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Moscow, Idaho, Residents Relieved after Arrest of Suspect; Buffalo, New York, Residents Work to Clear Snow before Temps Rise; Taiwan Offers to Help China with COVID-19 Surge; New Broadway Musical Explores Life of Neil Diamond; "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" Premieres in June. Aired 3:30-4a ET
Aired January 01, 2023 - 03:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Happy new year to all of our viewers around the world. I am Michael Holmes coming to you from CNN headquarters in Atlanta.
Though a suspect has been arrested in the stabbing death of 4 Idaho college students, the investigation is far from over. The Moscow police say more than 400 calls came in to authorities after they announced the suspect was in custody.
And the chief said he doesn't regret his decision to remain tight- lipped about the investigation despite many questions from the community. Veronica Miracle with the latest.
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VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There has been such a sense of relief in this community now that the suspect has been arrested. It doesn't change the fact that four gruesome murders took place in the seemingly safe town in this rural college community.
But now that there has been an arrest, we've heard from people who feel such relief. A business owner came by the police department to drop off a gift. He said this community has been impacted emotionally. Everyone has been on edge.
But it has also impacted the economy. He is a business owner and his employees are students, as are most of the businesses in this town. Other businesses have been impacted, where students have left because they don't feel safe.
So they have been studying virtually and so many people are hoping this community comes together when students come back to class in the next couple of weeks.
In terms of the Moscow Police Department there has been a lot of criticism over the last seven weeks because they did not release hardly any information. And any time we would ask why, they said they wanted to protect the
integrity of the investigation. There were no leaks from this small department and they kept all of their information close. They say they are glad they did that. The police chief said he wouldn't change a thing and he is receiving apologies now.
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CHIEF JAMES FRY, MOSCOW POLICE DEPARTMENT: A few have sent me emails, some apologizing. We are a pretty humble group and we know that people are going to be watching what we are doing. And some of that is criticism.
And we have a job to do and we continue to do it and it does feel good. We held everything close for a long time and we did it for the reason that we have stated. And I think the end result proved that maybe it was done right.
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MIRACLE: Bryan Kohberger remains in Pennsylvania. He has an extradition hearing coming up Tuesday. The public defender has told CNN he is going to waive his right to an extradition hearing so he could be back in Idaho as early as Tuesday.
I asked the police chief how long that process would take. He said it could be as early as Tuesday. When he arrives back here he will go to the Latah County jail -- Veronica Miracle, CNN, Moscow, Idaho.
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HOLMES: The New York police commissioner said three officers are in stable condition following a machete attack near Times Square. The unprovoked assault happened two hours before midnight near a screening site to get into Times Square.
One received a skull fracture and a large cut on his head and another officer suffered a laceration. The third officer's injuries were not specified.
A 19-year-old man began swinging a machete at the officers without warning before he was shot and wounded. Mayor Eric Adams praising the officers' professionalism while maintaining security for the celebration.
Severe weather is closing highways and causing power failures. San Francisco nearing the record for rainfall in a single day. In Sacramento County, residents were advised to avoid travel as wind gusts toppled trees and covered roads with debris.
Residents were ordered to shelter in place due to the rain and flooding. About 300,000 customers in California and Nevada are without power. The precipitation is being blamed on what is being called an atmospheric river.
The same system is bringing huge amounts of snow to the mountains. A welcome sight for drought ravaged California.
And residents of Buffalo New York are working to dig out from under more than four feet of snow that fell during last week's historic blizzard. In the coming days, temperatures are expected to rise well above freezing putting the area at risk of flooding as all the snow and ice melts.
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WAVERLY COLLIER, LASALLE NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENT: OK, the city should have a better plan for this because we go through this every year. All of this is going to flood. We can't shovel this out to get to the drain. They ask for the people to cooperate. We are trying to cooperate but they're not cooperating with us.
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HOLMES: Erie County officials say they prepared for possible flooding by stockpiling pumps and generators and digging drainage ditches for melting snow.
After mass cancellations and chaos, Southwest Airlines says it's finally back on a full schedule. It had only five cancellations on Saturday as the vice president of the airline's pilots association is urging people to give them another chance.
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MIKE SANTORO, V.P., SOUTHWEST AIRLINES PILOTS ASSOCIATION: I encourage them to give us another shot. I think we are going to end up fixing this going forward. It does take a very large event to make this happen.
And the union is definitely going to be pressing the company very hard to make sure things get fixed.
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HOLMES: The airline canceled more than 15,000 flights since December 22, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers. Luggage was lost, misplaced or delayed, forcing the Department of Transportation to send the airline a formal warning.
Anita Pointer, one of the founding members of the R&B act, The Pointer Sisters, has died at the age of 74. She grew up singing in her father's church before she and her sisters formed the group.
They won three Grammys as a group and are remembered for such hits as "I'm So Excited" and "Jump." Pointer staged a very heroic battle with cancer before dying at home in Los Angeles with her family by her side.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
Morocco said it will ban all travelers from China starting on Tuesday. Countries are now taking precautions after the rapid drawback of the zero COVID policy led to a huge outbreak. Australia and Canada joined a growing list of destinations requiring negative tests required for travelers from China starting on Tuesday.
Travelers must take the test no more than two days before departure. On Friday, England and France and the U.S. and Spain and also South Korea announcing similar restrictions.
Taiwan's president has offered to provide assistance to help Beijing deal with the COVID surge that experts say could lead to nearly a million deaths. She made these comments in her new year's message.
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TSAI ING-WEN, TAIWANESE PRESIDENT (through translator): As long as there is a need, based on the position of humanitarian care, we are willing to provide the necessary assistance to help more people get out of the pandemic and have a healthy and safe new year.
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HOLMES: A report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says long COVID played a role in more than 3,500 deaths in the United States since the pandemic began. And a lot of experts say that's an underestimate.
The CDC said up to 40 percent of people who had COVID eventually developed long-term symptoms. It's a big issue. Most people who died from long COVID were white, older and male.
Unvaccinated people who became infected may have a higher risk of developing long COVID that can last weeks, months and even years after the initial infection and can sometimes go away and come back.
Long COVID can cause difficulty in things like breathing, concentration, chest pain, depression and digestion issues.
For more I am joined by Dr. Scott Miscovich, a national consultant for COVID-19 testing and the president and CEO of Premier Medical Group USA.
Good to see you, Doctor. Let's talk about this long COVID. The CDC said up to 30 percent of people who get COVID have long-term symptoms, which is a huge number of people.
What concerns you most about long COVID and is enough being done to research it? DR. SCOTT MISCOVICH, FAMILY PHYSICIAN AND NATIONAL CONSULTANT: First, with long COVID-19, the single most important thing we are concerned about is we have not identified any real treatment.
When you get COVID-19, you start developing long COVID. We almost have to pick and spot the treatments for the different conditions that you have. And the big three are clearly now the fatigue, the shortness of breath and the brain fog.
And they are different and each one has a different treatment. So that is the biggest single problem that we have right now.
The second issue is trying to get care and trying to fight through the red tape that the insurance companies and even the government puts into play to access care, because what you do for checking lungs versus checking the brain, it's quite intensive to go into rehabilitative therapy.
What we would like is to have a treatment we could initiate early on so people don't go on to have this long COVID-19. But these are going to take a year and that doesn't help us right away.
HOLMES: I want to deviate on that to ask you about what we are seeing in China and the huge rate of spread as restrictions are lifted.
What are the potential global impacts of that?
Variants thrive in an environment of rapid spread.
Is there a risk of a more deadly mutation emerging?
MISCOVICH: Oh, we are so concerned right now. For the next six months, the world will be on edge, watching what happens with China. And we don't get a lot of good data so that is also a big concern.
And I want to highlight how easy it is for something to develop and spread. We have this variant called the XVB 1.5. That is called a recombinant variant. An individual had similar to the Omicron 2 and Omicron 5 and they fused a created a completely new variant, just that one event has now dominated the U.S. and is dominating the spread across the world in a much more aggressive mutation.
HOLMES: Quickly, before we go. It is a new year.
How do you see the path of COVID globally in the year ahead?
MISCOVICH: Well. I think globally the world will be focused on what happens in China.
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MISCOVICH: What happens in China, now that the borders are open, is going to affect the world. So basically, the next six months will be a China focus. And we are also going to see a continued concern of our elderly population still being dominated with hospitalization and death. That is something we have to watch. We will see another major vaccine
being produced. And my prediction is by the end of second quarter we might see something called a quadrivalent vaccine, where they put multiple different strains to try to cover -- similar to what we do with the flu.
And in the fall we will definitely be seeing a major push in the country for COVID and flu vaccines. But right now we are holding our breath. We don't see another major variant that would be more devastating.
HOLMES: And evade the vaccines, absolutely. Always a pleasure to have your insights. Happy new year to you.
MISCOVICH: Happy new year to you and to the team at CNN.
HOLMES: Now a musical about the life of the singer Neil Diamond is helping fuel a resurgence on Broadway. We will hear from actors and fans and why they say it is so good, so good, so good.
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HOLMES: A new Broadway musical is exploring the life and legacy of music legend Neil Diamond. Lynda Kinkade spoke to some of the people behind the show, "A Beautiful Noise."
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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The life of one of the best-selling artists of all time, now, set on stage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 39 albums. 120 million albums sold.
KINKADE (voice-over): Neil Diamond was a kid from Brooklyn, New York, who planned to enter medical school. Instead, he entered the Music Hall of Fame.
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KINKADE (voice-over): Will Swenson stars as the young Neil Diamond.
WILL SWENSON, ACTOR: I think the secret of doing this show is lots of sleep and lots of caffeine maybe.
KINKADE (voice-over): Another Tony nominee, Mark Jacoby, plays Diamond now.
KINKADE: So you played title roles in "The Phantom of the Opera," "Sweeney Todd," "Wicked."
What was it like when you heard that you had the role of Neil Diamond?
MARK JACOBY, ACTOR: A bit overwhelming, frankly. It's not just playing Neil Diamond; the show is about Neil Diamond. It's his life.
In the case of our rehearsals here in New York, in front of that person, seven or eight feet away, it's so hard not to think about what does he think and how is he reacting to this and does he hate me or love me or something in between?
KINKADE (voice-over): Neil Diamond toured for nearly 50 years. But in 2018 he was forced to stop after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In "Playbill," he says, "My heart and soul would tour until the day I die if only my body would cooperate."
KINKADE: What input did Neil have in the show?
I understand you went to his house with a draft of this musical.
ANTHONY MCCARTEN, WRITER: Yes, I was kind of misled. They said just deliver it. But when I got there they invited me in and seated me at a table and said, Can you perform the entire musical for me?
And I was, what?
Here we go.
We went through the whole thing. It was terrifying. But at the end, he said get your producer on the telephone. So we called the producer and he spoke into the phone. Three words: I'm a believer.
KINKADE (voice-over): "I'm a Believer," words from the song Neil Diamond wrote for The Monkees, a clear endorsement. New Zealander Anthony McCarten, four time Academy Award nominee is the show's writer. He's also the screenwriter behind the Winston Churchill drama, "The Darkest Hour" and the Queen biopic," Bohemian Rhapsody."
KINKADE: People go for the music but they want a good story.
MCCARTEN: Not only a good story, they want to hear something that they have never heard before.
KINKADE (voice-over): Four-time Tony nominee Steven Hoggett did the choreography.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With a show like this, creating the big (INAUDIBLE) is in the music.
KINKADE (voice-over): Broadway was battered by COVID.
KINKADE: For 18 months Broadway shut down.
What impact did that have on you and other performers?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was nothing in the way of live theater. So it was devastating. So many people left the business without any intention of coming back. KINKADE (voice-over): The longest-running show ever, "The Phantom of the Opera," is set to close in April, 35 years after opening because it was struggling to sell enough tickets to offset costs.
Attendance in January was the lowest it had been since 2003. Now they say capacity is closer to 90 percent. And shows like "Tina" are once more touring.
KINKADE: Here, theatergoers are starting to return in large numbers after the longest shut down in history and things have never seemed so good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So good, so good, so good.
KINKADE: You are a local New Yorker.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am a local New Yorker.
KINKADE: What is it like having Broadway back closer to full capacity?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's amazing.
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KINKADE (voice-over): Remarkably, when the curtains rose on opening night, Neil Diamond willed his body to perform once more.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy new year.
KINKADE (voice-over): Lynda Kinkade, CNN, New York.
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HOLMES: Many people were still reluctant last year to head back to the theaters, even though there were plenty of blockbuster movies, like "Top Gun: Maverick" to the "Avatar" sequel to "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." So grab your popcorn as Chloe Melas reports 2023 is shaping up to be a box office smash.
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CHLOE MELAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nintendo fans are gearing up for the Super Mario Brothers movie set to release in April. Chris Pratt is the voice of Mario in the new animated film, based on the iconic video game.
The famous plumber and his brother, Luigi, travel through the Mushroom Kingdom in a quest to save a captured princess. Other big names include Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black and Seth Rogen.
Pratt also stars in the latest from Marvel Studios, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" with the writer director bringing the space trilogy to a close, the ragtag guardians on another dangerous mission to defend the universe. It is set to release in May.
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MELAS (voice-over): Harrison Ford returns in June as the legendary archaeologist in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." It has been 15 years since we have seen him on the big screen and Ford says this is the fifth and final installment of the franchise.
In his newest adventure, he takes on former Nazis in an effort to help the U.S. government beats Russia in the space race.
"Oppenheimer" explodes onto screens in July. "Peaky Blinders" actor Cillian Murphy stars as physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan directs this film about the father of the atomic bomb. Cast includes Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Rami Malek and Matt Damon.
And for much younger moviegoers, a live action version of "The Little Mermaid" makes a splash in May. Halle Bailey plays Ariel, who falls for a dashing young prince while visiting the surface world. But a deal with the evil sea witch puts her life in jeopardy -- Chloe Melas, CNN.
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HOLMES: Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Stick around. My colleague Laila Harrak picks up with more news in a moment. And happy new year.
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