Return to Transcripts main page
Connect the World
Six Days Left until U.S. Election; Deadline for Mail-in Ballots in Some States; Trump Failed to Deliver on Many Campaign Promises; British Hospital Overwhelmed by Rising Cases; Migrant Boat Sinks off French Coast. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired October 28, 2020 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Six days now until the final voting next week on Election Day.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: COVID, you turn on the news, COVID, COVID, you know when they're going to stop talking about it so
much? November 4th, you're right.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Then he shrugged. He swaggered and he surrendered.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's jealous of COVID's media coverage.
TRUMP: We're rounding that beautiful turn and it's going to be very good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's showing up at these reckless rallies and not only is he spreading misinformation, he's also spreading the virus.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This country is now averaging nearly 70,000 new infections every day.
JANEL HEINRICH, PUBLIC HEALTH DIRECTOR, MADISON AND DANE COUNTIES, WISCONSIN: We cannot keep up. We are struggling with the constant and
unending rise in cases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Happening right now in Washington, big tech and its, quote, "bad behavior" about to appear before the Senate
Commerce Committee.
The bosses of Twitter, Google and Facebook will all be lined up to face questions about what they are doing to moderate online content and the law
that protects the companies from lawsuits over users' posts.
Remember, they are often accused of having a bias towards the Left and of not doing enough to take down right-wing extremist content. So all of this
matters a lot more just days out from the American election.
And we are, of course, all watching one of the greatest spectacles on Earth, the multi-billion dollar personality contest over who gets to rule
America and transform the world as we know for better or for worse.
Yes, there are now six days and counting until America elects its next president, six days until the voting finally comes to an end. And the early
voting numbers are eye popping: 71 million Americans have already made their pick. That's way more than half the total number of votes cast last
time around.
But even though the voting will be over next Tuesday, the counting will go on and on and on. And beyond the counting, the arguing over counting; both
sides lining up for a fight. So it may take a while before we actually know who wins.
But there is one post-Election Day certainty, one thing that will not be over: that is the coronavirus pandemic, again, raging across the U.S. It
never really stopped but now it is worse than ever.
I've been showing you this map this week, for weeks now. Today there's more orange and more red on it; 40 out of 50 states in the U.S. of A, trending
in the wrong direction. America logging more than 73,000 cases Tuesday, one of the highest daily infection numbers since the start of the pandemic.
And, remember, cases are what's known as a leading indicator, meaning first they rocket, then deaths follow later. Deaths are rising in 27 states.
The White House, though, painting a very different picture for Americans; in a startling example of dishonest bravado, quite frankly, it lists among
Donald Trump's first-term accomplishments as president ending the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just put the facts side-by-side there for a moment. It is as bad as ever, the White House declaring it over. Clearly that message is not resonating
in some of the key battleground states that the president does need to win in order to get reelected.
Most notably Wisconsin, where a new poll released just hours ago won't make for happy reading at the White House. "The Washington Post"/ABC News poll
has Democratic challenger Joe Biden with a 17-point lead, far higher than anything that we have seen before.
Other polls show Biden with a smaller lead, about half that number, but still significant. And a closer look reveals nearly six out of 10 Wisconsin
respondents in that poll disapprove of the president's handling of the pandemic.
So, of course, you would expect Mr. Trump to be talking about all of that, mapping out a plan, right?
Well, no, not at all. He is just reverting to his 2016 playbook, it seems, but more to one that reads like it's straight out of the 1950s, to be
honest. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I love women and I can't help it. They are the greatest. I love them much more than the men.
[10:05:00]
TRUMP: Much more than the men. So I'm saving suburbia, I'm getting your kids back to school. I'm also getting your husbands -- they want to get
back to work, right?
They want to get back to work. We're getting your husbands back to work and everybody wants it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Menfolk back to work.
Really?
Is that a resonating campaign message?
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: Well, the president keeps downplaying the pandemic and that is a fact, whichever side of the aisleway you are on. Joe Biden is resolute in
his message that the president has failed to handle COVID-19. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: In the spring, the president declared, in his voice as commander in chief, as commander in chief he was going to wage war on the virus. Instead
he shrugged, he swaggered and he surrendered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Biden made those comments in Georgia. That is a state that hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in almost 30 years.
You will remember we told you that yesterday, if you are a regular viewer. So he is banking on -- or at least wants to build the illusion -- that such
changes are possible.
And he's getting some help from former president Barack Obama, who has been campaigning this week and will join Biden this weekend. Now Obama also
calling the president's COVID response a failure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: What's his closing argument?
That people are too focused on COVID. He said this at one of his rallies. "COVID, COVID, COVID," he's complaining. He's jealous of COVID's media
extra coverage. If he had been focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn't be reaching new record highs across the country this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: And as America and, quite frankly, the whole world struggles through this pandemic, I do want to take a quick look back to show you how
different the campaign was four years ago today, candidate Trump asking a crowd, why bother to even hold an election? Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We should just cancel the election and just give it to Trump, right?
Why are we having it?
Why are we having it?
Her policies are so bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: October 28th, 2016. It is new money then for old rope, the same old themes, despite the world having changed beyond imagination. Trump
didn't just blast Hillary Clinton in the final days of that campaign, he hit back at Biden after Biden said he could best Trump in a fight back in
their high school days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I got Biden, who said I'd like to take him behind the gym. Oh, I dream of that. Biden. Do you know what you do with Biden?
You go like this and he would fall over. Just tough guy, Mr. tough guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, that may be a classic example of be careful what you wish for as the Election Day clock counts down to zero. CNN correspondents
spread out across the states for you, following the candidates in their last few days of campaigning. Here is some of what they are seeing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Miguel Marquez in Detroit, Michigan. Both parties are going to work very hard to win this classic
swing state. Donald Trump won this state by 10,704 votes in 2016. The president will be here twice this week; the vice president will also be
here. Secretary of state in the state expects some 5 million Michiganders to cast their vote in this election.
And by Election Day about two-thirds of the vote will be in. Because of the coronavirus pandemic they have an aggressive system of mail-in balloting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bill Weir in Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, a state that is seeing a collision of coronavirus and
democracy, setting records of voter turnout and new cases and mortality at the same time.
Over 5,000 cases on Tuesday, 64 new deaths; those are new records by a wide margin. Even so, President Trump held a mostly maskless rally in La Crosse
yesterday. The vice president coming today.
And Joe Biden in the latest ABC News/"Washington Post" poll now leading this state by 17 points, although Democrats are pretending that number
doesn't exist, treating this as if every vote could be the deciding vote.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[10:10:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SR. INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Drew Griffin in Tallahassee, Florida, where the state has just released brand-new early
voting numbers: 6.9 (sic) Floridians now have voted. That's approaching nearly half of all registered voters, who have already voted in this state.
And there's plenty more days to go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: I want to bring in White House correspondent John Harwood to discuss some of what we have set out for you at the top of this hour.
John, have a listen to an undecided voter speaking to CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, Trump is -- Trump is Trump.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK?
It's been fun having Rodney Dangerfield as president, it's been entertaining.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like a lot of the things he says. I don't like a lot of things he does. So, yes, it's a difficult thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Trump described as "entertaining."
At this stage with six days to go, I'm not suggesting for a moment that one undecided voter is reflective of those who haven't yet voted.
But what do you make of that?
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, most Americans are not entertained by Trump, that's why we see the polls that Joe Biden is over
50 percent nationally, over 50 percent in more than enough states to win the Electoral College.
People who have decided, for whatever reason, to vote for Donald Trump, who come up with a way to explain it, which most Americans find difficult at a
time we've got this surging pandemic, the economy has been battered by the pandemic and the president has not seemed to solve the major problems
facing the country.
But people have to justify what they're going to do. And this guy thought it was sort of funny the way Trump behaves. But most Americans do not.
ANDERSON: More than 70 million have already cast their ballot. That is more than half of those who had voted this -- voted this time in 2016, in
total in 2016. So the electorate is clearly energized -- or at least those who have gone out to vote early.
What do these campaigns then need to do in order to move the dial for those who may still be undecided and haven't voted yet?
HARWOOD: Well, Becky, there are very few undecided voters. The more significant thing is your latter point, which is find the people who
haven't voted yet.
They take these early vote numbers and they check that against their voter files and figure out which of their potential supporters have not voted.
And they focus their fire on those.
Now Democrats have an initial advantage in the sense that they banked more votes. They have put a greater emphasis on voting early, especially voting
by mail. So they narrow the range of the targets they can try to motivate between now and Tuesday.
Republicans are counting on a big in-person vote on Election Day and the polling indicates that they have the advantage there. One complication
though, of course, is, as pandemic surges in places like Wisconsin, it may be more difficult to get some of those voters out on Election Day.
ANDERSON: I'm fascinated to see where Donald Trump is at. About, I don't know, a month or so, it was a little bit more than that ago during the
Black Lives Matter protests and various others, Donald Trump, it seemed, had one pillar that he was standing on this time and that was law and
order.
I haven't heard that spoken of by his campaign now for some weeks. It seems like his playbook is, we're back, as it were, to the future. We're back in
2016. Let's go back to exactly this day then, four years ago, and hear from Donald Trump, then candidate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: But real change also means getting rid of the corruption in Washington and, again, maybe that's happening. Wow. A big day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: After four years, nearly four years of being President of the United States, does it surprise you that his campaign and the advisers of
his campaign are effectively saying, do what you do best, which is what you did four years ago before you ran this country, and talk about draining the
swamp?
[10:15:00]
HARWOOD: Well, look, nothing the Trump campaign has done this year has been successful. So they've bounced from issue to issue. They tried to
portray Joe Biden as senile and losing it mentally; that didn't work. They tried to go to law and order; that didn't work.
They've tried to talk about the economy and get voters to put themselves back in the frame of mind from before when the coronavirus hit and say,
look at the great economy I built. It wasn't actually that great. It was a solid economy, a continuation of the expansion but that wasn't worked
either.
Then they go to draining the swamp. Obviously Donald Trump has not drained the swamp. There have been vastly greater amounts of corruption under the
Donald Trump administration than there were before he got there.
But nevertheless, he's trying to persuade his followers that Washington was corrupt and, again, we will see if that can be successful. But what he has
tried so far hasn't been.
ANDERSON: Well, it ain't over until it's over. We will continue to monitor this campaign and get our viewers the most important moments as we move
toward what is November 3rd and Election Day. Thanks, John.
One of President Trump's campaign points has long been that he is the one who can keep law and order. We haven't heard as much from him on that, as I
was discussing with John.
But overnight protests in Philadelphia turned violent following the police shooting of a Black man. Walter Wallace Jr. was shot and killed after
police officers say he walked toward them with a knife on Monday, ignoring their calls to put the weapon down.
At least one group of protesters marched peacefully in protest Tuesday, chanting his name for much of the night. But police reported some people
were throwing bricks and near a police precinct. Aerial footage shows people ransacking stores, emerging with televisions and other items,
despite a plea from Wallace's father to stay peaceful.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALTER WALLACE SR., WALTER WALLACE JR.'S FATHER: I don't want to leave a bad scar on my son and my family with this looting and chaos and stuff. And
I mean, with the violence, must, even with the police department, this is where we live and that's only community resource we have. We take all the
resource and burn it down, we don't have anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Family members say Wallace was bipolar and on medication and that he was in crisis at the time of the confrontation. His mother even
attempting to intervene before the shooting.
The district attorney in Philadelphia says his office obtained body cam footage and that he is personally looking into the case.
Well, with the surge in new coronavirus cases, hospitals once again reaching capacity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. IAN STANLEY, ROYAL BLACKBURN HOSPITAL: And it's when I see those very senior experienced nurses, it's when I see them crying. It's when I don't
really have an answer. But it's when they say, yes, but when?
When is it going to end?
When are we going to get back to some degree of normality?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Up next, CNN goes inside one of England's hardest hit ICUs, where health workers say they are exhausted by the tragic deaths they
witness daily and the public's blatant disregard for safety rules.
And a tragic day in the English Channel. Children, just kids, dying when the migrant boat they were on sinks beneath the waves. We are live from
London with more details on that.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Big things are happening as our democracies align to better protect the citizens of our two countries and,
indeed, of the free world. And it's an honor to visit this great nation.
ANDERSON (voice-over): The land of the free makes new moves on the world stage. Why the alliance between the U.S. and India is so significant
globally. We explore that in our next hour of CONNECT THE WORLD.
It is just after quarter past 6:00 in the UAE. This is from our Middle East programming hub here in Abu Dhabi. Stay with us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:20:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ANDERSON: Well, we have been telling you how the coronavirus is at the center of the U.S. election. But right now we look to Europe because it is
doing way worse on the pandemic than anywhere else on Earth.
I had my team make this graph to show you. Look at Europe there, climbing and climbing and that is as a function of population. And, get this, of all
the cases reported around the world this week, nearly half of them are in Europe. Here is our team in France and in Italy for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Melissa Bell in Paris. Here in Europe, several countries expected to announce a tightening of restrictions
before the end of the week. The eight countries with the highest resurgence of coronavirus cases all in Europe right now.
In Switzerland and in Belgium, both countries fear they could run out of ICU capacity within the next couple weeks. Emmanuel Macron, the French
president to speak tonight. We expect him to announce a tightening of restrictions. The question is, how close to a full second lockdown he
decides to go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ben Wedeman in Rome, where Tuesday evening police used water cannon to disperse members of a far
right-wing party protesting the latest coronavirus restrictions.
Many Italian cities have seen similar violent demonstrations in the past days. Yesterday, Italy recorded its highest daily increase in the number of
new coronavirus cases yet, almost 22,000. That's more than three times the highest daily increase from the height of the first wave of this pandemic
earlier this year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: The U.K. one of the hardest hit countries by what is going on in Europe. We don't often go to Blackburn but we are going to that town now,
located just north of Manchester, because it is reporting the highest infection rate in England.
Health workers in the area's main intensive care unit say they have endured abuse and unrelenting pressure, with one-third of their patients dying just
this past weekend. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh joins us now outside that hospital in Blackburn with more.
Nick, you've been inside.
What did you find?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: It's startling really to see just how busy the ICU in there has been. You will hear about the
numbers in a moment. But it is the sort of atmosphere in there where, normally in the ICUs we've seen around the world, it's calm and it's
silent. They had an awful lot to get on with there.
This in a town where in the last week they have recorded the most number of new infections by proportion of population. Startling here in England.
Startling, too, that so many of the complaints we heard from staff inside were that people were not obeying the social distancing rules that many
around the country are asked to do.
This part of the country in tier 3, the most severe restrictions laid down. So much debate still rages in British media as to what should be done to
try and slow the spread of the disease.
No doubt, though, inside this hospital, quite how deadly it remains and quite how worse the situation is now. It is not behind them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALSH (voice-over): In this, one of Britain's hardest hit ICUs, the worst of the pandemic is not behind them, it's just happened.
[10:25:00]
LINDA GREGSON, CRITICAL CARE MATRON: We've also eight deaths. It's been the worst weekend that we've had. And that's a bad one (ph) because you
have a death and, unfortunately, there is somebody to go in that bed, change mattress, next patient.
WALSH (voice-over): A third of the COVID-19 patients in this ICU have died since Friday. There are 197 total in the hospital, 30 new this weekend.
Outside the northern city of Blackburn last week, had the worst rate of new infections in England.
WALSH: It's extraordinary, it's just how frenetic, how busy this ICU ward is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Sunday afternoon, it was literally patient in, stabilized; they were almost doing traffic control to make sure that they
weren't banging into each other when they came in.
WALSH (voice-over): The pandemic never really eased for summer here. They are exhausted; by only 2 weeks since March without a COVID patient.
STANLEY: And it's when I see those very senior experienced nurses, it's when I see them crying. It's when I don't really have an answer. But it's
when they say, yes, but when?
When is it going to end?
When are we going to get back to some degree of normality?
WALSH (voice-over): But they are also exhausted by a general public disobeying and angry at the rules.
GREGSON: You know we've given absolutely everything. And yet, we're being called liars and we're being abused on the phone. And was -- because
nurses, we've joined treatments on patients and doing end of life on a Zoom call and having a wife or a husband or a daughter on the other side of that
camera crying and saying, please will you hold Michael's hands?
Please, will you do whatever. And then the next telephone conversation matters when we hear somebody hurling abuse on the phone with them.
Unfortunately, on several occasions, we've had to stop the Zoom calls because there's been numerous relatives in a room, not social distancing.
The other day there was at least 45 in a room. So we had to stop it.
WALSH (voice-over): Better treatments keep the patients conscious now, able to talk clearly of how dangerous the disease is. Retired cop Jack
Ratcliffe has no idea where he got it or why people insist on breaking the rules.
JACK RATCLIFFE, COVID-19 PATIENT: Ridiculous. I just don't understand why they do it. They have no idea of the consequences of it.
DR. BETHAN GAY, ROYAL BLACKBURN HOSPITAL: It really does wear you down when patients and worker really unwell, dying. They are dying in a very
specific way and yet there's people who know nothing about the virus, saying that it's not real, that it doesn't exist.
Yes, last weekend, on my nights, what -- as soon as I arrived here, a lady had come to the ward and, unfortunately, passed away almost immediately.
You know, giving some relatives a bag and a stick of a lady who has passed away in the bed in front of them, it's quite difficult. It's difficult for
them and it's difficult for us as well.
WALSH (voice-over): While outside may seem to want to be less aware of the disease, inside, they grow more aware of its victims suffering its stark,
random viciousness.
WALSH: What's the one thing you've learned about this disease in the last 7 or 8 months?
GREGSON: You can't beat it. And I hate it. From the pit of my stomach, I hate it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: This is, Nick, just shocking and unacceptable that those staff, those front line staff, are going through what they are going through. The
U.K. has a death rate far higher per capita than other places in Europe.
How and why is there still a debate about lockdown where you are?
There are lessons that should be being learned from; for example, Israel, New Zealand at this point.
WALSH: I think because the lockdown measures here sustained so long initially, it required such substantial government investment in the
economy to keep people's jobs afloat that many are concerned, if you put that back in again, then you could potentially cripple the U.K. state
budget over a potentially long period of time.
So the U.K. has introduced gradated levels of potential lockdown, here in Blackburn being a tier 3, the strictest, which prevents people from
households mixing. You saw there, frankly, 45 members of the same family in the same room is a travesty and, of course, deeply insulting to those
working here.
The broader question is exactly how they go forward in the months ahead because it's quite clear the message isn't getting through to individuals
here. It's quite clear there are scenes within the ICU here that doctors and nurses simply haven't seen before yet.
We think about the pandemic as something that was pretty bad back in April- May, certainly here in the U.K. Well, here in Blackburn it's the worst it has been yet. The broader problem, I think for many to work out here, is
exactly how the knowledge about the disease may improve.
[10:30:00]
WALSH: Anecdotally the staff here are still surprised by it, still surprised by all it does to parents. They are emotionally traumatized by
how much the treatment leaves the patients they care for awake, conscious, able to get a rapport going with their carers but then sadly some of those
patients can take a severe turn for the worse.
And that adds to the psychological toll on carers here. No matter how much the debate rages here in British society about should you stay at home or
go to work and how much the government messed up the message, it's hard to work out what you're supposed to be doing or not doing, even if you're
paying attention to the rules.
We still are left with months ahead here, where there will be unfortunately increased numbers like this and scenes like behind me here. No one is
really sure why it's concentrated in some areas quite so badly in the U.K. They may learn in the months ahead. But the fear is it will continue to
spread around the population, Becky.
ANDERSON: Nick Paton Walsh is in Blackburn. Thank you, Nick.
We are tracking nations across Europe, which are breaking their own daily case records. Next hour, CNN's Scott McLean brings us the latest from the
Czech Republic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Becky, I will bring you the latest from in the Czech Republic. This area has one of the highest
infection rates in this country, which has one of the highest infection rates in the world. I will speak to you next hour.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Scott McLean for you.
The government pushing for the state of emergency there to be extended. Do stay with us for that.
And a fifth typhoon in a month has slammed into Vietnam. We will have more on the impending food crisis aid agencies are warning about.
Well, right now in Washington, Big Tech is in the hot seat at the U.S. Senate. I will get you there in the next hour of CONNECT THE WORLD. Stay
with us.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ANDERSON: We've been watching a tragic scene unfold in the waters off France. At least four people have drowned in the English Channel after a
migrant boat collapsed. There are two kids amongst the victims. Human rights group Channel Rescue says the boat capsized in French waters near
Calais as it tried to reach the U.K.
Salma Abdelaziz has more for you from London.
What do we know at this point?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: It's a truly tragic case, Becky. We understand these were migrants, trying to leave a makeshift camp in Dunkirk
on the French coast.
[10:35:00]
ABDELAZIZ: There was 19 migrants on board the ship. They got caught up in bad weather. Unfortunately four people died, a woman, a man and two
children, ages 5 and 8 years old; 15 other people were rescued taken to hospital. One of those 15 was to be in very critical condition.
But ultimately, Becky, this is one of the deadliest incidences that we have seen in years on the English Channel and it comes as we see a new rise in
crossings, partially because many of the tunnels that are often the areas that migrants try to cross from, increased security since last year between
French and British authorities has now pushed people to try to make this dangerous crossing.
We've also heard from a charity group, Care for Calais, which works in these makeshift migrant campaign in France and they called this utterly
devastating, saying authorities should work on providing a legal framework in which migrants can apply for asylum.
And they said the English Channel cannot turn into a graveyard for children -- very stark words there, Becky.
ANDERSON: Yes, the British prime minister has been weighing in on this.
What did he say?
ABDELAZIZ: This was, of course, a multi-national effort to try to rescue these migrants. We had Belgian helicopters, we had French boats out there
and, of course, the U.K. as well speaking out on this. I want to read you what the prime minister said, we will put it up on the screen.
"We will do all we can to crack down on the ruthless criminal gangs who prey on vulnerable people by facilitating these dangerous journeys."
Again, that's a reference there to the understanding that the migrants are being caught up in a larger situation. They're being caught up in a black
market that is taking advantage of their situation.
We've seen this increase in crossings again. We have to remember what the situation is like in these camps, especially after this pandemic. It gets
worse and worse by the day. The weather is getting worse and worse by the day. So these are truly dangerous crossings that the British and French
government want to crack down on. Becky?
ANDERSON: Salma is reporting for you out of London. Thank you.
Still many are risking it all, of course, by the tens of thousands. More than 60,000 men and women and children already this year fleeing the most
troubled parts of the Middle East and Africa with only the clothes on their backs, leaving behind everything they have known for the chance of a better
life.
With that in mind, CNN teamed up with the Imperial War Museums' "Refugee Nights" series to highlight the plight of those forced to flee their homes
around the world.
Last night I spoke to filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab, who directed the BAFTA winning documentary "False Summer." If you haven't seen it, you must. She
is originally from Syria and has seen her country torn apart by war.
We also spoke with Omid Djalili, world famous standup comedian, born in Britain to parents who fled religious persecution in Iran. Here is just
part of our conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OMID DJALILI, COMEDIAN: People have this impression that refugees are people who already have nothing and they come to the West with their cap in
hand, hoping for handouts.
Most of the people who do come probably come from, you know, middle to quite wealthy families. They have educations and then, overnight,
overnight, they lose their human rights. Overnight, they become the wrong party, the wrong activism, the wrong religion.
And these people, like I said before, they are furiously patriotic and they come to serve. They come to, I suppose, have a better life but, in a sense,
to go back and serve.
I saw these two young students Baha'i students who came to York University and they were given a year to come and study.
And I asked them, What are you going to do?
They goes, oh, we're definitely going back.
And I said, why are you going?
You have a chance to be free.
They said, well, no, the way we see it is that we see England at being in a beautiful house with a beautiful chandelier that gives wonderful light;
whereas, we have now got this light. And what an honor it would be to go back and be a candle in a cave.
They just want to serve humanity. They just want to live their life. They just want to fulfill their potential. And I think that's the thing that,
shows like this, we hope, that will change that perception.
ANDERSON: Waad, does that resonate with you?
WAAD AL-KATEAB, FILMMAKER: We are all normal people, as any people all over the world. We are seeking for a better life, we're seeking for safety
of our children, for their future in any community when we literally lost the last hope in our country.
And I think that's really important for people to understand. Like none of us dreamt of being refugees. We are not coming to see like the amazing land
of Europe or the U.K. That's an opportunity we've never liked. Again, we wanted just to stay in our country.
[10:40:00]
AL-KATEAB: We wanted to live life peacefully in our country. But with the war, the crimes that have been committed with the lack of justice, none
option but kind of like seek for our individual destiny and nothing more for now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Waad Al-Kateab speaking to me.
Let's take a very short break. Back after this.
(WORLD SPORT)
[11:00:00]
END
