tv CNN Newsroom Live CNN November 16, 2020 12:00am-1:00am PST
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-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and from all around the world. i'm rosemary church, and this is vroom. ahead this hour, the coronavirus pandemic has cases and hospitalizations surging across the u.s. health officials say a smoother transition to a biden administration could help, but the outgoing president is digging in and refusing to concede. plus a powerful hurricane is rapidly picking up speed, barrelling towards an already-storm weary central
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america. and japan aiming to show it can still host the olympics despite covid-19, with the games chief insisting fans will be present. we'll have the details from tokyo. good to have you with us. well, the u.s. has torn through another grim covid-19 milestone, and it's done so in record time. johns hopkins university says the country topped 11 million infections sound, just six days after it recorded 10 million. and that is the nation's fastest time to a million new cases since the pandemic began. america has seen more than 100,000 daily infections for 13 straight days. deaths are approaching 247,000,
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and doctors are warning things could get much worse. >> we are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, approaching potentially 400,000 americans who could perish by the early part of next year. >> the u.s. is also setting new records in the number of hospitalizations. and all this comes as president donald trump refuses to concede to president-elect joe biden. the nation's top infectious disease expert says america's covid-19 response would benefit from an easy transition. >> it's almost like passing the baton in a race. you don't want to stop and then give it to somebody. you want to essentially keep going. that's what transition is. it certainly would make things more smoothly if we could do that. >> and the team for president-elect biden says he wants to focus on more testing and contact tracing when he takes office. a member of his coronavirus task
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force spoke to cnn's pam brown about what they need to see from the outgoing administration. >> we really need to have a much better understanding of the details. so, for example, how much ppe, you know, the masks and the face shields and the ventilators and all the other necessary equipment is available, where is it, you know, how much of it do we have? how many hospital beds? how many ventilators? some of this information is publicly available but not all of it and not in real time the way we need it. >> so, you've asked for that and they're not giving it to you, just to be clear. >> we're not getting any information. >> and the biden team is also looking for back channels and meetings with drug companies, as it faces road blocks from the trump administration. cnn's jessica dean has the details.
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>> reporter: with a new week on the horizon for the biden transition team, we're learning from incoming chief of staff ron klain that the team will meet with drug manufacturers including pfizer to discuss a vaccine distribution plan. this, as they continue to try to build their plan for a seamless transition on january 20th while still not being able to speak directly to people in the federal agencies to coordinate with them, people like on the white house coronavirus task force or in health and human services who are also developing a distribution plan. that's because the general services administration, that federal office is responsible for signing off on the transition has yet to do so. so, that means the biden transition team is hand strung in that way, but they are working around it. we're told they're back channelling to local governments and people in the local community as they try to get their plans together for when biden takes office on january 20th. on monday afternoon we are expecting to see and hear from the president-elect and the vice
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president-elect, joe biden and kamala harris, set to give remarks on the economy and building back better. that was their slogan on the campaign trail. now we wait to hear their plans for action when they take office on january 20th. jessica dean, cnn wilmington, delaware. the president's top coronavirus adviser urged the state of michigan to reject new coronavirus measures. scott atlas criticized the new restrictions, tweeting sunday the only way this stops is if people rise up. you get what you accept. later on cnn, michigan's governor dismissed atlas' comments, saying she would continue to follow the science. >> we know that the white house likes to single us out here in michigan, me out in particular. i'm not going to be bullied into not following reputable scientists and medical professionals. i listened to the people that actually have studied and are
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well-respected worldwide on these issues, not the individual that is doing the president's bidding on this one. dr. leana wen is a cnn medical analyst. she's also the former baltimore commissioner of health, and she joins me now from baltimore. thank you doctor for talking with us and of course for all that you do. >> thank you, good to join you. >> so, we are seeing skyrocketing new covid cases in the u.s. one million new cases in just the last six days, taking the total number above 11 million, with 1,200 deaths in just one day. state governors sounding the alarm, yet the outgoing president is playing gol skpf refusing to accept election results while blocking joe biden's transition to the presidency. so, what needs to happen in this country right now to bring those cases down along with record hospitalizations and deaths? >> the entire united states is a
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fire storm of covid-19. it's a hot spot everywhere in the country. and we are in a dire position. hospitalizations are at a record high. and the reason i'm so worried about this is the hospital numbers reflect the number of infections from three to four weeks ago. we were at 80,000 daily infections at that point. now we're at double that number. what is it going to look like in three to four week's time? this is the time for us to absolutely all be wearing masks. we know that masks save lives. they reduce transmission by more than 70%. and very importantly, people need to stay outdoors, not socialize or gather indoors even with loved ones, with extended family and friends. our loved ones could carry coronavirus just as much as strangers do. and with thanksgiving and other holidays coming, it is so critical for everyone to not gather indoors with anyone except those in our immediate house hold. >> that is such an important
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point as we count down to thanksgiving. and due to his transition being blocked, president-elect biden and his team are looking for back channels now so they can get on top of the covid-19 pandemic. what might some of these alternative channels be? and how horrified are you as a doctor that the outgoing president is putting politics above saving lives? >> we're entering this extremely deadly winter ahead. and what president trump should be doing every single day as his number one priority is to focus on the coronavirus. but actually he has not met with his task force, it's reported, for five months, which i just find unimaginable. imagine if this were a war that we're in against a foreign adversary and the president has not met with his top generals for five months. so, tait is a major problem tha the president-elect is having to go around this current team.
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i think they can do a lot. they can meet with private companies, state and local health officials, but they have to have the information from the current administration in order to make plans for something as basic as vaccine distribution. testing, masks, all these things need to be ramped up right now. and it's unconscionable to prevent the incoming team from doing these life saving ks. >> it is so shocking for so many of us watching on. and meantime, doctor, some positive news. pfizer's covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective. as a result of this, how soon will the most vulnerable in our society get access to this vaccine? and then of course the rest of the population? >> so, this is great news that came out this week about the pfizer vaccine, although i will say this is only preliminary data. we don't yet know about how effective this vaccine is going to be in not just preventing infection but also preventing severe disease. and we don't have those
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information yet as it relates to older individuals, those who are most vulnerable from coronavirus. so, if everything turns out through the best timeline possible, we could have this vaccine approved by early next year for the general population, which would be great. and i think this is another reason for all of us to hang in there for this winter. by next winter, things are going to look very different. even by next summer, things could look very different. but very to survive until then. >> yeah, and wear those masks, as you have pointed out. dr. leana wen, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. and around europe, there is mixed news on the fight against the coronavirus. france is finally seeing a decrease in covid-19 patients in intensive care units. that's the first decrease since the beginning of october. but in other countries, the news isn't so good. greece is closing all primary
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schools and nurseries for two weeks to try and bring a rising number of cases under control, while in germany, the country's economy minister is warning citizens to brace for another four or five months of precautions and restrictions to halt the spread. so, let's turn to cnn's frederick fligfrederik pleitgen . he joins us live. good to see you, fred. >> reporter: well, the interesting thing about germany here, rosemary is that by far the vast majority of the population here believes the current lockdown measures are good, are enough, they should be in place, and there's a substantial amount of germans who think the measures should get tougher. it could be another four to five months of very strict measures. at the same time what the germans are seeing, even with the lockdown measures kurchtly in place, while the numbers aren't necessarily skyrocketing the way they have been over the
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past couple of weeks, they also are not going down. what we're going to be seeing today in germany is a key meeting between angela merkel and german state governors. and most in this country believe the lockdown measures are going to become even tougher than before. especially if you look at schools are kids are going to have to wear masks even when they're in their desks, which is something they haven't had to do before. also the amount of people folks are allowed to meet in private setting also is going to decrease to a lot less than it was before. and of course first and foremost, private gatherings and parties are also going to be limited as well. looking at the germans to be more strict than lockdown measures, as they're saying they believe the curve is flattening but it isn't going down. one of the things about all of europe is they're not looking forward to thanksgiving like in the united states. they're looking fwafrd forward to at least save christmas although there are germans who
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don't believe larger gatherings will be possible then. i'm not sure if you're aware the germans, our humor is a lot better than people think. the german people put out a video to try to urge people to stay at home. it shows an old man in the future talking about the heroic winter of 2020 and how the german people saved the country essentially. and he goes and says they saved it by doing absolutely nothing, by staying at home. and i think the key phrase in that ad was our frontline was the couch. many people think that's funny here in this country. some people don't think it's funny because of course a lot of folks are quite traumatized by what's been going on with the coronavirus. a lot of businesses and people suffering. so, there is a little bit of controversy. most people think it's funny. other places in europe think it's funny as well. if you have a chance to look at it, take a look at it. >> we're all looking for a little bit of humor along the
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way. this has been such a marathon for everyone across the globe. many thanks for joining us live from berlin. appreciate. just ahead on "cnn newsroom," hurricane iota is powering up, threatening an already storm-weary coast. we'll have a live update on where the storm is headed. that's next. plus the crew aboard the spacex falcon 9 is on its way to the international space station. we'll tell you how this trip is making history. stay with us. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements- neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference.
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5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. ignition, lift off. >> and night and gravity contains you. >> sensational. historical first for commercial space flights. the spacex falcon 9 took off from nasa's kennedy space center in florida sunday evening, on board four astronauts in the middle of a 27-hour journey that will take them to the international space station.
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this is the first crewed mission for spacex. rachel crane has more from the space center. >> history was made here today when nasa astronauts mike hopkins, victor glover, shannon walker, and soichi no gucci after successful launch at 727 from launch pad 39a, which of course is where apollo 11 astronauts blasted off to the moon back in 1969. the mission was pegged crew one and it was the first operational mission for crew dragon spacecraft which renamed resilience in honor of the hardships in 2020. the countdown was not without intense moments. however, technicians were able to troubleshoot the problem and the astronauts launched on time. they are currently making their way through space on a 27-hour
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journey before they rendezvous with the international space station, bringing the members to 7 which will dramatically increase the science and research the crew can perform. nasa has not had a home grown way of getting to the international space station and has paid russia over $4 billion on their spacecraft to get there. sunday's launch is so significant because it marks the true beginning of commercial flights to the international space station, something that ends our dependence on the russian's to ferry our astronauts to space. and nasa hopes the commercial flights will save the agency money and allow focus to focus on deep space missions like going back to the moon and putting boots on mars. kennedy space center. we are keeping an eye on two separate storms impacting opposite sides of the world. hurricane vamco has cut a path
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of destruction across southeast asia over the past few days. it left at least 67 people dead in the philippines before making landfall sunday in vietnam. while it continues to weaken, there's still a threat of flooding and landslides. we're also watching hurricane iota just off the central american coast. the storm has been rapidly strengthening and is now a very dangerous category 4 hurricane. so, let's turn now to cnn's meteorologist who's tracking the storm. good to see you, pedram. what are you seeing? >> rosemary, yet another storm system here, the 30ing of the season across the atlantic and two weeks removed from where hurricane eta made landfall across nicaragua as a category 4 devastating the area across the region. you'll notice organized as a tropical system gets. in an area that's been devastated in recent weeks. it is a category 4. it is forecast to maintain
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intensity on approach here, make landfall after having rapidly intensified just in the past 24 hours, up to 65-miles-an-hour in feed in a 24 hour period. hurricane warnings have been prompted where we had landfall with eta two weeks ago. this is where the storm will approach as a category 4 system. the concern is we know the region has been devastated. dams have reached full capacity. levies have been breached. and a lot of people have taken on a lot of damage as well. when you it comes to seeing two categories fours in a span of two weeks, a category 4 strikes nicaragua once every 37 years and it's happening twice in less than 14 days. as far as rain is concerned could see as much as a foot of rainfall across this region that
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has been just devastated. we know the fatalities here have exceeded 100 lives lost from the previous storm that made landfall here a couple of weeks ago in honduras. damages there exceeded $5 billion, which is equivalent to 20% of the country's gdp. so, you talk about a worse case scenario of seeing a storm of this magnitude yet again approach an identical spot. we know it's going to be a big story here with storm surge potential exceeding four meters in some of these areas. and unfortunately the guidance is pretty confident on this making landfall somewhere around northern nicaragua or near the border of honduras in an area that has been so devastated in recent weeks. >> pedram, thank you so much for keeping a very close eye on that. we do aproesh unipreciate it. mike pompeo is in france on the first stop of his seven nation tour.
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each and every one of the countries he's visiting has congratulated president-elect joe biden for his victory, something that pompeo and his boss donald trump refuse to do. for more, let's turn now to cnn's melissa bell who's joining us live from paris. good to see you, melissa. pompeo has gone so far to say there will be a smooth transition to a second trump term. how difficult could this be for the outgoing u.s. secretary of state? zbling it begins in france. the leader was one of the first to congratulate president-elect joe biden last saturday. and french government officials were asked about him, not at least mike pompeo's counterpart who said he had full faith in american democracy and until january 20th, his counterpart being mike pompeo, he would be receiving him. these were meetings requested by mike pompeo and have been
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organized in full transparency with president-elect joe biden's teams with whom they are already in touch and looking ahead to the priorities and issues that will matter beyond january 20th. so, for the time being today what we can expect is a wreath laying ceremony mike pompeo will be at for the recent french victim of terrorism over the course of the last few weeks. on the table we know they're going to be talking about the issues of the day, china, terrorism, but also it will be an opportunity for the french to make clear their opposition to any suggestion of a unilateral or rushed american withdrawal from either iraq or afghanistan beyond january 20th and also rosemary, the iran deal. remember that the french have been at the forefront of the efforts to salvage it over the last four years. you can expect that's likely to come up with a clear message that europeans will be looking to the daying days of the trump administration not to do
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anything further to try and scamper that deal and make it harder for france to try and revive it beyond january 20th, rosemary. >> it'll be interesting to see how that trip goes. melissa bell joining us live from paris. meanwhile the u.s. president donald trump spent time on the golf course sunday, but he is still having trouble accepting the will of the american people. more on that straight ahead. and a highly popular former president now weighing in, barack obama's words of advice for the man who currently holds the oval office after the break.
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mixed messages from the outgoing u.s. president, who seems to be having trouble accepting his election loss. on sunday, donald trump made a rare admission on twitter, that he will not be president in just over two months. that tweet no longer appears on his feed. instead, president trump is now, once again, falsely claiming that he actually won. and he's refusing to concede defeat to joe biden. he did find time to go golfing though. it seems that despite the coronavirus pandemic raging out of control, mr. trump can only focus on his personal loss. cnn's jeremy diamond has more. >> well, for a brief moment on sunday morning, president trump acknowledged something he has not acknowledged before, and that is that joe biden has won this presidential election. the president saying in two words, he won, but the rest of the president's tweet and the tweets from the president for the rest of the day on sunday were filled with the usual garden variety of conspiracy
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theories, baseless allegations about the 2020 election and lies about fraud in this election. the president making very clear in a follow-up tweet that he was not at all conceding this election, as some republicans are beginning to hope that he will do, saying, quote, i concede nothing, saying that he still has a long way to go in terms of contesting the results of this 2020 election. the president's comments on twitter were really reminiscent of what we've seen from the president over the last week. sources have told me over the course of the week that the president has really vacillated between two states. on the one hand, this combative desire to pursue every possible legal avenue as it relates to contesting the results of the election and at other moments the president appearing to come to grips with reality. as of sunday night, it was clear that the president intends to continue fighting this out. he said his administration or rather his legal team will be pursuing more lawsuits in courts
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in key battleground states. so far, the president's team and other republican allies who are trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, they've been unsuccessful. nine cases on friday alone were either dropped by those legal teamed or dismissed by federal courts m of which really laughed out some of the claims that were made by these lawyers who were not able to provide substantive evidence of voter fraud. the cyber security and infrastructure security agency which is part of the department of homeland security, they in a joint statement with other local and state election officials, they said in a statement very clearly that the 2020 election was the most secure election in american history and that there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. meanwhile, former u.s. president barack obama has some word of advice for mr. trump. obama sat down with "60 minutes" for an interview that was broadcast sunday. and he said mr. trump needs to
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accept the election results and concede if he cares about his legacy. >> a president is a public servant. they are temporary occupants of the office by design. and when your time is up, then it is your job to put the country first and think beyond your own ego and your own interests and your own disappointments. my advice to president trump is if you want, at this late stage in the game, to be remembered as somebody who put country first, it's time for you to do the same thing. >> in your view, it is time for him to concede. >> absolutely. well, i think it was time for him to concede probably the day after the election or at the latest two day as after the election. when you look at the numbers objectively, joe biden will have
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won handedly. there is no scenario in which any of those states would turn the other way, and certainly not enough to reverse the outcome of the election. >> well, joining us now with political analysis and perspective and natasha lind stat, professor of government at the university of essex. thanks for being with us. >> thanks very having me. >> outgoing president trump indulges himself in more golfing and tweeting. he's conceding nothing. just hours ago, he tweeted in capital letters that he won the election, all this while he falsely claims the election was rigged. what does the country do when the outgoing president doesn't accept a free and fair election? >> that is a great question. this is really unchartered territory for the u.s. because conceding an election is a norm.
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it's not a law, but all the past presidents, outgoing presidents, have conceded. this is something that is important for our democratic process. and it's just an example of civility. but we've seen that donald trump has been the one president to shatter really all of our democratic norms, and we don't know what he's going to do. i think he will eventually leave, but he's trying to turn this loss into a win somehow. and he will never really fully concede. and this is really important because as a recent poll has revealed, 70% of republican voters believe that the election was fraudulent or at least it wasn't free and fair. and that is so incredibly dangerous for a democracy when we have one party not believing in the legitimacy of the electoral processes. so, it's incredibly important that he does concede, that he speaks to his voters. i don't think he's ever going to do it. we're seeing as a result that u.s. politics is more polarized than ever.
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it's a very precarious place for us. i don't think we're going to have to force him out of the white house, but he's never going to say he lost and that has important ramifications down the road. >> the other important question is why are so many republicans standing by donald trump and his false claims despite knowing very well he lost the election and that no massive voter fraud was evident here. >> if we're talking about republican leaders, i think we heard reports they do acknowledge that he lost but that they are petrified about what he's going to do or say on twitter. and they feel that he really does represent the party. but this is surprising. look at the electoral result. true, he did bring out millions of people to the polls, and he was able to have the second most recorded votes for any president or running candidate in history. but it was actually the republicans in the senate and in the house that did better than he did. he brings people to the polls, but he also has an even greater
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number of people that voted against him. the republicans need to realize they do not need him. but i think they're cautious at the moment because they're waiting to see what happens in the georgia senate races, which is taking place january 5th. and this is going to be incredibly important for both the democrats and the republicans because if the democrats are able to peel off some sort of victory, winning those last two senate seats, then they will be able to have a majority in the house with kamala harris being the tiebreaking vote. and that's the only way that biden will be able to get any of his agenda through. without it, he's going to face mitch mcconnell who's going to reject anything that he tries to get done. >> yeah. but january 5th, of course, say long way off. if we're going to be waiting for them to get behind biden in that time. so, where does all this lead president-elect joe biden, whose transition to power is being blocked by the outgoing president? how vulnerable does this leave the country?
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>> well, it really does put us in a really dangerous situation because it's very harmful to our national security and to the pandemic. we see that trump is withholding key information about intelligence briefings and about the pandemic. not giving biden really any access to the machinery of government. and so we see john kelly calling this crazy, john bolton calling this incredibly harmful and dangerous. so, it is because we see actually the transition period in 2000 when bush wasn't given access to some important intelligence information. and this was a case where it was only about a couple hundred votes and that's why gore refused to concede. but there is some acknowledgment that that wasn't good for the country either. this is getting much worse because we have a pandemic with 11 million people that have been infected and close to 250,000 deaths. we see that the president is golfing instead of trying to help with this transition at such a critical time.
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>> yeah, very disturbing optics indeed. natas natasha lind stat joing us there. the british prime minister is in self-quarantine after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. we are live outside ten downing street in just a moment. robinhood believes now is the time to do money. without the commission fees. so, you can start investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for?
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another violent weekend on the streets of belarus. a human rights group says at least a thousand people were arrested across the country as mass demonstrations against leader alexander lukashenko continue. a warning, you may find the video we're about to show disturbing. these images shot in a minsk supermarket show police beating protesters before detaining them, lots of screaming, protests erupted in august with
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protesters claiming the presidential election was rigged. peru's interim president resigned on sunday after just five days in office. celebrations broke out as people cheered the news. protester, opposition parties and civil society at large had refused to recognize the interim president as the country's leader. manuel marino called for peace and unity as he stepped down. he was appointed to the job after congress impeached his predecessor last week. that sparked nearly a week of violent protests. british prime minister boris johnson is now in self-quarantine. mr. johnson met with members of parliament thursday, including leanderson, who later tested positive for coronavirus. you may recall mr. johnson contracted covid-19 back in late march. after his condition worsened, he had to be hospitalized, spending
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three nights in intensive care. so, let's get more on this. turn to cnn's max foster who joins us live from london from 10 downing street, i believe. max, what's the latest on the british prime minister's situation and his self-quarantine? >> much to be made of that image with lee andersonon thursday. the two were social distancing, but they weren't wearing masks. they were inside. we're told boris johnson got pinged as he called it through the british track and trace system. he's working at home from a laptop and put out this video talking about his health. he feels pretty fit, as you can see. >> it doesn't matter that i'm fit, feel great. several people do in my circumstances. and it doesn't matter that i've had the disease and i'm bursting with antibodies.
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we've got to interrupt the spread of the disease. and one of the ways we can do that now is by self-isolating for 14 days when you get contacted by any chance test and trace. >> the other thing people are talking about rosemary obviously is whether or not you can catch covid twice. boris johnson famously caught it earlier in the year. but -- and he says he's full of antibodies. but the big test of course is if he gets it again. so, lite of focus on that as well today rosemary. >> it's a long time since he had it. many months. and it's thought that those antibodies only last up to three months or so. of course more studies need to be done. does he know for sure that he's bursting with antibodies, as he suggests? >> well, you can assume he's taken a test for that, but there have been lot of academics on the radio today discussing whether or not you can catch it twice. and the jury is frankly out on
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that which is why so many people are focused on his recovery, focused on whether or not he catches it and gets a positive test back from it. he's isolating for now. the other other big thing is the fact it's been a tumultuous time at downing street. you've got factions that have been at war. one of the factions walked out of downing street. so, this was meant to be a reset for boris johnson, and he was to be announcing a series of critical policy announcements as well. that's going to be difficult if he's having to do that from home. he insists the meetings continue on zoom. >> we'll continue to follow this. max foster joining us live from outside 10 downing street in london. many thanks. japan is preparing for next year's olympics, but can it safely hold the games during a pandemic? we'll take a look. want to brain better?
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unlike ordinary memory supplements- neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. so, right now asian stock indices are reacting positively to a deal in the largest alliance, the 15 companies signed the economic partnership at a summit in hanoi, vietnam on
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sunday. the china-backed deal accounts for nearly 28% of global trade and excludes the united states. well, international olympic committee chairman thomas bach is in tokyo, his first visit since the pandemic. that visit comes as japan tries to show him and the rest of the world that it's capable of safely hosting the olympics during the covid-19 crisis. cnn's selena wang joins us now from tokyo. selena, how does japan propose to do this, to prove it can hold these games safely? >> well, rosemary, thomas bach earlier spoke with yoshihide suga and said he's becoming very confident there will be spectators at the olympics next year. ocording to organizers they're going to make a decision on the upper limit of spectators by next spring depending on the covid situation in skpout of
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japan. here in japan the country is dealing with a third wave of covid cases with infections surpassing 1,000 cases for more than -- for seven consecutive days. now, despite that, the country is moving ahead with preparations. in fact, earlier this month, japan held an international gymnastics event, which is a very critical test for just how ready the country is to hold the olympics next summer. take a listen here. >> japan wants to show the world that it can host the olympics in the middle of a pandemic. 32 gymnasts from japan, the u.s., russia and china plus 2,000 socially distanced fans gathered at the national gymnasium earlier this month in tokyo for one of the first international sporting competitions since the covid-19 pandemic began. it's a glimpse of what tokyo may do for the olympic games
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scheduled next summer. for athletes, this was a competition like no other, masks, temperature checks, daily tests leading up to the competition, two weeks quarantine before arriving in tokyo. the chinese delegation even arrived in full hazmat suits. >> it was stressful but it was very special. we hadn't competed in nine months or more. just to be able to be back in the venue, back in front of a crowd and back with other world class athletes, it was amazing to feel like an assay again. >> this was her first time outside of the u.s., but her only views of japan were from the hotel or bus windows. >> because of this competition, it not only gives me hope that there can be another season. it makes me feel like we can. we all stayed very safe, and
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because of the bubble that we were all in, it gave us less of a chance of contracting the virus. >> but this was a small scale event. it's unclear how japan can scale these covid measures for the olympics, which typically has hundreds of events, more than 10,000 competitors and millions of spectators. meanwhile, japan is dealing with a third wave of covid-19 cases, as infections reach record highs in more than 1,000 a day. one health expert says japan needs to strengthen its contact tracing and testing measures, warning there could be a resurgence as japan reaction las its border restrictions at a time when cases in the u.s. and europe continue to rise. >> to hold the olympics, japan needs to show they can suppress transmission in a way other countries have done. and they have to stop it at the border as well. >> but japan is pushing ahead with other large scale events.
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recently, more than 27,000 fans watched a baseball game at the yokohama stadium. after pfizer said its covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective based on early analysis, olympic organizers said they felt positive sentiment and e are leaf. but the organizers have said they're willing to hold the games at any cost, regardless of whether an effective vaccine is widely available in time. >> now, the organizers have called that international gymnastics event a success. the athletes i spoke to said they felt safe the entire time. they thought it was well run, well organized. but the question is how japan is going to be able to replicate those complex web of covid restrictions for many more people from many more countries. the president of the ioc has said that in order to protect the people of japan, they want to get as many people coming into japan for the olympics
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vaccinated if a vaccine is available in time. and meantime, there has been public criticism in japan of japan's approach to the olympics n. fact, in a survey conducted over the summer by nak, they found that nearly 70% of respond dents thought that the loifrpices should be cancelled or further delayed. according to a survey conducted this weekend, more than 80% of people in japan are worried about the new spike in cases. >> we shall watch to see what happens there. selena wang joining us live in tokyo. thanks. dustin johnson is donning the famous green jacket, smashing golf records on his way to winning his first masters. he was in top form, winning the tournament with the fewest shots ever. the masters took place unusually late this year. it was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic. and thanks so much for watching "cnn newsroom." i'm rosemary church. i'll be back in just a moment with more "cnn newsroom."
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hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states, and all around the world. you are watching "cnn newsroom," and i'm rosemary church. just ahead, digging in his heels, president trump says he won't concede the election alleging widespread fraud. but that's not stopping president-elect joe biden from foraging ahead with his transition plans. plus, a bleak outlook, confirmed coronavirus cases in the united states surge past 11 million. one medical expert
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