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CNN INTERNATIONAL: Arctic Blast in U.S. Kills Dozens, Scuttles Travel; Russia's War on Ukraine; Dozens of Migrants Spend Christmas in Texas Shelter; U.S. Economy; Taliban Bans Female NGO Workers. Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired December 26, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russian president Vladimir Putin meets with leaders of former Soviet republics amid fears that Moscow will retaliate for the death of three service men killed during a suspected drone attack.

The arctic blast that has pummeled much of the U.S. with snow and extreme cold killed dozens and leaves hundreds of thousands grounded over the holiday weekend.

And North Korean drones fly over South Korean airspace. The South responding with fighter jets and attack helicopters in what one official calls a clear provocation.

Hello, welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I am Paula Newton and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

Now Russian president Vladimir Putin is in St. Petersburg, as we were saying, for what the Kremlin calls an informal meeting with leaders of the commonwealth of independent states. Those states are former Soviet republics and they include Russia's closest ally, Belarus, and its leader, Alexander Lukashenko.

Ukrainian officials have expressed concern, of, course that Russian forces might make another push into their country; this time, from neighboring Belarus. Today's meeting comes as a Ukrainian military spokesperson warns of a possible missile strike by Moscow.

That is following the deaths of three Russian service men. And this is important, inside Russia.

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NEWTON (voice-over): The Russian defense ministry, quoted by state media says, the three were killed after a Ukrainian drone was shot down as it approached a military airfield in Western Russia."

I want to bring in CNN's Melissa Bell now live from Paris, who has been following all of this. Hello to you, Melissa. The meeting itself, of course, an attempt by

Putin to shore up support where he can.

What could that mean, though, for the military effort in Ukraine?

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is a big. question this meeting in St. Petersburg today, Paula, had been preceded by a meeting with, you mentioned, his closest ally of those eight leaders that are meeting in St. Petersburg.

Alexander Lukashenko who arrived Saturday had a visit with a cosmonaut training center. All eyes on whether, after Putin's visit last week, that could lead to that new offensive up from Belarusian territory toward Kyiv.

As we saw, Paula, at the very start. For the time being, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence said that that is an unlikely scenario and they are considering that any military activity going out of Belarus right now is much more aimed at drawing some of Ukraine's firepower and its soldiers distracting them from the eastern front and trying to occupy them with that.

Without any serious intention of launching a new ground offensive. But this is clearly an important meeting and that particular partnership is under close scrutiny. Otherwise these eight leaders meeting with Vladimir Putin right, now this is about deepening the economic ties at a time when Russia is, of course, extremely isolated. Economically.

But it is also, we heard from the Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu about looking at increased military cooperation between the states. We have yet to hear anything official from inside that meeting. But clearly, all eyes on what might come out of that particularly in the context of that strike you mentioned today.

NEWTON: Yes, and we want to do a deeper dive, Melissa, on those three service men, who were killed inside Russia.

What could be the fallout from this?

BELL: The last time we saw this sort of activity, it was on the 5th of December, same airbase. One of two that were struck in the 5th of December, Paula. Again, a Ukrainian drone making it deep inside Russian airspace.

When you look at that Engels airbase, it 370 miles east of the Ukrainian border. It is extremely deep inside Russia. Of course, very worrying for Russian air defense systems that it should've made it that far. An embarrassment for the Russian military.

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BELL: The last time this happened on December 5th, what we saw immediately afterwards, Paula, were retaliatory strikes on Ukraine. Even now, Ukrainian officials are warning that that could be what follows. And remember of course, it was only last night that the Ukrainian

president said in his nightly address that they expected dark and difficult days over these last few days of 2022.

NEWTON: Yes, indeed, they have been warning about that every. Ukrainians continuing to show resilience. Melissa Bell for us in Paris. Appreciate that update.

Now, for the first time in five years, North Korea has sent drones into South Korean airspace. South Korea's military responded quickly, sending military aircraft on a reconnaissance mission with some crossing into North Korean territory. Paula Hancocks picks up the story from there.

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: South Korea scrambled 20 jets and attack helicopters on Monday as North Korea sent drones across the border into South Korean airspace.

Now we understand from the Defense Ministry that there were five North Korean drones. And they believe one was in the vicinity of the capital Seoul and the others were flying around the island off the west coast of the peninsula.

The military says they did fire at the drones but are not confident whether they managed to hit any of them.

We're hearing from the defense minister saying this is a clear provocation of our airspace. Some of those, they do confirm went into North Korean airspace and filmed military installations there.

Two main airports in and around Seoul had takeoffs postponed for an hour. That was dictated by the military as this was going on.

Also, one of those South Korean jets that was scrambled to goal with this did crash. We understand from the defense ministry there were no casualties in that accident.

This is not unprecedented but it is unusual. The last time it happened was 2017. At that point, the Defense Ministry said they found a crushed drone in airspace.

It appeared it was gathering intelligence on a U.S. defense missile system in the country. Similarly, in 2014, there was a crashed drone found as well.

Now they were fairly crude drones with, effectively, a camera strapped onto them. We don't know if the technology has improved. We haven't heard from the Ministry of Defense at this point exactly what these drones look like.

But it comes at the end of an historic year for North Korea. Never in their history have they fired so many and tensions are fairly high between the two Koreas -- Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

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NEWTON: Chinese president Xi Jinping is calling for a more targeted health strategy to try and protect Chinese people's health and their lives. This is one of his first public statements about COVID since Beijing dramatically eased the strict zero COVID policy that has been in place for nearly three years of lockdowns.

The country announcing a surge of new infections. Beijing will begin distributing its first foreign made antivirals. And that includes Paxlovid. And that is in the coming days. Meantime, China's national health commission says it will stop publishing a daily case count. Kristie Lu Stout is in Hong Kong for us.

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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: On the face of it, it appears that China wants to conceal and part any negative information out there about its COVID-19 outbreak that is happening right now.

But what we've learned is that China's top health body, the National Health Commission, is no longer reporting daily COVID numbers.

Instead, over the weekend, it announced that relevant outbreak information would be posted by a department that it manages, China's CDC. The CDC has been posting daily numbers so far on Sunday or Monday but whether that trend will continue that remains to be seen.

But concern is rising about what really is the actual and true scope and scale of the COVID outbreak underway right now in China. Some data has been coming in from various cities and provinces. Like Zhejiang province, that's located just out of shanghai. It's home to 64 million people, is been reporting 1 million new COVID cases a day.

And just quickly to contextualize that number, that -- this is our CNN's calculation of that. That equates to 1,583 new daily infections per 100,000 people but officials there say that that number could peak to 2 million new COVID infections by this weekend.

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NEWTON: Our thanks to Kristie Lu Stout.

Now a winter weather emergency, yes, it is still in effect right across many parts of the United States.

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NEWTON: And that is following a truly historic snowfall and the arctic blast that has killed at least 37 people nationwide. Now the coast to coast cleanup continues.

Look at that snow, with some 90,000 U.S. customers still without power. Millions of people, meantime, in the South remain under freeze alerts. Those storm effects on the nation's transportation fact system has been profound as well. Thousands of flights canceled on Christmas Day. That is ongoing at

this hour. Some 1,500 additional flights canceled today, Monday. Western New York state meantime, including the city of Buffalo, has been hit particularly hard. The area receiving more than 40 inches or 100 centimeters of snow.

New York's governor calls it the worst storm in Buffalo's history. And I want to tell, you that is saying something. Hundreds of National Guard personnel have been sent to the region to assist in the emergency response. Polo Sandoval is live for us in Buffalo, New York.

Polo, you have been there braving this weather. I grew up just outside of Buffalo, New York. It is not like they can't handle it.

How truly unprecedented is this?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We heard from a New York County official, Paula, just last hour, who said, it snows in Buffalo, yes. But the wind that was felt here the last few days was just remarkable. And extraordinary, too.

This is why this particular storm will go down in the history books as one of, if not the worst that has hit this area in recent times. An example is the wind that we experienced over the weekend.

They surpassed that of a historic blizzard in 1977. And sadly, as we are getting the numbers coming in, it seems like the number of storm related deaths is likely to eve surpass the blizzards that we have seen in the past.

But in terms of an improvement, we certainly have seen it. We are not getting whipped around in the winds. But as you can see the snow is still falling.

And it is certainly going make clearing the streets and some of the highways leading in and out of what is considered ground zero of this massive storm, it is very difficult to clear those streets out when snow continues to fall.

The forecast, showing that there will not, this snow, is going to continue to linger throughout the day. Into tomorrow, in terms of what we know. This is a storm that required the rescuers to be rescued.

And that tells you everything you need to. Know, also some of the power substations that basically field electricity some of these neighborhoods in and around Buffalo, some of them literally froze, according to the Erie County executive, Mark Poloncarz.

So that tells you everything you need to know. Especially if you know Buffalo, you know that it does that does not happen every winter.

So in terms of what we expect in the hours ahead, authorities are going to be using some of those National Guard numbers that you mentioned earlier to perhaps take some dialysis patients or patients who require chemotherapy treatment to their appointments because, unless you're driving some of these big trucks, it is nearly impossible to head to your destination right now.

That is why there is a ban in place for drivers. Paula.

NEWTON: I'm happy to see it and also happy, obviously, the emergency responders are getting some much needed help from what must have been a difficult holiday weekend. Polo, thanks so much for this, from Buffalo, New York, for us live.

Now the arctic blast has made things even more dangerous for migrants entering the United States from the southern border. Many are now sleeping on the streets of El Paso, Texas.

And they say the freezing temperatures have been so difficult. Communities and local residents are coming to their aid and making it the border town a sanctuary during the holidays. CNN's Camila Bernal has our story.

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CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Despite very difficult circumstances, a lot of happy children, thanks to the generosity of the people of El Paso, Santa Claus came to this shelter, where the migrants are sleeping and spending the night.

And many other locals bringing toys, bringing gifts for so many of the children that are here with their parents.

I spoke to one mother who told me this present would have been completely impossible in my native Venezuela. And this is inexpensive gifts that are making these children and these families really grateful on Christmas Day.

Look, a lot of the people here cannot go to the city run shelters. The city of El Paso has opened the convention center but only about 300 people are sleeping there, because in order to go to that location, you need to have the proper documentation.

So the only option they have is a nonprofit shelter like this one run by Sacred Heart Church in El Paso.

But they are completely at capacity. Their capacity is for about 130 people. They're sleeping about 200 of them every day when the temperature is about 20 degrees.

But the problem is, because they don't fit, a lot of these migrants have to sleep outside. That's why you're seeing so many blankets. That's why you're seeing them one next to the other, because they're always trying to keep warm.

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BERNAL: So many of them telling me, I don't necessarily want to be here but it is the necessity from our country that have forced us to come here. I talked to one father who told me that he saw Santa Claus here and he took a picture with him, sent it to his 7 year old son in Venezuela and told him, look, Santa is in the U.S. So the bike that he so desperately wants is going to be delayed

because Santa is still here in the U.S.

He says that when he finds a job here in the U.S., he will be able to send his son's back bike -- Camila Bernal, CNN, El Paso, Texas.

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NEWTON: Japan is coping with deadly winter weather, disaster management officials tell CNN at least 17 people died over the holiday weekend after heavy snow blanketed large parts of the country.

Snowfall was so intense authorities say vehicles were stranded on highways for hours. And deliveries for New Year's celebrations are now delayed. Still to come for us, Santa Claus is back at the North Pole.

But did he leave behind any hopes of a rally on Wall Street?

Are investors waking up to coal in those all-important stockings?

More important news on the state of the economy, we'll have more of that after the break.

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NEWTON: And welcome back. 2022 has been a volatile year for the U.S. economy, I do not have to remind you. There continue to be those concerns that 2023 may be a rough one as well.

Wall Street is ending on a low note, investors are hoping for a so- called Santa Claus rally to soften the blow of a rough year. There is still fears America could be headed for a recession next year. CNN's Marc Stewart joins me now.

I know how closely you've been looking at all the data but as well, this has been such a crazy year, 2022, not just for what it's meant for the economy but what it's meant for the labor force. A lot to come in those trends ahead for 2023 as well.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Paula, in fact, some of the challenges that were present in 2022 will still very much be challenges in 2023. I mean, you talk about the labor force.

Right now, more Americans are working, the White House says the wages they're getting right now are actually pretty good. But we need more people working, it encourages spending.

So will that perhaps contribute to inflation?

Last month, we saw a bit of cooling in consumer prices, so, that is a positive sign. As you know, from covering business, Paula, quick to predict forecasts when a recession will hit. But it is a very difficult thing.

We should also point out that the challenges here in the United States are very much global. Even though we are separated by an ocean, the United States is still very much being impacted by the uncertainty with the war in Ukraine, particularly when it comes to food prices and fuel.

And that uncertainty is something that could continue well into 2023. There's also the great unknown.

What about conflicts between China and Taiwan?

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STEWART: How will China really deal with the easing of COVID lockdowns?

These are all questions that are going to result in potential conflicts, at least for the U.S. economy. In fact, the IMF going so far, Paula, for many people in 2023, it will feel like a recession. So even though maybe some of the specific metrics may not be met, the economic barriers and blockades are still very much present.

NEWTON: Yes and, Marc, a quick one before you go, I know a lot of people been talking about what work will look like in 2023, tied to that specifically in the United States, now, whether it's work from home or at the desks, there has been a debate about whether or not Americans are actually working too much.

STEWART: It's something that Paul Krugman raised in today's "New York Times" or just a few days ago in one of his op-ed pieces. Pointing out that Americans work more hours compared to other parts of the world, compared to Germany, compared to France, to Japan.

Krugman feels that if you work less, then you'll be happier.

Again, I guess, Paula, the question really is, what is happier?

In some parts of the world, though, as you know, countries actually force people to take vacation. That is not something we've seen here, at least yet in the U.S.

NEWTON: Yes, again, the debate is still raging about whether work from home is good for productivity or not. Marc, thank you so much for parsing that for us. We appreciate it.

Still ahead for us, major E.U. organizations suspend operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban imposed a new ban on women.

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NEWTON: Welcome back. The Taliban have banned women from working at non governmental

organizations inside Afghanistan. Also issued a warning to the U.S. to, in their words, not interfere in their internal affairs. This comes just days after the group banned women from attending universities. Following all of this is CNN's Nada Bashir in London.

And, Nada, what are the implications of this kind of decree?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, this is hugely concerning, at least four aid groups have now temporarily suspended their operations in response to that decree from the Taliban.

That includes Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Care International. These are crucial to the support of vulnerable Afghan families, in particular, women and young children.

Millions of people in Afghanistan are dependent on aid provided by these aid groups, particularly as the country is facing a crippling economy and harsh winter right now.

There is significant concern. We've already heard from these aid organizations saying they simply cannot operate without the work of their female colleagues, who are now being banned from returning to the workplace.

This is because, culturally, in Afghanistan, there is a huge emphasis on women and young children receiving support and care from female employees, not male employees. So this makes it nearly impossible for these aid groups to function in Afghanistan.

This is a significant concern. It is a worrying step in the wrong direction, considering the previous steps taken by the Taliban over the last few months. Of course, most recently, as you mentioned, that total ban on university education for women across the country.

We've heard repeatedly from the Taliban since their takeover in August of last year, trying to present themselves as somewhat a more moderate entity than we saw on the late 1990s. What we have seen over this past three months is a continued effort --

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BASHIR: -- to roll back the fundamental rights and freedoms of women and girls. This is yet another step in the wrong direction, triggering widespread international condemnation.

We've heard from the secretary of state Antony Blinken expressing his deep concern.

The question is, what actually can they do to place leverage on this situation and to ensure that those vulnerable families in Afghanistan are getting the support they need?

NEWTON: And that is the issue right, Nada, in terms of what kind of leverage the Western allies actually have, to do anything about this. Nada Bashir for us in London, thank you so much. Finally, a heartfelt tribute. Seven decades in the making. In his

first Christmas speech, yes, the king's speech, King Charles praised his beloved mother, Queen Elizabeth, and thanked the U.K. and the world for the love and support the U.K. has shown since her death.

He did not shy away from matters outside of the royal family, alluding to economic challenges that some are facing right now. Richard Quest has more.

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RICHARD QUEST, CNN HOST: The king chose the chapel, where his mother the Queen and his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, were laid to rest as the setting for this first Christmas message. It was an intimate and important reference to create the continuity of the past with his reign and the future.

The message from the king was one about the light of goodness and how different people will experience it, the good that people do in their various daily lives. He referred to other members of the family.

And we saw for instance, the Prince and Princess of Wales. There was no mention of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex or, indeed, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. But that was for other reasons, it wasn't a personal or family spat; it's because they are no longer working royals and therefore included in the Christmas message.

The king's message was more personal right the way down to the end, where he talked about the everlasting light and wishing people a happy Christmas. It felt intimate it felt like this was his moment to connect on one of the most important times of the year.

And then, of course, at Sandringham, we saw the family out after church again a strong message of those who were part of the inner circle who will be consistently put forward as working royals are members of the royal family for the future of King Charles' reign -- Richard Quest, CNN, London.

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NEWTON: And you are watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Paula Newton. "GOING GREEN" will be here on CNN right after this.