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Kevin McCarthy's Speaker Bid In Peril After Six Failed Votes; Funeral For Former Pontiff To Take Place In Hours Ahead; Russia Updates Makiivka Strike Death Toll 89 Servicemen; WHO Calls On China To Share More COVID-19 Data. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired January 05, 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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[00:00:50]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, as Kevin McCarthy vows to fight on to be U.S. House Speaker, his never Kevin opponents dig in, and the U.S. Congress is left paralyzed for another day.

For the first time in more than 200 years, a sitting Pope will take part in the funeral for a former Pope. Pope Francis will deliver mass as his predecessor Benedict is laid to rest.

And promises of no tricks, no ambiguity, ring hollow, as Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak lays out his priorities for the next two years.

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

VAUSE: For a second night, the U.S. House of Representatives does not have a speaker, the business of government has stalled and the Republican leader in the Lower House Kevin McCarthy is now fighting for his political survival.

It seems McCarthy's overall strategy in his bid to be elected House speaker comes down to this. If at first you don't succeed, then try, try, try, try, try and try again.

But after six rounds of voting over the past two days, his share of the vote has actually fallen. Three rounds of voting on Wednesday, still the same outcome, McCarthy came up with 16 votes short each time. It was a replay of the humiliating defeats he suffered a day earlier.

That was reconvene briefly a few hours ago only to adjourn until Thursday at noon. McCarthy has vowed to fight on for the speaker's job but a small number of dedicated Republicans seem equally determined to stop him.

It seems not even a call from former President Donald Trump for the party to unite around McCarthy was enough to win them over.

Negotiations between the two sides have continued late into the night and early morning. And McCarthy says he remains optimistic. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I think it's probably best that people work through some more. I don't think a vote tonight does any difference, but I think vote in the future will.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have -- do you have a deal with those guys right now?

MCCARTHY: No, not yet but a lot of progress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN's Melanie Zanona is live at this hour on Capitol Hill. Thank you for staying up. OK, so at this hour, what's the state of play right now?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER (on camera): Well, I'm still up and so are some of these people who are trying to get a deal. Negotiations for Kevin McCarthy speakership are still ongoing.

After those six failed votes, Kevin McCarthy decided to hunker down in his office with some of his critics, and with some of his supporters.

And sources told us that these were actually some of the most productive and serious talks yet throughout this entire saga. And backing that up, afterwards, they actually had some progress to the point where Kevin McCarthy made an offer to some of the holdouts.

Sources tell CNN, that includes allowing a single lawmaker to call for a vote and opposing the sitting speaker. That is a major concession, something that Kevin McCarthy said he would never do.

Well, he made that concession, something else he agreed to was to place more conservative members on something called the House Rules Committee. That's a committee that has power over how and whether bills come to the House floor.

So, it's kind of wonky and inside baseball, but it's a really important committee. And then, finally, he also agreed to bring a number of bills to the floor, made a promise that they would get some votes on some key priorities.

Now, it is unclear whether that's going to be enough to win McCarthy the speakership. In fact, sources told us that it might get Kevin McCarthy maybe somewhere around 10 more votes, and remember, 20 people voted against him.

So, he would still have more work to do even if some of the holdouts accept this offer that he made tonight. But for Kevin McCarthy, it's important that he shows momentum, and that he's showing things are moving in the right direction, not the wrong direction.

So, that's why it was so critical that these negotiations took place where Kevin McCarthy tonight, John. VAUSE: Apart for maybe giving away the furniture of the speaker's office, does he have anything else left to offer? You know, this band of Republican rebels who don't want it because it seems what they don't want is Kevin McCarthy?

ZANONA: Yes, well, that is an important distinction. So, of these 20 members who voted against him, McCarthy's allies are looking at it in terms of two camps. There's a camp that wants to get to yes, that is gettable. And those are the members he's negotiating with actively and then there's a smaller band of members who just don't like Kevin McCarthy, and for them, it's personal in many ways.

[00:05:02]

The question is how many of those types are there because if there are five of them, then Kevin McCarthy can't become speaker because he can only afford to lose four members but as of right now, his first step is trying to get as many yes votes that he can from that initial group, so he's just really going to try to work his critics over one by one and we'll see whether it's enough, John.

VAUSE: So far, it hasn't been but you know, another day to go. Melanie, thank you so much for staying up. We really appreciate the reporting.

ZANONA: Thank you.

VAUSE: Joining us now is Ron Brownstein, CNN's Senior Political Analyst and senior editor for The Atlantic as well as CNN Political Commentator and Republican Strategist Alice Stewart. Thank you guys for being with us.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, John.

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here, John.

VAUSE: OK, so with a share of the vote now falling, I want you listen to Kevin McCarthy outline how he sees the path ahead, here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What if your opposition grows, what have you lose more than 20 votes right now?

MCCARTHY: It doesn't matter. I still have the most votes. So, we could go through every name in the conference at the end of the day, and we will be able to get there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And CNN's Manu Raju ceilings also reported McCarthy has no more margin for error with the expectation that four Republicans Andy Biggs, Chip Roy, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert, who are almost certainly unmovable in their opposition. That means he has to somehow convince the rest of that block of 20 to change their votes.

So Alice, first to you, who blinks first here, and how long before that actually happens?

STEWART: Well, that's the million dollar question. Both sides say that they plan to continue to hold their ground, and they will take this as long as possible. The problem is here we have Republicans engaged in a circular firing squad when we need to be taking the fight to Democrats to President Biden to policies that have hurt this country, such as the economy, such as crime, such as inflation, and certainly securing the border, which is what Republicans were elected to do.

And here we have John, a friend minority of Republicans that are not only acting in poor form, but in bad faith. They have been talking about talking with McCarthy, and he has conceded on many occasions, on many issues, Melanie outlined the most recent ones this evening on giving them more power and giving them authority to vote -- one person could vote for -- a vote to vacate the speaker, and other things that puts a lot of power in the Freedom Caucus. Yet, they're still not satisfied, they still haven't agreed to support McCarthy.

So, they're acting in bad faith. And the more they continue to move the goalposts makes it just impossible for McCarthy to I think get a consensus with the terms we have now. And it just goes to show John, this is not about politics as much as it is about personalities. And they simply just do not like Kevin McCarthy.

VAUSE: The last time something like this happened was back in 1923, a small group of Republicans delayed the election of the speaker for a couple of days.

At the time, the Washington Post -- The Washington Post reported that on that second night, the House majority leader met with the insurgents. That's what they called them and assured them changes that they proposed to the house rules will be given a fair hearing. The next day, a new speaker was elected, crisis over.

So, to Ron, you know, that's the negotiation, demand, concession, agreement done. And there's also the problem here seems to be these hardline MAGA Republicans. They just won't take yes for an answer. What do they actually want?

BROWNSTEIN: They want to move the party in their direction and they have largely succeeded in that. I think, you know, it's almost irrelevant at this point whether or not Kevin McCarthy gets the job, because the most important thing has already been decided. Either he through all of his concessions to the right, is going to further empower what Alice described as kind of the fringe, or he will ultimately be pushed aside and someone to his right will be selected a speaker. Probably Steve Scalise.

I mean, if you think about the sequence of events here that have gotten us to this point, Republicans won a surprisingly narrow majority, despite widespread discontent over the economy, because so many voters in competitive districts viewed the party as too extreme.

And after that, in these last few days, the most extreme elements of the caucus have used that narrow majority as leverage to make a whole series of demands that would push the party precisely further toward the policies and agenda that those voters rejected in November.

And I think whether McCarthy gets there or not, that is the direction that has been set by the terms of this fight.

VAUSE: And perhaps Batman's butler, Alfred put it best.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Yes, he did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:10:01]

VAUSE: Great movie. Alice, you know, never Kevin crowd might want to watch Congress burn but it seems no speaker would ever be able to deliver everything that they want. Absolutely conservative rule, no concessions, no negotiations with Democrats, just play hardball. That's just impossible these days.

STEWART: It's impossible. And it certainly is not what voters elected them to do. And the frustrating thing as a Republican is that the midterm elections were a resounding rejection of these extremist candidates of those who were election deniers and those who were conspiracy theorists.

Voters said we're tired of that and got rid of many of them. And the irony here is that those very fringe candidates are the ones that are holding up the process.

And it's discouraging, speaking with many rational Republicans who have been fighting it out for the last two days on the floor, they're extremely frustrated, because they cannot get things done. They can't sit committees, they can't legislate, which is what they were elected to do.

And also, many social conservative organizations that have supported Kevin McCarthy, they want to see things done, they are fine with the idea of a consensus candidate, someone who is more amenable to the entire Republican Party, someone like Steve Scalise, as Ron mentioned, someone who can work across the aisle, someone who can get things done, someone who -- as was put to me was, he's not the kind of person that kicks a barking dog, he can have a disagreement with you, you can agree to disagree, but he will still at the end of the day work with you.

The problem with these vocal critics is that they continue to kick the barking dog and no one is getting anywhere.

VAUSE: And you know, not even the former President Donald Trump, you know, could sway this group, even with a plea for unity. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): Even having my favorite president, call us and tell us we need to knock this off. I think it actually needs to be reversed. The president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, sir, you do not have the votes and it's time to withdraw. With that, I yield. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Even one of McCarthy's opponents Matt Gaetz had this reaction telling Fox News, sad, this change is neither my view of McCarthy, nor Trump, nor my vote.

And the conservative Action Project, which has meant as strong ties to Trump came out in support of the never Kevin crowd call for new leadership.

So Ron, it seems Trump finds himself in a very unusual position here. He's irrelevant in the midst of a major controversy.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, Trumpism has a life in the party now that is independent of Trump. I mean, you see these forces that are resisting McCarthy want a Trumpet style politics of maximum cultural war, maximum confrontation with Democrats, and they don't -- they don't accept Trump as the sole arbiter of, you know, kind of what the direction is on that.

Trump has always been transactional. I mean, he, you know, chose Mehmet Oz, you know, as the -- as his as his favorite in Pennsylvania, because he related to him as a celebrity.

And it's a sign I think that, you know, this movement is really beyond his control, but also that even marginalizing him doesn't end it, you know, in the -- in the GOP, it has an independent life.

And again, the key point here is I think every resolution to this, at this point, increases the power of those in the party who are demanding precisely the politics that voters in swing districts and swing states, as Alice noted, rejected so clearly in November, and that is the reality, you know, at a time when so many leaders in the Republican Party are saying, you know, strategists and donors, we have to move past Trump, you're seeing someone like Jim Jordan, who this January 6 committee singled out for his participation in Trump's effort to overturn the election being raised at one point by the right as their favorite candidate for speaker and by McCarthy as a character witness.

That's the reality that they're in. And, you know, it's now happening in the fishbowl of within the Republican Party, but at some point, they have to face the voters. And the question is whether this is putting them on a path to have a productive record to take to them in two years.

VAUSE: Very quickly. Alice, is the only person right now who can fix this or can end this is that Kevin McCarthy? And would that be by stepping aside?

STEWART: That would be one way to end this to get the business of the people back in operation.

And look, he did a great deal to help many Republicans get elected, many of those who are standing up against him. He raised money for them and campaigned for them, which is, I think, just the height of hypocrisy in terms of being a loyal party leader.

And look, we've worked hard to gain the majority, but a majority that's not united is not a majority. And we cannot govern unless someone steps up and says what do we need to do to work together? We can -- we can disagree on many things. But we have to agree we need a leader whether that is Kevin McCarthy or stepping aside for a consensus candidate, that needs to get done so the work can begin.

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VAUSE: Alice Stewart and Ron Brownstein thanks to you both, appreciate your time staying up for us tonight, thank you.

STEWART: Thanks, John.

VAUSE: In a few hours, dignitaries from around the world will gather at the Vatican for the funeral of Pope Benedict the 16th who died Saturday at the age of 95.

Pope Francis will lead the mass and will become the first pontiff in modern times to take part in the funeral service for his predecessor.

Over the last three days, Benedict has been lying in state inside St. Peter's Basilica. Nearly 200,000 people have paid their respects during the public viewing.

CNN Vatican Correspondent Delia Gallagher joins us live from St. Peter's Square.

And what's interesting, Delia is that Pope Francis will deliver the funeral mass, but he won't be the main celebrant here. Why is that?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, that's really a practical reason, John, because as you've noticed, probably Pope Francis has a problem with his knee. He's mostly in a wheelchair.

In order to celebrate mass, you have to stand behind the altar, you have to move around a bit. So, it's really a mobility question for Pope Francis. It's not just this mass, by the way, it's been happening a Christmas mass for example, the same Cardinal who will celebrate mass today celebrated Christmas mass. He's the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Ray. So, he's sort of the senior Cardinal.

So, he does the actual mass. But they say that Francis presides at the mass because of course, he's there. And very importantly, he gives the homily, he gives the speech as it were during the mass.

So, it's really just a practical question that the Pope since his problem with his knee, which is a problem of ligaments in his knee, he doesn't want to get an operation, so he takes injections for it. But he's mostly going around in a wheelchair and has difficulty standing for long periods of time. So, that's the reason that he's not technically celebrating the mass.

VAUSE: And this will not be a traditional funeral for a pope that we've seen in the past because, you know, Pope Benedict was the pope in retirement. But now that he has passed, there is a lot of speculation that this now makes it a lot easier for Francis to retire.

One sitting Pope with two retired Popes is considered a bit of a stretch. Now it's sort of seen as a bit of an easier road for him.

GALLAGHER: Well, John, that is a possibility. In fact, it's one of the things that Benedict's resignation opened up kind of a practical example of somebody who has done that.

Now, we know that Pope Francis just a few weeks ago, said that he has already written a letter of resignation in the case that he shouldn't become incapacitated. He did that in the first year of his pontificate.

However, it doesn't look like he's at that point. Pope Francis has given no indication that he feels that he's ready to resign.

On the contrary, if you compare him to Pope Benedict, Pope Benedict's resignation in part was also because he felt he had other things to do.

Remember, he was a writer, professor and intellectually had other books he wanted to write. Pope Francis I think is very much at home in his role as Pope.

And so, any resignation would probably depend on a deterioration of his health, obviously. But it certainly is open now with the resignation of Benedict that a pope in the future wouldn't feel like he would be bucking tradition to do so.

And so, Francis has left that door open, but certainly I don't think he's given any indication that he's there yet, John.

VAUSE: Delia, we know that you'll be with us for the hours ahead as this funeral gets underway. We appreciate you being with us at this early hour. Thank you Delia Gallagher there at Rome.

VAUSE: Still to come, the blame game continues in Moscow over a devastating New Year's Eve missile strike, which killed dozens, maybe hundreds of Russian troops.

Also, great concern over the surge in the number of COVID cases in China, the WHO is saying it's not getting full information from Beijing.

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[00:20:58] VAUSE: Ukraine a setback in Moscow is claimed that cell phone signals from Russian troops help pinpoint a devastating missile strike on the weekend.

The Russian defense ministry says those cell phones help the Ukrainians to geolocate the soldier's position and destroy their barracks killing dozens, maybe hundreds of troops in the eastern city of Makiivka on New Year's Day.

Russia says four HIMARS rockets given to Ukraine by the U.S. were used in that strike.

Meantime, Ukraine's defense intelligence chief is predicting more attacks deeper inside Russian territory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think there'll be more?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, more attacks inside Russia? Deep inside Russia?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Deeper and deeper.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And in Crimea?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crimea, it's a part of Ukraine. It's our territory. We can use any weapon on our territory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN's Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman reports now from eastern Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): In Russia, barrages of blame are being fired back and forth between officials, politicians and prominent military bloggers over the killing of dozens of Russian soldiers in Makiivka, in Russian occupied Donetsk.

The Russian Defense Ministry concedes at least 89 soldiers were killed in the bombardment in the early hours of New Year's Day. But the ministry says it was because their position was exposed by soldier's unauthorized use of their cell phones.

The prominent Russian military blogger who goes by the name of War Gonzo, says that such claims are not convincing in an attempt to smear the blame. The Ukrainian defense ministry says that as many as 400 Russian soldiers were killed in that attack and an additional 300 wounded, but neither the Russian nor the Ukrainian claims can be independently verified.

As the debate rages on in Russia, more signs that the prolonged Russian offensive against the eastern city of Bakhmut is faltering.

The head of the Russian private military contractor Wagner says one of the reasons why the offensive is stalled, is because in his words, there's a fortress in every house.

But the fighting in Bakhmut has come at a high price. The head of the Donetsk regional military administration says that more than 60 percent of the city has been destroyed, and only 10 percent of the population remains.

I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The European Union is strongly encouraging member states to require a negative COVID test for all travelers from mainland China. But stop short of imposing block wide travel rules, both COVID spaces spiraling across China. The E.U. has recommended face masks on flights from China, random testing of passengers and testing wastewater at international airports.

Germany's Foreign Minister warns the current COVID wave in China must be taken very, very seriously, calling for a united European response.

As the pandemic enters a fourth year, the World Health Organization says it's still not getting adequate data from the authorities in China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WHO DIRECTOR-GENERAL: We continue to ask China for more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalizations and theirs, as well as more comprehensive real time viral sequencing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Live now to Hong Kong CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins us. You know, we've heard from the WHO, they've been outspoken about what it considers the true toll of China's COVID-19 outbreak. So, what have they been saying?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): You know, it's a really interesting and significant statement that we're getting from the World Health Organization. They're calling on China to share more data about COVID-19. And they are also warning that China is under representing the true toll of its runaway COVID-19 outbreak. This is a significant statement because this is coming from an organization that has earlier in the pandemic been accused of being too close to China.

[00:25:05]

Earlier today, China offered its official statistics, its official numbers in regards to its COVID-19 outbreak and reported one new deaths from COVID-19 for January the fourth, a remarkably low number and a number that the WHO would certainly not agree with. Take a listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MIKE RYAN, EMERGENCIES PROGRAM DIRECTOR, WHO: We believe that the current numbers being published from China under represents the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions and particularly in terms of deaths.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Now, the WHO also adds that no new variants have been detected from China, but a growing list of governments and jurisdictions are not taking any chances.

In fact, according to the European Union, they are now strongly advising their member states to introduce masking as well as testing for all arrivals from China. This is non-binding. Again, this is a strong recommendation from the European Union.

They're also advising member states to consider random testing and to also conduct tests on wastewater from all arrivals from China.

Other nations are taking much stricter restrictions and action against travelers, detecting and screening them before arrival or as they arrive. For example, the U.K. and the United States starting today, January the fifth, will require all arrivals from China to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test. You can see there the current list of governments imposing COVID-19 restrictions on Chinese travelers.

China calls these measures unacceptable and earlier this week, we heard from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they said that China will hit back on those nations that are imposing such restrictions in a political manner.

We also heard from the airline industry body IATA, the airline industry also upset by these restrictions. According to Willie Walsh, the head of IATA saying that these are knee jerk reactions that haven't worked in the past. Back to you, John.

VAUSE: We'll see. Kristie, thank you for that. Kristie Lu Stout with an update there for the very latest on that COVID outbreak in China, which is troubling to say the least.

We'll take a short break, when we come back, the British Prime Minister laying out his priorities for the next two years, but his national address seemed to be missing something, you know, like details or how these goals will actually be achieved. More on that in a moment.

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

In his first major speech of the year, the British prime minister has laid out his government's priorities and in his words, plans to build a better Britain. To do that, he made five specific promises to British voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RISHI SUNAK, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: So, five promises we will have inflation, grow the economy; reduce debt; cut waiting lists; and stop the boats. Those are the people's priorities. They are your government's priorities, and we will either have achieved them or not. No tricks, no ambiguity. We're either delivering for you or we're not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:30:29]

VAUSE: For more now, our European affairs commentator, Dominic Thomas, joins us from Los Angeles. Dom, it's great to have you with us.

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Thank you for having me, John.

VAUSE: OK, so now, just to be certain we heard the prime minister correctly. Listen again to that part of the speech where we talked about these five promises. Here we go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUNAK: And, we will either have achieved them or not. No tricks, no ambiguity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: No tricks, no ambiguity. Like promising to half inflation when the Bank of England was already projecting inflation to decline from 10 percent to 5 percent by the end of the year. Grow the economy. Again, most economists are already forecasting that anyway.

Everyone gets to learn math, but no mention of shortage of teachers.

If anything, it seems this speech was filled with tricks and ambiguity little else. So what's been reaction in Britain?

THOMAS: Right, John. Well, just you know, a couple of things. I think that obviously, you know, as you know, we don't have to be very good at math to understand that, you know, if your bills have gone up and you're having trouble making ends meet and that the wait times at the NHS are ever increasing.

In terms of the long=term reaction, you can absolutely bet that the British public, that U.K. voters will be taking their pocketbooks with them to the ballot boxes. And that obviously is sort of the broad appeal of -- not really appeal but what Rishi Sunak is trying to get people and to think about.

But in terms of the immediate reaction and because five points from that with tremendous skepticism precisely because of the question of what would meaningful growth look like, and can this prime minister achieve that in a one-year period?

In other words, can he make significant inroads in addressing the cost of living crisis before his party goes to a general election, which is likely to come in roughly a year's time, John.

VAUSE: And you mentioned the crisis within the National Health Service, and according to the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, 300 to 500 people were dying each week -- each week -- because of delays in urgent care.

And right now, everyone's crews and nurses are among the sectors taking industrial action, demanding higher wages.

And on that here's a little more from the prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUNAK: We hugely value public sector workers, like nurses. They do incredibly important work. And that's why we want a reasonable dialogue with the unions about what's responsible and fair for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And, but yet, they're refusing to negotiate with the nurses' union, while at the same time, Sunak wants to hire, what, tens of thousands of more nurses and doctors and healthcare providers, cut waiting times. That seems what? The word "ambiguous" to me.

THOMAS: Absolutely, John, and I think you're absolutely right to point out the historic scale of this labor action. And the fact that the British public is, for the most part, overwhelmingly in solidarity with the strike an, those taking action, because the realities they are addressing are those of the majority of the British people today.

So it's deeply ironic that you have a government here talking about expanding its commitment to the National Health at a time when it's unable to adequately pay those that are performing this wonderful work that Rishi Sunak talks about. So there's a disconnect there.

And there's also a disconnect with his broader economic policy, which is organized around a commitment to cut public spending and aa commitment to public services.

So it's very hard to see how he goes about reconciling those two ends of the economic spectrum.

VAUSE: There was a lot missing from this speech. And, most notable, it seems, was any honest assessment of past mistakes and past failures.

You know, most of the blame for all the current problems are placed on COVID and Ukraine. The pandemic's three years old. Ukraine's almost a year old.

This is the government that's been in power for more than a dozen years. So if the government is not willing to acknowledge not just the problems but the courses, then how can those problems ever actually be addressed and fixed?

THOMAS: Yes, that is ultimately the really important question. Yes, absolutely unambiguously, the pandemic and the situation in Ukraine is impacting economies and around the world.

But, as you mentioned, they've been at the helm for over 12 years. They've been through five prime ministers, each one proving more inept and more flawed than their predecessors.

And, although the five-point plan focused almost exclusively on economic issues, I think that it was really interesting to see him shift the attention at the end of it to immigration, as if that was the primary issue here and not cost of living, climate crisis and so on.

And that's an age-old tactic that has been relied upon repeatedly by E.U. governments and others, which is to shift the attention away from their failure to deal with policies; to create a problem and instill fear around immigration and present themselves as the solution provided here.

[00:35:19]

And that takes us back to a kind of politics of emotion, which is what Brexit was about. Not about policies. And what the Boris Johnson election was about.

And I think that, unfortunately, John, unless this government is able to reckon with the fact that it holds and shares in the responsibility for the situation today, unfortunately, as Rishi Sunak is unable to achieve the promises that he's made to the British, we're going to see a return to this kind of nationalistic and immigration kind of discourse. And that will shape the debate going into a general election, and unfortunately, not help the British people, John.

VAUSE: Yes, there is a decline underway. It's not -- it doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon. So Dominic, thank you for being with us. We appreciate that. Dominic Thomas in Los Angeles.

Cheers.

THOMAS: Thank you.

VAUSE: Well, it's not quite winter in Europe, at least not what they're used to. Just ahead, a look at the unseasonal heat wave and some of the reasons behind it. Back in a moment.

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VAUSE: Regulators in Ireland have fined Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, more than $400 million over breaches of E.U. data privacy rules.

Officials say the violations at Facebook and Instagram were discovered during two separate investigations which began in 2018. The regulators gave Meta three months to fix the problems, but the company plans to appeal the decision.

A rare winter heat wave is spreading across Europe, and while many there are welcoming the unusually warm weather, some climatologists say there Is a reason for concern.

Here's CNN's isa Soares.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE

ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The new year may have only just begun, but temperatures are already heating up across much of Europe.

At least eight countries smashed their winter weather record, having reported their warmest day ever in January.

As the world rang in New Year's celebrations this week, climatologists were busy tracking extreme temperatures and found countries including Poland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Lichtenstein and Belarus all reached alarmingly warm temperatures on January the 1st.

Meteorologists say it's too early to attribute the extreme heat to climate change but do say the driving force is a warm air mass from Africa's west coast moving across Europe.

It may look warm in the Spanish city of Bilbao, but locals are noticeably wearing winter coats, basking in the winter sun.

EUSEBIO FOLGEIRA, BILBAO, SPAIN, RESIDENT (through translator): It's not normal for Bilbao to have such good weather. It always rains a lot here. It's very cold, and it's January. And it feels like summer.

SOARES (voice-over): And what would normally be covered in snow, this ski resort in France is now starved of it, forcing businesses to shut their doors to customers until conditions improve.

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GREGORY ROMANO, RESTAURANT MANAGER (through translator): Sure we are, of course, a little bit sad about having to close. We had a good Christmas holiday season, which matters.

SOARES (voice-over): Over in war torn Ukraine, with much of the country's energy infrastructure damaged or destroyed, millions of Ukrainians were without power over Christmas.

The cities across the country, including Kyiv, broke weather records in January, which may have helped reduce energy consumption.

As Ukrainian advisor Anton Gerashchenko put at it, even the weather is on our side.

Just before the year came to an end, the U.K.'s Met office said last year sweltering heat, which ran rivers dry and caused a drought in parts of England, was the country's hottest on record. Though January's mild temperatures might provide some relief to the

cold, meteorologists warn it could offer a glimpse of a concerning and possibly even warmer future.

Isa Soares, CNN, London.

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VAUSE: CNN meteorologist Britley Ritz is with us again for all the very latest there. This is some wild weather everywhere at the moment.

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, and now we're about to get a cold front to slide through there to drop us down just a few degrees.

But, John, this is going to ramp right right back up. So, it's not over yet with the warmer temperatures.

You'll see the warm front stretching across the U.K., and again parts of central Europe going to expect warmer weather once we get this cool dip here in between.

So there is a warm front keeping our precip as rainfall. You saw the pictures from the current package. But, now we are dealing with a record warmth. And some of these locations across Romania hit monthly records.

Bucharest, 17.2 degrees. A record warmth over many countries through January about Denmark, 12.6 degrees. And over 980 monthly records broken across the country of Germany over just three days' time.

Bludenz, Austria, hit 18.9 degrees on the 2nd of January. January average, 5.9 degrees.

Current temperatures right now, Frankford at 11 degrees, London at ten degrees. Tomorrow, 12 degrees for a high, 11 in Frankfurt.

And over the next few days we're still staying above average, even as that cold front works its way through. So Milan, 9 degrees. Eight degrees. Saturday and Sunday with an average of six degrees.

Something very shocking here to take a look at. Three below in Moscow on your Thursday with a chance of snow showers. Average? About five below. But we are about today big time with the cold front that drops down nearly 20 below.

Notice the warming trend. We try to get that warm front to lift back up again, and that's exactly what's going to be happening Tuesday and Wednesday, getting us closer to that average.

Paris doing the same thing: dipping back down but still staying above average over the next week's time -- John.

VAUSE: Yes, some people are happy. But the long-term trend is not a good sign.

RITZ: Absolutely.

VAUSE: Britley, thank you so much for being with us. Britley Ritz there.

Well, another honor for football legend Pele. A day after he was laid to rest, Rio de Janeiro has been renamed the avenue in front of the city's famous Maracana Stadium.

It's now known as King Pele Avenue. Initially, it was to be called Pele Avenue, but a Twitter poll found nearly 90 percent of those who voted wanted "King" in the street name.

The three-time World Cup winner died last week after a battle with colon cancer.

I'm John Vause. back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first, WORLD SPORT is up after a very short break. See you back here in 16 minutes.

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