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Ontario to Lift COVID Restrictions, Including Vaccine Passport; RCMP: 11 People Detained, Weapons Seized at Coutts Border Crossing; Zelensky: Ukraine Has Been Informed that February 16th Will be Day of Russian Attack; Witness Says Flight Attendant Hit Man with Coffee Pot After He Tried to Get into Cockpit; New Election Law Causing Confusion, Frustration in Texas. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 14, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: The busiest land border crossing in North America is back open. Police on the Canadian side of the Ambassador Bridge yesterday cleared anti-vaccine protesters who had paralyzed this key trade passage between the U.S. and Canada for a week.

That bridge reopened just before midnight. A few hours later, the Ontario government announced it will lift most of its COVID restrictions, including a vaccine passport requirement on March 1st.

Saying they were doing it because it is safe to do so. Not because of the protests, but despite them.

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But this showdown isn't over. Demonstrations are still going on in Ottawa and at other border crossings.

And copycat protests are popping up from Belgium to New Zealand where authorities blasted music like Barry Manilow tunes and the Macarena to try to disperse the crowd there.

CNN's Miguel Marquez joins us in Windsor, Ontario, at that Ambassador Bridge.

Miguel, I understand you have some breaking news. What's going on?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, while the bridge here is open, there are concerns at other border crossings.

Coutts, the main border crossing in Montana to Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police say they have arrested 11 individuals in connection with an investigation that they were conducting there.

They discovered there was some small group within the protesters there that are blocking the border that have access to a large cache of weapons and may have had the willingness to attack police with those weapons. They seized several long guns, handguns, a machete, body armor, a ton

of ammunition and several high-capacity magazines as well.

The prime minister now is going to speak likely about this and other issues that they have across the country of Canada right now.

There are several border crossings -- even though the one here at the Ambassador Bridge is open, there are several still closed.

And there's that massive protest in Ottawa that just goes on and on. They're into their third week there with no end in sight -- Ana?

CABRERA: Miguel Marquez, thank you for that update.

We have some news just in to CNN regarding the Russia situation involving Ukraine and that crisis.

We're learning -- this is coming from the president of Ukraine, Zelensky, saying that Ukraine has now been informed that Wednesday, February 16th, will be the day of the attack.

This is according to comments attributed to Zelensky accompanying a Facebook announcement to the nation today.

Zelensky did not say who or what agency has provided this information. So we're working to gather more information.

But again, Zelensky reportedly saying that they've been informed, Ukraine has been informed an attack is scheduled to happen on Wednesday, February 16th.

We're all over this. Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CABRERA: We're back with more on the breaking news just out of Ukraine. President Zelensky saying, "Ukraine has been informed that this Wednesday, the 16th, will be the day of the attack." That is a quote.

Let's go right to our Alex Marquardt there in Ukraine for us.

What are you hearing there, Alex?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Ana, this was part of a speech to the nation that Zelensky just posted on social media. So we're just getting this in.

But that is the headline out of these comments that he made to the Ukrainian population.

That he has been informed -- he did not say that he believes -- but he said they have been informed that Wednesday, February 16th, so two days from now, will be the day of the attack.

He has not said where he got that information.

And we should note, Ana, that there has been speculation, of course, that an attack could come this week.

The U.S. has said that there's a significant possibility that an attack by Russia on Ukraine could come before the end of the Olympics. That is on February 20th, next Sunday.

But we should note that wherever this information is coming from -- and it's highly likely that it is from Western and NATO intelligence services, to Zelensky -- they have been very skeptical of some of these predictions.

We heard over the weekend President Zelensky saying that they have other information and that they need to analyze the information that they have been given.

Zelensky said specifically, if you have intelligence that points to the fact that this invasion could come on the 16th and that it is 100 percent, please show it to me.

I want to read you a little bit of what another senior Ukrainian official also said today. This is coming from the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Alexei Danilov.

He said that they are fully aware of the risks. "The situation," he says, "is completely under control. They do not see a large-scale offensive on the 16th or the 17th. We do not see this."

So here you have top Ukrainian officials, including the president, Ana, saying that we are being told that this Russian invasion is going to be happening in 48 hours' time.

But they're also extremely skeptical. And there, Ana, you are seeing this daylight that we've seen over the past few weeks between the U.S. and the Ukrainian positions.

You have alarm from the United States saying this attack could come at any moment now and Ukrainians saying, we understand these risks, but we do not have this information.

They have repeatedly downplayed the alarm from the West in order to keep their population calm. And it has worked.

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This is a country where we are not seeing major signs of panic. People are going about their lives. They're going shopping. They're going to restaurants. There really are these divergent attitudes.

But Zelensky now saying that he is being told that a Russian invasion could come on the 16th -- Ana?

CABRERA: OK. So we have a lot more questions, obviously, to dig into in terms of who is informing Ukrainian president of this. We know you'll continue to work your sources.

And we'll stay on it back here as well as we understand that there are briefings happening on Capitol Hill right now as well.

Alex Marquardt, in Ukraine, thank you.

You do what you got to do. A flight attendant forced to use a coffee pot to try and stop an unruly passenger from charging the cockpit. Details next.

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CABRERA: OK, this is just plain scary. A D.C.-bound flight diverted to Kansas City. Why? An unruly passenger allegedly tried to break into the cockpit and open an exit door.

An eyewitness said an American Airlines flight attendant smashed a coffee pot on this man's head to stop him.

CNN's Tom Foreman is joining us now.

Tom, this is getting crazy. Tell us more about what happened here.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, scary and bizarre. The Flight Attendants Union is saying this man was making strange comments as he charged the front of the plane.

Tried to get into the cockpit, began attacking flight attendants, according to the union, using plastic utensils you get with your meals.

And then, when they barricaded the cockpit with a service cart, he turns his attention, according to them, to the front-loading door of the plane trying to open that.

Finally, as mentioned there, one of them struck him with a coffee pot, according to eyewitnesses. And at least four passengers rushed forward and helped pin him to the ground as you see there.

Then they quickly descended and they landed in Kansas City where local police and FBI came on board. The man was taken into custody. We don't have any word on what the charges are yet.

But that was the second flight this weekend that American had to turn around. Another one leaving from Phoenix to Hawaii had to turn around and go back to Phoenix because of an unruly passenger -- Ana?.

CABRERA: It seems like these instances of passengers behaving badly are increasing. Is that the case? What do the numbers show?

FOREMAN: If you go back to the start of last year that is absolutely the case.

Look at the numbers here. They're pretty staggering. Close to 6,000 people - well, this is for this year, if you're looking at that.

Right now, the numbers are a little bit down from last year. But only about 45 days into the year so we're not sure how it will play out.

And you'll notice the mask related part there. Last year, there were about 6,000 total. About 72 percent were related to masks. This year -- the numbers are here -- so you still see a lot of them are related to mask wearing.

One of the issues that people are a little concerned about here, so many municipalities, so many states are now backing down their mask regulations.

But they're still in place on airlines so that could make it a bit more of a flash point.

And one really important part here, Ana, they're also picking up many more, detecting, confiscating guns that people are trying to bring on to the planes.

At least stopping them from coming on the planes, those guns. I don't know if confiscating is the right word. But they're stopping people trying to bring guns on planes at a higher rate.

There's a genuine concern in the industry, if you combine this flash point of all of these incidents with the passengers and the potential of a gun slipping through, and a lot of people are very worried -- Ana?

CABRERA: Yes, and it is concerning, certainly. And if you're flying, you are hoping that nobody is going to fire up right next to you.

Tom Foreman, I appreciate you. Thanks.

FOREMAN: Thank you.

CABRERA: Now to Texas where early voting has begun for the first time under the state's controversial new voting law.

The added restrictions have already resulted in a spike in rejected applications, staffing issues, and frustration among voters and election officials.

Texas already has some of the nation's toughest voting laws even before these latest measures were enacted.

Which include new I.D. requirements to vote absentee, making it a crime to mail absentee ballot applications to voters who didn't request one, limiting early voting hours and banning drive-through voting.

Let's bring in CNN's Dianne Gallagher in Houston.

It sounds like the effects are really being felt in the largest county, Harris County. Walk us through the impacts. DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. And

for smaller counties, it may be even more difficult because they don't have the resource or the manpower to sort of swarm these issues.

For example, you can see behind me there, there are people who are part of a phone bank here in Harris County. They doubled the staff to answer questions from election judges and election officials.

And then across the county, they have another facility with a phone bank full of people to answer questions from voters. So there's a lot of confusion right now.

And much of that stems from sort of the rollout of this new law, S.B.- 1, and how it impacted early and absentee voting.

In Texas, it is already very restrictive on who can vote by mail, with a small percentage of the population.

But they added all sorts of new aspects to that, including different types of I.D. requirements. And that has caused, well, some issues here.

We're talking about an increase in the absentee ballot applications being rejected.

And then we're talking about ballots as well. An increase in those ballots themselves being sent back to voters. Much of that due to the identification issues.

But here in Harris County, Ana, about 40 percent already of the ballots that have been returned have been flagged for issues.

[13:55:02]

And I just finished speaking with the election administrator here in Harris County. And she said they're also starting to see basically a reduction in the number of people who have applied for mail-in ballots from 2018, the last primary election.

Now the deadline for that application isn't until Friday. So perhaps they'll see an increase. But they're still already starting to see, at least it appears, the depression in people requesting them.

CABRERA: Dianne Gallagher, there in Houston, thank you.

That does it for me today. Happy Valentine's Day. Sending you all love today. I'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place. Until then, you can join me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.

Victor and Alisyn pick up after a quick break.

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