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Hunger Supersedes COVID Worry In Parts of Venezuela; U.S. Health Secretary: FDA to Grant Emergency Use Authorization for Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine; Saudi Arabia Approves Use of Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine; U.K.'S Johnson Says "Strong Possibility" of No-Deal Brexit; China Arrests Bloomberg News Journalist. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired December 11, 2020 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(MUSIC)
[10:00:44]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The FDA advisory committee just voted to recommend a green light for Pfizer's vaccine.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The FDA will take under consideration that recommendation and
will very likely act on it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the Saudi government's new state of the art COVID-19 command center, all eyes watching for a possible second wave.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are pretty much sure that we can do good work in order to keep this ski resort safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNNI HOST: This hour, wealth cannot cure it, belief cannot change it. We are connecting a world where inequality and ignorance exposed
and exploited by the coronavirus.
I'm Becky Anderson. Hello and welcome to the program, wherever you are watching in the world.
We start the show where we started this week, in fact, in Venezuela where life is really going from bad to worse. It sounds cliche, but it's anything
but. Right now, many there are earning the equivalent of around $1 a month. That is it. It's only getting worse.
The IMF expecting the economy to get smaller by a quarter again, and on top of that, economic collapse along comes COVID. And this is the reality of
that. You will remember that Isa Soares and her team, my colleagues, took us inside of the two president country's largest hospitals where they can't
even keep their lights on.
I invited one Venezuelan man on the show who along with his family caught the virus and he told me when you get it you are on your own. That's as the
country faces immense sanctions as the West tries to dislodge its president, President Maduro, from power after he just won elections.
In just the last few hours for the first time, the U.K. imposing sanctions against Venezuela, officials who are close to power in the country, it puts
a travel ban on them and freezes their assets, and that as the U.N.'s High Commission for Human Rights says what's happening in the country amounts to
crimes against humanity.
Well, for many Venezuelans, any worry about COVID-19 takes a back seat to more dire needs, the basic ones, food and water. The economic and political
situation we just spoke of has deteriorated so much that it's left the country's neediest fighting to merely survive.
Isa Soares now shows us the desperate conditions in one of the country's poorest neighborhoods.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Life has come to a standstill for many on the streets of Caracas, Venezuela, after decades of corruption,
economic pain and violence, the pandemic is now robbing many here of even a minimal income. Intensifying one of Venezuela's most pronounced ailments,
extreme hunger.
Celestina Rondon (ph) tells me she lost both her boys to gun violence 16 years ago. Shot just a few streets away from her home. There was so much
war, they killed without mercy, she says. Today, she's fighting a different battle, trying to make her $1 pension amid hyperinflation last the month.
I eat baloney, rice and sausages if there's any, she says.
Today there isn't much.
She has, what, three sausages, a tiny bit of rice up here, frozen water and then if I open here she's got plantain and leftovers that now swarming
flies.
Water, too, is in short supply here. A result of Venezuela's deteriorating infrastructure after decades of mismanagement under President Hugo Chavez
and Nicolas Maduro.
The little that does flow out she uses to fill these up. Avoiding COVID-19 is the last thing on her mind.
When this water we store it so it lasts and when there's money we buy bottled water, she says.
[10:05:02]
Down the road, I meet an 80-year-old Francesca de Sapia (ph) who behind her smile hides a world of pain. She tells me she has no fridge, broken as a
result of blackouts that have plagued the country, more frequently over the last few years.
She shares this house with her two sons and here resignation adorns its every corner. A report last year found that 96 percent of Venezuelans are
living in poverty, nowhere is that more evident than Petare, Venezuela's biggest slum.
Here, children quietly line up for their only meal of the day, run by NGO Alimenta Petare, this soup kitchen alone feeds 80 children. Volunteer
Yulissa Rodriguez (ph), a mother herself, can't quite believe how bad it has gotten.
We have lots of vulnerable families, she says, many of whom don't even have breakfast.
With hunger comes malnutrition and in Venezuela, there are 639,000 malnourished children under five years of age, according to a national
survey.
So it's no surprise that this NGO worker who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of government reprisals has so many knocking on their door.
We were feeding 14,000 children and now since the pandemic, she says, we have 25,000 children.
Prominent Venezuelan nutritionist and activist Susana Raffalli says what Venezuela is witnessing is a crisis of great proportions.
D you think Venezuela will end up having a lost generation or even two lost generations here?
SUSANA RAFFALLI, NUTRITIONIST AND ACTIVIST (translated): I wish I didn't have to say this but we're looking at two lost generations. We have seen an
exponential rise in prostitution, of transactional sex for food. We have seen exponential rise in child labor, in exchange for food.
SOARES: Back at the slums, I feel this weight being carried with all I speak to, including this health care worker who now also has to worry about
water.
Everything is bad, she says, I have my mom bedridden and I have to have water.
Exhausted, she's struggling to make ends meet, amid a backdrop of hyperinflation where even her job has lost its value.
How much do you earn a month? Two dollars. Her mother who she looks after her pension is $1.
So this family right here $3 per month.
Overburdened with life, I ask her if it's all taking a toll?
Everything we're living through is so tough, she says, is makes me not want to live at all.
Heartbreaking words that will no doubt resonate with many here. a country where poverty and hunger are now eating away at Venezuela's soul.
Isa Soares, CNN, Caracas, Venezuela.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Now from one of the very poorest to one of the richest countries on earth, but also the one hardest hit by the pandemic. No amount of money
can buy Americans immunity from this coronavirus, but vaccines can and there is another big development on that front today.
We've just learned that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is ready to grant emergency use authorization as it's known for the Pfizer BioNTech
vaccine. That is after an FDA advisory panel recommended it do just that on Thursday.
Well, the news coming amid the backdrop of a pandemic still raging to levels not seen before. More than 107,000 Americans are in the hospital
right now, the most since this pandemic began. I know another day, another terrible record broken.
And here is another sobering statistic, intensive care units in one-third of all American hospitals are now filled to at least 90 percent capacity.
That is nine out of ten beds taken. We've talked a lot this year about how hospitalizations are a front runner to a spike in the death toll and nearly
2,800 more Americans died from COVID-19 in the past day.
This month alone has brought six of the ten deadliest single-day events in American history. Even as we learn about the positive developments on the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine there is unfortunately some discouraging news on a different candidate. Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline say their vaccines probably
won't be ready until the end of the year because results in their trials show an insufficient immune response in the elderly.
So where are we? Well, the FDA is poised to authorize the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use anytime now.
[10:10:05]
After that, a committee at the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will hold its own vote with the first jabs in the states likely
happening sometime next week. From the very earliest days of this pandemic
CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has been tracking the progress of these vaccines. She has been a regular guest on this show and
joins us now.
Elizabeth, who if we get this jab out in the states as early as next week, who is going to be the first to get the vaccine? And are there groups who
should not get it at this point?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Becky, indeed on both counts. When this emergency use authorization is issued, and we do expect
it to be issued soon, maybe even tomorrow, there will be very specific instructions about who should get it first. Not just anyone can get in
line, there are going to be two specific groups and then other groups will be added later. So let's take a look.
The first two groups will be health care workers and nursing home residents. Later or next, rather, will be other high-risk groups, other
elderly people, essential workers like police officers and firefighters and those with underlying medical conditions. And later is everyone else. And
when we say later, we mean probably this spring, people who are not in a non-high risk group will probably have to wait until the spring to get
vaccinated or maybe into the summer.
Now, as far as folks who should not be vaccinated at all, there are people in whom this vaccine was not studied. This vaccine was studied in more than
40,000 people and there were people who were not included. And so, there's not a lot of data to say whether it's safe or not.
So, let's take a look at who those groups are, it's unclear if this vaccine is safe for children under 16, women who are pregnant or breast-feeding,
for people with compromised immune systems and it's also unclear if it's safe for anyone who has had a bad reaction, like an allergic reaction to
any vaccine in the past.
So, it may be that the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control in the U.S., they may say don't get the vaccine now let's study it
some more and maybe you can get it -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Elizabeth Cohen on the story for you, Elizabeth, thank you.
Well, many Americans a they don't get the vaccine or they plan to hold off and wait at least. It's a similar story in polls that I see from elsewhere
around the world to be quite frank. Some Americans are skeptical about possible side effects and about whether a vaccine will actually work.
CNN's Elle Reeve hit the road in the American South to find out more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): News of imminent vaccines comes just as COVID-19 surges through rural parts of the country. And the
political debate is as heated as ever.
GREG LOCKE, PASTOR, GLOBAL VISION BIBLE CHURCH: I don't wear mask when I go and eat.
REEVE: We wanted to know if the same resistance to masks would happen to the vaccine. So we reached out to Greg Locke, a pastor in conservative
Wilson County, Tennessee who says he has grown his congregation by protesting COVID control measures.
LOCKE: We're not going to close our church ladies and gentleman because of COVID.
There was a lot of sincere people that are doing their best to put out a vaccine but that doesn't mean I'm going to take it. I don't believe the
government can tell me, you know, when or how I can stick a needle in my arm or my kids arms, super government overreach.
REEVE: Locke says he's moved his services outdoors, not to limit the spread of COVID, but to handle all the new people who've come.
LOCKE: Thank God for fear. (INAUDIBLE)
I'm saying the sickness is real. I'm saying the pandemic is not.
REEVE: I don't understand what you mean when you say pandemic's not real.
LOCKE: Pandemic is not real.
REEVE: But what do you think a pandemic is?
LOCKE: Not? Not COVID-19.
REEVE: But what do you think a pandemic is?
PUBLICIST: I think we've stuck on the pandemic question too many times.
LOCKE: It's ridiculous.
REEVE: Well, then why can't you answer it?
LOCKE: There's no pandemic. COVID-19 is not a pandemic.
REEVE: Well what was is a pandemic then?
LOCKE: Not what we're experiencing. I'm 44 years old. We've not had one of my lifetime. So I don't know. And this is not it.
REEVE: To be clear, a pandemic is a disease that spreads across many countries and affects many people. The World Health Organization declared
COVID-19 a pandemic in March. And experts say about 70 percent of people need to get the vaccine to control COVID spread.
LISA BORCHERS, CHURCH SERVICE ATTENDEE: It's not been tested enough. We don't know what's going to happen with it. Later on, it may help you now
but in the future it could cause more harm to your body if you get it easy.
GRACE PENIX, CHURCH SERVICE ATTENDEE: It's not, you know, this anti vaccination. You know, (INAUDIBLE) the devil it's like, personally, it's a
choice.
REEVE: Some people at this service told us they'd seen Locke on Facebook and liked his message.
LOCKE: Donald Trump won the election by a landslide. He will be reelected as the president of the United States.
REEVE: We wanted to know how widespread his views are. So we drove deeper into Wilson County, where there's a COVID testing site at the fairgrounds.
REEVE: We met Quintin Smith, a cattle farmer who runs the agricultural center there and takes extra care to keep things sanitized during COVID.
[10:15:05]
QUINTIN SMITH, DIRECTOR, JAMES E. WARD AGRICULTURAL CENTER: You all never go to a fairgrounds or anybody is probably (INAUDIBLE). Come on, come on
in.
I'm cautious about running out new light, you know, I think everybody's excited about there being a vaccine, but I find it's going to be kind of
everybody waiting around and watching the first responders and nursing home folks and, you know, if there's any reaction to it.
Let me tell you what my daddy always told me. Son, don't never believe anything you hear, and only half what you see.
WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR OF PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: I think it's entirely human to be a little skeptical and a
little hesitant. After all, this is a new virus in the human population.
This vaccine uses new technology. It's been developed very rapidly, and that makes people cautious.
REEVE: Based on our interviews and recent polling, Pastor Locke represents an outspoken minority. Surveys by the Pew Research Center found that
Republicans are less likely than Democrats to see COVID as a major threat to public health.
But also that there's a growing acceptance of the vaccine nationwide, including among Republicans. Sixty percent of Americans say they take it
and nearly half of those who are reluctant say it's possible they'd get it after others do so.
Dr. William Schaffner who's been working on infectious disease at Vanderbilt University since the 60s says that in order to overcome vaccine
hesitancy, public health officials have to build trust.
SCHAFFNER: You have to respect people. You have to respect where they're coming from, hear what they say, and then try to respond to their concerns.
SMITH: You know, we give shots to cows all the time, and you do get reactions to shots. So, you know, we have give a shot to an animal and walk
out there, 20 feet out of the shooting drop dead. Everybody's going to respond differently.
REEVE: After the first responders take it when it's your turn, will you take the vaccine?
SMITH: I probably will go and take the vaccine.
REEVE: How do you feel about the vaccine?
GWEN SCOTT, FIDDLERS GROVE COORDINATOR: Anything new, that has not been proven, we're not sure I won't be the guinea pig, you know, and I really
wish there was time for more testing, but there's not.
And we're losing too many people too fast. So, we have got to do what we can. I know it's become a political issue at times, but it shouldn't be.
This is a health issue.
SCHAFFNER: The approach to COVID has had substantial political overtones. People have attitudes about this, and it will not be easy to change those
attitudes.
REEVE: Are you going to tell the members of your congregation not to get the vaccine?
LOCKE: Members of our congregation can do what they want to, but they'll watch my videos and know that I'm not getting it.
REEVE: So, you expect them to model your behavior.
LOCKE: I expect them to use their Bible and use their brain.
REEVE: Elle Reeve, CNN, Wilson County, Tennessee.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, whether or not some people believe COVID-19 exists, no one can deny the destruction that it has wrought on the global economy. Still
U.S. lawmakers are in Congress are unable to come to an agreement on a new law to get badly needed cash to Americans, even just a few hundred dollars
would go a long way for those who need it most. For some had will make the difference quite frankly between having a home this Christmas or being
evicted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN AYERS, ABOUT TO BE HOMELESS: I need help. The first time I've said it. I need help, because I am about to be homeless.
ANGELA KEARNEY, ABOUT TO BE HOMELESS: I promised them that they would be normal children and then the pandemic hit and I can't keep those promises
anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, these endless talks by lawmakers have a real affect, don't they, on millions of people, hundreds and thousands of miles away from
Washington on whether average Americans will have somewhere to live and food to eat going forward. I'm going to get you to New York and to Miami
for more on that a little later in the show.
We've given you the toll of the pandemic in the Americas from extreme poverty in Venezuela to the devastation in the United States, but I want to
focus on what's going on here in the Middle East. You know of course that this show is broadcast from our Middle East programming hub here in UAE in
Abu Dhabi.
Well, Saudi Arabia keeping its infection rates competitively lower, lower than its neighbors and it's kept its death rate lower than the global
average. But now, Saudi Arabia is worried about a possible second wave and it's hoping to avoid it, approving the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech
coronavirus vaccine that America of course is still considering.
[10:20:01]
CNN's Nic Robertson sends us this report from Riyadh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice over): At the Saudi government's new state-of-the-art COVID-19 command center, all eyes
watching for a possible second wave.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That one -- show how many days until we're going to reach that number of ICUs?
ROBERTSON: Artificial intelligence, analyzing real-time data from COVID-19 tests to hospital beds to medicines to PPE to personnel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have red (INAUDIBLE) --
ROBERTSON: It is a virtual finger on the pulse of the nation.
DR. NAWFAL ALJERIAN, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HEALTH COMMAND CENTER: We are focusing on where the outbreaks are, where the super spreaders are,
where the events are.
TAWFIG ALRABIAH, SAUDI MINISTER OF HEALTH: And we are watching here. I'm saying we are part of this world. A second wave can happen in Saudi Arabia
like what had happened in other countries.
ROBERTSON: The cost to the kingdom has already been high. Although, the number of deaths, based on population, is lower than the global average.
The country shut its borders temporarily, barring millions of Muslims from pilgrimage to Islam's two holiest sites -- Mecca and Medina, and stopped
Saudis from leaving.
ALRABIAH: We had to stop it for the safety of all.
ROBERTSON: Was that a hard decision for you.
ALRABIAH: Absolutely.
ROBERTSON: Saudi's big COVID spike came over the summer when temperatures rocketed and people stayed indoors.
Since then, according to Johns Hopkins University, infections have gone down significantly. Government messaging and actions around testing and
controls so far seemingly effective.
Demand, Riyadh's drive-in COVID-19 test centers has dropped off. Staff here are grateful.
Dentist turned frontline COVID- 19 professional Mohammed Shamri (ph) got the virus in May. His wife, a hospital surgeon, got it five days later.
Their hopes, now, focusing on vaccines.
We are especially happy about this vaccine, he says, because we maintain social distancing with family, with brothers, with uncles out of fear for
their safety.
How fast Saudis can get them determined, in part, here at the government's new high tech COVID-19 research lab. Scientists here already have several
years experience studying other strains of coronavirus, partnering with England's Oxford University, and are responsible for picking which of the
globally available vaccines Saudis will get.
European and American offerings top of the list. Russian and Chinese products, so far, not making the scientific cut.
AHMED ALASKAR, DIRECTOR, KING ABDULLAH INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER: Well, the three vaccine so far that have been announced recently -
- the Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca -- all are attractive, and all show the good results.
ROBERTSON: And now, the Pfizer vaccine is approved, rollout, the health minister says, will be free, and should be fast.
ALRABIAH: We have a great supply chain. We have health services across the kingdom. Once we have the vaccine, we have the capacity to deliver the
vaccines in a very short time.
ROBERTSON: Until then, data at the COVID-19 command center is king. Across the world, in rooms like this, tense days still not done.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: We're all connecting the world from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Venezuela to the States. Up next --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ski lifts are open. With resorts put in place special restrictions like masks that need to be worn on the lift and social
distancing put in place as well in order to make sure that people can ski as safely as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Ski resorts preparing for a different kind of season because of the pandemic.
Be careful what you wish for, a warning for the U.K. as the prime minister, British prime minister, talks up what he calls an Australia-style Brexit
trade deal. Is there still a deal with Brussels to be done at this point?
And in our next hour, human rights advocates are calling it inhumane. A major development concerning one of the most vulnerable groups of people in
the world right now, the Rohingya.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:27:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And so what I told the cabinet, this evening, is to get on and make those preparations? We are not
stopping. The talks will continue to negotiate, but looking at where we are, I do think it is vital that everybody now gets ready for that
Australian option.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, so 'tis the season for wrapping things in ribbons and bows, even the bad news it seems as you just heard the British prime
minister offering what he calls an Australia-style trade deal with the European Union. It's actually a no deal Brexit just in different wrapper.
Boris Johnson trying to deliver tough news for British businesses with a ribbon tied around it, as you will know from watching this program. Post-
Brexit trade talks don't seem to be going particularly well. The Sunday deadline is looming to Mr. Johnson is including -- indulging in a bit of
what his critics call spin, often part of the art of the deal, if you will.
Anna Stewart connecting and translating that Downey street language for a no deal outcome. She's outside the houses of parliament, when is a deal not
a deal, apparently when it is an Australia-style deal.
Which means what? Where are we at here, Anna?
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Well, just in the last few hours, the prime minister has said no agreement is now looking very, very likely. Now, he
did not call it a no-deal Brexit which is what the rest of us are calling it, instead he has said it will be an Australian-style arrangement which is
to say no arrangement at all.
Let's take you through some of the finer points of the Australian E.U. deal, they do not have an agreement in place, they trade with tariffs and
custom checks in place.
They are trying to negotiate a free trade agreement with the E.U. If that weren't enough Australians don't seem to particularly like the arrangement
they have as it is. The former prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALCOLM TURNBULL, FORMER AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Be careful what you wish for. I mean, Australia -- Australia's relationship with the E.U. is
not one from a trade point of view that Britain, I think, would want to -- would want, frankly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: Australia has struck some trade concessions on specific goods as well so they have a good deal, for instance, on wine, that's something the
U.K. wouldn't have. The U.K. would actually be in a worse position even than the Australian arrangement as it currently is.
And, Becky, they will to think about size and geography here. Australia and the E.U. are not main trading partners, where E.U. is by far and large by a
country mile the biggest trading partner. It accounts for over half of all of its imports and over 40 percent of its exports. Reverting to WTO trade
terms could be hugely damaging for businesses not just in terms of tariffs but also in customs checks which could result in huge cues at the border.
[10:30:09]
And you know what, take a look at this, we are already seeing them. Sneaks of cues of lorries all around the port of Dover partly due to the impact of
the pandemic but also due to businesses already stockpiling for fear of the disruption that could come in less than three weeks -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Anna Stewart in London, gorgeous Christmas tree behind you I have to say. Thank you very much indeed for joining us.
Looks rather jolly in London but I think behind closed doors it's rather fraught at the moment. And you wouldn't expect anyone negotiating a deal to
say it's all sewed up. There may be good news, but it does sound pretty fraught.
Now, Hong Kong stepping up the use of its notorious national security law and one of the key pro-democracy figures is on the receiving end of it.
That is coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:33:31]
ANDERSON: Hong Kong pressing new charges against a man considered by many a standard bearer of its pro-democracy movement. Media tycoon Jimmy Lai is
now charged under a controversial national security law. He is accused of conspiring with foreign forces and could get life in prison if convicted.
The law was imposed by China earlier this year and slammed as draconian by many other countries. Lai previously told CNN that he will fight for
democracy no matter what because in his words without freedom, you have nothing left.
But his charges are only half the story we have to tell you about Beijing's latest moves against the media, the other half is Haze Fan today, a
"Bloomberg News" reporter detained in maintained China. The government is now confirming that she is behind bars, suspected of endangering national
security, and I quote the authorities there.
Ivan Watson keeping an eye on both of those developments. He joins us now from Hong Kong.
And let's get the latest on what is going on in the mainland if we can start there, Ivan.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Becky, the Chinese government did confirm that this Chinese citizen who works for Bloomberg,
Haze Fan, was detained.
Now, the announcement came hours after Bloomberg itself said that Haze Fan had last communicated with her editors on Monday morning and several hours
later, she was seen being escorted out of her apartment building in Beijing by plainclothes security officers.
[10:35:12]
Now, today, the Chinese foreign ministry did confirm she was detained by the Beijing National Security Bureau, quote, on suspicion of engaging in
criminal activities that jeopardized national security, the case is under investigation and the statement went on to say that Fan's legitimate lights
have been fully insured, end quote.
Well, she is certainly not the first journalist to get in trouble in China as recently as last August. There was an Australian broadcaster for Chinese
state media, Cheng Lei, she was taken in and is still believed to be in custody on national security grounds. The next month, two Australian
reporters had to seek shelter in Australian diplomatic missions when security forces were seeking to interrogate them. They were questioned and
then abruptly left China back to Australia.
The organization Reporters Without Borders says, quote, more than 100 journalists and bloggers are currently jailed. Xi Jinping's China is the
world's biggest prison for media personnel.
Bloomberg says on behalf of its incarcerated or detained employee, Hazel Fan, that the organization is very concerned about her right now -- Becky.
ANDERSON: OK. Ivan, we will continue to dig on that story separately, but within the same universe we have seen a significant number of changes going
on in Hong Kong itself and then reporting the news of Jimmy Lai, of course, today, what do we know?
WATSON: Yeah, the tempo of arrests and prosecutions of opposition activists and leaders has just been going at a pace we have never seen
before. Jimmy Lai, of course, and his official charging by police under the very controversial national security law under suspicion of, quote,
colluding with foreign forces and endangering national security, well, that's a big step.
He, of course, is this media mogul and outspoken critic of the Chinese communist party and he's just the latest because by our count there have
been at least two dozen people who have been detained under the national security law which was imposed by the Chinese communist party on Hong Kong
last summer, it dramatically expands the mainland security force's abilities to investigate and charge and prosecute people under suspicion of
sedition or treason or collusion.
But take it into a broader context, you have had the authorities here postpone elections for the legislative council by at least a year on the
grounds of the coronavirus pandemic, they've stripped four opposition lawmakers of their seats for not being patriotic enough and then the rest
of the opposition lawmakers all resigned en masse, several opposition parties have dissolved themselves and we've seen a growing number of
opposition figures, either lawmakers or leaders or student activists who have been charged and arrested either under the national security law or
under other things like inciting unauthorized protests.
I might add that protests themselves are nonexistent now. The police don't give you the right, don't authorize street demonstrations and if people try
to go out into the streets, they're very quickly rounded up by security forces. A growing number of opposition figures are fleeing overseas, among
them Nathan Law, a former opposition lawmaker who spoke to CNN from exile in the U.K.
Listen to what he had to say about what's happening here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHAN LAW, HONG KONG PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST: We've seen good people fight for democracy, fight for our shared interest are being arrested on a daily
basis. We're seeing (INAUDIBLE) very harsh are being sentenced, are being hand out on a daily basis that individuals are being in jails for years or
for months. We're seeing our freedom of speech and freedom of assembly being taken away. These are terrible moments and it really shows in 2020,
Hong Kong people are not just suffering from a public health crisis, but a complete crackdown from an autocracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: The authorities say they are restoring law and order after the chaos and violence in the streets of 2019.
[10:40:04]
But I think it's very safe to say that the organized political opposition in Hong Kong has been all but crushed this year, Becky.
ANDERSON: Ivan Watson is in Hong Kong for you.
There is a lot more to come on this show and the world. It isn't all bad. For many this time of the year is about giving back. The 14th annual "CNN
HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE" salutes the people who put others first, especially through what has been this terribly turbulent year.
Meet them in the next hour of CONNECT THE WORLD. Stay with us.
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ANDERSON: Right. You know what's better than a hole in one? Well, two holes in one as it were. Just that happening in the same tournament in the
first round.
Alex Thomas is in the house. I mean, this is remarkable, we all dream of one. Two in the same round? Unbelievable.
ALEX THOMAS, WORLD SPORT: I've never even had one, let alone two, Becky, and normally get the random holes in one and then whichever player gets it
bears no relation to their score but actually one of those who got it, hole in one was Amy Olson, an American who has never won on the LPGA Tour but is
the leader after the last major of this golf season, the U.S. Women's Open. Second round is just getting underway.
We got much more in "WORLD SPORT" coming up.
ANDERSON: Terrific. That is after this break. I'm Becky Anderson, back with CONNECT THE WORLD after that.
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(WORLD SPORT)
ANDERSON: Yeah, no, that would be terrible. It just wouldn't work. It wouldn't be the theater of the boxing as we expect. Thank you very much
indeed. Good to have you, Alex, and really -- really interesting. Thank you.
We've got CONNECT THE WORLD coming up.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The FDA advisory committee just voted to recommend a green light for Pfizer's vaccine.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The FDA will take under consideration that recommendation and
will very likely act on it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm really, really just fearing what's going to happen over the next several weeks.
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