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Supreme Court Rules Title 42 Will Remain In Place For Now; China To Reopen To International Travelers Amid Outbreak; Heavy Fighting In Bakhmut And Kreminna In Eastern Ukraine; Russian Sausage Magnate And Lawmakers Dies In India; U.S. Transportation Secretary Says Southwest Airlines Will Be Held Accountable; The Difficult Road to Diplomatic Solutions in 2023. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired December 28, 2022 - 00:00   ET

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

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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello there, I'm Kristie Lu Stout live from Hong Kong.

And ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, stuck in limbo. The U.S. Supreme Court keeps controversial border restrictions in place, leaving countless migrants with nowhere to go.

Plus, reopening after zero COVID, how some countries are responding to China easing its troubled rules.

And Ukrainian civilians come under attack again after maternity ward is hit by Russian shells.

The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the Biden administration's plan to lift Title 42. It's the ruling that the Trump era border restriction will remain in place while legal challenges play out.

Since March 2020, this controversial policy has allowed border agents to turn away migrants in the name of COVID prevention and 19 Republican led states have filed a lawsuit saying that unwinding Title 42 would result in a migration catastrophe.

Although this is a blow to the Biden administration's plan, the White House says it will comply with the ruling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The court is not going to decide until June apparently, and in the meantime we have to enforce it but I think it's overdue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Meanwhile, thousands of migrants at America's southern border remain in limbo with many wondering when they will be able to seek asylum. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued this statement: "The border is not open and we will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws but we do so within the constraints of a decade's old immigration system that everyone agrees is broken."

Our CNN Leyla Santiago has more on how migrants are reacting to this decision.

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LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There was a bit of a disappointing mood in conversations that I had with many of the migrants here, there was one mother who told me she was fleeing violence in Venezuela and she took months bringing herself as well as her two young children, including a toddler all the way here, said that they had been robbed in Mexico and that her intention had been to cross into the U.S. legally but because of Title 42, she was sent back.

So, hearing that that remains in place for many of these migrants, not just this mother, many of the migrants we spoke to kind of echoed that same sentiment because as you can see behind me, these are migrants that have nowhere to go at this time.

The city says that they have capacity at shelters. But many of these migrants say that they fear getting on any sort of bus not knowing exactly where they will end up, not having trust in any sort of individual who may be trying to help them.

So, the city is saying that this is an issue trying to find a place where they can put some of the migrants that have come up that are refusing to go into shelters and staying on the sidewalk here where you will see children and toddlers under blankets sleeping overnight.

The other big thing that the city is also continuing to do is they are moving ahead with their contingency plans. They are working on two vacant schools to serve as potential shelters in the future. Because despite this decision from the Supreme Court that keeps Title 42 in place, they still expect to have a lot of migrants because of what they're seeing across the border, seeing a lot of migrants just waiting for their moment to enter into the U.S. whenever that may be.

I did speak to one shelter who said to me, an organizer at one of the shelters who said that he too was disappointed with this decision saying that this is something that could extend the bottleneck that they're seeing and put unsustainable pressure on law enforcement on the border.

But for Republicans, this is a win. The Republican states that escalated this legal fight. This is a win for them. Governor Greg Abbott here in Texas was very quick to tweet when this was announced.

Leyla Santiago, CNN, El Paso, Texas.

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[00:05:08] STOUT: Dylan Corbett joins us now from El Paso, Texas. He is the

executive director of the Hope Border Institute. And thank you, sir, for joining us.

Let's first talk about Title 42. The Supreme Court has ruled that the border program to expel migrants must remain in place. So, what does this mean for your work and what does this mean for migrants?

DYLAN CORBETT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HOPE BORDER INSTITUTE (on camera): Yes, you know, it's a really difficult moment, this was sad news. Title 42 has been around for about three years. And during that time, we've had major restrictions on the ability of asylum seekers and migrants to access protection at the U.S.-Mexico border. This is really a relic of the previous administration. And the previous administration did everything it can to really deploy a politics of xenophobia, a politics of fear, and seal the border to vulnerable people.

And that's precisely what Title 42 does. It's put too many people's lives in danger. It's returned migrants back to situations that are really dangerous for them and has taken people's lives.

And so, today's decision is disheartening. It adds another layer of confusion to a really difficult situation at the border. But we'll continue to work to pick up the pieces.

STOUT: Yes, so agencies like yours, as you say, you have no choice, you must pick up the pieces here. And you've been working overtime at Christmas, you know, during the holiday season to help a massive wave of migrants during also a historic winter freeze. You know, how's it going? How are you helping them?

CORBETT: Yes, it's quite difficult right now, because the situation of Title 42, it's still in place. As we heard, the Supreme Court has decided that there will be several months before it gets a final hearing at the Supreme Court and we get a final decision, even though this administration is committed to rolling back the policy.

But effectively, what it means is that asylum seekers trying to get an access asylum protection at the border could be turned away and are effectively be turned away -- turning away -- being turned away.

And what that means is they're being sent to communities in northern Mexico that really don't have the social supports, the services that are necessary to take care of people. We're navigating a really complex system of asylum from the other side of the border, that people are there for weeks, people are there for months, I've known people who are -- who have been there for over here.

We're talking about families, we're talking about moms and dads with children, and people who are bonafide asylum seekers, they're fleeing desperate situations of violence and persecution. We know the situation right now in Nicaragua, in Cuba, in Venezuela, the difficult circumstances in Central America. And people know the risks.

As you said, right now, it's cold at the border. We've had several nights where we dropped below zero. But these are people who are very conscious of the risks, conscious of the dangers, conscious of the fact that they might be put in danger by a policy like Title 42. But still make the risk, still make the journey because they're looking for a shot at freedom, they're looking for a shot at safety.

STOUT: Yes, they're making the journey to flee as you pointed out, violence, persecution, poverty, they're seeking a new opportunity. And the pressure is building there at the border. You, other agencies, community groups there are working during a very critical time.

And again, it's all taking place at the holidays, you know, has this moment turned out to be in a way a lesson about hope, about dignity, about humanity?

CORBETT: I think so. You know, fundamentally, Title 42 is unsustainable, it puts really enormous pressures on individual border enforcement agents who are on the line and who have to return people under this policy, it puts huge pressures on border communities that are standing up to provide what they can on both sides of the border. And it puts enormous pressures, of course on migrants themselves who have no other choice.

Many of these migrants, you know, I talk to a man recently and she told me that she couldn't go back, because the situation back in her home -- in her own country or community was so bad, that she really risked death if she was going back.

So, she couldn't go back to her home country. But she couldn't go north to the United States, she was in an effective limbo.

And so, that that gives you a sense of how difficult the situation is here. And everyone's wrestling to pick up the pieces and do their part.

We can do this. This is something that we know that we can do. Border communities have been receiving people for decades. The folks who are coming to the border now, they really represent the latest wave of the latest generation in a long history of people coming to the border, and finding safety, finding protection and having a chance -- a chance to be integrated into our -- into our societies.

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El Paso here on the border, this is something we do every day, we come together despite the challenges. We're a community that, you know, were a quarter -- a quarter of our population is foreign born, more than 80 percent of us are from -- have American-Mexican heritage, and we're safe community, not in -- not in spite of migration, but because of it.

And so, this is work, you know, that's in our DNA. We know that migrants come, they enrich our community. And when we welcome them with dignity, we're all better off for it.

STOUT: Dylan Corbett, we thank you for your work. We thank you for joining us. CORBETT: Thank you.

STOUT: As Beijing continues to peel away layers of COVID restrictions, other countries are taking precautions to make sure that incoming travelers aren't bringing the virus with them.

All travelers from China will be tested for the virus upon entering Japan and India and will have to quarantine if they test positive.

India has expanded the restriction beyond just Mainland China, also requiring anyone coming from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong or Thailand to undergo testing.

Italian officials are also testing every traveler from China who comes to the Milan Malpensa International Airport in the north.

Of the change in China's restrictions also means that some Chinese citizens will finally be able to return home after years away due to the pandemic.

Selina Wang has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The world's harshest quarantine is no more.

As COVID sweeps through China, the country is scrapping quarantines for inbound travelers from January 8th, and promising to gradually restore outbound tourism. Since the start of the pandemic, China has severely limited who can go in and out of the country, drastically cutting the number of flights and forcing all incoming arrivals into government facilities.

I went through multiple quarantines in China this year lasting as long as 21 days. There is no choice of where you go or what room you get. Once the doors closed, you can only open them for COVID tests and food pickups.

Workers spray disinfectant in the hallways every few hours. Food delivery is not allowed for breakfast, lunch and dinner are part of quarantine fees.

All of that is now soon going away. It's a huge relief for Chinese nationals living overseas like this woman in New York City.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really want to go back to my home immediately. And right now, I'm very emotional. I'm always almost like in tears right now.

WANG (on camera): When was the last time you went home to China?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four years before. I lost several of my family members during the pandemic. I lost my beloved golden retriever. I feel like I missed everything.

WANG: How is your family doing now in China?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now almost everyone got COVID, and they are suffering. When my grandpa video called me, I cried so badly. At that moment, I even don't know if I will get a chance to see him.

He just got COVID and I hope he will -- he will be OK.

WANG (voice over): On Chinese social media, people have been sharing everything they've lost during three years of border controls while they were stuck out of their home country.

One writes: I received the bad news of my father's unexpected death while I was in a quarantine hotel, but I couldn't go back to see him for the last time. Another writes: Because of the pandemic, I didn't even know that my grandma passed away and I heard it from my mother a month later.

This new change finally ends China's ban on nonessential travel for Chinese citizens.

I feel like the pandemic is finally over. The travel plans I made three years ago may finally become a reality, she says. It is exciting news for potential travelers, but at home, the country is struggling to grapple with an explosion in COVID cases.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hospital is just overwhelmed from top to bottom. There was no preparation like nobody knew. There was no stockpile of medications.

WANG: This viral video in the southern city of Guangzhou shows a man kneeling on the ground at a fever clinic breaking down and begging the nurse to let him see the doctor after waiting for hours.

Fever and cold medicine are nearly impossible to get at drug stores across the country. Antivirals are also extremely hard to get, but in a major move, Beijing has announced it is going to start distributing Paxlovid to community health centers in the coming days.

So, there is chaos and confusion, but with Zero COVID in the past, finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STOUT: For more on China's runaway COVID outbreak and how other countries are responding to the easing of its travel rules, I'm joined by Mattie Bekink, China Director at the Economist Intelligence Corporate Network.

[00:15:07]

Mattie, thank you for joining us once again. As you know, Japan is asking for negative COVID tests from all arrivals from China. Other countries are taking or considering similar action.

But the question is this, you know, should countries take COVID prevention measures for travelers from China and if so, why?

MATTIE BEKINK, CHINA DIRECTOR, ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE CORPORATE NETWORK: Great to be with you, Kristie. You know, what other countries do in response to China's outbreak will depend a little bit on what their own priorities are and the pressures they're facing this (AUDIO GAP) concerns seasonally and heading into a difficult season for COVID globally, but we are definitely seeing an outbreak in China, as you just reported, and across the country.

So, there's -- as COVID spreads like wildfire through China, if countries are concerned about kind of stopping at their own borders, they probably will start imposing restrictions like Japan, and I believe also Italy, and other places that are considering it.

Whether or not that's going to, you know, stop the spread, I don't think we really can say that, specially with Omicron sub variant, we've seen that, regardless, it finds a way to spread among populations.

And the truth is, it's spreading in other countries as well. So, I'm not sure that that's going to offer that much protection at the moment.

And in particular, we don't quite know yet when the peak will come in China, because the outbreak has really just started recently, or the first real outbreak since the Wuhan outbreak. And it's going incredibly quickly faster I think than many expected.

STOUT: Yes, and some countries outside of China are taking these measures because we don't know the scale of the outbreak inside China. You know, official data is and has been unreliable. There have been serious concerns about the true scale of the outbreak in China as the virus is running rampant.

What is your gauge, your understanding about just how bad the outbreak is inside China right now?

BEKINK: You know, I think you're correct. The official data are essentially rubbish. They're not to be relied upon. They've stopped counting asymptomatic cases, which was a unique definition that the Chinese use in counting COVID cases previously. And so, people kind of don't -- nobody trusts them inside or out of China. Anecdotally, it seems very much.

STOUT: And Mattie, hopefully we still have you on the line here. I wanted to ask you about the issue of variance.

You know, we know that the World Health Organization, the U.S. Secretary of State has asked for transparency because of concerns about the possible emergence of a new variant.

Unfortunately, we just learned that we've lost our guest, she was joining us from just outside Xi'an in China. Our apologies for that.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. But do keep it here on the program because after the break, we'll take you straight to Ukraine. Ukrainians have been gathering to mourn a fallen soldier, we'll be hearing from a resident of Bakhmut as heavy fighting rages in the east of the country.

Also ahead, stranded passengers, a sea of luggage and the wait for answers. Southwest Airlines responds to the travel meltdown across the U.S., keep it here.

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STOUT: In Ukraine, Russian shelling hit a hospital maternity ward in the southern city of Kherson on Tuesday, that's according to an aide to Ukraine's president. They say doctors managed to complete a caesarian section just before the attack and "Miraculously no one was injured".

Shelling also reportedly hit civilian infrastructure in other parts of the Kherson region, causing civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Prime Minister says power outages are decreasing as critical infrastructure repairs are streamlined. But the country's energy minister says that the situation remains really difficult.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the country is preparing for the months ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We continue to prepare our security and defense forces for the next year. This must be a decisive year. We understand the risks that there are in the winter. We understand what we have to do in the spring and hence we understand what results the security and defense sector has to achieve as a whole.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Ukraine's military reports heavy fighting in the country's east and President Zelenskyy has said the situation there is difficult and painful. And that pain is being felt in Kyiv were Ukrainians gathered to pay their respects to a fallen soldier killed on the frontlines.

CNN's Will Ripley reports.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So many tears for yet another victim of Russia's war in Ukraine. Mourners in Kyiv, paying their final respects to a fallen Ukrainian soldier, a husband, brother and son. He was reportedly killed near Bakhmut.

Intense fighting has the city almost unrecognizable. Debris litters the streets. Buildings are on fire.

OLEKSANDR, BAKHMUT, UKRAINE, RESIDENT (through translation): Our house is destroyed. There was a shop near a building. Now it's not there anymore.

RIPLEY: In this besieged city across the country, millions are still living without power. Ukraine accuses Russia of persistently targeting Ukrainian energy facilities, giving engineers little time to repair the grid before the next strike comes. Ukraine's energy minister describes the situation across his country as really difficult.

Strikes have left Ukraine with a power deficit, unable to meet the basic energy needs of the country. Fears are growing among Ukrainian officials. Moscow could be planning large strikes around New Year's Day. In this small village near Kherson, people are bracing for a bitterly cold winter. A winter without power, collecting firewood and other supplies to protect against plummeting temperatures.

TETYANA KOVALIVA, POSAD-POKROVSKE, UKRAINE, RESIDENT (through translation): We will get through the winter because we fixed the chimney and now we can heat the house. We will get through it. We do not have any other option. Where would we go?

RIPLEY: On top of all this, a war of words brewing between Moscow and Kyiv. Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, issuing an ultimatum. Ukraine must bow to Russia's demands, including giving up occupied Ukrainian territories, or else the Russian army will take matters into its own hands.

Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that won't happen. He's vowing to retake all captured Ukrainian ground.

Diplomatic negotiations seem just as gridlocked as the battlefield. Little sign of peace coming this holiday season in a conflict that continues to grind on.

Will Ripley, CNN, Lviv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: The Kremlin appears to be making good on threats to ban oil exports to countries that impose price caps on Russian oil and petroleum products.

Now, Russia says President Vladimir Putin signed a decree banning the exports on Tuesday. It's a move seen as largely symbolic. Countries that implemented a $60 per barrel cap on Russian crude have largely already banned the import of Russian oil due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Price cap policy is aimed at Moscow's remaining oil buyers and companies that provide shipping, insurance and other services.

Now, a Russian sausage magnate turned lawmaker died on Saturday in India and police believe it was a suicide saying that he fell from his hotel room. But this is among the latest in a string of deaths of Russian executives since the Kremlin's war in Ukraine began.

Clare Sebastian has more.

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[00:25:08]

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There are plenty of questions around the circumstances of this death, Pavel Antov was a regional Russian lawmaker, and a member of Russia's ruling party United Russia, which is closely aligned to President Vladimir Putin.

According to Indian police, he was travelling in Odisha state in the northeast of the country when he died by suspected suicide on Saturday, falling from his third floor hotel room window.

(INAUDIBLE) death happened just two days after a friend he was traveling with Vladimir Bydanov also died police say from heart attack. Antov who is 65 made his fortune manufacturing sausages in his native Vladimir region, just east of the Moscow region.

In 2018, He was listed number one on the Forbes list of the Top 100 wealthiest Russian civil servants. His net worth estimated at over $140 million.

And during this year, he wrote a post on Russia's Facebook equivalent (INAUDIBLE) apologizing for a "unfortunate misunderstanding with his WhatsApp account", saying he categorically disagreed with a status update on the special military operation in Ukraine, blaming a technical mistake and affirming that he was "A supporter of the President, a patriot of my country, and sincerely share the goals of the special military operation". CNN has not seen the original WhatsApp status which has been deleted.

Meanwhile, the results of Pavel Antov's postmortem are not known yet. And Russia's consul general in Kolkata told Russian state media Monday, they don't suspect foul play.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he's being injected with an unknown drug while being held in a high security prison. And the prominent Putin critic made the claim at a series of tweets on Monday, he says it's part of efforts to withhold medical information from him as he battles worsening back pain.

Navalny says his lawyers managed to get a copy of his medical records after filing complaints but he says the way they were copied makes them largely unreadable.

Still ahead right here on CNN NEWSROOM, another day, another delay. Southwest Airlines update stranded passengers on when it hopes to have its schedule back to normal.

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STOUT: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kristie Lu Stout live in Hong Kong. Now, warmer temperatures are expected in western New York on Wednesday

as the region slowly digs out from the deadly blizzard.

The Erie County Health Department says the storm-related death toll is now up to 31, and a fatal carbon-monoxide poisoning war reported in nearby Niagara County. It's believed more bodies will be recovered, as authorities check homes and cars for people stranded by the extreme weather.

[00:30:19]

Well, officials are carrying out welfare checks on vulnerable residents, and thousands of utility workers are rushing to restore power.

The CEO of Southwest Airlines is apologizing for the flight delays and cancellations that have stranded thousands of travelers in the U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the airline will be held accountable and must make sure that this doesn't happen again.

Gabe Cohen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The meltdown at Southwest Airlines just gets worse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a total you know what show here.

COHEN (voice-over): Southwest canceling more than 2,500 flights on Tuesday, more than 85 percent of all U.S. cancellations, and they've already canceled nearly the same total for tomorrow, admitting this could go on for days. Thousands of passengers stranded at airports, still hoping to see family, or struggling to get home.

PAM SHELBY, STRANDED SOUTHWEST CUSTOMER: They said keep checking back, but they said that it probably won't be anything until Saturday.

COHEN (voice-over): Seventy-two-year-old Pam Shelby has been sleeping at Baltimore's airport since Saturday, when her connection got canceled.

SHELBY: I doze off every once in a while, but other than that, I really haven't gotten any good sleep. I'm scared I'm not going to get out of here.

COHEN (voice-over): Southwest blames last week's winter storm for the chaos, with flight crews stranded in the wrong cities. But the Southwest Pilots' Association says there's more to Southwest's problems than ice and snow.

MICHAEL SANTORO, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES PILOTS ASSOCIATION: The storm that hit last week was -- was the catalyst to this, but what went wrong is that our I.T. infrastructure for our scheduling software is vastly outdated. COHEN (voice-over): Southwest executives acknowledged that in a

message obtained by CNN, saying, quote, "Matching up those crewmembers with the aircraft could not be handled by our technology. Our system today cannot do that."

SANTORO: They don't know where we are. They don't know where airplanes are.

COHEN (voice-over): Travelers stuck in snaking lines, or on hold for hours.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Phone calls are busy. You couldn't get a hold of anybody. It's awful.

COHEN (voice-over): Customers also trying to track down their luggage. Pam says she's diabetic and needs the medicine in one of her bags, which may be at a different airport.

SHELBY: I'm scared that I could go into a diabetic shock.

COHEN (voice-over): Christmas with her family never happened. Now she's just trying to get home.

SHELBY: I love my family. And I really had my hopes up that I was going to be able to see them. And it hurts.

COHEN: Now Southwest officials say they are all offering customers a full refund or a flight credit, and have even created a website to try to make that process a little bit easier.

But some of the lines to rebook are still hours long, and the wait to read to customer service is even longer in a lot of cases. Some travelers telling me Southwest can't re-book them until January.

Gabe Cohen, CNN, Baltimore, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STOUT: A man convicted in a plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. A federal judge handed down the sentence to Adam Fox on Tuesday. A jury convicted him and an accomplice in August of kidnapping, conspiracy, and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

A prosecutor said that Fox was the leader of the 2020 plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer from her summer home. They had asked for Fox to be sentenced to the maximum of life in prison.

Fox declined to speak on his own behalf during the sentencing hearing.

Ending the war in Ukraine will likely be the biggest challenge in the year ahead, but that's not the only issue in need of diplomatic attention. We'll preview the global hotspots, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) STOUT: Welcome back. Now the White House is welcoming Taiwan's decision to extend its mandatory military service, in the growing threats from China.

The Biden administration says the move shows Taiwan's commitment to self-defense and strengthens deterrence. Now, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday that, quote, "Nobody wants war, but peace does not fall from the sky."

As she announced that announcing in 2044, all eligible men must serve in the military for a full year instead of four months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TSAI ING-WEN, PRESIDENT OF TAIWAN (through translator): We can only avoid a war by preparing for a war, and we can only stop a war by being capable of fighting a war. Taiwan needs to strengthen our ability to defend ourselves, so that we can better protect our national security and interests, and garner more international support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: And she went on to say that lengthening the military service period was a difficult decision but is necessary to safeguard Taiwan's democratic way of life.

The year ahead comes with no shortage of diplomatic challenges. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, tensions with China, and the climate crisis will all be in focus.

CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, has this preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): This year's war in Ukraine, the biggest land war in Europe since 1945, is both a symptom of diplomacy's limits and a harbinger of potential decay to come.

Russian president Vladimir Putin's unprovoked aggression is yet to be tamed by sanction or reason, despite diplomatic outreach.

OLAF SCHOLZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): I believe it's right to have constant discussions. There must be a moment where Russia realizes that it needs to get out of this situation.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): China's Xi Jinping, who's increasingly bellicose, diplomacy-defying claims to Taiwan is watching Ukraine, learning possible international limits on his own potential land grab.

Scholz, who is picking up his predecessor, Angela Merkel's, peace- making mantle, used his recent visit to Beijing to try to shut down Russia's war and head off one over Taiwan. SCHOLZ (through translator): It is important for China to use its

influence on Russia. It is about principles of sovereignty and territory and integrity.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): 2022 has tested diplomacy more than any other year in decades. On the upside, democracies have risen to the challenge. Diplomatic unity in the face of Russian aggression.

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): As war returns to European soil, we need to become brothers in arms, once more.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): On the downside, it showed diplomatic words alone won't work. They need to be backed by military muscle.

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: What happens at the negotiating table depends on what happens on the battlefield. Therefore, the best way to increase the chances for a peaceful solution is to support Ukraine. We will not back down.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The past year is setting the stage for diplomatic storms to come.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We will defend ourselves with all available means at our disposal.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Putin continues to tease the threat of a nuclear strike, potentially taking diplomacy in 2023 to its limits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has accelerated existing tensions to a point where unity of the international community cannot be presumed.

[00:40:05]

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Add to this, the increasing tensions with China, and 2023 is shaping up to be an even greater challenge than 2022.

RISHI SUNAK, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We recognize China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests. A challenge that grows more acute as it moves towards even greater authoritarianism.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Paradoxically, another growing challenge, climate change, perhaps offers a way out of the downward diplomatic spiral. A need to combat global warming together.

JOHN KERRY, U.S. CLIMATE ENVOY: Without China, even if the U.S. is, as we are, moving towards a 1.5 degree program, which we are, if we don't have China, nobody else can make it to that goal.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): As with previous years, 2023 will offer opportunity to develop diplomatic off-ramps. Perhaps none more poignant than the G7, to be hosted by Japan in Hiroshima.

There will be another climate summit, too, but as this year's COP27 in Egypt showed, during global economic hardship, domestic politics trump collective salvation. The G20 in India could be a place where compromises are made. The war

in Ukraine would be in its 19th month, and by then, battlefield realities hard to ignore, despite Putin's new threats of a long war.

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This will end, and it will end almost certainly with diplomacy, with a negotiation. But what I think we have to see is a just and durable peace, not a phony peace.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): So the big diplomatic question for 2023: how to get Putin to agree?

The answer may lie in the soaring food and energy costs triggered by the war. If the global situation worsens, collective pressure for some kind of peace will increase.

The test of 2023: what to do if Putin ignores the warnings.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STOUT: 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 No. 5 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 COVID policies have since been lifted.

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CRAIG TILEY, TENNIS AUSTRALIA CEO: Well, Novak, nine-time champion, we're welcoming back to Australia. I have a great deal of confidence in the Australian public. I think that we have -- we're a very well- educated sporting public, particularly those that come for tennis.

They love their tennis. They love seeing great -- greatness. They love seeing great athleticism, great matches. And I have a lot of confidence that the fans will react like we hope they would react and have respect for that.

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

STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout, live in Hong Kong. I'll be back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first, WORLD SPORT starts after the break.

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