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CNN International: China Dismantling Zero-COVID Policy Amid Outbreak; U.S. Could Put In New Rules For Travelers From China; Some Countries Ramp Up Restrictions On Visitors From China; Pope Francis Asks For Prayers For His Predecessor; U.N.: 6,884 Ukrainian Civilians Killed Since Russia's Invasion; Southwest Airlines Canceling Thousands More Flights; Djokovic Back In Australia After High-Profile Visa Ban; Supreme Court Rules Title 42 Will Remain In Place For Now; New York Woman Rescues Man From Deadly Blizzard. Aired 8-8:30 ET

Aired December 28, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:10]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London in for Max Foster. Just ahead, Hong Kong is scrapping most of its COVID-19 restrictions and China is getting ready to lift another COVID rule impacting international arrivals.

Then Pope Francis asked the faithful to pray for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who he says is very sick. We'll be live in Rome shortly. And the U.S. Supreme Court leaves a Trump-era border policy in place for now. What that means for thousands of people hoping to cross the U.S.- Mexico border.

Hong Kong is scrapping its mandatory PCR COVID test for international arrivals, something mainland China has also just announced. Hong Kong's chief executive says the government will also end its vaccine pass which is needed to enter most venues. As COVID cases rise in China, Taiwan is ramping up restrictions. The island is now requiring all travelers arriving from mainland China to take COVID PCR tests. Japan and India announced similar policies this week.

As China has eased its zero-COVID policy, the number of COVID cases there continues to rise in tandem. The outbreak is putting Chinese hospitals and funeral homes under immense pressure and draining their resources. This hospital in Chengdu has seen lines out the door and smoke continues to constantly billow from the local crematorium. And some international health experts say COVID is likely infecting millions of people per day in China.

Our Paula Hancocks is following the story from Seoul.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As many are celebrating China's decision to ease its COVID border restrictions, some countries are starting to put restrictions in place, anticipating an influx of travelers from China in coming days and weeks. Now there is an explosion of COVID infections within China and there are concerns that this could begin to cross beyond its borders. The United States, for example, says that it is looking to put in place new COVID measures due to the rising cases in China for travelers coming from mainland China, but also talking about the, quote, lack of transparent data. This information coming to us from U.S. officials. One of those officials saying that a decision could be made soon.

Also pointing out that without data, it is very difficult and becoming more so for public health officials to try and identify any potential new variants and also to be able to react quickly to try and reduce the spread of any of those variants.

Now, other countries also putting plans in place. Taiwan, for example, has said that in the coming days, it will require all travelers from mainland China to test on arrival, a similar situation in Japan. In fact, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he is restricting plans to increase the number of flights to and from China because he is concerned about the increase in infections there, saying that it is difficult to grasp the detailed situation. India also putting some restrictions in place.

Now, this is a significant part of the very abrupt dismantling of China's zero-COVID policy. But the lack of data, the lack of numbers of infections, hospitalizations and deaths coming out of China is concerning many around the world.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

NOBILO: Pope Francis is asking for prayers for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who he says is very sick. Benedict XVI resigned nine years ago, paving the way for Pope Francis's election. Now 95 years old, the Vatican says Benedict's health is worsening. Pope Francis asked for a special prayer at the end of his weekly general audience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS (through translation): I want to ask you all for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who sustains the church in his silence. He is very sick. We ask the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the church to the very end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Delia Gallagher joins us now live from Rome. Delia, the health issues of the Pope Emeritus Benedict have been well documented for about a decade now. What are we hearing from the Vatican about his current state?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Bianca, after Pope Francis made that surprise announcement this morning that Pope Emeritus was very sick, the Vatican issued a statement saying, yes, his health had deteriorated in the last few hours due to advanced age. They said he is 95 years old.

They say he is with his doctors and the situation is currently under control. They also said that Pope Francis went to visit the Pope Emeritus after his audience this morning.

[08:05:09]

We last saw the Pope Emeritus in a video in August of this year when the Pope Francis and new cardinals went to visit him. You can see there that he's very frail, as you would expect from a 95-year-old. And as you mentioned, he has been dealing with health issues. It was one of the reasons that he resigned back in 2013, his frailty of body.

But I think at this point, Bianca, that the Vatican and the Pope would come out publicly and say that his health is deteriorating suggest that it is quite serious. We are standing by for any updates and we will bring those to you when we have them. Bianca?

NOBILO: Delia Gallagher, thank you so much for staying across the story for us. I'm sure we'll hear more from you later on.

Now turning to the war in Ukraine, where Russia appears to be intensifying its attacks on Kherson after its troops were forced out last month. Ukraine's military says enemy forces launched dozens of artillery strikes on civilian targets in the recently liberated southern city, including on a hospital maternity ward.

Meanwhile, U.N. report indicates that at least 6,800 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia's February invasion. But the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights believes that the actual figures are significantly higher. CNN's Clare Sebastian joins me now. Clare, Kherson was liberated just last month in a hugely symbolic victory for Ukrainians. Now, we understand that civilians are fleeing and Russian attacks intensifying. What more can you tell us?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the people of Kherson have gone, Bianca, from months of Russian occupation into this relentless bombardment. I think it's a lot when the regional military administration and Ukrainian officials there say that the region has been shelled 50 times in the last 24 hours, and that is a relatively low number given the recent track record.

Civilian targets are being hit. You talked about a maternity hospital on Christmas Eve. We saw a very deadly mortar attack on the center of Kherson, which killed 11 people. Not surprisingly, now many civilians are trying to get out. The government is helping them, laying on a train every day, where apparently, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, 300 people are leaving every day.

One local official told us that some people are taking some convincing. They're worried about leaving because they just worried that wherever they go in Ukraine, they might be shelled. And I think what this shows is that you have to take the comments from earlier this week from the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov seriously.

He said, unless Ukraine gives up these territories that Russia has illegally annexed -- and frankly, which Russia doesn't even fully control -- there can be no peace talks. That was reiterated today by the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. So clearly, they are still pursuing a military solution here. NOBILO: And Clare, we're hearing alarming reports and tweets from Alexei Navalny, the prominent Russian opposition leader, about the treatment that he's receiving in prison. He says the authorities are trying to break his health. What do we know about how he's being treated, and also how are we hearing these details from him?

SEBASTIAN: Yes, so this is a series of tweets that he put out. We believe that he gets them out via his team or his lawyers. We are checking on the current situation around that. That is how he's done it previously. But in a series of tweets, he details how -- because his prison guards, he says, are not allowed to actually beat him up. Instead, they are doing what they can to worsen existing health problems.

He says he has severe back problems and it's getting worse because they're not allowing him to move around too much. He's in a punishment cell, as it's called, unlike the rest of the prisoners who are sort of living in barracks. He has been since November, and he's only allowed to sit on a stool for most of the day. So that is making his back problems worse.

He said he demanded to see a doctor. He had to file a request to do that. And then in that process, he was injected, he said, with an unknown drug, and he tried to find out what it was. They said vitamin B, but it didn't work. It didn't help him. So he tried to get access again to his medical records, had to file another request for that through his lawyers.

And when they turned up, they were mostly illegible, he said. So he's continuing to fight beyond the conditions that he's facing in prison. He is suggesting that they're getting worse. And at the same time, he's continuing through his access to social media to get out his criticism of the war, which is, of course, exactly what the Russian authorities did not want him to be doing.

NOBILO: CNN's Clare Sebastian, thank you.

The impact of the massive winter storm that hit the U.S. last week is still being felt in Buffalo, New York. Roads are finally being cleared and emergency services restored after up to 131 centimeters of snow fell around the city. At least 31 people died in the area, among the 56 storm and cold rated deaths across the U.S. And now Buffalo is facing a flood threat as warmer temperatures move in and all that snow begins to melt.

[08:10:03]

It's also another day of travel chaos in the United States, specifically for people trying to fly on Southwest Airlines. Southwest is canceling another 4,800 flights for Wednesday and Thursday, making up the vast majority of overall U.S. flight cancelations.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg calls it a complete meltdown. Southwest CEO is apologizing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BOB JORDAN, CEO, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: I want everyone who is dealing with the problems we've been facing, whether you haven't been able to get to where you need to go or you're one of our heroic employees caught up in a massive effort to stabilize the airline to know is that we're doing everything we can to return to a normal operation. And please also hear that I'm truly sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: For more, I want to bring in CNN's Adrienne Broaddus at Chicago's Midway Airport. Adrienne, we know that Southwest Airlines has been disproportionately affected by the bad weather because of their operational and systemic issues, lack of modernization. But what have they said that they're doing to correct these problems?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, top brass has said that they need to make changes, but I don't think passengers are feeling or even seeing those changes right now. The focus at this hour is returning luggage, like all of the bags you see behind me, to their passengers. And there's been some progress, but certainly not perfection.

You see crew members here organizing the luggage. If you take a walk with me, I just want to show you the scope of this at Chicago Midway, another familiar site, the information board with all of the cancelations. But there is some organization to this chaos. For example, the luggage is organized by destination.

If Chicago Midway was not the final destination for these travelers, well, they're out of luck. Their luggage, we're told by supervisors here with Southwest, is that those bags will continue on to their final destination. And as you can imagine, this has left so many travelers frustrated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS (on-camera): You found your bag?

LAURA CROOKS, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES PASSENGER: They let me go in and find it myself in the luggage. They just took me on up and found them, girl.

BROADDUS (on-camera): Where was it?

CROOKS: They just out everywhere. They all -- you just -- I had to walk. And I said, Lord, I know they are here. And I got all four bags.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: That was Laura Crooks. We met her yesterday while she was standing in line. She stood in line for two hours waiting for her luggage. She flew from Las Vegas here to Chicago, and she had a tough time getting out of Vegas. But that saying pack your patience has an entirely new meaning for many of the folks caught up in the middle of this meltdown. Bianca?

NOBILO: Absolutely. Adrienne Broaddus at Midway Airport in Chicago, thank you so much for that report.

Tennis Star Novak Djokovic is back in Australia almost a year after he was deported for not being vaccinated against COVID-19. The Serbian world number five is getting ready for a tournament next week in Adelaide, as well as next month's Australian open. Djokovic was allowed back into the country after the government recently overturned the decision to cancel his visa. Australia's strict covered policies have since been lifted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG TILEY, TENNIS AUSTRALIA CEO: Well, Novak, the nine-time champion and we're welcoming back to Australia. I have a great deal of confidence in the Australian public. I think we have -- we're very well-educated sporting public, particularly those that come to tennis. They love their tennis. They love seeing greatness. They love seeing great athleticism, great matches. And I have a lot of confidence that the fans will react like we hoped they would react and have respect for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Djokovic is seeking his 10th Australian Open title more than anyone else in history. He's also hoping to tie Rafael Nadal's record of 22 Grand Slam wins.

And still to come, migrants at the U.S. border are about to start the new year still in limbo. We update you on the legal fight over a Trump era policy that's keeping them out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:37]

NOBILO: Thousands of migrants who have crossed the border between the U.S. and Mexico are unsure of what their future holds after the U.S. Supreme Court let a Trump-era border policy known as Title 42 stay in place for now. The Public Health Order allows authorities to turn away migrants at the border to curb the spread of coronavirus.

It's named after the part of the U.S. code that allows the Centers for Disease Control to issue the policy. It's been extended multiple times. On April 1, the CDC announced plans to stop it, saying it was no longer necessary given the decrease in COVID cases. Nonetheless, it's remained in effect.

And on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court said it will stay in place while legal challenges to it play out. Border cities are grappling with the massive number of migrants still crossing the border into the U.S. every day. City officials say they're doing everything to prevent a humanitarian crisis, but that the immigration system also needs to be fixed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSCAR LEESER, EL PASO, TEXAS MAYOR: It's bigger than Title 42, you know, that the city alone has done a lot to make sure that we continue to take care of the asylum seekers. We've opened the county coliseum. We've actually also opened two schools to make sure that we have plenty of shelter, and we'll continue to do that.

We have warming centers all over the city because we want to make sure that we don't lose any lives. We want to make sure that people are treated with dignity and respect. We've had incredible support from the federal government. We've had -- we've gotten about $10 million in front money to be able to provide the service.

But again, this is just a Band-Aid on a broken immigration system. The system has to be thick because we can't continue to go this way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Let's bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez from Washington, D.C. to discuss this. Priscilla, thanks for joining us. What's the response been to the validity of this decision to leave Title 42 in place, especially considering that the coronavirus cases are decreasing?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, this is an authority that has been bounced around in the courts. As you mentioned earlier, the CDC had moved to end it in April, but then a lower court just a month later blocked that termination. And then in a separate case, the judge said that it had to end because there was no validity. And we've come a long way since the pandemic started, and this was invoked.

But then we had that Supreme Court ruling yesterday saying that Republican led states can intervene in the case, and those states are trying to block the termination of the authority. So it's been quite dizzying. And even conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch in a dissent of yesterday's order, put it quite bluntly. He said, quote, the current border crisis is not a COVID crisis.

Now, the Supreme Court said that they will hear arguments in this case beginning in their session in February. So we'll get a decision on what happens next with this authority sometime in early to -- next year. But it is ultimately a victory for those Republican led states who wanted to intervene. And it means that this authority will stay in effect for several months, causing confusion along the border and also raising questions about why it's in effect to begin with, especially as we've progressed throughout this pandemic.

NOBILO: And the politicized nature of this issue is apparent to everybody, and also in the remarks that you just made about why, in fact, Title 42 is remaining in place. For our international viewers, can you help explain some of the key differences between the Republicans and Democrats, and why it's so difficult to come to bipartisan agreement when it comes to migration policy?

[08:20:15]

ALVAREZ: Well, there's been quite an evolution since this was first invoked of March of 2020. We reported at the time that there were political motivations within the Trump administration to invoke this authority. Immigrant advocates and public health experts said that it was a pretext to essentially barring migrants from entering the United States.

Now, Democrats have criticized the order, although some moderate Democrats have recently tried to use it as a way to strike some sort of reform in Congress. In the meantime, Republicans are adamant about keeping this order in place despite the state of the pandemic. So really what this has evolved into is what many call an immigration control measure. It no longer comes up as a public help, but rather as trying to control migration along the border.

And frankly, Border Patrol officials I speak with see some help in this because they can quickly process people and expel them from the United States. But people are still crossing the border in big numbers, and many are doing it multiple times, which also creates a strain.

Now, the Biden administration said that they're going to comply with Tuesday's Supreme Court order, but they pointed the finger toward Congress and said this is the time to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Of course, that has vexed lawmakers for decades and it has only grown more politically contentious over time. So the likelihood of that happening is very slim, although both sides can agree it's necessary.

NOBILO: Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much.

And you're watching CNN Newsroom. We'll be right back after the short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Through the chaos of winter weather in the United States comes a happy ending. A woman in New York became an unlikely hero after taking in a man stranded in a deadly blizzard. That act of kindness saved his life. CNN's Gary Tuchman has this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The worst of Mother Nature bringing out the best of human nature. This is Buffalo resident Sha'Kyra Aughtry on Facebook Live.

SHA'KYRA AUGHTRY, RESCUED MAN FROM BLIZZARD: I currently have an older 64-year-old white man in my house. I found him yesterday. I heard him screaming for help.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): In the midst of western New York's blizzard, Sha'Kyra spotted and heard the man in terrible pain in a frigid cold outside her house on the morning of Christmas Eve. Her boyfriend carried the man inside. That man is Joey White, seeing this picture at a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game.

AUGHTRY: He got away from his home, that he lives in a group home, he told me.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Joey's sister says her brother is mentally challenged and does indeed live in a group home. He works at a movie theater. May have gotten scared during the blizzard and tried to walk home from the theater. Getting lost in the heavy snow outside the mother of three's house.

Sha'Kyra did her best to take care of him, to comfort him, feed him, and pleaded for help with phone calls and on Facebook Live.

AUGHTRY: This man is not about to die over here on 111. You all need to get this man some help.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): But her neighborhood was virtually impassable. Christmas Eve became Christmas Day. Joey was in immense pain with severe frostbite on his hands.

[08:25:03]

AUGHTRY: Joe? Listen to Joe. How are you feeling, Joe? Joe ready to go. He ready to go. He needs to go because he needs medical attention. I had to -- he had a ring on his finger. I had to use these to cut the ring off of his finger. I'm not no surgeon.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): With her three children by her side, Sha'Kyra tried to comfort Joey.

AUGHTRY: Joe?

JOEY WHITE, FROSTBITTEN MAN HELPED BY SHA'KYRA AUGHTRY: Yes.

AUGHTRY: You're feeling better? You're trying to feel better?

WHITE: (INAUDIBLE).

AUGHTRY: Pardon me?

WHITE: I'm going to die.

AUGHTRY: No, you're not going to die. We're not talking about death. We see, this how you know, he needs help.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): And that help was about to come. Good Samaritan showing up in a vehicle that could make it through the snow. Joey was on his way to the hospital.

AUGHTRY: I'm right here. Joe.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): And Sha'Kyra rode with him. Jessie, I'm right here. You OK?

WHITE: I love you.

AUGHTRY: I love you too, sweetie. You're OK.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Joey arrived at the hospital safely.

AUGHTRY: This man could have died. 64 years old could have died outside. I wasn't letting that happen on my watch. And he wasn't going to die in front of my kids.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Joey has severe frostbite and is in the ICU in the hospital burn unit. His sister Yvonne telling us it's touch and go whether his hands can be saved. But overall, he's in stable condition. And she is so grateful for Sha'Kyra Aughtry.

YVONNE WHITE, SISTER OF RESCUED MAN: This woman did something that an angel would do, OK, to take in a perfectly stranger, a stranger. You took him in your home on Christmas Eve.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Joey White's life was saved by a woman who cared deeply about a man she had never met.

AUGHTRY: Thank you. I'm right here. I'm right here.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: I'll leave you on that heartwarming news. For now, it's back to CNN This Morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: -- she witnessed her boss, Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows, burned documents in his fireplace in his office around a dozen times. So between December 2020 and mid-January 2021 when Trump actually left office. Hutchinson told the committee, "Throughout the day, he would put more logs on the fireplace to keep it burning. And I recall roughly a dozen times where he would throw a few more pieces of paper in with it."

In that same time period, Hutchinson said that Meadows instructed White House aides to keep some Oval Office meetings close hold in the period after the election, potentially leaving those meetings off the books, according to one of the transcripts that was released yesterday.

So joining us now for perspective on this is the former Deputy White House Press Secretary under President Trump, Sarah Matthews. Sarah, we should note you resigned after what happened on January 6. And I just wonder, are used surprised at all to hear what your former colleague testified about Mark Meadows burning documents in his office?