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CNN INTERNATIONAL: China Battles Wave of COVID-19; Putin "Ready to Negotiate"; Taliban Bans Female NGO Workers; Call to Earth. Aired 2-2:30p ET
Aired December 26, 2022 - 14:00 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): China is lifting all quarantine requirements for international travelers even as COVID cases soar.
Russian President Putin meets with leaders of former Soviet republics amid fears Moscow will retaliate for the deaths of three service men in a suspected drone attack.
And North Korean drones fly over South Korean airspace. The South responded with fighter jets and attack helicopters for what one official calls a clear provocation.
Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Paula Newton and this is CNN NEWSROOM.
Another sign of China abandoning its zero COVID policy. The country's top health authority has announced starting January 8, quarantine requirements for international travelers will be dropped. Arriving travelers will still have to have a 48-hour negative PCR test result.
But they will no longer need to quarantine for five days in a hotel and three days at home. This comes after Chinese president Xi Jinping urged health officials to take steps to, quote, protect the lives of citizens. China is, of course, battling a new wave of COVID-19 cases with medical shortages reported right across the country.
I am joined now by Professor Yasheng Huang. He is professor of international management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
I thank you for joining us, especially given how closely you've been following developments in China over the last three years.
Give us a sense of how significant this latest announcement is from China on COVID.
And why do you think it dovetails with China so abruptly abandoning its zero COVID policy? YASHENG HUANG, MIT SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT: It is a significant
development on a number of dimensions. One is that the government is essentially formally moving away from the narrative that the source of the virus has been coming from the outside.
This is -- was one justification for very strict quarantine of foreign travelers. So that narrative now is no longer making any sense, because there is this domestic surge of the virus.
The second significant aspect is that there is now a renewed emphasis on the economy, on commerce, attracting foreign direct investment. With the quarantine in place, there is really no way to go back to business as usual or conduct commercial negotiations, to receive commercial contracts and to resume production for exports.
So this is a very good and positive development for the economy. The economy is suffering from the zero COVID policy. They really need to attract foreign trade and foreign investment.
I think, overall, both the easing of the domestic zero-COVID controls and the advantages of the foreign travel quarantine suggests that the government's priority now is the economy rather than public health crisis.
NEWTON: Yet we see that there is a public health care crisis. Ironic that, when that is likely peaking, that this is the time when they leave that zero COVID policy.
You have said that Xi miscalculated on COVID. That his zero-COVID policy spoke, in your words, of hubris to the highest degree, that it was a leader staking its reputation on what many said was a mission impossible.
Where do we go now from that policy that, as you said, he staked his reputation on?
HUANG: I think the problematic aspect of both the zero COVID policy and now pivoting to almost no policy is that they didn't use the three-year period when they managed to flatten the infection curve, they didn't use that period to vaccinate the vulnerable population of people with the underlying disease profiles, older populations.
They didn't vaccinate those populations with more effective, imported vaccines. Now they've opened suddenly, pivoted to the opposite of those zero COVID policy controls.
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HUANG: Suddenly with under preparations for the surge and that's the problem. The direction of the policies, the right one. But both the underinvestment and the preparedness and how abruptly they moved away from zero COVID controls, these are the sources of the problems.
And they should have done much of that homework before they opened up. They should have opened up during the summer, when people could stay outside to lower the infections within homes. Now Beijing and some northern cities are experiencing a very high rate
of the surge in part because of the weather and also, during the winter, there are other respiratory diseases that go on. So you compound the problem by choosing the timing wrongly.
NEWTON: As you point out, it is quite the pivot. We will continue, epidemiologists say, to see COVID spread through China in the coming weeks and months. I really thank you for your expertise on this. Appreciate it.
HUANG: Thank you.
NEWTON: Now to Ukraine and that country is warning of a possible missile strike by Moscow following the deaths of three Russian service men inside Russia.
The Russian defense ministry quoted by state media says the three were killed after a Ukrainian drone was shut down as it approached a military airfield. In Western Russia. Ukraine has not taken direct responsibility for the incident.
But a Ukrainian military official says the incident is a consequence of Russian aggression. Earlier today, Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting with leaders of the commonwealth of independent states. Those are the former Soviet republics. Melissa Bell joins me now from Paris with updates on all of this.
We'll get to the meeting a second. I wanted to really home in on these new warnings from Ukraine of a possible Russian retaliation. Melissa, as you've indicated so many times in reporting the story, it is hard to really parse exactly what went on there.
Especially in Ukraine is really filling in the blanks for us in terms of information.
What does it mean now in terms of how it raised the stakes on Russian retaliation?
MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly it is an embarrassment for Russia that drone shot made it that far. You're talking about an airbase that is strategically extremely important for Russia.
It's one that houses nuclear capable bombers. It's also one from which strikes have been carried out on Ukraine by bombers departing from that airbase. Strategically increasing it's incredibly important. Geographically it's more than 300 miles northeast of the Ukrainian border. Well inside Russia.
It is an embarrassment. Also because it happens to be the second time that this has happened. The drone has made it that far. Last time is on February -- on December 5th, I'm sorry. Three Russian service men were killed. A couple of airplanes were damaged.
This time no damage to any aircraft or structures. But three service men killed. Once again. When the question of Russian air defenses poses itself, as you say, Ukrainians are not confirming or denying anything. Although they are indicating that this is the result of Russian aggression after all.
What did they expect?
What we saw last time was immediate retaliation. Russia retaliated against Ukraine with massive strikes that followed that. I think that is the fear amongst Ukrainian officials at the moment.
Certainly isn't that what they could be expecting beyond what they've seen over the last few days -- I'm thinking here of the strikes over Kherson. On Saturday. Also on Sunday more strikes over not just cities within Donbas but Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya.
There could now be a retaliatory strike in response to watch this happen in Russia, given the sensitivity and the embarrassment to Moscow that the drones made it that far. That is their fear.
Remember that it was last night that the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his nightly address once again warned that the next few days are likely to be dark and difficult. Their fear is that, as we head into the new year, these strikes are likely to increase rather than decrease.
NEWTON: We don't have a lot of time left. There is that meeting that Putin is having. How do you think that is -- will affect not just optics about the strategy but Russia's military strategy going forward in Ukraine?
BELL: This is certainly Putin trying to surrounded himself with allies and look less isolated than he has been so far. This is a meeting of him and the eight leaders of the former Soviet republics, including his closest ally, Alexander Lukashenko. The president of Belarus.
They've been meeting in St. Petersburg. That meeting due to continue tomorrow. We should find out more by the end of tomorrow exactly what's been talked about or agreed upon. But the aim is to increase cooperation.
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BELL: I think in terms of the optics, make it look as if Putin has some friends and that commerce within those countries, trade can be increased in such a way that might take some of the economic pressure off Moscow.
NEWTON: Especially as the sanctions are apparently now biting. Melissa Bell, really appreciate it.
Staying with Ukraine, blackouts there have become in fact a way of life. They make everyday situations so much more dangerous. Our Will Ripley now has more on how Ukraine's most vulnerable are surviving those blackouts.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Christmas in Ukraine, even the air raid sirens don't get a break.
RIPLEY: So when the lights go out?
You use this.
How does -- how do you turn on?
Oh, like that.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Twelve-year-old Sebastian (ph) has an arsenal of battery powered lights for the blackouts so he can play with his small army of toy tanks.
Unfortunately, this doesn't run on batteries.
RIPLEY: Oh, you use it as a weight. So that's how you stay strong.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Sebastian has cystic fibrosis, a rare lung disorder. He needs a nebulizer to inhale medicine. It keeps him alive. He could die without inhalations.
"We can't miss them," his grandmother says.
"The first time we had a blackout, we took the machine and ran around looking for a generator. We found a shop where people charge their phones. We did it there."
His grandmother shows us their small portable nebulizer. When the lights go out, it gets the job done, barely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's machine number nine and --
RIPLEY: This is 1,319.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Patients like him rely on help from SVOI Foundation, a nonprofit in Kyiv. They've helped more than 6,000 people with breathing problems. The situation for many, dire.
RIPLEY: What happens to people if the machine doesn't work?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They die.
RIPLEY: They die.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
RIPLEY (voice-over): "When there is no light for 20 or 30 hours, you have to go to the hospital," she says.
"We have patients who went from the apartment to the car for two days because they charged their device with a cigarette lighter."
The sound of a blackout even more terrifying than the sound of sirens for Olena Isayenko (ph).
"The sound is like a flatline," she says.
She's living with respiratory failure on the 15th floor. Blackouts mean no elevator, no way to get to the bomb shelter downstairs.
"We can't cook. When there is no heat, you can live with that. But when you can't breathe, it's your life."
Her portable respirator barely lasts two hours. It takes more than an hour to charge. Each blackout puts her life at risk.
For so many, victims of Russia's constant cruel bombardment, this is life, if you can call it that -- Will Ripley, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.
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NEWTON: Coming up for us on CNN NEWSROOM, major aid groups are forced to suspend their operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban imposed another ban on women. We'll have the details next.
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NEWTON: Several NGOs have suspended operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban banned women from working in such organizations. Critics fear the decision could cripple humanitarian efforts throughout the region. CNN's Nada Bashir has our story.
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NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yet another blow to women's rights in Afghanistan. This time, targeting aid workers.
NGOs across the country have been ordered to stop their female employees from coming to work with immediate effect. It's a decision taken, according to the Taliban, in response to violations of the group's so called Islamic values.
But the move has sparked widespread international condemnation. U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken tweeting that he is deeply concerned and warning that the decision could disrupt vital, lifesaving assistance to millions in Afghanistan.
Taliban officials, however, were quick to respond, telling the U.S. not to interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs.
Now a number of aid groups say they are suspending their operations in the country without reach, made near impossible without female aid workers. DAVID WRIGHT, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, SAVE THE CHILDREN: We need our female colleagues to help us get access to women and children, because you can't access young mothers or your young children in education if you don't have female staff.
BASHIR (voice-over): Since the Taliban's takeover in August of last year, the rights and freedoms of women and girls have been eroded on multiple fronts.
In addition to the closure of secondary schools, the Taliban has now suspended university education for all women, triggering protests across the country. Women seen here in Herat chanting education is our right.
PASHTANA DURRANI, FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LEARN AFGHANISTAN: They still (INAUDIBLE) these Taliban and they still think that women should be only limited to homes and that's what they're doing right now.
BASHIR (voice-over): The stakes here are incredibly high, with the country already facing a crippling economic crisis. But this latest Eid (ph) could push families even further into poverty.
JAN EGELAND, SECRETARY GENERAL, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL: People are hungry. People are without shelter. That's why we are there to help them with female and male employees. So when they tell us to take away one third of our able, committed humanitarian workers, we cannot operate.
BASHIR (voice-over): The U.N. says it has called directly on the Taliban to reverse the ban on female NGO workers. But hope in Afghanistan is dwindling as the Taliban continues to chip away the rights and freedoms hard won by women over the last two decades -- Nada Bashir, CNN, London.
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NEWTON: Still coming up for us, we'll speak to the "Call to Earth" guest editor, Paula Kahumbu, on how she's working to save Kenya's elephants.
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NEWTON: Call to Earth is turning the spotlight on Kenya and the conservationists working to protect and restore its diverse but threatened ecosystems. Today we hear from our guest editor, Paula Kahumbu, a Kenyan scientist and TV personality, who was named 2021's Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year.
She tells us about what she's doing to protect some of Africa's most well-known animals.
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PAULA KAHUMBU, CEO, WILDLIFEDIRECT: Most people are terrified of elephants in this country. And their experience of elephants is that they come at night, they raid your farms, they make a lot of scary noises. And in the morning, everything's destroyed. So my experience of elephants was unique and different.
And I've always felt that their intelligence is something that we will never, ever be able to fully comprehend. I decided that doing research was incredible. It's what I really, really would have loved to spend the rest of my life doing.
But it wasn't enough. The elephants were still being poached. They were being targeted for their ivory and we were going to lose them.
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After years as an academic in 2014, Paula Kahumbu decided to turn advocacy to action, mounting a national campaign aimed at ending Kenya's ivory trade.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The impact on their communities. So for example --
KINKADE (voice-over): According to wildlife direct, since the campaign's inception, elephant poaching is down 80 percent probe into polar that when educated about the issues, the Kenyan people have a real drive to take action. The launch of her TV series, "Wildlife Warriors," would take that notion to the next level.
KAHUMBU: Probably the most famous elephant in Africa is Tim. He stands a shoulder above all the other big bulls.
KINKADE (voice-over): In 2019 as the first season aired, one survey showed that 51 percent of the Kenyan population had watched the show.
KAHUMBU: This is not so much about advocacy. It's really about educating people about our animals, our traditional knowledge of forests and what's happening to our rivers. And to me this is moving from just information to action.
KINKADE (voice-over): An hour's drive south of Nairobi, Paula has set up the Wildlife Warriors Kids' Field Lab, where every Saturday children walk sometimes from many miles away to learn more about the natural world around them.
KAHUMBU: I really strongly believe that we need to have our own storytellers. We need to relate to our storytellers to our presenters in these films, if we're to believe them. And that's why I've very, very strongly have ensured that wildlife warriors has only been the stories of local Kenyans, telling their stories.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Team Sayari have your very own piggy bank which you can use to save up for conservation. KINKADE (voice-over): With her new series Team Sayari, this idea has been pushed further as Paula takes a step back from presenting to allow a group of local children from across the continent to present the show.
MARITA LUCAS, PRESENTER, TEAM SAYARI: I'm Marita, I'm 12 years old. I've learned so much. I think I've even learnt more than in school. Because this show has really raised awareness and opened my eyes so wide to what's going around in our planet, like poaching, littering pollution, we need to fix that.
KAHUMBU: What we will see is a generation of young people, no matter where they go, in their work, government or private sector being the voice for the animals that can't speak for themselves.
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KAHUMBU: The voice for nature, the voice for rivers, the voice for mountains, we have to do it. Nobody else is going to do it.
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NEWTON: Let us know how you are answering the call with the #CallToEarth.
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NEWTON: On Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, London's Oxford Street is usually bustling with people looking for bargains. This year, with no COVID-19 restrictions in place, shoppers are back at it. One retail data company predicts spending will be lower due to higher prices.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll be more cautious this year. I'll spend but really I'll just spend it if it's really worth it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've gone into the stores and looked at the prices. And I'm like the discounts are still not -- they're not significant enough for me.
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NEWTON: Another factor for shoppers, some retail chains have decided to stay closed on Boxing Day. That began during the pandemic to try and give employees a much deserved day of rest.
In his first Christmas speech, the king's speech, King Charles praised his late mother, Queen Elizabeth and thanked the U.K. and the world in fact for the love and support they've shown since her death. The king did not shy away from matters outside the royal family. Our 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: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton. Coming next for us, "GOING GREEN."
