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U.S. Transportation Secretary Vows Accountability; Experts Tell Stranded Travelers To Save Receipts; U.S. Announces New Restrictions For Travelers From China. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired December 29, 2022 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:58]

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hello, and welcome to our viewers here in United States and around the world. I'm Alison Kosik. Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM. Southwest Airlines passengers who've seen their travel plans disrupted for days are looking at thousands more cancellations in the day ahead. We'll have the latest on when customers could see relief.

Plus, the snowfall has finally stopped in Buffalo but the work is just getting started for the rescue crews who are still finding victims of the blizzard.

And new COVID Travel requirements for those coming from China. I'll talk with a doctor about these restrictions and whether they can be effective.

After days of delays and cancellations, Southwest Airlines slowly but surely seems to be working its way back to normal, but it won't get there right away. A representative for the pilots' union says it looks like the flight schedule will be mostly full by Friday. The airline has canceled more than 2300 flights for the coming day. But that number drops to only 39 cancellations by Friday.

Airports are filled with long lines of Southwest passengers trying to rebook as piles of luggage continued to grow, while other airlines recovered from last week's winter storm fairly quickly Southwest has not. On Tuesday, southwest accounted for 84 percent of cancellations among all airlines in the U.S. On Wednesday, that number jumped to 91 percent and for Thursday, it's a whopping 99 percent. More now from CNN's Gabe Cohen reporting from Baltimore.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Tens of thousands of travelers still weathering southwest meltdown without a clear end in sight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEFMALE: I'm hungry I'm exhausted. I just want to go home.

COHEN: The airline canceling more than 2500 flights Wednesday, 62 percent of its schedule according to FlightAware with a similar wave of cancellations already shaping up for Thursday.

ASHLEY MAYS, STRANDED SOUTHWEST CUSTOMER: This has been a complete nightmare. I trusted Southwest with my worldly belongings and to get me from point A to point B and I just feel like I was robbed at this point.

COHEN: Ashley Mays say she's stranded in Baltimore with no luggage. Her flight home to Texas canceled Christmas morning. She says she was hoping to get back to spend time at her dying grandmother side.

MAYS: I couldn't make it and now she passed away as of yesterday. I will never get that time back to at least hold her hand or, you know, spend that time with her. And, you know, she spent her last few days just waiting on me.

COHEN: Southwest says this chaos began with winter weather but the airline's antiquated systems struggled to track their planes and crews and connect them resulting in this near weeks' worth of canceled flights and missing luggage as they reposition those crews.

BOB JORDAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: We reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flying to catch up.

COHEN: And the airline's own employees want answers.

LYN MONTGOMERY, PRESIDENT, TWU LOCAL 556: It has been absolutely horrific. The most despicable working conditions that you can imagine.

CASEY MURRAY, PRESIDENT, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES PILOTS ASSOCIATION: This is going to continue until there is a sweeping change to the way southwest operates.

COHEN: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg vowing to hold the airline accountable, especially after staffing issues caused problems last summer.

PETE BUTTIGIEG, UNITED STATES TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: They provided commitments in writing including Southwest that they would go above the previous level of what you do to take care of customers with things like covering the cost if you get stuck and you need a hotel or a meal. In addition to rebooking you.

COHEN: Still thousands of passengers are stranded and struggling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEFMALE: I hate Southwest I hate them.

COHEN: But amid the chaos we've seen some remarkable gestures. I met 72-year-old Pam Shelby Tuesday stranded and sleeping at Baltimore's airport for days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEFMALE: I'm scared I'm not going to get out of here. And I'm by myself.

COHEN: A good Samaritan saw her story on T.V. and bought her a ticket home to Alabama on another airline leaving Wednesday night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEFMALE: I just want to go take shower and sleep and get this out of my mind.

[02:05:07]

COHEN (on camera): And that person who bought you the ticket, what did that mean to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEFMALE: She was a goddess and she was my angel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: And I'm also hearing from stranded travelers who say right now they're footing the bill for things like hotels and food and transportation unable to reach southwest customer service. Now the airline says those travelers should save their receipts, which will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The Department of Transportation adding that they'll hold Southwest accountable if they don't take care of those stranded travelers.

Gabe Cohen, CNN, Baltimore, Maryland.

KOSIK: The Southwest Airlines snafu is taking a toll on the company's bottom line. In just the past week on Wall Street, Southwest stock has fallen from $37.00 a share to less than $33.00. That's about a 12 percent loss. Reimbursing passengers will get expensive for the airline. Airline industry analysts Robert Mann says this. You're looking at a million customers. If an average ticket is 250 to $300, that suggests the upper limit is 250 to $300 million in terms of absolute value. But the question is, how do they defray that?

I spoke earlier with CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo and I asked her what she thought would be the long-term consequences for southwest from this fiasco.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION AND TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, I think there will be hearings. And the problem is when the hearings are over, and the cameras and the journalists go away. And congress tends to lose its well, what probably is going to happen is what happened in a major airline meltdown we had back in 1999. Obviously, several decades ago, but there were class action lawsuits filed against the carriers that were involved.

And eventually, the passengers were able to recover in a settlement did not go to trial, but a settlement about $2,500 per passenger aggrieved. And of course, it doesn't sound like much if it's ruined your vacation or your job or your work, and you're in an airport without your medicine. But that was at least something that the airline had to pay. And by the way, in that case, the government did very little. It was private litigation that delivered that result to passengers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: You can see my full interview with Mary Schiavo next hour right here on CNN NEWSROOM. With COVID cases surging in China, the United States will soon require all travelers from that country including Hong Kong and Macau to test negative for COVID-19 before flying to the U.S. There are the latest officials who announced such a restriction joining the likes of Japan, India, Taiwan, and more who have similar measures in place. European Union officials are set to discuss their own possible action on the matter in the coming hours.

CNN's Arlette Saenz has more on the new travel restrictions imposed by the U.S.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. will soon require negative tests for individuals traveling from China to the U.S. as health officials here are concerned about the rise in COVID-19 cases in China as well as the lack of transparency in data regarding the situation. Now these new travel rules are set to go into effect on January 5th. It would require that travelers get a negative COVID-19 test no more than two days prior to their departure.

This must be a PCR test or an antigen self-test that's been administered by a telehealth service and one that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration here in the U.S. Now this doesn't just apply to those of traveling directly from China to the U.S. It would include those travelers who are possibly going through a third country. And so, we would apply in airports like Seoul, Vancouver and Toronto as well.

The health officials say that they set this January 5th timeline in order to give the airlines more time to set their operations in place so they can implement this plan. Now this all comes as there has been a surge in COVID-19 cases in China since the elimination of its zero- COVID policy, a very strict policy that's been in place since the start of the pandemic. But additionally, health officials say they are concerned about the lack of transparency in the data that China is providing.

And that includes data relating to the number of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and also deaths. But officials are also specifically concerned with the lack of information coming from China regarding genome sequencing which is critical in identifying new variants. Officials are hoping that these new measures that are put in place would help prevent the spread of new variants as they're trying to gather more information. And this plan is set to take place in just about a week.

Arlette Saenz, CNN traveling with the president in St. Croix, Virgin Islands.

[02:10:01]

KOSIK: Meantime, Chinese officials maintain everything is under control with the country's response to the rising COVID cases. CNN's Selina Wang has more from Beijing.

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As China finally abandoned zero COVID and starts to open up other countries are putting in place restrictions on travelers from the country. The U.S. will require all travelers from China to show a negative COVID test result before flying to the U.S. Before we got this official announcement, Beijing responded to potential travel restrictions from the U.S. by defending its COVID policy accusing Western media for hyping up China's COVID policy change and by urging countries to work together.

This is what else the Ministry of Affairs spokesperson had to say, "China has always believed that the measures taken by countries to prevent the epidemic should be scientific and moderate and should not affect normal people to people exchanges."

Now the irony here is that since the start of the pandemic, China has had some of the strictest border controls in the world. But now that the country is finally easing up and cases are surging, other countries are getting nervous. In addition to the U.S., Japan, India, Taiwan have put COVID testing requirements in place. In fact, Taiwan and Japan say if the traveler from China tests positive for COVID upon arrival, they'll have to quarantine for several days.

Now China has stopped reporting daily COVID cases on a national level, it severely narrowed its definition of COVID deaths, only reporting a handful of COVID deaths for the entire month. But Beijing says look, everything is under control. Yet we know that hospitals are overflowing with elderly patients and crematoriums across the country are overwhelmed. Fever and cold medicine are scarce.

The big concern from some countries like the U.S. is the lack of data from China that could help detect new variants, just aid, the global consortium that maintains a database of COVID sequences have said however, that China has ramped up the amount of data it's submitting, and that all the genome sequences shared so far closely resemble the variants already circulating in other parts of the world since July.

But the U.S. says the data shared from China isn't enough. And look, it's not as if China has totally thrown open its own borders. China's border still remains largely close to foreigners, apart from a limited number of business or family visits. Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.

KOSIK: Let's discuss this with Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, a board-certified internal medicine specialist and viral researcher. He joins us from Los Angeles. Thanks for being here.

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, BOARD-CERTIFIED INTERNIST AND GASTROENTEROLOGIST: Thank you, Alison.

KOSIK: All right. First, from what you can tell, I'm curious what you know of the situation right now in China, specifically in Beijing regarding the number of COVID cases and what you think will be the ripple effects from China's sudden rollback of its strict COVID measures.

RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think that we are not and probably will never get the absolute truth from China. But in this doctor-to-doctor network that exists between Twitter, you know, and social media and communication. There are external Intel than in the past 20 days, there have been approximately 250 million, 250 million new cases of infection with COVID in China. That's astounding. Arguably, they are the most populated country in the world.

And we don't know what is happening with these infections. Obviously, the deaths are horrible. But every infection can create a new mutation and at the rate that it's going, you know, I joke that China's not Vegas, and what happens in China does not stay in China, and it will spread throughout the world. And this is probably the most serious thing that has happened in this pandemic in the last two years.

KOSIK: Now you talk about the spread, so I'm curious how effective you think the requirement is that the U.S. have travelers from places like China, Hong Kong and Macau to show a negative COVID test before entering the U.S. or is this step more symbolic because, you know, at this point, the virus is everywhere.

RODRIGUEZ: I agree. The virus is everywhere. And this step is probably better than nothing. But it is not a solution. If anything, more of a solution would be to test every person that arrives from China, one route or another here and wait until that test, comeback -- comes back. Listen, there were two planes last week in Milan that came from China, one of them 38 percent of the people that were tested were COVID positive, the other one was upwards of 50 percent.

So, the numbers could be astronomical. So, if we're really going to get serious about trying to slow down, not stop, but slow down the increase of cases coming from China the people have to be tested when they arrive and isolated if they're positive -- they're positive. At least that's my opinion.

KOSIK: Do you know how different the COVID cases are, meaning the variant between what you're seeing in China versus what we're seeing here in the U.S.?

[02:15:04]

RODRIGUEZ: No, we really don't. We really don't because that is the information that that we're not getting. Sure, the numbers and how many are infected are important. But if there's a new variant that is highly contagious, highly deadly, we're not getting any of that information. And probably the only way that we're ever going to find out is if we see a new variant happening in Europe, other parts of the world or in the United States that can be traced back to that.

KOSIK: What kind of frequency should people be getting COVID vaccine boosters at this point, then?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, right now everybody should be getting the latest booster, which is the by bivalent booster which includes the Omicron variant. Even if you haven't gotten all the other boosters, this is the one that you need to get. Now, obviously, I'm assuming that you've gotten the first two or three shots depending on you know what maker. Again, what I was going to say, we can only control so much of what comes out of China.

What we really do have the power to control is how we protect ourselves against that. And I know this sounds like a broken record, but now is the time for people to stop all that bunk and being afraid of vaccines and enough about, you know, mask take away my freedom. You want to have freedom to live, you need to get vaccinated, you need to protect yourself in large crowds with masks. That is not a lot to ask if it saves your life or the life of others that you love.

KOSIK: Yes., We may be moving about and feel like the pandemic could be over but it is certainly not over -- not over. Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, thanks so much.

RODRIGUEZ: My pleasure.

KOSIK: The death toll is growing in western New York as emergency crews finally reach areas once blocked by the blizzard. We'll have a report from Buffalo.

Plus, victims trapped by fire jumping to their deaths to escape the flames. We'll have heartbreaking eyewitness accounts about a fire in Cambodia.

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KOSIK: Western New York is finally getting a reprieve from the blinding blizzard that's been tormenting the region for the better part of a week. All state highways have now reopened and buffalo just lifted its ban on non-essential driving. But many city streets are still a mess. And the hundreds of cars submerged in snow covered lanes are slowing down emergency responders. The extreme weather has claimed at least 37 lives in Erie County, New York.

More bodies could still be found but police say they've finally made it through the roughly 1100 9/11 calls that came in during the storm.

CNN's Athena Jones brings us the latest from Buffalo.

ATHENA JONES, CNN UNITED STATES NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there. Well, the snow is over and is warming up here in Buffalo and the city and county officials are making progress on clearing the streets that more than 1.3 meters of snow that fell over the last few days.

[02:20:06]

The goal has been to make sure that at least one lane of traffic and every street in Buffalo is cleared so that emergency services can get through and so that supplies can get to stores, grocery stores, drugstores and the like. The death toll continues to climb as authorities search house by house and search and vehicles to make sure that people are doing OK. Starting early this morning, the National Guard started going door to door in neighborhoods where people lost power, neighborhoods that lost power at one point during the storm.

They're checking on those houses to make sure people have the heat and the food and the water that they need. Intending to bring them help if they -- if they need it. There are also emergency services workers who are going door by door either checking on people with known medical conditions or checking on homes that call 9/11 during the height of this blizzard, and yet couldn't be reached, couldn't be helped. They said they began with about 1100 unanswered calls. And they were down to a few 100 earlier today. So that is -- that is a process that continues. But I will tell you this. City officials say they're preparing for snow melt, rapid snowmelt. We still have piles and piles of snow at various places around town. Some of it blocking important drainage systems and so they really want to make sure that they can clear that snow strategically before this warm up comes.

It's really already begun. But by the time it gets to Friday, we're going to see a much higher temperatures and they're expecting rapid melt and that could lead to floods. That's exactly what they're -- what they're trying to avoid.

Athena Jones, CNN Buffalo, New York.

KOSIK: And that warmer weather is affecting not just buffalo but also what looks like more than half of the United States. CNN meteorologist Tom Sater has the forecast.

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Sometimes in the winter months, wishing for warmer weather is not always the best thing. Look at the snowpack across North America from British Columbia into the central Rockies. This is just the beginning. Wait until to see what's coming in the forecast for them. Upper Midwest, Ontario, but of course, we've all been focusing on areas such as Buffalo.

A year ago, 9.3 inches were on the ground, they picked up 100 this year, that's six feet above average. There is definitely going to be some flooding going on in this massive melt. Earlier today it's what it looked like in Watertown. One of the better cleared areas, but when authorities say watch your sewer drains on your roads, keep them from getting ice jams. Well, how can you find them?

This is looking pretty good. But in most locations, the plows have pushed the snow up five, six, even seven feet high. Some areas that can't even find their car, and then you throw rain into the forecast not only does that aid the melting process, it accelerates it. Average high in Buffalo's 34 degrees. Look, they're 20 degrees above average by say seven, got up above freezing or -- and everybody is earlier today every city pretty much in North -- or in the U.S. except for mine at North Dakota was above freezing.

Temperatures won't only be above average, they'll be much above 20, maybe 25 degrees warmer than normal. Here's the warm front. But mountain snow is the first in a series of storms have moved in, see the water vapor, this fire hose we're talking about, this atmospheric river. The winds will also accompany this. They weren't only category one winds, they were category two knocking out power, hundreds of thousands and parts of Oregon to upstate New York or Washington state that is.

So that system has moved into the desert southwest and the watches and the warnings are in place. But now it really starts to kick in. Here we go with a series of storms that are moving in. The first one that already moved in, there comes the second one. This is Thursday into Friday. We've got another one Friday into Saturday, a fire hose into San Francisco, maybe 10 inches of rain through all of this.

Here comes the next one. That's Monday into Tuesday. And there's another one back behind that. So massive flash flooding, landslide threat. This atmospheric river is going to cause not only heavy mountain snow and travel problems, but I think we're going to see unbelievable amounts of rain in parts of California. That's the next story to talk about. But first we'll be watching the melting in Buffalo in areas of the Northeast.

KOSIK: Still ahead. Authorities in Ukraine are urging people to evacuate a city under siege. How residents in Kherson are weighing their options amid constant Russian shelling.

Then, the pope prays for his predecessor. We're live in Rome with what's known about the health of former Pope Benedict.

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[02:27:49]

KOSIK: Welcome back. I'm Alison Kosik. Catholics all over the world are praying for former Pope Benedict, after Pope Francis announced that his predecessor is very sick. The former Pope who was 95 resigned from his post almost a decade ago, citing his advanced age. He's now being constantly monitored by doctors according to a Vatican spokesperson. Let's go to Barbara Nadal who is covering this live from Rome Barbie. What are you hearing about the former Pope's medical condition?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, we haven't had an update since yesterday morning when the Vatican Press Office commented on the comments made the request for prayers by Pope Francis. So, we don't really have a good idea of how he's doing. Of course, he's 95. Of course, he's frail, we know that his condition is worsening. We know that he is in the monastery where he lives inside Vatican City, he hasn't been taken to a hospital as far as anyone knows.

And that his condition is not good at the moment. But it's really interesting. The fact that we've been talking about it, this transparency we don't always see from the Vatican does mean that the situation is very, very serious at this point, Alison, for the -- from the pope.

KOSIK: Pope Francis has been asking the faithful to keep Benedict in their thoughts. How's the church thinking of him during this delicate time?

NADEAU: Well, you know, this is a pope -- former pope with a very complicated legacy. You know, he -- a lot of people, obviously -- a lot of the more traditional Conservative Catholics are praying for him. They just got a lot of controversy surrounding how we handled the clerical sex abuse issues and things like that. So, there have been also comments to that effect, certainly on social media.

But the greater, you know, the greater Catholic community has -- will respect the fact that this was their pope for eight years. He was the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years. So, a lot of this is really without precedent. You know, we -- if this were the act of pope who was it failing in health, we would be getting regular updates, but this is really a -- for all intents and purposes a private citizen living in Vatican City now as a retired pope.

So, it's not clear how much the Vatican is going to tell us until there's real news to share, Alison.

KOSIK: OK. Barbie Nadeau in Rome. Thanks very much.

In Ukraine, officials are urging residents to evacuate the southern city of Kherson as Russia continues to launch attacks.

[02:30:09]

KOSIK: Residents tell CNN, many of the people who remain are taking care of elderly parents. Those who have fled the fighting say, Russia's constant shelling became unbearable, leaving them shaking with fear they could be killed at any moment. Beyond Kherson, fighting has intensified on the eastern frontlines. Ukrainian officials say, Russian forces have, "Practically destroyed the occupied city of Kremina."

Russian troops are now moving toward the town of Bakhmut, which has seen some of the heaviest fighting of the war in recent weeks. And just now, CNN's team in Kyiv reports hearing explosions as air raid sirens are sounding across Ukraine. Let's get more on this with CNN's Clare Sebastian. She joins us now live from London.

So, we are getting word of multiple of missile strikes. What more can you tell us?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this seems to be pretty widespread. And this morning, Alison, we -- as you say, hearing from our team in Kyiv that they have heard explosions on the ground. Their regional authorities, of course, Ukraine are reporting that air defense systems have been activated from the Lviv in the northwest down to Mykolaiv in the south. A variety of different regions in Mykolaiv. The regional head there said that five missiles were intercepted over the seas.

So, this appears to be a pretty widespread, pretty major aerial attack coming from Russia. There are signs, as well, that it's affecting the power grid which has been severely weekend by the last few months of Russian attacks in Odessa. The main power company there saying that emergency power outages have been implemented. That regional head, as well, also reporting that air defense systems have been activated, talking about a massive missile attack across Ukraine.

So, this appears to be still ongoing. We are getting more word from the various different regions about what is happening. But it's clear that, as we hear comments from Russia, like we heard from Sergey Lavrov this morning, that Russia is not prepared to negotiate on the regions that it is occupying and that it illegally annexed, that they continue to pursue a military solution here.

KOSIK: All right. Clare Sebastian in London. Thanks very much.

I want to move to CNN's Ben Wedeman who joins us now from Kyiv, if we have him.

Ben, thanks for joining us. What more are you learning. You are in Kyiv. What are you hearing? What are you seeing?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just about a few minutes after 9:00, local time, we heard three loud explosions here in central Kyiv. Now, we understand that those were air defenses taking down Russian missiles. But some debris did hit a resident in one part of the city. No word on injuries.

Now, there is much talk last night that -- of anticipation of a possible Russian missile strike or strikes across the country after, three days ago, the Engels 2 Airbase in Russia had been hit. Now, the Ukrainians don't say they have hit that base. But it was widely assumed that it was hit by Ukrainian missiles or drones causing some damage there and disruption to the Russian air defenses.

So, it was anticipated that something was going to happen in revenge for the attack on the Engels 2 Airbase in Russia, and it appears that this is the case. So, this seems to be an ongoing missile strike -- across missile strikes across the country, not just focused in particular areas. And as Clare was saying, there have been emergency -- they're -- basically, they are cutting the electricity in some parts of the country to avoid damage to the system in the event some of these missiles actually do get through.

KOSIK: OK. CNN's Ben Wedeman, live for us in Kyiv. I know we'll come back to you if you see anything changing there where you are.

And we will be right back.

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[02:35:00]

KOSIK: A huge fire has killed at least 11 people at a casino in Cambodia with some people so desperate to get out they left to their deaths. That is according to a rescue worker who spoke to CNN after flames engulfed the structure on Wednesday night. He says, he saw two people die when they jumped from the building while other people suffered broken legs.

The casino, which contains a hotel, is located near the Thai border, so emergency crews from both countries rushed to help. The rescue worker also says, crews are still searching hotel rooms for more victims. We will continue to follow the story and bring you more updates when we have them.

Meantime, let's bring in journalist Manisha Tank. She is live for us in Singapore.

Gosh, these details are just devastating. Have officials said anything about what they think might have caused this blaze? MANISHA TANK, JOURNALIST: As yet, and our teams are reaching out to officials in Thailand and in Cambodia, Alison. We -- it is not clear exactly where and how this started. Although, there are some suspicions of this near the kitchen area, near the restaurant area. We will keep on checking those details for you.

Now, the rescue teams are in the building. Some of those have bits and pieces, will begin to emerge so that we can construct this puzzle, put it together -- the pieces together to understand how all of this happened. (INAUDIBLE) describing some of the stories that are -- we shared from the location, like I said, we can get more from the rescue worker talking about how people trying to save their lives, jumping out of this building -- sustained major injuries.

Initial -- what's pointed to three -- last -- open -- people here in Southeast Asia woke up to this news. Now, we heard that 11 people lost their lives in this fire. Look at the pictures. You can see intense orange flame. You can see plumes of smoke sprouting from this hotel.

And to give some context, it's really close to the Thai border. Now, this is one of the reasons why Cambodian authorities have reached out to Thai rescue teams, to Thai authorities to have help with this rescue efforts. In fact, they rescued workers we were talking about -- was talking about how -- and that was not available to the Cambodians.

[02:40:00]

This is the kind of thing, kind of assets that the Thai authorities can provide. One of the reasons they are reaching out to those fire (ph) rescue teams. But also, the fact that announcement -- that they were trying to help people stuck in this burning building in the Thai language because many tourists come across the border, it's right there, to use this hotel and casino.

I can also tell you that this is a real holiday period. It's -- holiday period across Southeast Asia. A lot of people are traveling. So, it is very busy time. There was a lot of shouting. As you can imagine, now, as we begin to see pictures, and as I have been watching these coming in regularly, you can see against the darkness when this started. It was just really harrowing scenes of flames.

And now, the rescue teams getting in there, trying to get this fire under control. Our big fear is that there will more bad news to come but we are watching it very closely and staying in touch with those rescue teams out there.

KOSIK: All right. Manisha Tank in Singapore for us. Thank you.

The daughter of Brazilian football legend, Pele, shared a photo on Instagram of her family at the Sao Paulo Hospital, where Pele is receiving treatment. Along with the photo, she wrote this, these moments are hard to explain. Sometimes, there is a lot of sadness and helplessness. Others, we laugh and talk of funny memories. And what we learned the most from all of this is that we must look for each other and keep close. That is the only way it's all worth it with everyone together. The family spent Christmas in the hospital after Pele was admitted last month for a respiratory infection and a reevaluation of his chemotherapy for colon cancer.

Now, to U.S. football, where Miami Head Coach Mike McDaniel says, Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion on Sunday. That's the second one for the Dolphins quarterback this season. His status for this week's game against the New England Patriots is uncertain. And the Dolphins are planning to start Teddy Bridgewater. McDaniel says, Tagovailoa is doing better than the day before but it's hard to extrapolate beyond that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE MCDANIEL, MIAMI DOLPHINS HEAD COACH: I will do what the medical experts advised me to do and I'm quite certain they are not going to advise me in the wrong direction, what it can -- it has to do with is his health. His health is the first, foremost and only priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Tagovailoa played the entire game against the green bay packers this past Sunday. McDaniel says he can't pinpoint exactly when he might have been injured. Thanks for joining us. I'm Alison Kosik. For our international viewers, World Sport is up next. For those here in the United States and Canada, I will be right back with more news.

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[02:45:00]

KOSIK: Welcome back. I'm Alison Kosik. Benjamin Netanyahu's stunning political comeback in Israel culminates on Thursday when he will be formally sworn in as prime minister for a record sixth time. But before that happens, parliament will vote on his new cabinet that is set to begin in the next couple of hours. Analysts expect it to be the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

Let's bring in Elliott Gotkine. He's covering this for us and joins us from Jerusalem. So, Elliott, who is expected to make up Netanyahu's cabinet and what are some of the new prime ministers' first priorities?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Alison, as you say, this is expected to be the most right-wing government in Israel's history and I think that is what it is garnering so much attention, because, of course, Netanyahu has been prime minister five times before, this is a record sixth time. So, it's kind of almost more of the same in that respect.

In terms of some of the personalities we have been talking about since the election on November the 1st, you have got, you know, the Jewish power party led by one Itamar Ben-Gvir who has been convicted in the past of incitement to racial hatred and supporting terrorism.

You've got the self-professed homophobe Bezalel Smotrich as the head of the religious Zionism Party. He is set to be finance minister for the next couple of years. And also, have a new role where he's in charge of the civil administration in the West Bank.

And, of course, there are other controversial figures as well, Aryeh Deri the head of the Shas Party. They passed a specific law to enable him to be a minister this time around because he was convicted earlier this year of tax fraud. He's going to be the finance minister after a couple of years as well. So, those are some of the personalities.

In terms of the agenda, the punitive new government laid out its plans yesterday. And there are a couple of controversial elements in there as well, one is, for example, to promote and develop all parts of the land of Israel, in their words. And they specified the Galilee in the north, the Negev in the south, and also, Judea and Samaria, which is what they called the West Bank.

So, obviously there is a resurgence of a settlement building in the West Bank. That is something that is labeled to cause controversy, particularly among Israel's allies, and perhaps other countries in the region that Israel would like, eventually, to sign peace agreements with as well. Another plan to restore, in their words, the proper balance between the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary.

There are concerns that they planned -- this basically means, the Knesset, the parliament will have the power to override decisions by the high court, which, where in the past, it might have struck outlaws that it deemed were unconstitutional effectively. What they want to do is to be able to have the Knesset lawmakers to overturn such decisions. There are concerns that it will dilute any checks and balances that there are going to be on this new government.

But one thing they did put in this agenda which was perhaps designed to lay concerns is, in their words, the status quo of religion and state will be preserved including, they specify, for the holy places. You may recall there were concerns that we had caused in the past from Itamar Ben-Gvir who was set to be interior minister to change the status quo on Temple Mount as it's known to Jews, and Haram al Sharif as it's known to Muslims, to enable jews to pray there. That, according to this agenda, is not going to happen. Ultimately, Alison, Netanyahu says, the battle (ph) will stop with him.

KOSIK: All right. Elliott Gotkine in Jerusalem, thank you.

More fallout for George Santos, the New York Congressman-elect who has admitted to lying about key parts of his background. Federal prosecutors are now investigating his finances. This, as CNN discovers even more of his falsehoods. Here's Eva McKend with the latest.

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TULSI GABBARD, FOX NEWS HOST: These are blatant lies. My question is, do you have no shame?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER (voiceover): Incoming Republican Congressman, George Santos, facing his most conventional interview yet as he tries to explain lies he told about his life while campaigning for Congress. GEORGE SANTOS (R) NEW YORK CONGRESSMEN-ELECT: Look, I agree with what you are saying. And as I stated and I continue, we can debate my resume and how I worked with firms such as Goldman --

GABBARD: Is it debatable --

SANTOS: It's very debatable.

GABBARD: -- or is it just false?

SANTOS: No, it's not false at all. It's debatable.

MCKEND (voiceover): Santos trying to minimize his lies as mere embellishment in an interview with Fox News. His answers getting strong pushback from host Tulsi Gabbard.

GABBARD: It's hard to imagine how they could possibly trust your explanations when you're not really even willing to admit the depth of your deception to them.

MCKEND (voiceover): And tonight, CNN's KFile uncovering even more of Santos' falsehoods. Claiming he attended an elite prep-school.

SANTOS: They sent me to a good prep-school. So -- which was Horace Mann prep in the Bronx. And on my senior of prep-school, unfortunately my parents fell on hard times. I left school four months to graduation.

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MCKEND (voiceover): But a spokesperson for Horace Mann telling CNN there is no evidence Santos ever attended the school. And further fabrications about his family heritage.

SANTOS: We don't carry the Ukrainian last name for a lot of people who are descendants of World War II refugees or survivors of the holocaust. A lot of names and paperwork were changed and the name of survivors. So, I don't carry the family last name that would have been Zabrovsky.

MCKEND (voiceover): A genealogist previously told CNN there is no sign of Jewish and/or Ukrainian heritage and no indication of name changes along the way. But Santos appeared to use the alias, Anthony Zabrovsky for fundraising for a pet charity. Santos insisting despite the controversy, that he intends to serve in Congress.

SANTOS: Now, it's going to be incumbent upon me to deliver on those results. And I look forward to serve --

GABBARD: You're exactly right.

SANTOS: -- servicing -- serving my -- my district.

MCKEND (voiceover): House GOP Leader, Kevin McCarthy, remaining silent on the matter. Even as fellow incoming GOP house members from New York issued statements criticizing Santos' lack of transparency. The most recent one, Congressman-elect Mike Lawler urging Santos to cooperate with any investigations and called on him to apologize. Calling the whole controversy, a distraction.

Santos also under scrutiny for how he made his money. And how he was able to loan his campaign more than $700,000. Santos telling news outlet, Semafor, he earned his money in the capital introduction business and did deal building and specialty consulting for high net worth individuals.

MCKEND (on camera): And the Nassau County district attorney Ann Donnelly, who I should note is a Republican, has pledged to get to the bottom of this. She characterized the fabrications from Santos as stunning. In a statement adding, the residents of Nassau County and other parts of the Third District must have an honest and accountable representative in congress. No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this County, we will prosecute it.

So, multiple law enforcement officials looking into this matter. Eve McKend, CNN, Washington.

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KOSIK: Migrants coming from Mexico are not giving up on their dream of a new life in the U.S. despite a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the court decided to temporarily keep a policy called Title 42 under, which many of them, could be expelled without an immigration hearing.

Leyla Santiago went to the city of El Paso, Texas, the ground zero of the ongoing border crisis, and some migrants told her they do not plan to go back.

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LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, what she wants now is she's hoping she can get to Dallas to -- where she knows someone to be able to, as she has repeated, find a better future for her children and work.

SANTIAGO (voiceover): Maribellis Montecinos (ph) and her one-year-old son just finished a four months long journey from Venezuela, through nine different countries just to be here in the United States of America.

SANTIAGO (on camera): Her question is, to the people that United States, to the government of the United States, why do they not want her here?

SANTIAGO (voiceover): That sentiment echoed by many mothers here. But their future is in doubt after the Supreme Court ordered, Tuesday, to keep in place the Trump-era Title 42 policy, while legal challenges play out in court over the next few months. Their policy allows the U.S. government to expel migrants legally seeking asylum before they've had a proper hearing.

PASTOR TIMOTHY PEREA, COMMUNITY ORGANIZER: It breaks me because there's no directive. And what we're trying to provide with minimal resources that we have is a direction so they can go from point A to point B.

SANTIAGO (voiceover): Over the past few months, tens of thousands of migrants have been surging to the southern border, creating a humanitarian crisis. It's left border town like El Paso overwhelmed and unable to keep up with the challenges of providing care, food, and shelter for those in need.

MAYOR OSCAR LEESER, (D-EL PASO): We've had as many as 2,500 crossings a day, and will -- and -- that will continue. And this is while Title 42 is still in place.

SANTIAGO (voiceover): El Paso is preparing for an even larger surge at Title 42 be rescinded, transforming two vacant schools into temporary housing.

LEESER: This is just a band-aid on a broken immigration system. The system has to be fixed because we can't continue to go this way.

SANTIAGO (voiceover): U.S. Customs and Border Protection says, it's setting up a new processing facility in El Paso to increase capacity. It's one of 10 new temporary processing facilities being added on the U.S.-Mexico border. For now, local organizers in El Paso are asking people to just try to see the humanity in everyone.

PEREA: They are here. Some of them are here. And what are we going to do? It is time to step up. It is time to say, you know what, they are here, regardless if I'm a red shirt, blue shirt, whatever the case maybe, let's help out these people.

SANTIAGO (on camera): And as night falls here and the temperature drops, the winds pick up, you can see there are actually piles of blankets for those who will spend the night on the streets here.

[02:55:00]

You know, as the country braces for what could be another potential surge of migrants, we have learned that the Department of Homeland Security also concerned about another potential surge. We obtained a memo that circulated just days ago, warning of potential violent extremist attacks, targeting migrants, and critical infrastructure should the Trump-era policy come to an end. Leyla Santiago, CNN, El Paso.

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KOSIK: Thanks for joining us. I'm Alison Kosik. I'll be right back with more news after the break.

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