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Anticipation Builds for Today's Face-Off Between USA and England; Russian Missile Strikes Knock Out Power Across Ukraine; China Records Highest Number of Daily COVID Cases for Second Day. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 25, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A battle for the ages this is afternoon as USA takes on England in the world cup. It is their third showdown at the Men's World Cup. A lot at stake for a very young U.S. Team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYLER ADAMS, U.S. CAPTAIN: I think England are currently one of the favorites to win the World Cup. I think that in a lot of games, people would probably say that we're the underdogs. But we carry that with pride.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: All right. So, someone who knows something about winning at the World Cup joins us now, two-time Olympic gold medalist but also World Cup champ, Briana scurry. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

BRIAN SCURRY, WORLD CUP SOCCER CHAMPION AND TWO-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: Hey, Jim, great to see you, a massive game day today.

SCIUTTO: It is huge, man. I'm excited. I'm a little nervous. I want ask you what does your heart tell you is going to happen today and what does your head tell you is going to happen today.

SCURRY: I tell you what, Jim. So, when I think about it analytically, which is my head, I'm a little nervous. England scored six goals last game of five of different players none of which were Harry Kane. So, I'm a little concerned about that. But there is a silver lining, I will say. They did give up two goals against Iran. And so that backline of England is a little suspect at times. So, I think maybe if our guys can bring it together and really hope for things and connect, we could sneak one. We could sneak a game by them.

SCIUTTO: It struck me, and you know this better than me, but watching the Wales game for the U.S., that in the first half, the U.S. team, they were creating a lot of chances but they didn't quite finish as much as you would have liked. And I wonder, do you think it is important for the U.S. side to get out there, if they can, of course, and everybody would love to do this, but try to get out there and score early, be aggressive early?

SCURRY: I do. I think that is a big point you make there. And also that last game against Wales, they had a fantastic first half. If they can have two first halves like that today, I think they could scoot a goal in there. I really feel like we have a great chance if we play incredibly well and the goalkeeper, Matt Turner, for the U.S., basically spins on his head. I think we have a chance at it.

SCIUTTO: How big is this for the U.S. team? Because the U.S. Men's Team -- listen, you guys, the women's team, you guys have showed up and you won. You got the hardware on your shelves, yourself included. The U.S. team has -- you know, they've struggled at times. They didn't qualify last time around. Sometimes they'll break through, other times they'll disappoint, and over the years, for decades, really, trying to build a U.S. Men's National Team that can compete at the highest levels and win.

I mean, how important is it for this young team to show up at this year's World Cup?

SCURRY: It is monumental. Because like you said, there has been so much time, so many resources, so much effort and talk into this young team. If they can get a win today, I think all of those things will be shown to have been worth it. If they burn out and don't get a victory today, they still have a chance against Iran. But Iran is looking good this morning. They beat Wales 2-0. But I feel like if they get out of their group, all will be forgiven.

SCIUTTO: All right. So, let's say, in a different life, you're in the locker room and the game is, what, look, 2.5 hours away or so, 2.5 hours away, you're in a locker room right now coaching the team. What would you be telling them as they go on the field?

SCURRY: Focus on what they could control, which is their energy, their attitude. Stick to the game plan. Don't worry about the enormity of the game. That is all outside of you. All you need to do is focus on what is important, stick to the game plan. And when the opportunity arises, and it will, make the most of it. That is what I would say. Keep it simple.

SCIUTTO: Good stuff. I hope they're listening. I hope they're watching over in Qatar. They should be listening to you.

SCURRY: A huge game, Jim. We need a Black Friday miracle, is what we need.

SCIUTTO: Yes, exactly.

[10:35:00]

Goodness gracious. Well, we'll be watching. I hope folks at home are watching too. And thanks so much for joining us this morning.

SCURRY: You bet. Thanks for having me. SCIUTTO: Well, Twitter CEO Elon Musk says he will now restore most of the previously banned accounts starting next week. He made the move after doing some of these (INAUDIBLE), which is doing an unscientific poll of followers on Twitter. He asked whether to offer general amnesty to users who have not broken the law. The poll got more than 3 million votes with about 72 percent in favor.

CNN Senior Media Reporter Oliver Darcy joins me now with the latest. Oliver, can you describe the accounts we're talking about here, because while they may not have broken the law, these accounts were removed by Twitter for, among other things, spreading disinformation.

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: Yes, Jim. It sounds like Twitter is going to get a lot more chaotic next week particularly after Elon Musk unlocks Twitter jail cells and lets all these people out.

You're right. These are people who -- they didn't break the law necessarily. Those are the people that he's going to allow back on, people who haven't broken the law but who have violated platform policies. And those are policies governing things, like spreading misinformation, the use of hate speech, and these people repeatedly broke those policies. I think that is important to highlight. This wasn't a one-time thing.

For Twitter to permanently suspend an account, the person would have had to repeatedly break those policies. And it sounds like those are the people that Elon Musk is going to allow back on.

Of course, it is unclear exactly like how many of these accounts will be permitted to come back on Twitter. Earlier last week or this week, it is hard to keep track these days with him, he said that right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for instance, would not be allowed back on the platform.

So, kind of unclear which accounts he's really referring to here. And that is sort of speaks to how he's been governing over at Twitter, not much transparency into what is going on, just really him ruling by tweet.

I should also say, Jim, that next week as well, he says he's going to roll out the verification plan where you pay $8 for a blue badge. This comes after a few delays in that plan because people last time he rolled this out, in-person, in government accounts and others, I'll read you part of what he said. He said that -- he apologized for the delay and he said, we're tentatively launching verified on Friday next week. Hey says gold checks for companies, gray for government accounts, blue for individuals, celebrity or not, and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates, painful but necessary. That manual authentication obviously important after all those impersonation issues. Jim?

SCIUTTO: No question. Oliver Darcy, thanks so much.

DARCY: Thank you. SCIUTTO: Overseas, Ukraine is struggling to restore power after relentless Russian air attacks, this as Vladimir Putin meets to attempt to reassure mothers of Russian soldiers amid reports of awful, awful conditions for service members. Where things stand in the war in Ukraine nine months since Russia's invasion, that is coming up.

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[10:40:00]

SCIUTTO: Germany offered Patriot missile defense systems to Poland after a wayward missile from Ukraine landed on their territory. But the Polish government says they should give that system to Ukraine instead. The Germans say, that would be up to NATO. So, the NATO secretary general told CNN This Morning that missile defense systems are actually needed in both places.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: We need both increased air defense of our NATO allies in the east and the Baltic countries, Poland and Romania, but also we need more air defense in Ukraine. That is obvious. We see the horrendous, horrific attacks every day, against civilian infrastructure, against cities in Ukraine and, therefore, we need to help Ukraine be able to shoot down those incoming Russian missiles and drones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Joining us now, CNN Military Analyst Major General Spider Marks. Sir, good to have you on this morning.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES SPIDER MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So, let's begin there, because this question about how much air defense Ukraine has is not a new one. I mean, going back to the start of the war, they've wanted more and it has been coming but not as quickly as they want. As we see the advent of new weapons systems there, such as drones supplied by Iran, why doesn't Ukraine still have enough air defense and is it coming?

MARKS: Well, we certainly -- excuse me -- we certainly hope it is on the way. Look, NATO has provided a significant amount of support for Ukraine. It is very, very obvious what we've seen over the course of the last nine months. But, Jim, the key thing here is there is a mismatch between ends and means.

Look, Zelenskyy, God bless him, I mean, this is the George Washington of Ukraine, and arguably, but he has stated that Russians must be removed from Ukraine entirely. That includes Crimea, that includes Donbas, so, going back to pre-2014 invasion borders. Russian forces need to be moved off.

What NATO is doing is providing great tactical support for Ukraine to defend itself against what already exists in country. Russians in the Donbas, Russians in Crimea, new land bridge between those two locations. What is not happening is the ability for NATO.

[10:45:01]

What has been -- NATO has been holding itself back, is that it is not providing sufficient support for Ukraine forces to maintain an operational momentum that really would just pound and pound and pound beyond its current (ph) level to push the Russians back. We're not seeing that yet. So, of course, NATO is doing tremendous amount of work but there is this mismatch between ends and means, as we're seeing it right now.

SCIUTTO: So, we're nine months in now. And, by the way, Ukraine is in a far stronger position than really anyone expected with the exception of a few going into this, in terms of how well they've been able to push back the Russian advances. Where does that leave the endgame then? Because you've seen some not so subtle indications from some western leaders, Americans, et cetera, about just how far Ukraine should set its ambitions at this point. Should it be happy with the lines as they existed in February of this year as opposed to where they existed in 2014? Are you seeing a disconnect now between Ukraine and the west on what the final solution to this should be, what the endgame to this should be?

MARKS: Jim, that is exactly the situation that we're confronted with right now. What Ukraine is stating and what President Zelenskyy is stating is, as I indicated, the complete removal. That is not assured. Now, clearly, Ukraine has achieved some incredible tactical successes but Russia has this amazing and not surprising staying power. They refuse to engage the Ukrainians in direct tactical combat because they get kicked. They get kicked around.

So, what they do is they offset and they use artillery to their great advantage and this has now become a test of wills. Russia is going after the infrastructure (INAUDIBLE) the power, they're going after the water, they have the ability. They've weaponized fuel and they've weaponized food. They're now weaponizing power. So, it now becomes who has got the staying power in order to accept what really is, I think, the instinct, I think we're seeing the conditions are being set and the Ukrainians are now creating the narrative for a very good negotiating position, whether it is a full negotiation or a ceasefire, which is, okay, we've Russians in about 15 percent of Ukraine. We're going to live with that because we have got to stop the killing. We have got to stop the slaughter that is taking place right now.

SCIUTTO: I do want to, before we go, take to you another country, and that is Afghanistan. Because here we are more than a year after the U.S. withdrawal from there, the Taliban has now resumed policies, like publicly flogging people. I mean, it is remarkable, turning the clock back decades, really centuries now. Does this kind of punishment mean that that brief period where the Taliban claimed at least in some parts of the country to not be the Taliban of pre-9/11, that that is over and that they are, as we know them to be, as extreme as they come?

MARKS: Yes, you're absolutely correct. The Taliban -- look, U.S. forces in Afghanistan really were caught between all these various forms of radicalized tribes and entities. And the Taliban could work with the U.S. forces in very precise, well-defined areas when it was -- when it met their specific objectives.

The United States is gone. There is no overarching support or leverage that they can get from the United States, vis-a-vis some of the other entities with whom they have some legitimate concerns, right? And so with that, that now doesn't exist. The Taliban is free to do whatever it wants to do.

And let's be frank, it's not going back (INAUDIBLE). It is going back 20 years, when that type of behavior was accepted and was the norm.

SCIUTTO: Yes, resurrecting medieval times in Afghanistan. General Spider Marks, thanks so much.

MARKS: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, despite continued restrictions, China is seeing its highest number of daily COVID cases since pandemic started. And now there is outrage in at least one city after lockdown measured may have prevented firefighters from getting to a deadly fire. We'll have more.

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[10:50:00]

SCIUTTO: For the second day in a row, China has set a new record for daily COVID-19 infections, more than 32,000 cases reported on Thursday. Still, there is growing anger and frustration over extended lockdowns and extremely tight restrictions in many Chinese cities.

CNN's Selina Wang is live in Beijing. Selina, this is calling into question President Xi's zero-COVID strategy, whether it is working two and a half years into this pandemic.

SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim. I mean, right now, China's COVID policy is chaos. There is no clear exit path. We are three years into the pandemic and they are using the same strategies they used from the start, which are these draconian policies of lockdowns, quarantines, mass testing. It is not working in the same way. People are angry.

Authorities here, they're scared that opening up would overrun the country's health care system and lead to mass deaths. They say China's vaccination rate for the elderly population is still lagging behind, so they've got no choice. But, increasingly, Jim, it is the restrictions, not COVID itself, that is being blamed for the heartbreaking deaths that are fueling nationwide outrage.

[10:55:06]

Adding to that anger is a fire that broke out in Urumqi, the capital of China's far west Xinjiang region. This happened on Thursday night. Ten people were killed and nine injured in a fire at an apartment building. Now, widely circulated videos, which have now been censored in China show that COVID lockdown measures very likely delayed firefighters from getting to the scene. Most parts have been locked down for more than a hundred days. State media is claiming that people in the compound were allowed to leave the building but the videos say otherwise. It shows fire trucks unable to get close to the scene because the compound entrance is partially blocked. The video shows it is blocked with fences, tents and metal barriers that are normally used as part of COVID measures.

The video shows smoke and flames coming from the high floor of the building but the water, you can see there, failing to actually reach the fire. What adds to the tragedy, Jim, is that those who died in the fire likely spent the last three months largely confined to that building, if not, entirely.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. Seeing the trucks there too far away to reach the fire with the fire hoses just is remarkable.

Selina Wang, thanks so much for joining us.

And thanks so much to all of you for joining us today during this holiday weekend. I'm Jim Sciutto.

At This Hour will start right after a quick break.

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