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CNN INTERNATIONAL: Chinese Travelers Could Face Extra COVID-19 Testing; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Asks Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Help with Peace Plan; U.S. Storm Death Toll Rises to 49; Aid Groups Suspend Work after Taliban Bans Female NGO Workers; U.S. Travel Chaos; Uncertainty Looms over Thousands of Migrants to U.S. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 27, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

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BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello, welcome to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Bianca Nobilo in London, in for Max Foster.

Just ahead, as China finally reopens, other countries are adopting new measures to monitor Chinese arrivals.

Ukraine and Russia are bringing up the idea of peace, both accusing each other of unrealistic demands.

Thousands of flights canceled into, out of and around the United States.

So how should travelers deal with the chaos this holiday travel season?

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NOBILO: China's national health commission says the country will drop COVID quarantine requirements for all passengers arriving from abroad. That has caused a jump in bookings on Chinese travel sites.

It is the latest step in China's dismantling of its strict zero COVID policy. Despite this COVID-19 continues to spread across China, overwhelming hospitals. Selina Wang is in Beijing with the details.

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SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: China is making a major move toward ending the country's nearly three years of isolation. China is dropping quarantine for all international rivals from January 8th and promising to gradually restart outbound tourism for Chinese citizens.

Inbound travelers still need to get a 48-hour negative COVID test before boarding. But they dropped all the other cumbersome requirements. To understand why these changes are such a big deal, we have to look at what the reality has been in China during the pandemic.

The country has been severely limiting who can go in and out of the country, with strict border controls. Flights have been very limited and expensive. All arrivals had to go through quarantine and government facilities.

I went through multiple quarantines myself, including 21 days earlier this year. And we are talking about harsh quarantines, no choice in where you get sent, no opening your door, except for food pickups and COVID tests.

All of that is now going away. This new change would effectively also end the ban on Chinese citizens from going overseas for nonessential reasons.

But the timing is still unclear.

Authorities have not said when they'll restart issuing tourist visas or allowing foreigners to apply for business, study or family reunion visas.

But finally, people are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Online searches for popular international travel destinations on China's travel booking site jumped 10 times within an hour of when this announcement was made.

I've also spoken to a few Chinese citizens who have been stuck overseas for years. They're overjoyed and relieved that finally there is a way for them to see family.

But there's also some bitterness over how long this has taken. They have already missed so many important moments -- family deaths, births, reunions. But in response to this change, other countries are starting to issue restrictions on travelers from China.

Japan announced travelers from the country will be tested for COVID upon arrival. Japan's prime minister also said the country will restrict plans to increase flights in and out of China.

India announced similar COVID testing guidelines. Authorities in India said the guidelines are aimed at ensuring COVID does not spread as quickly as it has been in China -- Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.

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Russia's foreign minister is issuing Ukraine an ultimatum, one day after Vladimir Putin said he was open to negotiations, aimed at ending the war on his terms.

Late Monday, Sergey Lavrov threatened Kyiv with either accepting Moscow's demands, which include giving up territory Russian now controls, or, he said, it would be decided on the battlefield. Lavrov's comments come amid fierce fighting in the eastern Donbas region.

[08:05:00] NOBILO: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling the situation along the front lines "difficult and painful." His advisor warns that any peace talk coming from the Kremlin cannot be trusted. CNN's Will Ripley joins me now, live outside Lviv in Western Ukraine.

We are hearing contradictory rhetoric from both sides on the prospect of peace talks. We noted in the past, Russian overtures to this have been understood as a way for them to buy more time to replenish their soldiers and their battlefields.

But what do you think it would realistically take to bring both sides to the table in 2023, given that they want opposed conditions to get there?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is exactly the point, Bianca. There is no obvious offramp on the table at this stage. You had the leaders of the two countries, President Zelenskyy talking about this peace summit sometime in February.

Vladimir Putin saying he is open to negotiations about acceptable solutions to end this war. And yet, you have the foreign ministers of both countries in this rhetorical escalation. The foreign minister of Ukraine calling for Russia to be removed from the United Nations Security Council.

It's one of five permanent members with veto power so they can veto any resolution against it.

And then you also have the foreign minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, saying that he wants the denazification, in his words, of this country for this war to end, accusing the government that is in power of essentially supporting Nazi views, which has been one of Russia's propaganda attacks, one of many against Ukraine, trying to justify this war.

It's dragging on nearly a year to its domestic audience.

What would it realistically take for the two sides sit down face to face?

By throwing out the prospect of negotiations, Putin analysts say he may be trying to play the United States and Ukraine against some members of NATO, who are starting to show a bit of war fatigue, whether that is Germany or even the French president Emmanuel Macron, who was already saying that Russia is going to need security guarantees ahead of any discussions.

But of course, here in Ukraine, the ones who were invaded by Russia, they scoff at the idea of offering any guarantees to Russia, not to mention the fact that they want to get pre-2014 borders in place as any condition for ending this war.

That includes retaking Crimea and pretty much the universal consensus is that Vladimir Putin absolutely has no intention of withdrawing from Crimea. Therefore it is basically a stalemate, even with very intense fighting on the front lines to the east and the south. In the Donbas there's been very brutal attacks from both sides on

territory and growing concerns there could be another possible front line up in the north, along the border with Belarus, given that Russia is in a process of training hundreds of thousands of conscripts.

The number of Russian troops that are in certain regions of Belarus has been increasing and Ukrainian officials up at the very top levels of the government believe that Russia will try to make another ground invasion advance on Kyiv at some point early next year, Bianca.

NOBILO: Will Ripley, thank you.

At least 49 Americans have died in the massive winter storm slamming the United States and that number is expected to rise. More than half of those deaths are in Erie County, New York, which includes the city of Buffalo, one of the worst affected areas.

Over the Christmas holiday the storm brought hurricane-force winds and buried some areas in more than a meter of snow, leaving behind widespread power outages and major travel disruptions nationwide. Thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed. Let's go straight to Polo Sandoval, who is live in Buffalo, New York.

Polo, how are people faring?

And what resources do they need.

Is there any sign of respite in these conditions?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Bianca, just for a quick reminder to our viewers, we are now starting day five after the storm. And that driving ban here in Erie County, New York, mainly Buffalo, is still in place.

So folks are encouraged not to go out and drive. What is happening today is we are getting resources from other neighboring communities, resources to do at least two things: one, continue to go door to door and check in on residents who have been, literally, snowed in for days since late last week to see if there is anything they need.

If they require any potential lifesaving treatment is one example. And also, resources to plow the streets. You have so much snow that fell the last three days. And there is still some snow in the forecast today -- nothing compared to what we have experienced. So that is another priority, to clear up the streets and get closer to restoring a little bit of normalcy.

Part of that will mean lifting the driving ban that is still in place in Buffalo.

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SANDOVAL: Allowing people to finally get out. Hopefully if grocery stores are open, permit them the opportunity to actually restock their pantries. Day five of this event and, sadly, the numbers, the death toll, people with storm related deaths rise, currently at 27. Heartbreaking details in all of this. If that was not enough, 13 of those individuals found on the streets. There were some of those who are homeless. But then authorities also saying that among the dead were people who likely may have stepped out of their vehicles after becoming stranded, got disoriented in the conditions.

That statistic already making the storm that we experienced here worse than the historic snowstorm of '77. They will always remember what is the Buffalo blizzard of '22, Bianca.

NOBILO: Thank you, Polo, for that report, keep warm.

In Japan, heavy snow is responsible for at least 17 deaths across the country. This according to an official in the fire and disaster management agency.

More than 90 people were injured over the Christmas holiday. Japan's west coast has been particularly hard hit. One city reported more than 80 centimeters of snow. That is about 2.5 feet.

To Afghanistan, now, where one activist says the Taliban are doing whatever they can to make women as powerless as possible. There is growing outrage after the Taliban's announcement on Saturday that it is banning all women from working for nongovernmental organizations.

Following that decision, at least half a dozen major aid groups have temporarily suspended operations in the country. The Taliban have been chipping away at women's rights ever since they retook power in August of last year. Nada Bashir has been monitoring the developments and joins us now, live from London.

Nada, what does this indicate in terms of a trajectory for women's rights in Afghanistan?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianca, many Afghans have been concerned, this is exactly the direction the Taliban would be going. There's been some attempt to present the group as a somewhat more moderate entity.

That has not been the case over the last few months. We have seen women's rights being eroded on all fronts, in particular in the education and professional working sector.

Secondary schools closed to young girls, universities now being suspended for young women. Of course, now female NGO workers being told they are not allowed to go to work. NGOs being threatened with the suspension of their licenses if they do continue to operate with female aid workers.

Now in response, we have seen that harsh criticism. But as you mentioned at least half a dozen NGOs have pulled out of Afghanistan temporarily.

The concern, now, that this is not only an infringement of women's crucial and fundamental rights to work in Afghanistan but also that this could have a significant impact on the population that is so highly dependent on the work of these aid groups. Take a look.

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BASHIR (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.

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BASHIR (voice-over): With the country already facing a crippling economic crisis. But this latest edict (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.

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BASHIR: According to one of those aid groups that have now pulled out Afghan aid, an anticipated 28 million people in Afghanistan are likely to be dependent on that aid next year. In 2023.

So there is significant pressure, now, for something to be done and quickly in order to support those most vulnerable in Afghanistan.

We know the U.N. is working directly with Taliban officials to try to bring about some resolution.

But as the Taliban grows ever more isolated from the international community, the question is, whether the international community has enough leverage to really put pressure on the Taliban. Bianca.

NOBILO: Nada Bashir, thank you.

After a treacherous journey, a boat carrying Rohingya refugees has finally reached Indonesia. The U.N. Refugee Agency said it has been drifting at sea for nearly a month. Officials say 185 people on board survived the voyage from Bangladesh where about 1 million Rohingya are living in overcrowded camps.

Still to come, thousands more flights canceled in the U.S. today. And that is just by a single airline. CNN is on the ground at one busy airport, asking how travelers should deal with the flight cancellations and delays.

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NOBILO: It is the holiday travel season of nightmares, especially for Southwest Airlines customers. FlightAware have already logged well over 2,000 flight cancellations by that airline on Tuesday alone. The new year is unlikely to bring quick relief. We expect more scheduling changes this week.

And a little good news for stranded travelers like this Tanya Engelhard (ph). She calls this the worst customer service experience of her life and said that she had three phone calls put on hold for almost three hours each. And we all know what that sounds like. But Tanya (ph) shared it with CNN.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please continue to hold. Your current estimated wait is 131 minutes. Your call is important to us, please continue to hold.

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NOBILO: So how should travelers deal with such holiday travel chaos?

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STEWART: CNN's Gabe Cohen is live at a Southwest Airlines hub airport in Baltimore, Maryland.

Great to speak to you.

What are travelers that you are speaking to saying about their experiences and prospects of getting home or to whoever they are visiting?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bianca, there is massive frustration from these passengers because the reality is, there is little they can do. You just heard the hold times some people are dealing with.

It is not just that. I have been calling all morning, trying to reach customer service. I cannot even get into that line. It is just a hold signal I am getting. In other cases it is even cut out.

So really people are feeling stranded. And the problem is that this is only going to get worse. The CEO of Southwest Airlines saying, telling "The Wall Street Journal," that they are only going to be flying about a third of their scheduled flights in the coming days.

That includes today, when they have already canceled more than 60 percent of their flights, close to 2,500 of them. And it comes after several disasters, including yesterday, when they canceled 2,900 flights. You can see behind me it is not the zoo here in the Southwest area of Baltimore's airport today that it has been the past couple days.

That is because many of the cancellations today happened last night. But so many stressed out passengers, some of whom are trying to get home for the holidays. Others still trying to get where they were initially trying to go.

Really, it has been a disaster for Southwest passengers. It looks like many of them are not going to get any relief. They still cannot get rescheduled, rebooked until the way end of this month.

NOBILO: Freezing temperatures complicate things for airlines.

But why is this so bad for Southwest in particular?

COHEN: That is the million dollar question. Southwest officials have blamed that winter storm, saying it caused their flight crews to end up in the wrong cities. They have been scrambling to try to regroup and get those pieces back together.

As you mentioned, the reality is other major airlines are not dealing with this. Not at this scale, at least. If you look at national cancellations yesterday, Southwest made up the vast, vast majority. More than 10 times any other airline.

So right now the pilots' union that represents Southwest pilots, they are saying this is not really about the winter storm. This is about outdated processes and outdated IT. We are trying to get more information about that from Southwest.

They acknowledge that they are going to have to do something about some of the process issues that they have. But, Bianca, not a lot of great answers, certainly not for those stranded passengers. Tens of thousands of them just trying to get home.

NOBILO: Gabe Cohen, in Baltimore, at Washington international airport (sic). Thank you.

Around the world the price of heating your home is rising, we will show you what communities in the U.K. are doing to keep spirits up as the temperature goes down.

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NOBILO: Back to the U.S., where the U.S. Supreme Court could rule this week on whether to keep the controversial Trump-era border restriction known as Title 42 in place.

The policy, which allows border officials to quickly expel migrants to slow the spread of COVID-19, was due to expire last week. But the court's chief justice stepped in to put its termination on hold.

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NOBILO: It has left border cities scrambling to house thousands of migrants as temperatures plummet. More than 400 migrants stayed at a convention center in El Paso, Texas, over the Christmas weekend.

Many were not so lucky, sleeping outside in freezing weather. But despite the hardships, a source tells CNN, border agents in El Paso are encountering as many as 1,600 migrants a day. Officials are concerned numbers will surge even more if Title 42 is terminated.

As prices soar and temperatures drop in the United Kingdom, some are turning to warm spaces this winter. These are community centers that offer a warm place for people struggling to pay high energy bills. CNN's Anna Stewart took a look.

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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A hot drink, somewhere to sit and chat, The Oasis Center in London is one of thousands of organizations across the U.K. now running warm spaces for those struggling to pay their energy bills.

STEVE CHALKE, FOUNDER, OASIS TRUST: Being warm helps a person relax. The more relaxed they are, the more logically they can think about all their other worries and stresses.

There's so many people though that are cold because, given the choice between being warm and eating, you have got to eat and you have got to feed your family. What's happening this year is that more and more people are being caught into that trap.

STEWART: Some people call these warm banks but you don't use that term.

CHALKE: We think that's really important because it destigmatizes all of this. Once you're running a warm bank, if I come into your warm bank, I'm admitting that I cannot heat my house.

But if you're running the living room, as we call, at The Oasis Center, well, actually, you might be a millionaire.

STEWART (voice-over): Charity National Energy Action predicts over 8 million U.K. households will be in fuel poverty by April, almost double the number since last year, despite the government spending billions to subsidize rising energy bills.

CHARLOTTE HILTON, THE OASIS CENTER: I have spent over 100 pounds in a few weeks on gas alone.

STEWART (voice-over): Mum of four, Charlotte Hilton, works at the center but also uses its services to help support her family.

STEWART: Do you think there will come a point where you not be able to meet all of your bills?

HILTON: Yes, yes, there will be. It will become a point, because everything is going up but wages, benefits, all of those things -- and it's not just affecting obviously lower class people; it's affecting everybody.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): We thought, what if the health service just could prescribe people a warm home?

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STEWART (voice-over): The National Health Service is so worried about the impact of the cold on people's health that it's testing paying for some of the most vulnerables' heating.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There will be 1,000 homes helped this winter as part of this winter's trial. And there will be people at risk of being admitted during the winter because they live in a cold home.

STEWART (voice-over): It's a worrying new reality for so many. The message here is that those who need help must not be afraid to ask for it. CHALKE: People are scared of community, they're scared of being

judged by others. I will not go to that warm bank in that church, I won't go to these events, wherever it is, because I will be judged. Venture out. The world is full of wonderful people, you will meet friends.

STEWART (voice-over): Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

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NOBILO: One couple in New York did their part to keep their fellow man warm this Christmas weekend. They opened their home to a South Korean tour group, who was stranded after their bus got stuck in the snow near Buffalo.

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ALEXANDER CAMPAGNA, SOUTH KOREAN TOUR EMERGENCY HOST: The storm had already been raging for about two hours when we got a knock at the door, and I assumed it was either a stranded neighbor, or perhaps my father-in-law who lives close by maybe he was coming home from a quick last minute trip to a store.

When I opened the door and it was people unfamiliar to me saying, we're part of a tour, and we need shovels to try to dig out our vehicle. I thought, oh no, this could be very serious and deadly.

Early on when our guests entered our house, there was the belief that maybe this storm was about to blow over and they would just jump back in their vehicle and get on their way towards Niagara Falls, which is, in the best weather, about a 30-minute drive from our home. So with the blizzard, it may as well have been in another galaxy.

So once they kind of came in the house and saw that they might be here for a while, I pulled out from our freezer all of our frozen chicken and a large pork shoulder that I purchased on special a couple of weeks ago.

And all of a sudden that food came in extremely handy and we had a couple of natural-born cooks in the group who were happy to prepare some exquisite Korean entrees.

ANDREA CAMPAGNA, HOSTED SOUTH KOREAN TOURISTS DURING BUFFALO BLIZZARD: When I was going to try to find comfortable sleeping arrangements for everybody - we have a guest room, there is an office where I put an inflatable bed.

Then I - Alexander remembered we had sleeping bags, and I then started to think of other ways, maybe putting people on the couch and just trying to make everybody as comfortable as possible. But we did have to get creative putting people in sleeping bags on the floor, but most everybody was very comfortable.

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NOBILO: The couple say that they hope to visit their guests in South Korea one day.

No matter where in the world they live, no matter their age, culture, religion, or family, women are generally better at empathizing with other people than men. That's according to a new study from the University of Cambridge.

Researchers found that women excel at cognitive empathy, which is when a person is intellectually able to understand what someone else may be thinking or feeling. The study focused on women and men in 36 countries, and in no country did men score higher than women in cognitive empathy. In 21 countries, their scores were similar.

And that wraps this edition of CNN Newsroom. I'm Bianca Nobilo. CNN This Morning is up for you next.