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Myanmar Protests Movement Grows; Head of WHO Investigative Mission To Wuhan Speaks To CNN; U.K. Hits Target Of 15M First Doses Of COVID-19 Vaccines. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired February 15, 2021 - 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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[10:00:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER BEN EMBAREK, HEAD OF WHO MISSION TO CHINA: The virus was circulating widely in Wuhan in December, which I think is a -- is a new -- is a new

finding.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): Tonight startling new information that challenges what we thought we knew about the pandemic.

CNN has exclusive reporting just ahead. Plus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had some really difficult days. There's this sense that there's a light at the end of the tunnel now.

ANDERSON (voice-over): A lot many would call the U.K.'s pandemic response a roaring success, but when it comes to vaccinations, it is far ahead in the

race. We'll tell you how they did it up next.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not only sort of a general trend of intimidation, there's also a potentially a war for the trip.

ANDERSON (voice-over): After two weeks of unrest against protesters, Myanmar's military has its eyes set on a new target. More on that coming

up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON (on camera): Well, it's 11:00 p.m. in Wuhan in China, 3:00 p.m. in the U.K. and 7:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi, where we are broadcasting to you

from CNN's Middle East programming hub. I'm Becky Anderson. Hello and welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD. We are living in a completely different

world. Coronavirus has changed our reality. That is a fact. So, over the next two hours, this show CONNECT THE WORLD is going to do a detailed reset

on where we are in terms of this COVID-19 pandemic.

Yes, we are seeing successful vaccine campaigns. I'm not minimizing their importance, but we are learning they are still not enough to put an end to

the global nightmare of nearly 2-1/2 million COVID deaths. And there's a lot more pressure now from the new variants. So, we're going to take a look

at the importance of how we shape our behavior. It is not about self-help sloganeering this hour.

The choices we make now will shape our post pandemic future. And to go forward, it is of course important to understand how we got here. The World

Health Organization has been trying to do just that. Investigating the origins of the coronavirus. A team of WHO scientists has returned from

Wuhan in China. Well, let's start there. Their leader is revealing their findings in an exclusive interview with CNN Nick Paton Walsh. We are

connecting to him in London this hour. Nick, what have you learned?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What is extraordinary after the controversy around this mission, the delay and then

getting into China to start looking at actual physical evidence about how this virus may have originated. More Becky, it's so important to work out

how it got into humans to stop that from happening again. It is extraordinary now to listen to the data points that they did actually

manage to find during those four weeks on the ground doing quarantine to circulating around places where the disease first emerged. Here's what we

heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATON WALSH (voice-over): The leader of the WHO mission to China, investigating the origins of the Coronavirus has told CNN the virus was

likely much wider spread in China in December 2019 than was thought.

Peter Ben Embarek revealed the 174 positive cases found that first December, likely severe cases, meant that could actually have been an

estimated thousand plus total cases in and around the city of Wuhan that month.

PETER BEN EMBAREK, HEAD OF WHO MISSION TO CHINA: The virus was circulating widely in Wuhan in December, which I think is a -- is a new -- is a new

finding. And the hundred that was confirmed and the 74 are clinically --

PATON WALSH (voice-over): Diagnosed.

EMBAREK: We haven't done any modelling of that ourselves but with what we know the big ballpark figure out of the infected population, you have about

15 percent that could end up severe cases and the vast majority are mild cases.

PATON WALSH (on camera): About 174 would suggest a thousand or so plus even.

EMBAREK: Yes. Probably. Largely, yes, because that's -- again, that would fit with all of the parameters that we have looked at.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): The team also established that in that first December, there were as many as 13 slight variations of the virus from

samples of all or bits of its genetic code circulating in and around Wuhan where the seafood market is thought to have played a role.

[10:05:14]

EMBAREK: We have 13 strains recording, covering individuals in December. Some of them are from the market or internal markets. Some of them are not

into the market. This is something that we found as part of our mission.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): That many variations so early on could suggest the virus had been circulating for some time, some analysts told CNN,

although precise timing is still unclear. Their work heavily scrutinized, tensed and frustrating conditions.

EMBAREK: Here, remember, we had the entire planet on our shoulders 24 hours a day for months which doesn't make the work among scientists easy. Once in

a while, you -- as always with -- between passionate scientists, you get -- you get heated discussion and argumentation about this and that.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): They hope to return to access biological samples they say China is yet to share, especially hundreds of thousands of blood

bank samples from Wuhan dating back two years. China has pledged transparency with the investigation.

EMBAREK: There are about 200,000 samples in (INAUDIBLE) that are now secured and (INAUDIBLE).

PATON WALSH (on camera): And you want to look at that urgently?

EMBAREK: Yes. That will be fantastic if we could move with that.

PATON WALSH (on camera): Is it not amazing that they haven't already looked through those samples?

EMBAREK: You could say that but we understand that these samples are extremely small samples and only use for identification purpose.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): So many more questions still to answer first if China would let them back in.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PATON WALSH: I think that's absolutely key. They don't appear at this stage to have a confirmed date for a return visit. But they have so many more

questions. Despite the geopolitical hullabaloo around that mission. So late as it was there were still things that the Chinese officials and scientists

they work with enabled them to find. And I think now there are so many more questions that need urgent answering, Becky.

ANDERSON: Yes. And you flushed out some of these in that report. China, of course, is invested massively in the sort of surveillance and testing that

the WHO still wants to complete? So, surely it's not out the realms of possibility, is it? The Chinese scientists have already done or at least

very considered doing all of these tests that you alluded to towards the end of your report months ago?

PATON WALSH: I mean, this is the extraordinary mystery of all of this, Becky, this year long gap, what were they actually doing? China since the

SARS outbreak of 2003 put millions, billions into flu surveillance. We saw in our report last December how they were screening for Influenza like

illness across (INAUDIBLE) as they always do in the December when the first outbreak began. They've also invested millions in level four bio secure

laboratories to study viruses in ways that some have suggested may not be necessarily that safe.

They are on that job 24/7 and somehow we're supposed to think that the who go a year later and end up saying, well, hang on these 92 cases which

occurred in November and October, which you China say maybe possibly suspected coronavirus cases. That was part of the findings mission were

given. The WHO are the ones who have to say, well, why don't we test to see if they have antibodies?

Why hadn't China already done that? Why didn't China already look through the 200,000 blood bank samples you hear about in the end of that report

there? There are many reasons why they possibly didn't. The main board privacy legislation, the sheer logistics of it, but this is a country that

prides itself on scientific advance hungry for power and knowledge that gives it to them. And so, it's extraordinary to think that suddenly over a

year, they just didn't really bother.

I don't believe that, Becky. I don't think many studying this think that's the case. So, there may be more information China has or maybe information

that China never wants to find out. Becky?

ANDERSON: Fascinating. Nick Paton Walsh with CNN's exclusive reporting. Thank you, Nick. So, that's where we stand as far as what we know or don't

know about how we got here. What we do next, of course, is crucial and some good news on the vaccine front from the United Kingdom. The country has hit

its goal of 15 million first doses. It is a much needed win for the British government after bundling its early pandemic response. Prime Minister Boris

Johnson calls the vaccine news an extraordinary feat.

[10:10:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: This country has achieved an extraordinary feat, administering a total of 15 million jobs into the arms

of some of the most vulnerable people in the country. And they've been delivered by the most extraordinary army vaccinators who have jabbed like

there's no tomorrow. Doctors and nurses, retired healthcare workers who've returned to the fray and supported by organizers and volunteers, marshals,

guided by the leadership of the NHS and supported by the great strategic logistical nous of the British Army.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: We'll hear more from Boris Johnson a couple of hours from now. Let's bring in CNN's Scott McLean who is on the ground in London for you.

And credit where it is due, the U.K. has done quite a remarkable job with its vaccination campaign, certainly leading others in the West. I mean,

there have been, you know, great results both here in the UAE and in Israel. But look, I mean, this is a fantastic campaign out of out of the

Brits. What lies behind its success?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is precisely the question, Becky, that we aim to find out because the U.K. has one of the highest COVID

mortality rates on earth. And it's earned plenty of criticism for being perhaps too slow to lock down, too slow to close its borders, reluctant to

enforce its own rules. And not all that effective when it comes to testing and tracing the virus.

And so, now somehow, this country has managed to vaccinate more than 15 million people with the first dose of the vaccine. And it's offered the jab

to everybody over the age of 70. Living or working in a care home and on the frontline as a healthcare worker. So, how did this country with so much

criticism for its early pandemic response manage to pull this off? Well, it seems to be a combination of a very slick nationalized rollout of the

vaccine, and some early big bets on then unproven vaccines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In our line of work, you're not normally (INAUDIBLE)

MCLEAN (voice-over): One by one, the needles are uncapped, vials drawn and shots go into arms. While the work here is routine the setting is anything

but.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Often in the foreign Rescue Service for 31 years, and saying some things but I never thought I'd say this.

MCLEAN (voice-over): This fire station in southern England has turned into a COVID vaccination center with firefighters, soldiers and volunteers

giving the shots. Elsewhere, stadiums racetracks, mosques, and cathedrals are being used as vaccination sites, all coordinated through a nationalized

government run health system that looks remarkably efficient.

Does it feel like a wartime effort?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. It feels like a wartime effort.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Into its third national lockdown with one of the highest COVID death rates on Earth, not much about Britain's battle against

the coronavirus can be called the success. Yet the U.K. has now injected more vaccine doses than Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and Belgium

combined.

MCLEAN (on camera): How is it that the U.K. got so far ahead in the vaccine race?

STEVE BATES, FORMER MEMBER OF U.K. VACCINE TASKFORCE: What we managed to put together here was the speed of that discovery. With the capacity to

scale up and the ability to deploy at speed.

MCLEAN (voice-over): At the forefront of that achievement, the vaccine task force, the bio industry lobbyists Steve Bates was a part of.

BATES: I think having a small group makes decisions easier and faster.

MCLEAN (voice-over): An unusual mix of public servants and current and former industry executives led by a pharmaceutical investor named Kate

Bingham.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The venture capital skill set and the biotech mindset is exactly what was needed.

MCLEAN (on camera): Her having the hotlines, the Prime Minister also made sure that the lines -- chain of command were very short at key moments when

decisions were made.

The task force was put to work as death sword from the first wave of the virus. Vaccine seemed a long way off and success was no guarantee.

MCLEAN (on camera): In some respects, I expect it to be here justifying why we spent so much money on something that hadn't worked. We were taking a

risk on making doses before those results came out. We might have had to put it all in the -- in the band.

The U.K. bet big on the Oxford vaccine agreeing to front most of AstraZeneca's manufacturing cost to make it in exchange for a place at the

front of the line.

BATES: I think it would be hard to justify to the U.K. public. An Oxford vaccine manufactured and trialed here that wasn't then deployed here very

rapidly.

MCLEAN (voice-over): The British strategy involved a lot of risk like ditching Europe to go to loan.

BATES: I think that probably gave us at least three months advance work which is proving invaluable.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Seven vaccines were chosen out of more than 100 and development, none of which were yet proven effective. The U.K. was even the

first country to sign a contract for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We did that because we were quick and we were nimble and we're clearly not the largest buyer.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Back at the fire hall, they say they're injecting 1000 doses per day, around half a million across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had some really dark, difficult days, but there's this sense that there's a light at the end of the tunnel now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[10:15:03]

MCLEAN: And we'll -- we're expected to hear more from the government on those vaccination numbers in less than two hours from now here at Downing

Street from the Prime Minister and some of his scientific advisors. We're also expected a week from today, Becky, to get a roadmap from the

government on when and how it expects to start to lift some of these lockdown measures that this country is under right now.

And one of the interesting things to point out. With all of these people having been vaccinated already, the government expects, as you as you might

expect, that the biggest impacts that we will see first will be on the death toll because the vast majority of people who are most likely to die

from the virus have been vaccinated already in this first wave. But the people who are most likely to be hospitalized, they cover a much wider age

range.

So, the government expects that hospitalizations will take longer to come down, Becky.

ANDERSON: Yes. No, you're making a very good point. I think the number is 88 percent of deaths, COVID deaths are actually in these most vulnerable

groups or have been over the last eight years. So, very important that those groups were first to get the vaccines. But as you rightly point out,

the government needs to be very mindful of what happens next. Look, on that point, the first travelers required to stay at quarantine hotels have begun

arriving in London. Can you explain how these new regulations work?

MCLEAN: Yes. So, it's much stricter than it has been in the past. Essentially, you have to have a Coronavirus, and negative coronavirus test

within three days of your flight to even board in the first place. And then when you arrive, if you're from one of -- or if you're coming from or if

you've been to in the last 10 days, I should say one of these 33 countries on the so called Red List, well, you'll be taken to a hotel facility where

you'll be put up there for 10 days, your meals will be provided.

And whether you're in those hotels or whether you're having to self-isolate at home, you'll have to be tested on day two and day eight of your

quarantine. Obviously, if you test positive that will extend your quarantine stay by 10 days. Again, regardless of whether you're at the

hotel, or whether you're at home. The U.K. has had a big, big problem with actually enforcing this mandatory quarantine policy which has been in

effect for some time.

I think part that's new is having to do it in a hotel. Government advisors said last month, Becky, that they were doubtful that this would have a big

impact because people could lie and come through a third country from some of these 33 countries on the Red List. The other issue is -- the whole

point of this is to keep out different variants that are cropping up in different parts of the world that there's a lag time from when those

variants start showing up in the populations and when they're actually identified.

And so, the government likely won't be able to put another country on the list or someone may have already gotten into the country before the

government has managed to even identify that there's a dangerous new variant out there, Becky.

ANDERSON: Yes, which makes these regulations and these policies so difficult to get right. Thank you, Scott. One NHS worker said Britain's

vaccine rollout feels like a wartime effort and effort that has so far proven a success. And you can read more about the U.K.'s big COVID-19 win

by logging on to cnn.com. That is CNN digital of course.

While the U.K. celebrate success, Lebanon wholly beginning its COVID vaccination campaign. 90 health workers at this hospital in Beirut got

their first injections. Now the country of 5.3 million people saw a peek in cases and deaths in mid-January but it's still seeing nearly 3000 new cases

a day. Well, for over a year, Lebanon has been nearly broken by mass protests and violence but it is hoping to turn the corner on the pandemic

at least. Here is Ben Wedeman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And so, it begins perhaps the beginning of the end here of the coronavirus

pandemic. Alas, just one of Lebanon's myriad of misfortunes. The first to get a shot was Dr. Mahmoud Hasoun, the head of the intensive care unit at

Beirut's Rafik Al-Hariri University Hospital.

DR. MAHMOUD HASOUN, ICU DIRECTOR, RAFIK AL-HARIRI UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: For us as Lebanese population we should think of vaccine because it is the only

solution to finish this pandemic.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Trust in the authorities and much of anything is in short supply here. A recent survey found that less than a third of those

polled are willing to take the vaccine.

For more than a year, the country has been convulsed by sporadic mass protests and violence. Lebanon was already careening toward financial and

economic collapse before COVID-19 reared its head. And last August massive Beirut report blast added more injury to injury.

[10:20:06]

WEDEMAN (on camera): In a country where the rich and powerful tend to get all the breaks, the Vice President of the World Bank, the institution which

is financing this vaccine campaign has warned that nobody should be using Wasta, that's Arabic for connections to jump the queue.

Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab was scheduled to receive the first vaccination, but stepped out of the queue, deferring to frontline medical

workers.

The country has been under a total lockdown for a month, those workers pushed to the brink.

FIRASS ABIAD, DIRECTOR, RAFIK HARIRI UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: The fight there's going to be a long fight. We know that but I think that today really we

turned every corner.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): One corner turned many more to go. Ben Wideman, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: All right. I want to connect you to New Zealand now which so far has stood out as being largely successful in containing the virus. The

government there has just announced a new lockdown in a key city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Will Ripley in Hong Kong. New Zealand is locking down its largest City of Auckland after a family

just three people so far. A mother, a father and their teenage daughter tested positive for the contagious U.K. variant of COVID-19. Now this

family had no recent travel history. So, New Zealand health authorities are conducting extensive contact tracing, trying to figure out how this case

happened.

The first case of community transmission in New Zealand in weeks, the lockdown means that most people will have to stay home for at least the

next 72 hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden says the government is doing what it can to contain the new outbreak as it works to determine the

source.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACINDA ARDEN, NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: Now just keep in mind, we don't necessarily have to get to the bottom of that precise issue in order for us

to lift restrictions. What we'd like to do though, is really put a ring around things, make sure that we're testing all of those places of

interest, getting those results of close context back in to give us a level of confidence that whatever has happened we feel confident that we've got a

bit of a ringer roundup.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, Auckland has a population of around a million and a half people. So far the entire country of New Zealand has recorded a total of

just about 2,000 COVID-19 cases. And we will continue to look at the pandemic in the next hour. We'll discuss how we must all consider just what

living with COVID-19 might mean for all of us going forward.

When eyewitness says security forces are fired rounds on anti-coup protesters in Myanmar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON (voice-over): Ahead, the latest on the nation's intensifying military crackdown.

On the UAE has sworn in its first ambassador to Israel. He won't though be heading to the country anytime soon. We'll tell you why. In just a moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[10:25:31]

ANDERSON: Security forces in Myanmar escalating their crackdown on dissent as anti-coup protesters take to the streets for a 10th consecutive day.

Armed vehicles patrol major Myanmar cities over the weekend. And eyewitnesses report that security forces fired rounds on demonstrators at

at least one site on Sunday. A journalist whose name we are not disclosing for safety reasons describes how the military is trying to control the

message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The military is clearly trying to ensure that any level of dissent is criminalized, and that they're able to arrest anyone

for any reason. Once, you know, one of the amendments, one of the orders they've given out recently is for media to stop referring to them as either

the regime or the hunter. And, you know, we're not supposed to use the word coup either.

And so there's not only sort of a general trend of intimidation, there's also essentially a war for the truth and the ability to describe what's

happening accurately with correct language.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Meantime, acidly, Aung San Suu Kyih has been remanded in custody until a court hearing on Wednesday. Well, CNN's Ivan Watson there following

this story and has the very latest now. Ivan, the military, the military chief now taking a further step by amending the country's Penal Code

appearing to target journalists. The changes impose a 20-year prison term to -- and I quote here, "Anyone, whoever by words, either spoken or written

or by signs or by visible representation or otherwise attempts to -- or incites hatred of the government or the military."

The international community, Ivan, has repeatedly condemned the military saying will be held accountable for this coup. Is there any sign of that

happening thus far?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The warnings keep coming. I mean, you had the spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary General

issuing a statement calling on the military to ensure the right of peaceful assembly, calling any violence or intimidation by the security forces

unacceptable and calling on military authorities to allow in the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar.

You also had a statement coming from the ambassadors of the E.U., Canada, the U.K., 11 European countries and the U.S. denouncing the interruption of

communications for example, all of the internet appeared to have been turned off for maybe an eight-hour period from Sunday night to Monday

morning, a collective call for the security forces to refrain from using force on demonstrators.

And yet we do see this ongoing crackdown with reports of more than 400 people arrested largely under cover of darkness, clashes some kind of

gunfire coming from the security forces at angry protesters in the City of Myitkyina in Kachin state, which has also been home to an insurgency

against the government for decades. But also we're hearing from an eyewitness of security forces opening fire, apparently with rubber bullets

at demonstrators unprovoked in the City of Mandalay in the afternoon today with the eyewitness telling us that there -- he did see people injured in

that.

So, the military does not seem to be heeding the warnings from members of the international community. Even those ambassadors that I mentioned,

concluded their statement with "The world is watching." Becky?

ANDERSON: Those that we have spoken to on the ground one specifically has suggested that this is very much a leaderless protest in terms of who's

organizing things on the ground. We do know that Aung San Suu Kyih will be remanded in detention until a court hearing on Wednesday. Is there a reason

why we haven't heard from the leadership as it were and why it is that this is "sort of leaderless as a demonstration?"

WATSON: I think a key reason we're not hearing from the leadership of the National League for Democracy is because they've been detained. As you

mentioned and Aung San Suu Kyih detained in the coup on February 1st as was the president.

[10:30:05]

WATSON: And hundreds of newly-elected parliamentarians who were supposed to be

meeting for their very first session. That's when the military swept in and declared a year of emergency rule. We know that the security forces have

raided the offices of different NLD branch offices, for example. And over the weekend, they issued arrest warrants for seven individuals that are

accused to be part of the anti-coup protest movements.

And they've called on people to give information to local police stations for the whereabouts of these wanted people. So, the NLD may be a part of

the protest movement. But we also know that there have clearly been doctors for example, on strike and civil servants on strike, so much so that the

general who's declared himself leader of the government since February 1st been online in his speech on Friday.

He was urging healthcare workers and civil servants to go back to work, which suggests that even with the monopoly and the use of force, the

authorities are having some issues here just trying to keep the government moving amid this outrage.

ANDERSON: Fascinating. Ivan Watson on the story for you. Thank you, Ivan. I'm coming up. It's not a snub. He's just been busy. That's why the White

House says Joe Biden has still not called Benjamin Netanyahu after nearly a month in office, a live report from Jerusalem is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: We'll look at Israel right now where it's a case of who's coming or calling and who's most definitely not. First off, take a look at this

image. You're looking at this country where I am, the UAE swearing in its first ever ambassador to Israel. You can see the new ambassador on the

right and holding that ceremony. The UAE's Prime Minister and the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid seen on the left.

Now the new ambassador won't be dispatched to Israel right away. That's because of the pandemic. The same time the American President still hasn't

picked up the phone to Israel's Prime Minister since taking office. There's no need to check your calendars. I've done it for you folks. It's been

nearly a month. So, what gives?

Well, Sam Kiley is in Jerusalem with both of these stores. Let's start off with the UAE ambassador to Israel, the first post of course, ever to be

held a significant moment for these two countries and indeed for the region at large. This off the back of the Abraham accord signed last year and of

course supported by the new U.S. administration.

[10:35:09]

ANDERSON: So, what happens next for the new UAE Ambassador?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a very significant moment indeed. And when he finally gets to come here, and the

only reason he can't come is that the Israeli airspace is closed to all other than repatriating Israelis. And that's a pretty tough mission to pull

off themselves. So, when the airspace opens at the end of this month, the new Emirati Ambassador will be able to take up residence in Tel Aviv and

start working earnest.

This in many ways is a commercial as well as a diplomatic relationship. The United Arab Emirates, it's on a huge amount of potential investment funds.

And Israel is very keen to encourage the Emiratis to participate in their very aggressive, particularly in their startup realm. On top of that, of

course, the Emiratis have got their eye on some pretty advanced Israeli military technology.

So, I think we'll probably see much later on in the relationship. But that really is the direction of travel at the moment. Other issues such as the

Palestinian file are put into a band. There was at least a success from the Emirati perspective on getting the Bibi Netanyahu's government to suspend

its plans to annex huge swathes of the West Bank during the Trump administration. But we haven't heard yet from the Trump administration

about what they're going to do on the Israeli-Palestinian front, Becky.

ANDERSON: Well, the Abraham Accords, a big win for the Israeli Prime Minister. Benjamin Netanyahu though must be scratching his head right now.

Joe Biden, the U.S. president making numerous calls to other world leaders, still no call to the Israeli Prime Minister almost a month into Biden's

presidency. And this is not just optics. Israel is a critical security partner for the United States. So, why the silence, the radio silence as it

were at this point?

KILEY: Well, I think the first issue is to address what you've said in your question there. Is Israel really a critical security partner for the United

States? It's a term that's frequently used, but is it really, there are other much more important according to the Biden ministration relationships

to repair following the Trump administration, most notably the relationship with Europe and NATO which are absolutely fundamental to the continued

military power and alliances of the United States.

Yes, Israel is an important source of intelligence. But beyond that, very often, Israel has been seen by some of its critics in the United States as

more of a liability than a successful partner in the Middle East. That will be very substantially changed, I think, by these Abraham Accords, which

love him or hate him. Donald Trump can be credited with this remarkable transformation in the relationship between Israel and the Gulf.

Which means that they are now more important as Middle Eastern countries to the United States. But they -- whilst Biden and Trump beg pardon and

Netanyahu have known each other for a long time. They are known to each other particularly from the Biden administrations perspective as a very

aggressively pro-Trump, pro-Republican administration here in Israel. They will recall with some bitterness that it was Benjamin Netanyahu who went

back behind the back effectively of President Obama to address both houses in the U.S. Capitol in the -- in the whole issue over the JCPOA, the Iran

Nuclear Deal.

And indeed, when Biden came here on a previous visit, there was a massive expansion on settlements announced. These will not be issues that have been

forgotten but I think that the signal is that the Israelis are being put back to where they were rather than a top of the list.

ANDERSON: Sam Kiley is in Jerusalem for you. Thank you, Sam. Well, it's a maha bhava. From Mars, the Emiratis hope probe has sent back its first

image of the red planet since entering orbit last week. This was taken from 25,000 kilometers in space. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, tweeting out the

image calling it a defining moment in our history. Although Probe, as you will know, is the first interplanetary mission by an Arab nation.

Scientists are expected to provide the most complete picture yet of how the Martian atmosphere works.

Well, a downhill skier pulls off a little miracle while heading more than 100 kilometers an hour down the mountain. Still ahead, an incredible save

that is getting praise from the Tokyo Olympics.

[10:40:01]

ANDERSON: More than that, after this.

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ANDERSON: What is already been dubbed the most incredible save in skiing history. French skier Max Muzaton getting in trouble here by the grace of

God. And his skiing, he does a full 360-degree turn in the air and manages to stay on his feet. The bragging rights for the most incredible save came

from the Twitter page of the Tokyo. Well, Don Riddell is our man for all things, sporting prowess and anything else to put on our -- don't ever try

this list?

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: It's just amazing. Isn't it? Just absolutely amazing. The first thing I thought when I saw that was this is

the kind of thing James Bond would do. It just so happens that this is on Cortina d'Ampezzo is where they filmed For Your Eyes Only back in the 80s.

And there were loads of skiing and Alpine stunts in there. The only thing I think missing here was somebody chasing him down the mountain.

Him skiing backwards and killing him with a flare. Like that that would have completed the scene. But what he did here was just absolutely amazing.

ANDERSON: Unbelievable video. James Bond AKA Don Riddell. Back with the WORLD SPORT after this short break. Stay with us.

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