poppy, the adults around her are really -- you could be totally sympathetic to this 15-year-old and also believe that she should be kicked out of the Olympic Games, so those two thoughts can co-exist and I think a lot of people feel that way. The adults in her life need to be looked. This is state-sponsored Russia doping that people -- we've all been talking about and hearing about for eight years since the Sochi Olympics where they put the bad urine through the hall in the hole and had the clean urine come back out.

And this is Russia being Russia, frankly, and it's time that they really threw the book at these adults and these officials. That is a key part of it. And then of course there's the team competition. As I'm sure many people realized Russia won the gold, the U.S. won the silver and Japan won the bronze. And there was hope that there would be a resolution of that so that the athletes could be on the medal stand and get their medals and hear the anthem during the games.

What we're hearing now, and I reported three days ago, now confirmed there is no way they're going to have that medal ceremony because the bigger issue of the entire case of Valieva needs to be looked at, so it could be May, June or July before those medals show up in FedEx.

HARLOW: Oh, wow.

BRENNAN: In the kitchen of those athletes. Yes, that's how bad this could be.

HARLOW: Wow. Before you go, Christine, your column, your most recent "USA Today" column on this is fascinating because you go beyond the immediate of this situation, and you talk about the Russian figure skating in general and you make the interesting point that I didn't really know. She's so young so you think she could compete at Olympic after Olympic after Olympic Games, but it's unlikely that Valieva would even compete in 2026. BRENNAN: Absolutely, Poppy. They put the Russians -- and the sport in

general, it happens in the U.S. occasionally but not like in Russia, all these teenagers are put on the discard file before they hit 20. I mean, it's really a sports tragedy what's going on. They pushed them to the brink. Their moms and dads want these little girls, 5, 6, 7 to go to these -- to go to Moscow and train, and it is tough.

And there's a young woman named Yulia Lipnitskaya. She won the gold in the team competition in 2014 in Sochi. Vladimir Putin was just in love with her and had an audience, she had an audience with him, and she was gone from the sport in 3 1/2 years, anorexia, mental health issues and her body breaking down. That is what's happening in Russia so while you watch the beautiful skating and we see what's going on with the 15-year-old, Kamila Valieva, and others, and it's so entertaining and so beautiful, there's that dark nether world that we really are starting to write about and talk about, and we should, because the question is what are we doing to these young women and how are we affecting the rest of their lives.

HARLOW: Good for you for highlighting it, Christine, for many of us who, you know, who really don't know. Before you go, it has been interesting, I haven't really seen the American figure skating competitors commenting on this at all. Why?

BRENNAN: Nathan Chen, after he, of course, won that majestic gold medal he was talking about fair play, and that's about as far as he would go. I think, Poppy, the U.S. athletes are trying to focus on their competition. He's finished, but the women of course, Mariah Bell and Karen Chen, and others are still yet to come, Alysa Liu. So they're focused on competing, which is understandable.

This is the highlight of their young lives, but also I think the U.S. is trying to not make it about U.S. versus Russia, right? That this is a global issue with Russia is the focus. But I do believe that if the decision is to let her compete, which will really rock the sports world and Lance Armstrong, Van Johnson, OK for everyone to cheat, that will be the question, I think we'll hear from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee very strongly on the issue of clean sport and those athletes like Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps and Michelle Kwan, and Symone Biles who do it the right way.

[23:30:12]

What message does it send if you let a 15-year-old who had a positive test compete in the Olympics?

HARLOW: Christine Brennan, thank you as always.

BRENNAN: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: Of course. Well, after it was closed for days by a blockade of protesters, North America's busiest land border crossing is once again open. A short time ago officials in Detroit announced that the Ambassador Bridge between Canada and the U.S. is now fully re-open. Early on Saturday, Canadian police has stepped up their crackdown on protesters on the bridge arresting dozens of people and seizing their vehicles.

Well, thanks so much for spending part of your day with me. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Poppy Harlow. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

We're getting a better sense of why the FDA decided to delay moving forward with the COVID vaccine authorization for children under 5 years old in the U.S. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner and current board member of Pfizer, says the decision was not because of any safety issues regarding the shot, instead about defining its level of efficacy amid an ongoing trial involving a third dose of the vaccine.

[23:35:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Given the fact that that is changing, that's evolving, new data is accruing. It's hard for the FDA to give its advisers a fixed snapshot of what the absolute efficacy of this clinical trial of the data set. And so if they wait a little longer, if they administered the third dose in that clinical trial, they're not only going to have perhaps a better measure of effectiveness from this trial but they'll also have a settled data set. They'll have a very firm picture of what level of effectiveness the vaccine is delivering.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Across the United States, hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses are being administered daily, but so far CDC data show less than 30 percent of the U.S. population has received that third shot, the booster shot.

Meantime Hong Kong is reporting more than 1300 new COVID infections as of Sunday, a drop from the record previous day but authorities say 2,000 more suspected cases are threatening the city's health care system and warned that hospital beds and quarantine facilities are reaching capacity. One official says a fifth wave is causing a bottleneck in the system. This comes a day after China said it would help Hong Kong with testing, treatment and construction of quarantine facilities.

Meantime, researchers in Italy are studying sewage and waste water in the hope of learning more about COVID-19 and potential other viruses in the future.

Our Ben Wedeman has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Modern cities churn out a lot of sewage. And Rome has been doing it longer than most. And as unpleasant as this murky sludge may seem, there's much more to it than meets the nose.

(On-camera): This is the exit of Cloaca Maxima, Ancient Rome's massive sewer. Archeologist have been able to learn a lot about the diet of Ancient Romans by studying residue of sewage from back then. Modern scientists are now studying sewage to get an early warning of diseases like COVID-19.

(Voice-over): Standard data about the spread of COVID-19 is based on the results of clinical tests, but waste water provides a much clearer picture of just how widespread the disease actually is. Not everyone is tested, not everyone has symptoms. Everyone, well, almost everyone, however, goes to the toilet.

In the bowels or rather the basement of Italy's National Institute of Health, researchers spend their days analyzing fresh sewage from around the country. Such research has revealed that COVID-19 was already circulating here in November of 2019, months before the first cases were reported. The field of waste water epidemiology, the monitoring of sewage for traces of disease, is emerging as a critical tool for public health.

It allows us to say in advance that the virus is present, in this case specifically Omicron, says researcher Elisabetta Suffredini. And in addition to early warning, it allows us to understand how the virus is distributed and how it's spreading.

That early warning is hidden in human feces, which carry genetic traces of COVID-19 days before they can appear in clinical tests.

The institute's Doctor Giuseppina La Rosa is spearheading a soon-to-be launched nationwide waste water monitoring system.

We can consider sewage treatment plants like eyes across the whole territory, she says, telling us what is really circulating in the population.

It might not be pretty, but for researchers in this pandemic, this is gold.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Ben Wedeman, fascinating reporting. Thank you so much.

Coming up for us here, Canadian Police are cracking down on protests against COVID restrictions and restoring a major trade route with the United States. We'll have the latest from the Canadian capital just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:43:25] HARLOW: Welcome back. The Ambassador Bridge between Canada and the United States is now fully open after it was closed for days by a protest against COVID restrictions. Police arrested dozens of people to get that vital trade route restored. But the protesters' anti- mandate sentiment is making its way around the world.

Our Paula Newton takes a look at the global impact has been felt of this so-called Freedom Convoy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jammed streets, blaring horns over the past few weeks, there has been a loud and clear message from Freedom Convoy truckers in Canada and their supporters about their opposition to the government's COVID-19 vaccine mandate and other health restrictions.

A cacophony of horns that's resonating with protesters right around the world, and staged similar demonstrations over COVID-19 restrictions over the weekend. A convoy of cars and vans in Paris snarled traffic on the Champs-Elysees for hours on Saturday. Protesters waved French flags and climbed on top of their vehicles near Arc de Triomphe after bypassing police checkpoints and defying a ban by authorities by entering the city center.

Police eventually sprayed tear-gas to disperse the protesters who say they are opposed to the country's vaccine's pass. Some adding they're also upset over lower standards of living and inflation. One demonstrator described the convoy as something extraordinary.

[23:45:01]

He says there was honking everywhere. We took the highway, people waved at us, volunteers were there with food and everything.

In the Netherlands, a convoy of vehicles brought the Hague city center to a brief standstill to protest coronavirus restrictions there, and police warned protesters they would be fined and arrested if they do not leave by mid-afternoon so the drivers withdrew.

Another so-called Freedom protest happened in Canberra, Australia's capital, where there weren't as many trucks but many shared sentiments with the truckers in Canada.

Lines of vehicles rolled into New Zealand's capital city last week, blocking streets near parliament. Some protesters setting up tents on a lawn in a mass campout to protest mask mandates and vaccine requirements for police and medical workers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here to ensure that the mandates are taken away.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you tell us about what's going on here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're making food. NEWTON: Officials in New Zealand using softer tactics to try and get

people to move on, playing songs from loud speaker like "You're Beautiful" from James Blunt, and music from Disney movies, even Barry Manilow. But protesters say their spirits haven't dampened even in the rain, and after authorities turned sprinklers on them last week. Local residents say they are losing patience with the disruption.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're destroying the grasses. Destroying just -- like come on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a little bit annoying for us who live here. I think the police are doing the best they can.

NEWTON: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the demonstrators are a fringe minority, but the protests this past weekend have been hard to ignore.

Paula Newton, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Paula, thank you for that reporting.

Meantime as tensions rise between Ukraine and Russia, two friends as close as brothers born in the former Soviet Union watch in disbelief. We'll hear their thoughts on the growing crisis ahead.

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[23:51:32]

HARLOW: Another look now at our top story this hour. The U.S. is warning Russia could invade Ukraine at any moment, and American intelligence officials are reporting a dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukraine border. This comes as the West continues to try to find a diplomatic exit ramp.

President Joe Biden holding another call with Ukraine's president on Sunday, vowing the U.S. will act swiftly and decisively if Russia takes further aggressive action on Ukraine. But the Kremlin is showing no signs of backing down. Russia has already surrounded Ukraine on three of its borders, and multiple countries are drawing down embassy staff within Ukraine, urging their citizens to leave the country immediately.

Meantime, two friends who left the former Soviet Union for Israel decades ago are now watching in shock as this crisis unfolds. They tell our Hadas Gold it's a tragedy that the two nations they regard as brothers could be on the brink of war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's dumplings, caviar, and borscht. But we're not in Moscow or Kyiv. This is Baba Yaga restaurant in Tel Aviv, owned by Russian-born Cyril Tartakovsky, and once managed by his Ukrainian-born best friend, Alexander Druz. Over a shot of vodka and a traditional sniff of the pickle, there is

disbelief at the prospect of war between their homelands.

ALEXANDER DRUZ, RESTAURANT OWNER, VILLA MARE: It's brothers. It's same country for us. We're born in USSR. And now we see and don't understand what happened.

GOLD: Both men moved to Israel with their families in the 1990s, part of a wave of more than a million Jewish emigres from the former Soviet Union who at one point made up as much as 15 percent of the overall Israeli population.

DRUZ: I really love my born country. I remember everything from my child times, but now we're here. It's not our war. And we don't want war.

CYRIL TARTAKOVSKY, RESTAURANT OWNER, BABA YAGA: I absolutely agree with our government. They should be very careful because we are small country. And we don't have, as we say in Israel, we don't have friends. We only have interests.

GOLD: Those interests are complicated. Israel relies on Ukraine for vital imports like grain and steel. It also needs to think about its key ally, the United States. But good relations with Russia are vital, too. Israel needs Moscow's tacit approval to keep striking Iranian targets in Syria. On top of all of that, both Russia and Ukraine have among the largest Jewish communities in the world. No wonder Israel's Foreign minister sounds cautious.

YAIR LAPID, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): We have a unique obligation that no other country has to be extremely careful. Part of my role and the government's role is to look after the Jews in the world. I believe in the old principle that Israel is a capital of the world for the Jewish people, and not only the state of the Jewish people.

GOLD: At Baba Yaga, the arguments, when they happen, tend to be over food. Whenever the true origin of borscht or vareniki dumplings, both men hope the things they share together might find reflection on the front lines as well.

TARTAKOVSKY: I imagine now the soldiers are on two sides of the border, Russia and Ukraine, and they are waiting for the government decision.

[23:55:06]

They are waiting and they eat now and they see they eat the same food. Soup, like borscht, you know, we serve here borscht and borscht, it's also Russian and those Ukrainian soup, so let's tell that borscht is connecting people.

DRUZ: Yes.

GOLD: Hadas Gold, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Hadas, thank you very much.

Now to this story in Spain's northwestern Galicia region, the ruins of a ghost town are emerging from a reservoir struck by drought. It's quite an eerie sight. Drone footage shows the sunken village revealed from a nearly emptied dam on the Spanish-Portuguese boarder. Visitors have been gathering to see the abandoned town which was flooded intentionally to create the Alto Lindoso reservoir in 1992. Since then the village emerges ever so often when the reservoir gets low -- look at those images -- before sinking once again when water levels return to normal.

Well, thank you so much for spending part of your day with us. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Take good care and stay with us. CNN NEWSROOM continues with John Vause after a quick break.

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