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Russia Updates Death Toll In Makiivka To 89; Moscow Claims Ukraine Is Developing A "Dirty Bomb"; Rep. Kevin McCarthy Falls Short In Three Rounds Of Votes For House Speaker; Global Football Legend Pele Laid To Rest In Brazil; Huge Outpouring Of Support For Buffalo Bill's Damar Hamlin. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired January 04, 2023 - 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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[00:00:22]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, Ukraine claims another deadly strike on Russian forces as anger grows in Moscow over military incompetence.

Three strikes and he's not out. Kevin McCarthy still hoping to be a U.S. House speaker with a fourth round of voting plan for Wednesday.

And in the city, he made famous and from the country he united, a joyous farewell to one of the greats of football.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: Another devastating blow to Vladimir Putin's war of choice with Ukraine claiming artillery strikes which began on New Year's Eve have killed or wounded some 500 Russian soldiers.

Ukraine's military says they targeted the Russian occupied village of Chulakivka to the south of Kherson city not far from the Black Sea.

Moscow is yet to make any public comment on the strikes, but has revised upwards, their official death toll from an earlier, Ukrainian missile strike on a Russian base in the Donetsk region.

The Kremlin now says 89 soldiers were killed, the deadliest strike on Russian troops publicly confirmed by Moscow since the war began.

And Russian defense officials say Ukrainian forces were able to target the site by tracing cell phone calls by new recruits. The Ukrainians put the Russian death toll in the hundreds.

And Ukraine's military has released images claiming to be a strike on an ammunition warehouse in the Luhansk region. The head of the regional military says they watched for weeks as the Russians brought in weapons and vehicles until, bam, there's no more enemy warehouse.

And bam, there's no more hockey arena in Donetsk. It was destroyed by a Russian missile while French television correspondent was reporting live. He was left shaken but unharmed.

Meantime, Ukraine's president continued with his seemingly neverly -- never ending efforts to try to rally global support speaking with leaders of Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and the U.K. on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This is precisely the time when together with partners, we have to strengthen our defenses. We have no doubt that the current masters of Russia will throw everything they have left and every one they can round up to try and turn over the situation with the war and at least delay their defeat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Joining me now from Washington, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton. Good to see you, Colonel.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you too, John.

VAUSE: OK, would you listen to a little more from Ukraine's president on where he believes this war is heading. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY (through translator): We have information that Russia is planning a protracted attack using Shahed drones, it is probably banking on exhaustion, exhausting our people, our anti-aircraft defenses, our energy, but we act and do everything so that the terrorists fail in their aim, as all their others have failed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: In a way, it sounds like he's describing a war of attrition but using these Iranian made drones, which indicates again that Russia's stockpiles of artillery rounds and missiles are running low.

And if the Zelenskyy is right, does that mean the U.S. and its allies, you know, will increase efforts to prevent Iran from shipping more of these drones to Moscow and do they have any options beyond sanctions?

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's a great question, John. So there are certain things that could be done.

I mean, for example, there could be some blockades attempted of Iranian movements, but those blockades would only really be effective in the Persian Gulf.

A lot of the equipment that Iran is shipping to Russia is being shipped overland through the Caucasus region, Azerbaijan and those places into Russia.

So, it's going to be very difficult for the West to actually intercept those kinds of shipments. That, you know, presents a great deal of difficulty.

The other thing that could be done, though, is once these drones become operational, is to work to jam their command and control networks so that they actually don't -- aren't able to fire these drones in a way that they are intended to.

In other words, what you would do is you would jam the signals to prevent the drones from actually striking a target. That would be something that would require a great deal of effort, but it can certainly be done.

VAUSE: Well, the latest details we also have now from this Ukrainian missile strike on that Russian airbase in an occupied part of eastern Ukraine. It's coming from a Russian blogger. He's called WarGonzo. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[00:05:07]

SEMYON PEGOV, RUSSIAN BLOGGER WARGONZO (through translator): The exact death toll we still don't know and so far as we can trust our officials who are working directly at the side of this tragedy. They are continuing to clear the rubble and the death toll for this tragedy after the HIMARS hit the location of mobilized and active soldiers could unfortunately be higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: A couple of war bloggers have been incredibly active, but what we know is that the U.S. supplied HIMARS (INAUDIBLE) satellite guided precision missiles that come from a mobile launcher have arranged about 50 miles and the base that was hit was 10 miles from Ukrainian controlled soil.

Another blogger reporting that there was no attempt to try and hide the presence of an ammunition dump nearby.

So, it seems the reason why this attack was so deadly in the first place has a lot more to do with Russian incompetence as opposed to Ukrainian military tactics. And now there's some very real criticism playing out in Moscow.

LEIGHTON: Yes, for sure. And one of the key issues here, John, is that the very fact that the Russian military is not taking the kinds of care that they need to take in order to protect their soldiers.

But what that really means is that they don't care about the lives of their soldiers. And that makes a real difference in terms of the ability to employ those forces, as well as the ability to actually take those forces, increase their morale and make them ineffective fighting force.

The Russian recipe here is one of a very ineffective fighting force, and it contrasts sharply with that of the Ukrainians. VAUSE: We also know there's been this mobilized -- mobilization rather of the Russian military over the last 10 something years, they spent hundreds of billions of dollars on this. What were also seeing is that the reporting on the military and Russia's military, Newsweek notes this, experts have long been impressed with Russian doctrine, which emphasizes all aspects of war-fighting, including information and economic warfare, manipulation of opponents, politics and hybrid warfare.

Much of that doctrine comes from the current chief of the Russian Armed Forces. But the war in Ukraine looks a lot more like the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and then some kind of complicated their war effort. Does that change the calculation here if Putin does decide to dig in for this war of attrition? Is there an argument here for using overwhelming force against him and go for a victory by the Ukrainians?

LEIGHTON: Well, there's certainly is that possibility. You're right, the so called Gerasimov Doctrine named after the defense chief of the Russian Federation is very much a paper doctrine. If they had implemented the components of that doctrine, we'd probably be looking at something very different on the ground in Ukraine, it doesn't mean that the Russians would necessarily win out right. But it was certainly posture them in a much better way than they are currently postured.

And it really shows that if the Russians are going to dig in and you know, move in in that general attrition direction, it's going to be a long slog for them. But it is also possible for the Ukrainians to overcome that and really get around this idea of a war of attrition by moving quickly using HIMARS and other systems like it in a way to actually end this conflict on a perhaps more favorable basis than would otherwise be the case.

VAUSE: It seems to go from bad to worse for Vladimir Putin. That seems to be a good thing for many people. Cedric Leighton, thank you, sir, for being with us. We appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, John. Absolutely.

VAUSE: Well, Russia is only using drones and missiles in this conflict, disinformation is one of its most powerful weapons. There's no shortage of examples. Putin's claiming in his New Year's speech that the West was preparing for aggression in Ukraine, the insistence that atrocities in Bucha was staged and perhaps one of the most striking, an accusation that Ukraine was planning to detonate a dirty bomb on its own territory as a setup of Russia.

CNN's Clare Sebastian reports on what this bizarre claim reveals about Russian tactics.

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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): No one has ever successfully detonated a dirty bomb. So, to help us understand Russia's accusations and the myths, David Butler (PH), a retired British Army officer, an expert in radiological weapons has agreed to do a basic demonstration.

DAVID BUTLER, AN EXPERT IN RADIOLOGICAL WEAPONS: Ready?

SEBASTIAN: Butler used regular explosives here to disburse a kilo of plain flour. A dirty bomb would also use regular explosives to disperse a radioactive substance. Very different though from a nuclear bomb which creates a complex chain reaction by splitting atoms.

So, David, it's pretty windy conditions today, but what does this teach us about how a radioactive substance could spread from a dirty bomb?

BUTLER: The main aim of a dirty bomb is to spread as much irradiated shrapnel and irradiated dust particles as far as you can go.

So, the flour here demonstrates what would be left around the actual seat of the explosion, but it's the radioactive footprint on the ground that causes the long term effect.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It is very simple. We even know where they are manufacturing it.

[00:10:03]

SEBASTIAN: Russia's accusation Ukraine was allegedly planning to detonate a dirty bomb on its own territory to frame Russia seemed to come out of the blue, or did it?

First came state media reports citing trusted sources, then unscheduled weakened phone calls by the Russian defense minister to other nuclear armed powers.

Well produced graphics followed detailing the alleged sites where a dirty bomb could be built, even the exact radioactive isotopes to be used.

HAMISH DE BRETTON-GORDON, CHEMICAL AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS EXPERT: This looks as though it's been planned in great detail over many weeks, if not months. This is straight out of the sort of Russian playbook in Syria, the Russians and the Syrians would suggest that the rebel forces are about to create a chemical attack. And it was absolutely the Syrian regime that we're doing it.

SEBASTIAN: Well, inspectors from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog have now visited the sites in Ukraine that Russia named and found nothing suspicious. That has not allayed fears in the West that Russia could still use this as a pretext to escalate, especially after recent losses and retreats.

One area of major concern according to experts is this Parisian nuclear power plant which Russia controls.

BUTLER: One of the after effects of a dirty bomb is people breathing in the hazard. The radiated particles.

SEBASTIAN: While the physical impact of a dirty bomb depends on the amount of radioactive substance used, the power of the explosives and the weather, there is one guaranteed effect, fear.

This was Moscow in 1995, Chechen rebels buried a radioactive puzzle at a popular park. Russian authorities rushed to reassure the public it posed no threat.

Is there an element do you think that they have launched this now very elaborate accusation against Ukraine of a dirty bomb because it is something that has previously been associated with terror groups?

BRETTON-GORDON: Well, certainly, the Russian propaganda and disinformation campaign is in full flow and trying to depict the Ukrainians as Nazis and terrorists is absolutely what Putin is trying to do.

SEBASTIAN: The psychological impact of this carefully chosen accusation in itself a powerful weapon.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, near Salisbury, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Deep divisions within the U.S. Republican Party have erupted in an open rebellion in Congress. For the first time in 100 years, a vote for a new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has gone to a second, then a third. In the coming hours, a fourth round of voting.

20 hardline conservatives and mostly election deniers have blocked Kevin McCarthy from securing the 218 votes needed to become speaker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHERYL JOHNSON, U.S. HOUSE CLERK: No persons having received a majority of the whole number of votes cast by surname, a speaker has not been elected.

A speaker has not been elected.

A speaker has not been elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And until there is a house speaker, lawmakers cannot be sworn in, there is no business of government. Nothing gets done in the lower House.

McCarthy has vowed to fight on, his opponents say they will not back down.

CNN's Manu Raju has more now reporting in from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The House is in a state of paralysis right now. That's because they are unable to elect a speaker, that is the first order of business in the new Congress, the first order of business in the 118th Congress. And after three ballots, Kevin McCarthy simply could not get there.

This is the first time in American history in 100 years that an American speaker, a U.S. House Speaker could not be elected on the first ballot. And how many belts will it take for Kevin McCarthy? Nobody knows. Can Kevin McCarthy get there? Also uncertain. Will there be another candidate who emerges? Also another major question.

And this is not just a simple question about who may fill a key leadership position. This is someone who will drive the agenda of an institution of Congress, could help set the shape of policy, matters that could affect the lives of millions of Americans.

Also, someone who will drive the party strategy heading in the 2024 elections, all key questions unsettled because of this very chaotic fight between McCarthy allies, now number more than 200 but also a growing number of detractors. McCarthy's math is the real problem here.

Right now, the House Republicans and their new majority will occupy 222 seats. That means McCarthy cannot afford to lose more than four votes on the House floor, four Republican votes.

He has lost 20 so far, and because those in the camp of 20 are pushing, pushing hard to grow their numbers. They believe they can get up to 20, 25 Republicans to vote against him and ultimately forced McCarthy out of the race.

Now, McCarthy told me on Tuesday night, he is not going anywhere. He plans to dig in, force the opponents to essentially wear themselves out and essentially concede, give him the speakership.

[00:15:05]

He believes he's given them enough concessions, a lot of things they want is to have more power in the incoming Republican Congress that he says is plenty of concessions going forward. That's still not enough for some of these members.

But there are also other issues that he simply can't resolve, personality conflicts. Some people who just simply just want him out of the race altogether and say that they will vote against him for however long it takes.

So, all this is happening as Democrats on the other side are sitting back watching this happen, not planning at the moment to bail Kevin McCarthy out in any way as he struggles to try to finally claim the speakership that he's fought so hard to get, but he simply doesn't have the votes to get the gavel.

Manu Raju, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: CNN's Senior Political Analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Ron Brownstein joins us now from Los Angeles. Good to see you, Ron. RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, John, Happy New

Year.

VAUSE: And to you, not to Kevin McCarthy, though, losing that second vote. He actually told reporters, we stay in until we win. Adding that the numbers will change eventually, when pushed on the question of how those numbers would change, McCarthy said, I know the path.

Well, the numbers did change with that third ballot, another vote against McCarthy. So, from 19 to 20. So, 20 congressional Republicans are opposed to McCarthy. Out of that 20, 18 are in fact election deniers and Trump allies. And this was day one of the new Congress. What will two years look like?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, this is pretty good indication of what the next few years will look like. The enormous pressure that McCarthy faces from the right toward a policy of maximum confrontation with Biden, maximum airing of conservative grievances, and even conspiracy theories, all after an election in which Republicans became the first party out of the -- out of the White House to lose independent voters in modern midterm history and also suffered a string of defeats in the key swing states that will decide the 2024 election as they did in 2020.

In some ways, it almost doesn't matter at this point, whether he gets there or not, because he has already made so many concessions that he's guaranteed that the most extreme and militant voices in his caucus are going to have an outsized impact on defining the GOP agenda and framing its messaging, again, in direct contravention to the signal that voters sent in the key swing districts and states in November.

VAUSE: Well, apparently, these 20 Republicans have been given a number of nicknames within the party, one of the being the Taliban 20. And here's who they want as speaker and why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): Right now, our candidate is Jim Jordan. This is -- he is a fighter, he is a leader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK, so Jim Jordan, Representative Jim Jordan. This is what Jim Jordan has to say about becoming leader. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any chance that you may be Speaker of the House? Watch yourself.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): No. I want to -- I want to -- I want to chair Judiciary Committee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Yes, in case you missed it, he doesn't want it. So, the Taliban 20 brought the business of government to a standstill not going to be done until there's a speaker. And the one person they want a speaker doesn't want the job. You know, should the GOP big in hostage negotiators at this point?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, the role of Jordan really underscores the point I was just making. You know, the January 6 committee, the bipartisan committee was pretty reticent about calling out the role of individual members of Congress in Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election.

But they specifically cited Jim Jordan as being centrally involved at several points in Trump's efforts to subvert the will of the voters in 2020.

After a midterm election in which swing voters clearly showed concern about the Republican commitment to democracy, you would think that a rational party would be looking for ways to marginalize and lower the profile of someone Jim Jordan, who is you know, such a lightning rod at the center of this and yet, what did we see? We saw, not only did we see the right elevating him as their alternative to McCarthy, we saw McCarthy bringing him in as his principal character witness.

And again, I think that just goes to show what we're going to see over the next few years, which is no real discipline or constraint on the most militant and extreme members of the caucus further risking, further stamping the House GOP and the GOP itself as the party of Trump after an election in which that identification, clearly, you know, they clearly paid a cost for that identification.

VAUSE: Yes, I think Jordan nominated McCarthy one point for the speaker and yes, McCarthy spent years tried to win over these hard right MAGA party, you know, McCarthy made that very public journey to Mar-a-Lago, whose photographed next to Trump in the wake of the insurrection January 6th.

CNN is also reporting the former President Trump declined to issue a statement Monday, reiterating his endorsement of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, despite a behind the scenes effort from several McCarthy's allies to get Trump to do so, according to sources familiar with what happened.

[00:20:02]

You know, all these concessions that have -- that McCarthy has already pandering to Trump and his allies, it appears to be for nothing, because there is nothing that these people will agree to. There's nothing -- they say they want a lot of stuff, but they never -- they never agree to it.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, it is a reminder that with Trump loyalty is primarily a one way street. And you're right. I mean, kind of what makes this -- what takes us from kind of tragedy to pathetic is how much McCarthy has surrendered over the years in the effort to get to this point.

You know, he has a lot -- he kind of bit his lip all the way through about all of Trump's, you know, actions and his kind of violations of norms after the January 6th, the kind of a brief spasm of conscious and got over that very quickly. And had to go back to Mar-a-Lago.

And yet, in the end, it is still not enough, the far right does not trust him as one of their own. I mean, he's sort of, you know, what prompted the man to, you know, gain the world and surrenders the world.

So, he surrendered his, you know, kind of political soul without gaining the world. I mean, it's kind of the worst -- the worst of both worlds.

But, look, the problem is more institutional than personal. I mean, this is pretty much what happened to John Boehner and Paul Ryan, it is the reality that you have a portion of the Republican coalition, not only the caucus, the coalition that views itself as fundamentally in conflict with so many of the trends in modern America, they are not looking to govern, they are simply looking to gum up the works. And that is the reality that whoever climbs this greasy pole at the end is going to be dealing with.

VAUSE: This poison chalice this gamble that really who wants it at this point? Ron, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, John.

VAUSE: When we come back, saying goodbye to an icon, huge crowds show for football star Pele's wake and funeral procession.

In a moment we'll tell you who was there and how Pele is being honored.

Also, a family member of NFL player Damar Hamlin is sharing new details about his condition after his frightening collapse during Monday night's football.

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VAUSE: Wednesday will mark the third and final day of public viewing at the Vatican where Pope Benedict the 16th is lying in state.

He died on New Year's Eve and the Vatican says since Monday about 135,000 people have paid their respects and filed past his body inside St. Peter's Basilica.

The 95-year-old pontiff's funeral will take place on Thursday with Pope Francis the current pope, leading the mass.

Hundreds of thousands gathered for the public wake of football legend Pele including the presidents of Brazil, and FIFA.

In fact, so many turned up, thousands who've been waiting in line at the stadium were turned away.

Well, it's casket was carried through the streets of Santos in Sao Paulo state, the city he moved to when he was a teenager and went on to make famous around the world.

Stefano Pozzebon has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEFANO POZZEBON, REPORTER (voice over): For a man who was compared to God himself while still alive, the single day of mourning would have never been enough.

[00:25:03]

Pele's final farewell took two days, and so more than 200,000 people pay their respects.

In the closing hours of the public wake, even the president of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came to console a distraught widow.

Soon later, Pele's cascade was carried in a funeral cortege around the city of Santos. For those old enough to have seen him play, he had already reached in mortality.

Nothing you will write will ever match the greatness of Pele, our King. This is the funeral of a man but the king will always be here.

On the streets where his casket will let him pass. The crowds addressed different gods, some the Holy Father, others Pele himself, but everybody felt the passing of history.

The most emotional moment however was when Pele's caskets carried by a fire truck just behind my back arrived in front of the house where his mother still lives to this day. You can see the family going together, gathering on the rooftop of the house to say goodbye to a brother, to a son, to a father.

Relatives and friends gathered on the terrace, Pele's own sister bidding him farewell.

After a final prayer, the greatest football player of all time was finally laid to rest. In a private ceremony only for the family and far away from the cameras.

From now on, Pele will always be at a short distance from the football ground he graced with his magic. The banners with his name already taken from the stands, the king's memory forever in the heart of the city.

Stefano Pozzebon, CNN, Santos, Brazil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The uncle of the NFL player who collapsed Monday night says his nephew Damar Hamlin was resuscitated twice once on the field and again at the hospital and will remain sedated and in a critical condition, he's on a ventilator after suffering a heart attack during a showdown between his team the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Players from both teams were visibly emotional after Hamlin collapsed. His uncle says Hamlin has been flipped over onto his stomach in the hospital to help with the blood in his lungs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DORRIAN GLENN, DAMAR HAMLIN'S UNCLE: It's doing some damage to his lungs and are working to try to -- to try to remedy the remedy that and they got him on a ventilator to help with the breathing to just to take some of the strain off his lungs so they can heal and recuperate. So, yes, it's just a sad situation all the way around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: We have more now from CNN's Adrienne Broaddus about what happened on the field and the reaction from the sporting world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A growing tribute outside the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to pull through, you know, that's what we're here praying for, you know, and he's a strong man. So, he's doing his job. You know, we just got to do our job and pray for him.

BROADDUS: As fans come to pray for Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin.

RODNEY MCLEOD JR., SAFETY, INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: What we saw last night was something that we've never seen before. In my 11 years in NFL, I've never experienced anything like that.

BROADDUS: The sports world and the nation stunned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the last thing you want to see.

BROADDUS: The 24-year-old collapsing on the field suffering from a cardiac arrest. Moments after getting up, following a hard tackle in Monday night's game between the Bills and Cincinnati Bengals.

Team trainers and medical personnel treating him within seconds and performing CPR on the field. An ambulance rushing onto the field to take him to the hospital.

DONTE STALLWORTH, FORMER NFL PLAYER: Half the players on the field are crying and Bengals' players were crying. To see the player's reaction even though we couldn't see what was going on, that to me told the story of everything that was happening on the field.

BROADDUS: On Tuesday, the Buffalo Bills tweeting Damar Hamlin spent last night in the intensive care unit and remains there today in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Almost certainly what happened to Mr. Hamlin is something called Commotio Cordis, which is basically a cardiac arrest caused by a sharp blow to the chest at precisely the wrong moment.

BROADDUS: As the news spread, so did reactions across the sports world and beyond.

STALLWORTH: Sometimes we forget the human side that these players are actually human beings and they have families.

BROADDUS: His family releasing a statement Tuesday, expressing gratitude for the outpouring of support, saying "We are deeply moved by the prayers, kind words and donations from fans around the country."

[00:30:04]

JORDON ROONEY, DAMAR HAMLIN'S FRIEND AND MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE: I'm excited for him to bounce back from this, because Damar's someone who, he will -- he will use things like this, adversity and he'll make sure he inspires plenty of other people along the way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROADDUS (on camera): Meanwhile, almost everyone knows what it's like to wait. We've all been in waiting rooms. and as Damar remains here at this Cincinnati hospital behind me, his family is waiting for good news and hoping their loved one will walk out of those hospital doors the same.

Adrienne Broaddus, CNN, Cincinnati.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still ahead here on CNN, a story of survival. A Rohingya refugee speaks to CNN about a month-long ordeal at sea, adrift with no food or water.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, there is growing backlash around the Middle East and beyond after the newly-elected far-right politician walked with through the third most holy site in Islam on Tuesday.

This was the scene when Itamar Ben-Gvir, surrounded by police, stormed through what the Israelis call the Temple Mount. To Muslims, it's known as the Noble Sanctuary. Under a decades-old agreement, only Muslims are allowed to pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Other faiths are allowed to visit at certain times. But while Ben- Gvir's trip is infuriating to many Muslims, it does not come as a surprise. He has a history of inciting violence against Arabs and says the holy site should be open to everyone.

Palestinian officials have called the visit a serious threat, accusing Ben-Gvir of trying to turn the site into a Jewish temple.

The military group Hamas says the visit is pouring fuel over fire. And here's the U.S. reaction. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NED PRICE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: The United States stands firmly for preservation of the historic status quo, with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem. We oppose any unilateral actions that undercut the historic status quo. They are unacceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: There is also criticism from within Israel. Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid says Ben-Gvir's visit will lead to violence and ultimately cost lives.

Well, COVID restrictions on those traveling from China keep coming. The E.U. health chief wants predeparture COVID test for those arriving from China. The European Union spokesperson says an overwhelming majority of E.U. countries support the move.

This comes as China struggles with a surge of new infections after easing its zero-COVID rules. But the foreign ministry in Beijing is criticizing the global response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAO NING, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): We are willing to strengthen communication with the international community and work hard together to overcome the epidemic.

In the meantime, we believe that some countries have taken entry restrictions targeting China. This lacks scientific basis, and some practices are unacceptable. We firmly oppose any attempts to manipulate epidemic prevention measures in order to achieve political goals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:35:17]

VAUSE: Several E.U. states also require test for travelers from China, and a growing list of countries have launched new restrictions, as well, including the U.S.

Well, we're now hearing from one of the Rohingya Muslims who spent more than a month drifting at sea in a broken-down boat with no food, no water, no medicine.

In all, about 200 refugees fled their camps in Bangladesh in late November in search of a better life. More than 2,000 did not survive.

CNN's Paula Hancocks has our report. And a warning: the images you're about to see are disturbing, and some are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despair and misery, etched on every single face. One by one, they collapse. Emaciated bodies clutching small children, others motionless, seemingly unconscious on an Indonesian beach.

They are the Rohingya refugees left to drift on the boat on the open sea, forgotten and ignored. A human tragedy that keeps repeating itself.

Hatma Nessa (ph) and her five-year-old daughter, Uma Salima (ph), were among the 174 to reach Aceh (ph) province. After one month surviving on just three days' supply of food and water, she is almost unrecognizable.

HANCOCKS: What happened when you got on the boat?

HANCOCKS (voice-over): She tells me, "There was no food, no medicine, no water for all of those days. Only when it rained could we drink rainwater."

A few days into the journey, she says the engine broke down. They were stranded in the Andaman Sea. Hatma Nessa (ph) remembers watching a baby girl die after drinking salt water. She says the boat driver jumped overboard in desperation from thirst and hunger, and died, leaving his desperate human cargo to drift helplessly, hoping for rescue.

On December 18th, more than three weeks after setting sail, Hatma Nessa's (ph) brother back in Bangladesh managed to contact the boat, trying to organize a rescue from a local boat in Indonesia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

GRAPHIC: We are dying here. We haven't eaten anything for 8 to 10 days. We are starving. Three people have died.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): Hatma Nessa (ph) says, "I thought I would die. I thought I would die on that boat."

The United Nations refugee agency says 26 people died before the boat was rescued by Indonesian fishermen and local authorities. The agency said several countries turned a blind eye.

BABAR BALOCH, ASIA PACIFIC SPOKESPERSON, UNHCR: We at UNHCR are reaching out from states to states in the region wherever we're getting reports that this is either close to one country or another. No one acted on -- on those requests and appeals.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): Stateless and persecuted, these Rohingya refugees have known little peace, having fled once for their life five years ago in Myanmar after a brutal campaign of killing and arson by the military to Bangladesh and a now-sprawling refugee camp, Cox's Bazar, with little hope of a life. Just survival.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In Bangladesh, our life was difficult. We were banned from going out to look for work. The children could not go to school.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): This year threatens to become one of the most deadly for the Rohingya in these Southeast Asian waters. UNHCR says at least three boats were rescued in December, one by the Sri Lankan navy; two ended up in Indonesia.

But one boat carrying 180 people has not been heard from since the beginning of December, its passengers feared lost.

BALOCH: These are literally death traps that want to get into those, you end up losing your life. And this is done by the merciless human smugglers and traffickers who don't care about human lives.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): For Hatma Nessa (ph), it cost around $1,000 for a false promise of a seven-day trip to Malaysia, a price so high she had to leave her 7-year-old daughter behind with her mother in Bangladesh, assuming she would join later.

"They must bring my other daughter to me," she says. "My heart is burning for her. All I ever wanted was to get an education for my children."

She now faces the torment of living apart from one child while dealing with the trauma of another.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come, the calendar says it's the middle of winter for Europe, so why is it so hot? We'll explain when we come back.

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[00:41:34]

VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. Nineteen minutes until the top of the hour.

Four days into the new year, and Europe has already broken an alarming number of heat records for the month of January. For more details, let's go to CNN meteorologist Britley Ritz.

So, clearly climate change has a role to play, but what's going on here?

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely. We've got an area of high pressure that's in place. And, yes, just like you mentioned, a little bit of climate change, noticing it as temperatures are well above normal. Many of us feeling like spring.

Look at Denmark. You've got a new January national record of 12.6 degrees.

Overall, over the last three days, 980-plus monthly records were broken in Germany.

And for the Ukraine, look at Kyiv: 13.2 degrees for record warmth.

[00:42:23] Current temperatures at the moment, Paris, ten degrees. Frankfurt, five degrees. And Milan, for tomorrow, expect a high temperature of 12.

Folks were waiting for this next cold front to work its way through. Right now, there's that area of high pressure and control popping in a southerly wind which is helping, which is keeping most of our moisture as rain. So snowfall levels are down, as well. Big difference there in the type of precip that's coming down.

Now that next cold front, you might think it's going to do us a big favor in cooling us down, but not so much. Kind of a tease, really. But you will notice a difference.

Look at Milan, 12 degrees. On Thursday, your average is six degrees. We're dropping down on Friday and Saturday back down to nine degrees. We're still without three degrees without normal.

Here's something, not Moscow. This is rather impressive. It's getting cold, very cold as this next system moves in. Going from 2 to 4 below on Wednesday and Thursday. By Friday and Saturday, we're dropping down to 22 below zero. But at least the sun is shining -- John.

VAUSE: At least the sun is shining. That's a good thing, I think.

RITZ: Yes.

VAUSE: Britley, thank you. See you next hour.

I'm John Vause. I will be back at the top of the hour for more CNN NEWSROOM, but in the meantime, stay with us. WORLD SPORT starts after a short break. See you inn 16 minutes.

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