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Trump Signs Stimulus Bill After Benefits Lapse For Millions; Countries Impose New Restrictions As Vaccines Roll Out; Joe Biden To Speak On National Security And Foreign Policy. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired December 28, 2020 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[10:00:22]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At long last, President Trump has signed that $2.3 trillion spending bill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He wants to be remembered for advocating for big checks, but they'll be remembered for chaos and misery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: This hour, the American President finally signs the stimulus bill. Why it was too late for millions of Americans? Also from

the E.U. to Latin America, millions of vaccines are being rolled out across the world. But the COVID battle is far from over. Plus, a prominent Saudi

Arabian women's rights activist has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison outrage around the world. A live report up ahead.

Hello, everybody. I'm Hala Gorani. We're coming to you live from London. This is CONNECT THE WORLD. And let's get started with our top story. A

crisis has been somewhat averted in the United States for now at least. President Donald Trump finally signed a massive $2.3 trillion coronavirus

relief and government spending bill on Sunday night after spending the day golfing. This narrowly avoided a government shutdown but it allowed

coronavirus benefits to lapse for millions of Americans.

The benefits will kick back in after the end of the year now that Mr. Trump has signed the bill. But for those millions of Americans waiting and food

lines or facing eviction. Missing a week of benefits could be life altering. But Mr. Trump claims he only signed the stimulus bill after being

promised the $2,000 direct payments for Americans that that was back on the table. CNN's Boris Sanchez lays it all out for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new coronavirus relief package has now been signed. President Trump finally

signing the new relief bill coupled with a new spending bill on Sunday night, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown. Congress passed the bill

last week and it was flown to Mar-a-Lago for the President to sign on Christmas Eve but Trump refused.

Claiming the amount of money allotted for Americans in need was too low and objecting to some bill line items. While millions waited for Trump's

decision. The President was seen golfing throughout the Christmas weekend.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER(R-IL): Right now we're at a point where people are left out in the dark. But to play this old switcheroo game, I don't get the

point unless it's just to create chaos and show power and be upset because he lost the election. Otherwise, I don't understand it.

SANCHEZ: On Saturday night, the President allowed nearly 12 million Americans unemployment benefits to lapse under two different federal

unemployment programs. By signing this current bill, the benefits are reinstating and extending until March. But since Trump did not sign the

bill by Saturday's deadline, people will most likely not receive benefits for the last week of the year.

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): It points up to his limitations as a president, he really doesn't pay much attention to the details of the legislation that

he's working on, or to the impact that it has on people or he would have signed this in the first place.

SANCHEZ: The coronavirus relief bill totals over $900 billion and includes $600 stimulus checks for eligible Americans as well as aid for small

businesses and schools. The eviction moratorium is also extended. Trump was mostly on the sidelines during negotiations for this bill. But his

advisors, including treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin played a big role in the negotiations.

REP. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Everybody assumed that Mnuchin was representing the White House and that was the assumption that everybody had. And

suddenly, because we have an extraordinary narcissist, pathologically narcissistic in the White House, he said, well, yes, I know there were

intense negotiations. But, you know what, I have now decided that I'm going to jump into the game and I want $2,000.

SANCHEZ: President Trump claims he only signed the bill after receiving reassurances from Congress that lawmakers will take measures to get more

stimulus money to Americans. A point that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not publicly acknowledged.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand he wants to be remembered for advocating for big checks but remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behavior if

he allows us to expire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: And that was Boris Sanchez reporting there. Let's bring in CNN political analyst Toluse Olorunnipa. He's the White House reporter for The

Washington Post.

[10:05:01]

GORANI: So, why was the President dragging his feet, Toluse, and why did he -- did he reverse course here?

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, in reality, this is all about the election that he lost over seven weeks ago. The President is

upset that he lost the election. And he's taking it out in essence on the American people by, you know, holdings, essentially the relief for the

public hostage. The President saw that the bill was included a lot of -- a lot of support that he did not -- did not agree to.

It included things that he did not know about. He was not engaged in the negotiating process. When it got to his desk, he decided to hold it

hostage. At the end of the day, he ended up signing the bill, he did not really get anything in exchange. The only thing that happened was that

millions of Americans who are waiting on this relief had to wait longer, had to see their benefits cut off for a short period of time.

And essentially, he decided to cave because he realized that having the government shutdown, having these benefits fail and not reach the American

people would not help his legacy, would not make it easier for him to be remembered in a positive light, it would really harm his standing in the

Republican Party. He wants to maintain control of the party even after he leaves office.

So, a lot of the leaders within the Republican Party spoke to the President and told him that he needed to sign the bill, that he needed to move on and

essentially to clear this fight over declare victory, even though he did not get anything out of this fight and move on. And that's what essentially

he did while he took the country to the brink of another government shutdown. In the end, he caved in decided to sign the bill.

GORANI: And what is in this legislation? Is it enough for Americans who are suffering economically as a result of the shutdown and the pandemic?

OLORUNNIPA: What's the most that Americans have been able to get for several months, this legislation is the result of several months of

negotiation between Democrats and Republicans, they were finally able to come up with something that does not provide a huge amount of money but it

provides support for people out there $600 checks and in addition to support for small businesses.

Additional money for people who are unemployed, money for the vaccine distribution. So, there is a lot of relief in this. This is an almost $1

trillion bill, there's a lot that's going to go out to the public and support people who are in need. Now, a lot of Democrats say that this is

only a first step is a down payment. You have Joe Biden who's going to be coming in as president, and he says that this is not enough.

And he's going to ask Congress for more money as soon as he gets into office. So, there will be another fight over additional funding in part

because a $600 check, while it may help a large number of families is not going to really save people who are on the brink of starvation or not

having enough food to eat and not having a roof over their head if the eviction moratorium doesn't last very long.

So, there are a number of things that still need to be done in the eyes of Democrats in the -- and then the eyes of the incoming administration. So,

while this bill includes a lot of info -- a lot of support for the American people, there's still a lot more to be done.

GORANI: Right. And Joe Biden has his work cut out for him. I mean, he's going to inherit quite a disastrous situation on the COVID front, on the

economic front. He's going to be asking Congress for more money to help Americans who are suffering economically. But if the Democrats don't win

these two by elections, these two special elections in Georgia, they won't have a majority in the Senate.

So, this is going to be an extremely difficult, difficult year for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the entire Biden administration.

OLORUNNIPA: A large number of crises on day one of their time in office, not only the coronavirus which continues to kill thousands of Americans

every week and hits record highs in terms of the number of people who are getting infected. But also the economy continues to slow down. There

continues to be struggle among millions of Americans who are going to food banks trying to get support because they don't have enough money to put

food on the table.

And then you also have national security issues. We had the bombing that took place on Christmas Day in Nashville and Joe Biden is going to be

talking about that later today. This is a situation where there are a number of crises facing the country. President Trump has not made it any

easier for his successor because he has tried to de legitimize Biden's victory. He has not conceded, he is not participating in the transition

process.

And now he blew up these negotiations and the talks over coronavirus stimulus bill because he was upset over his loss. And that's going to make

it even harder for Biden and Harris to come in and try to get Congress to agree to another bill after a lot of raw feelings are continuing to be in

place over this bill. It just got passed.

GORANI: Right. And it's such a divided country. It's also divided politically in Washington with so many crises converging. Toluse

Olorunnipa, thank you very much of the Washington Post. I hope you have a good new year. And Toluse, was talking about that Nashville bombing. Well,

there's no clear motive yet for that bombing in downtown Nashville, Tennessee on Christmas morning which was a suicide bombing.

[10:10:05

GORANI: Have a look at this new surveillance video that captures the moment the explosive detonated in a parked R.V. A recreational vehicle. This is

CCTV footage. It gives you a sense of the force of the explosion. Three people were injured in the blast. Thankfully, no one apart from the

suspected bomber died. Dozens of buildings were terribly damaged. The mayor says police had been alerted to the suspicious vehicle quickly knocked on

doors nearby and evacuated residents.

So, they did the right thing because one could only imagine the disastrous result of this bomb going off with people still in their homes in the

immediate vicinity of this fireball. Authorities have identified this suicide bomber as Anthony Quinn Warner, he was not on law enforcement radar

for any reason. And here's a picture of the suspect.

And to Europe now where the hopes of the continent are turning into medical history. A colossal COVID-19 vaccination program is underway across the

E.U. with enough doses to immunize nearly 450 million people twice -- two times over. Cyril Vanier has the picture from Paris and beyond.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): First, the caretaker then one of the most vulnerable. That's how Greece began the process of distributing its

first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Today marks the first day of the countdown to take our lives back. The

Greek health minister says. A hope resounding throughout the European Union as member countries roll out their own vaccination programs.

Two doses for each citizen inoculations that will stretch well into next year. But could one day potentially vanquish the virus that has so far

killed nearly 1.8 million people worldwide. Residents in a retirement home in Germany were among the first to get the shots. One 85-year-old welcoming

the possibility of a sore arm.

We want to see our families again, she says. That's the most important thing. And to be able to go out again. The E.U. is due to get 12-1/2

million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by the end of the year. And it's expecting more, which along with contracts from companies, including

Moderna and AstraZeneca should add up to a total of more than two billion doses of potential vaccines if companies keep up with demand.

In the Czech Republic, the first shots given to the prime minister to encourage skeptics that it's safe. Polls show many Europeans are wary of

taking a COVID-19 vaccine, at least for now.

One man says, I think it's been a bit quick for it to be really effective. But we will have to see how it works. That reluctance not shared by

officials in Hungary and Slovakia, who were so eager to begin vaccinating that they started a day early on Saturday. Some countries are even calling

up retired medics and revising rules on who can give injections to prevent any logistical delays.

In this town in Italy, once the epicenter of the pandemic in Europe, a site almost unthinkable nearly 10 months ago. Vehicles carrying vials of

vaccine. A light at the end of the tunnel that so many across Europe did not live to see. Cyril Vanier, CNN Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Well, and it's going to take a while. It's going to take a while because these doses are available but then they have to be administered and

in the case at least of the first vaccine to be authorized. It's two jobs that people need three weeks apart. There's vaccine news from -- in South

America as well. Argentina is going to start vaccinating its citizens Tuesday with Russia's Sputnik Five vaccine or Sputnik V.

It received an initial shipment of 300,000 doses last week. Argentina will become the fourth Latin American country to use COVID vaccines, joining

Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica. While vaccines are rolling out around the world coronavirus cases in some countries are worse than ever with new

restrictions needed until vaccines become more widely available. From Austria to Israel, several countries are now entering their third

nationwide lockdowns.

France's health minister says he isn't ruling out a third lockdown if conditions weren't, it's already very restrictive the movements there.

Saudi Arabia has extended its ban on international travelers. Japan is also banning foreign nationals from entering the country. In other news, China

is ramping up its testing and will tighten travel restrictions during the upcoming Lunar New Year.

And Beijing has just canceled New Year's Eve events after reports of local cases over the world. weekend.

[10:15:01]

GORANI: In Australia, people in Sydney have been told to watch fireworks from home this New Year's Eve to prevent super spreading events. They're

lucky at least they get fireworks, not everybody's getting those this year. And that is the big picture. So, let's hone in on one country. Israel, as I

mentioned, is now into its third lockdown, even as it rolls out a massive vaccination campaign.

Elliott Gotkine joins me now from Tel Aviv with more. What's the latest on the vaccination front in Israel, Elliot?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hala, the latest is that 100,000 more Israelis were vaccinated on Sunday, bringing the total to just shy of

400,000. And according to the Our World In Data database based at Oxford University, that makes Israel number one in the world in terms of

vaccinations per 100 people. A fact gleefully tweeted out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. So, vaccinations are continuing a pace.

The prime minister says that he's targeting 150,000 on a daily basis, that he's spoken with the heads of various pharmaceutical companies, and that

they think that that is doable. And once Israel hits that pace, he says that about half the population would be vaccinated within about a month of

that. And perhaps conveniently, most of the population on that basis could be vaccinated in time for Israel's fourth elections in the space of two

years in March.

GORANI: How are they prioritizing vaccinations? And what about Palestinians living in the territories?

GITKINE: So, in terms of the prioritizations, the at-risk groups medical workers were first in line, I was at a hospital in Tel Aviv last week to

see your health workers are celebrating the start of the vaccination campaign. Then going to be extending it out to the rest of the population,

they reckon within about seven to 10 days, although we'll obviously have to wait and see how many doses arrive in the country.

The Prime Minister noting that 95 percent of deaths are from those at risk groups, at risk people and also medical workers. So, once they're

vaccinated, then the economy can really start going back to normal. In terms of the Palestinians. There has not been the start of a vaccination

campaign there. Israel isn't sharing its doses of vaccines with the Palestinians. The Palestinians for their part are hoping to be part of

there's a who initiative called COVAX where they try to help poor countries, poorer countries vaccinate at least a fifth of the population.

So for now, the Palestinians that are still waiting and cases there in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip are rising as well. Hala?

GORANI: Thank you, Elliot Gotkine. Live in Tel Aviv. Still ahead, a camp for Syrian refugees burns to the ground, leaving hundreds without a place

to live. Where do they go from here? More misery for them. And rights groups don't like where hundreds of Rohingya refugees are being sent. I'll

explain coming up. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Well, there was a huge fire in a refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Thankfully no reports of anyone killed that happened on Saturday night. The

U.N. says the fire started after a personal dispute. It tore through the entire camp in Mania. Four people were injured and hundreds of Syrian

refugees, including many children had to flee into the cold. And it is cold right now over there leaving behind the few belongings that they still had.

Nearby communities are stepping in to give refugees at least a temporary place to say. Khaled Kabbara is the UNHCR spokesperson, who went to the

camp, spoke to some of the families. He joins us now. He's in the northern part of the country in Tripoli, Lebanon. Khaled, thanks for being with us.

First of all, is the camp completely gone?

KHALED KABBARA, UNHCR SPOKESPERSON: Thank you for having me, Hala. Exactly. The camp is completely gone. All the tented shelters are burned to the

ground.

GORANI: So, where are the refugees now? Where did they go?

KABBARA: So, as per -- our talks with the refugee families, most of them have found some alternative options around in nearby areas, some of them

have relocated with their neighbors, others with their Lebanese host nearby. And we have seen also a remarkable level of solidarity from the

Lebanese people hosting them in their vacant shelters, apartments and other structures.

GORANI: Wow. That -- and it's so nice to hear that there's generosity still, after so many years of Syrian refugees having to, you know, just

having to stay away, far away from their home in order to stay safe. Will you -- how is it going to work? Is this camp going to be rebuilt? Will it

be built somewhere else? What -- what's going -- what's the plan?

KABBARA: So, our colleagues are on the ground right now. They are talking with the families that were affected by the fire, and most of them have

lost their belongings completely. Their houses were burned to the ground. What we do basically is provide assistance to the families meet in forms of

equipment, plywood, plastic sheetings in order for them to rebuild their tents, or some other forms of assistance that would enable them to find

alternative temporary shelter options.

When it comes to rebuilding the camps. And with no encampment policy here in Lebanon, unfortunately, this -- we are still waiting for the decision

whether this camp, our informal settlement is going to be rebuilt on the same location or not.

GORANI: And were they tense or were they solid structures? What actually burned here?

KABBARA: So, we are talking about an informal settlement. And these are attempted structures, substandard structures that are built basically using

plywood with poles and plastic sheets. And they are temporary in terms of nature. And these are the ones that were burned. And most of the informal

settlements across Lebanon are similar. And these are basically temporary substandard conditions that refugees have to endure. Especially as you

mentioned in this harsh winter season.

GORANI: What's the weather like there now?

KABBARA: Now it's winter here in Lebanon. The temperatures can drop down to zero. I was speaking to one of the refugee families who had to flee all of

a sudden because of the ravaging fire basically on location. Mohammed along with his family were sitting peacefully in that house when they -- when

they saw the fire approaching and they had to immediately flee in freezing temperature, leaving all their belongings.

And many of them also spoke to us and told us they left their belongings as well as documents that behind as the fire was ravaging. And as we mentioned

earlier, all the tents are now burned to the ground.

GORANI: We -- what we see, we're showing by the way footage of some of the victims here and some of the people affected. And you see really small

kids, babies even sometimes in their parents' arms. How many children are homeless now as a result of this?

KABBARA: Well, unfortunately, this incident that had catastrophic basically consequences on the whole community that being in that particular area. We

know of around 400 individuals that were affected by the fire, over half of them are children. And you can actually see it when you visit the site. I

was there this morning and I witnessed firsthand. You can still smell the burn woods and plastic sheets.

You can see textbooks and sometimes household items and food stocks that refugees have basically stocked ahead of winter which is quite an

unfortunate and seen.

[10:25:10]

GORANI: So, many people watching this will want to know how they can help. What can -- I mean, people are far away, they sometimes feel helpless. What

can they do?

KABBARA: What they can do is that they can join our humanitarian efforts. We as UNHCR and other U.N. agencies, our partners. We rely on the

solidarity of the international community of individuals and NGOs in general. We have also launched several campaigns, fundraising campaigns in

order to provide the support and the much needed assistance during the winter but also to enhance and include our ability to respond to emerging

situations and emergencies such as this one.

Recently last week, we have launched a campaign which is a Warm Their Hearts campaign where people can donate and these donations can be used to

enable families to secure their winter items, be it in forms of blankets or money for heating, in addition to support UNHCR's ability to respond to

emerging -- emergencies such as the fire.

GORANI: Khaled Kabbara, thank you very much of UNHCR in Tripoli, Lebanon. A misery on top of misery for these poor refugees. Thank you very much.

KABARRA: Thank you for having us. Thank you.

GORANI: And let us get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar right now and the death toll from an avalanche in the mountains

in northern Iran has climbed to 12. 12 people. Rescue officials say the remains of two more mountain climbers were recovered this Sunday. The

search and rescue operation is now over. The avalanche was triggered by a blizzard that hit on Friday.

Also among the stories were covering, the Ugandan opposition candidate for president Bobi Wine says one of his bodyguards was deliberately run over

and killed by a military police truck. A military spokesperson says the bodyguard wasn't targeted, but rather fell off a speeding car. The

politician told Christiane Amanpour earlier this month that he recently survived two assassination attempts.

And human rights groups are criticizing another plan relocation of Rohingya refugees to a remote island. Official say more than 1100 members of a

Muslim minority who fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar will head to a flood prone island in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday. Bangladesh says it's only

transferring people who are willing to go.

Ahead on the program, a Chinese journalist who reported from Wuhan is spending the next four years in prison. More on how Beijing is trying to

control the country's pandemic narrative. We'll be right back.

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[10:30:29]

GORANI: A Chinese journalists who reported from Wuhan at the very beginning of the COVID pandemic has been sentenced to four years in prison. The 37-

year-old is one of several independent journalists arrested or who've been disappeared in China this year. Here you see a protester in Hong Kong

calling for her release. Let's get straight to our senior international correspondent Ivan Watson for more. What more can you tell us about this

journalist sentencing, Ivan?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was an awful lot of police security outside the courthouse in Shanghai where she

appeared, we're told in a wheelchair for this sentencing. Four years for "Picking quarrels and provoking trouble." Now that's this kind of loosely

defined crime that is used periodically in China basically against dissidents.

And it has the effect of shutting them up now. Where Jang got in trouble is back in the winter. She had -- and we need to rewind here, Hala. If you

remember back to January, February, the city with the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world at that time was the Chinese City of Wuhan. And Jang,

this former lawyer traveled from Shanghai to Wuhan and started posting her own statements and reports from there on various social media platforms.

I think we can show you an excerpt from one of them where she shows video in March of this year from the crowded hallways of a hospital in Wuhan

where patients were being treated in the corridors. She got in trouble for this. Detained on multiple occasions and basically taken into custody in

the end in May. And she's been accused by authorities of spreading misinformation maliciously and doing great harm this way.

Now, her defense attorney says that he visited her in detention at the beginning of this month, and says that she was conducting a hunger strike

against her treatment. And during that brief meeting, her arms were bound at her side and she had the defense attorney says. A feeding tube into her

-- a gastric feeding tube through her mouth and nasal passage. And she -- her arms were bounded her side to prevent her from removing this tube that

was being used to force feed her.

That's a bit of the grim situation that she's in right now. Now the Foreign Ministry of China was asked about her case and a spokesperson said that

China respect the freedom of expression, according to the law of all Chinese citizens. Reporters Without Borders argues that China is the

world's biggest jailer of journalists. And we know of at least three other Chinese citizen journalists who also posted on social media from Wuhan who

have been detained or simply disappeared since then. Hala.

GORANI: Ivan Watson, thanks very much for that report. Well, speaking of jailing, dissidents, activists and journalists, a Saudi women's rights

activist has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison according to her family. The Saudi Arabian government charged Loujain al-Hathloul using her

relations with foreign governments and human rights groups to pressure the kingdom to change its laws.

That is the allegation that was leveled at al-Hathloul, a longtime advocate for a women's rights to drive. Hathloul has been in prison since 2018 when

she was arrested with about a dozen other women demanding equality. This human rights case could have an impact on Saudi Arabia's relationship with

a new U.S. president because though Donald Trump had a friendly relationship with the Saudi leadership and the Saudi kingdom, perhaps we

might expect, Joe Biden's administration.

Arwa Damon, our senior international correspondent joining us now to treat this case differently, Arwa, first of all tell us about the case and about

this sentencing.

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Loujain was arrested, Hala, with a number of other fairly well-known women rights activists about

a few weeks before the Saudi Kingdom ironically ended up deciding to allow women to drive and at the forefront of Loujain's campaign was this fairly

forceful effort to try to get at least that piece of Saudi legislation changed.

[10:35:19]

DAMON: And yet she ended up in prison when it actually was for the very thing that she was promoting and urging the Saudi government to do. She was

accused of, among other things, contacting foreign embassies, speaking with other activists outside of the country, speaking to various different human

rights organizations on her court -- her trial, sorry. Actually ended up being -- take -- taking place in the specialized criminal court.

That's the court, Hala, that normally sees terrorism cases or national security cases. Not necessarily cases like this one. Now, perhaps and I say

perhaps the little bit of good news for her family is that even though she was sentenced to nearly six years with time served, and the fact that there

has been a suspension of two years and 10 months, she could actually end up being freed in two months.

But at the very core of this really is how Saudi Arabia approaches these kinds of activists and also what actually happens behind bars in Saudi

prisons. Loujain through her family, through her sister, through other organizations has allegedly been tortured, been sexually harassed, there's

been reports that she may have been sexually abused, all of these things -- all these things the Saudi government does deny.

But these are claims that are out there at this stage. And so, she's really emerged as being the voice even behind bars for women's rights in Saudi

Arabia.

GORANI: All right. Loujain al-Hathloul sentenced to over five years in prison. Thanks very much, Arwa Damon. You're watching CNN International.

And we'll be right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GORANI: Welcome back. I'm Hala Gorani live from not the London studio. Among the many things that changed in 2020 is the amount of people working

from home including myself, but could this become the new norm. Anna Stewart takes a look.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: This was the working from home went mainstream right around the world. This was a how to work from home video that I made

all the way back in March. I thought this might be the way of things for a couple of months. Wow, did

I get that wrong?

[10:40:04]

STEWART (voice-over): As we reached the end of 2020 many of us haven't returned to the office. We're still on Zoom, Skype, Webex, Slack. While

video conference for tea cast session for some, others are happy with this new way of working. Twitter is one company that's embrace the change and is

allowing some employees to choose to work from home permanently.

JENNIFER CHRISTIE, CHIEF H.R. OFFICER, TWITTER: At about over 80 percent of our employees working four or five days in the office. So, pretty much all

the time in the office, and one, you know, a very small percentage, single digits of people who are working full time remote and that's almost

flipped. We've done the surveys coming back out of it, we have in the single digits people want us -- who want to spend four or five days in the

office.

And much more in terms of almost a third of our workforce want to be actually full time remote. Actual productivity has remained pretty steady.

But people's perception is increasing as they figured this out.

STEWART (voice-over): Productivity is critical. 90 percent of workers surveyed in the U.K. said they would like to continue working from home

often all the time. However, only 70 percent felt they were as productive or more so.

ALAN FELSTEAD, CARDIFF UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PROFESSOR: I think we'll be moving to more and more hybrid forms of working, where people do actually

work a lot more at home than they used to before the pandemic. So, it has ushered in a major change I think in the landscape. In terms of how we

work, where we work.

STEWART (voice-over): The shift to remote has had a devastating impact on local economies. Cafes, bars and shops are reliant on office workers who

may never go back to their offices from 9:00 to 5:00 five days a week. Companies could reduce their office space or give up expensive leases

altogether.

KEN RAISBECK, CBRE HEAD OF OCCUPIER CONSULTING: What we're seeing from many of our clients are people choosing to work from home perhaps two, maybe

three days a week. There still is the requirement of the office. But people will come into it for a different reason.

STEWART (on camera): The great work from home experiment has sparked long- term change in the way that we work. But it isn't for everyone. Whether it's unsuitable home environments, noisy children or in my case wayward

paths, some of us will be hoping to get back to the office in 2021.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Well, one big change in my environment obviously is that I have Louis Gorani strive with me here every day. Thankfully, he's usually quiet

under the anchor desk. And right now, he seems to be a little bit confused though quite an easy natural, huh? What do you think? Anchoring the urine

show and I take the time off. Anyway, Christina MacFarlane who's met Louis Gorani strive a few times is here with the sports news.

You see, look, it's his debut. He's going to -- he's going to have -- he's going to ask for an agent next in his own trailer. What's going on in the

sports world?

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: He's an absolute natural, Hala as well, you know, I have to tell you about some big news here in the sports

world. 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer has decided or has announced that he will not be taking part in the Australian Open. And,

Hala, this was meant to signaled his big comeback in 2021 after being forced to sit out here with a knee injury.

Many of course feel he's running out of time to win more Grand Slams. But of course Roger Federer not your average player. He'll certainly have an

alternative backup plan in his office. I'm sad to see Louis put down there, Halal. But I suppose you had to part with him at some point.

GORANI: I had to part with him at some point. I was going to get a call from HQ. All right, we'll see you in a bit. I'll be back at the top of the

hour with more news and with Christina. WORLD SPORT is next.

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