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Trump Shifts Blame To Democrats For USPS Problems; Robert Trump, Younger Brother Of President Trump, Dies At 71; Biden And Harris Prepare For Democratic National Convention; CDC Acknowledges Kids Do Spread COVID-19; Georgia Governor Finally Allows Mask Mandates But Not At Polling Places; France Steps Up Efforts To Fight COVID-19; Indian Patients See Increase In Mental Health Issues Post-COVID; Major Oil Spill In Indian Ocean Declared Forbidden Zone; Protests Continue In Belarus. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired August 16, 2020 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Mourning a brother and best friend, President Trump issues a heartfelt statement after his younger brother Robert, dies, in a New York hospital.
Also this hour, we bring you the very latest on the presidential election. Democrats say they may recall the House early to deal with major controversies over mail-in voting.
Plus wildfires raging in the western U.S., where scorching temperatures are intensifying the challenge to fight them.
We're live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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ALLEN: 5:00 am here on the East Coast, thanks so much for joining us.
And we begin with sad personal news for the U.S. president. Word emerged late Saturday that Robert Trump, the younger brother of president Donald Trump, has died; 71-year-old Robert had been suffering from an undisclosed illness for some time. No detail had been released about his funeral arrangements. But the president is planning to attend.
Mr. Trump mentioned that his brother was ill while speaking with the news media earlier this week and he visited him in the hospital on Friday. CNN's Kristen Holmes has been traveling with the president in Bridgewater, New Jersey. She's got more about it.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump's younger brother, Robert Trump, passing away late Saturday night, a night after President Trump had gone on an impromptu visit to New York City.
The press had known he was going to New Jersey at the last minute. They told us he was going to a hospital in New York to visit his brother, Robert. We had known he had been seriously ill but not clear what illness he had. He had been in and out of the hospital since the spring.
The White House issued a statement on behalf of President Trump. It is clearly an emotional and sentimental statement here.
It says, "It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace," the president said.
Clearly there, you can see the strength of their relationship. The president said on numerous occasions that Robert supported his candidacy for president 1,000 percent.
Again, it is unclear exactly what the illness is that Robert Trump passed from. We are waiting to hear more information from the White House. It is, again, his younger brother, who had been ill since around the spring, passed away late Saturday night -- Kristen Holmes, CNN, traveling with the president in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
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ALLEN: President Trump's children are tweeting about their uncle Robert's death.
Ivanka Trump tweeted, "Uncle Robert, we love you. You are in our hearts and prayers, always."
And her brother Eric wrote, "Robert Trump was an incredible man, strong, kind and loyal to the core. Anyone who encountered him felt his warmth immediately. He will be deeply missed by our entire family."
Mr. Trump has spoken about his brother publicly in recent days. His illness has clearly been on the president's mind.
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TRUMP: I have a wonderful brother. We've had a great relationship for a long time from day one. It's a long time ago. And he's in the hospital right now and hopefully he'll be all right. But he's pretty -- he's having a hard time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: The president also spoke about his brother while attending an event in New Jersey, where the New York police endorsed his candidacy for re-election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I just want to pay my respects to a really good guy that I love. It is my brother, he's very ill. And he would not have -- he just said, don't even think about it. So I really appreciate what he said, he's having a very tough time. But I really appreciate being with you today. He respected you as much as I do. I respected you like everybody, we all respect you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Robert Trump was one of the president's four siblings.
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ALLEN: Their older brother, Fred Jr., died in 1981 when he was just 43 years old.
While the president mourns the death of his brother, he still has a re-election campaign to run. And with mail-in voting under constant scrutiny, U.S. House leaders are considering calling lawmakers back from their summer recess.
A critical issue: whether recent changes in the U.S. Postal Service may jeopardize the timely delivery of mail-in ballots. For more, here's CNN's Sarah Westwood in Washington.
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SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump on Saturday continued to cast doubt on the reliability of mail-in voting, despite experts repeatedly saying that widespread voter fraud in the U.S. is exceedingly rare.
Many states have relied on mail-in voting to varying degrees for years. Although the postmaster general Louis DeJoy has made changes to the post office operations, that critics say will hamper its ability to deliver mail-in ballots at the volume expected in November, the president praised his efforts.
He also sought to draw a distinction between absentee voting and mail- in voting.
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TRUMP: Louis is working hard. As you know, the Democrats aren't approving the proper funding for postal and the proper funding for this ridiculous thing they want to do, which is all mail-in voting, universal, you could call it, mail-in voting.
Again absentee voting is great. I'm an absentee voter. I requested and got it and sent in my vote. That's what we've had. Now they want to send in millions and millions of ballots and you see what's happening. They're being lost. They're being discarded. They're finding them in piles. It's going to be a catastrophe.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WESTWOOD: And the president recently requested his own absentee ballot. But the distinction between absentee voting and mail-in voting is not black and white. And in fact the lines between them are pretty blurred.
Both are conducted in much the same way. Their ballots are delivered through the mail and only nine states and the District of Columbia are doing what the president was warning about, which is mailing every voter a ballot.
In most states, people will still have to request a ballot in order to vote. The president also is exploiting the likelihood that the election result may not be entirely clear on Election Night because it does take longer to count mail-in votes.
The president tweeted Saturday morning, "The Democrats know the 2020 election will be a fraudulent mess. We'll maybe never know who won."
Meanwhile, the Postal Service in late July warned 46 states and the District of Columbia, that their election laws are incompatible with the Postal Service operations.
For example, they said some of the deadlines that states have set for requesting and turning in their ballots just doesn't leave the Postal Service enough time to get those ballots delivered -- Sarah Westwood, CNN, Washington.
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ALLEN: Bill Clinton is the latest former U.S. leader to criticize President Trump's assault on mail-in ballots.
He writes on Twitter, "We expect our elected officials to protect the right to vote and to ensure every vote is counted. This attack on the Postal Service, an institution as old as the republic itself and depended upon and trusted by millions of Americans, is designed to ensure that neither is done.
"If there was ever a time to protect this beautiful experiment we call a democracy, it's now."
The White House's attempts to discredit mail-in ballots are getting negative reactions from both sides of the aisle. But Democrats have been especially angry. Democratic congressman James Clyburn invoked his late colleague John Lewis, the pillar of the civil rights movement, in blasting the current controversy. Here he is.
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REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-S.C.): John Lewis would be so disappointed that he gave -- nearly gave his life to get the vote for people of color. And to watch complicity of the Republicans in holding on to this kind of shenanigans is just beyond me.
This to me, I never thought, that I would see this country allow this to happen. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Meantime, President Trump's challengers are preparing for the Democratic National Convention next week. Former Vice President Joe Biden and his new running mate, Kamala Harris, are getting ready to accept the party's nomination. For now, Harris is taking a step into the spotlight. Jessica Dean tells us more.
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JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Newly minted vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris giving her first interview since that announcement was made earlier this week.
And in that virtual interview, Harris praising her running mate, Joe Biden, for having what she calls "the audacity to put a Black woman on the ticket" with him.
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DEAN: Going also into the policies that they hope to put in place but continuing to go back to Joe Biden, really playing that traditional role as the vice presidential candidate and elevating the person at the top of the ticket, in this case, that being Joe Biden.
Harris also continues to fuel an incredible fundraising boost for the Biden campaign. They announced they've raised $48 million over the two days after her announcement, which is just a shocking number, considering that, earlier on the campaign cycle, Biden wasn't raising that in a whole quarter of fundraising. They're raising that in 48 hours.
We are told that both Harris and Biden will be delivering their nomination acceptance speeches right here in Wilmington, Delaware, when the Democratic convention happens next week.
But until then, it's a pretty quiet weekend here in Delaware, as Harris and Biden prepare -- Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
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ALLEN: Let's talk politics with Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at University of Essex. She's coming to us from Colchester, England, to talk about what is going on here.
Good morning to you.
NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Good morning.
ALLEN: First up, I want to begin with the virtual Democratic convention, which begins Monday.
What do you expect from Team Biden and Harris in the uncertain times in the country's history? Can they generate excitement without an audience?
Do you think they will reach out to disenchanted Trump supporters?
LINDSTAEDT: Right, well, I think with the upcoming convention, usually it's about highlighting rising stars, energizing the party and trying to make the case to the wider American public.
I think the convention will be unusual in that it will be more about the latter two things, really motivating and energizing the Democratic base but trying to make the case to the American public that the U.S. cannot handle another four years under Trump, that the U.S. is facing imminent disaster.
And it's really Biden and Harris that can pull the U.S. out of this mess, in particular because of the incredibly high unemployment rates and the mass spread of the virus. They are going to be trying to make a case about what policies they need to pursue to help Americans and they are the team that can do so.
ALLEN: Kamala Harris, choice as the V.P. candidate, has generated much excitement from Democrats.
What does she bring to the ticket for Joe Biden?
What will you be listening for from her?
LINDSTAEDT: Well, I think the choice was about trying to get energy to the campaign. And she has definitely done that. We are seeing early polls, the most recent Axios poll, showed that she is helping Biden.
Normally a V.P. pick doesn't really help much. But it looks like she is doing well with both wings of the Democratic Party, with Hispanics and African American voters and even independents.
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ALLEN: Natasha Lindstaedt there with us.
This year's conventions promise to be like none before. CNN will bring you full coverage. The Democratic National Convention kicks off tomorrow; the Republican convention begins August 24th.
Coming up here, a harsh warning from the CDC director about the pandemic and President Trump's response to what he had to say.
Also --
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As parents, our number one task in life is to protect our babies. And I really felt like I was dropping mine off at a death trap.
ALLEN (voice-over): With coronavirus cases rising here in the state of Georgia, parents share their concerns about sending their children to school.
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ALLEN: The United States has well over 5.3 million coronavirus cases but the president is publicly contradicting a top health official. CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield warned recently that public health this autumn in the U.S. could be one of the worst in American history unless more people start following health safety guidelines.
The president, however, disputed that claim Saturday. He invoked the Spanish flu epidemic. But before we play his comment, remember that epidemic started in 1918 and experts estimate about 50 million people died, not the much larger number the president mentions here.
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TRUMP: No, I mean, you can't compare it to 1917, that was incredible. That was -- that was the worst ever by far. That was -- you look at -- they lost possibly 100 million people. No, I don't agree with that but if you look at these numbers, they are coming down very substantially.
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ALLEN: The CDC updated guidance for pediatricians treating children with coronavirus on Friday. The agency says the rate of infection among those under 18 is now over 7 percent, up from 2 percent initially, and nearly half of all child cases may be asymptomatic.
It certainly gives parents even more to think and worry about. Cristina Alesci has more on the new guidance and how the virus is impacting children.
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CRISTINA ALESCI, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, new CDC guidelines that parents might want to consider as they weigh whether or not to send their children back to school this fall.
The CDC now acknowledging children do transmit the virus in places like homes and summer camps. The CDC also noting the number of cases among children is rising: now 7.3 percent of all COVID-19 cases are among children. That is up considerably since CDC's last guidance, which was at 2 percent for children with COVID.
Also the CDC noting that the lower rates in children could be attributable to school closures in the early part of the pandemic and that's why it was lower for children.
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ALESCI: Now given the new guidance, it is entirely appropriate to be questioning public officials, including governors and mayors, who have put forth plans to reopen schools or allow them to reopen.
In New York, particularly, the governor last week announced the fact that schools can reopen here. We have reached out to the governor here to see if these new CDC guidelines factor into the decision or change the plan at all. We have not heard back from them.
But educators here in New York City, the largest school district in the country, now expressing a lot of unease about schools opening here and whether they have the right precautions and the right equipment to deal with the large influx of students, who would be coming back to school here.
But for now, at least as far as New York is concerned, it looks like full speed ahead on school reopenings -- back to you.
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ALLEN: The Republican governor here in Georgia is finally letting cities in the state impose mask mandates. The policy reversal by Brian Kemp comes as Georgia is hit hard by the virus.
But his executive order does have exceptions. It says the mandates cannot be enforced on private property or at polling places and it sets fines at no more than $50.
Just days ago, Kemp withdrew a lawsuit against Atlanta's Democratic mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. That lawsuit tried to block restrictions that she had put in place to fight COVID-19, including requiring masks.
The latest moves by Kemp may be too little, too late. CNN's Natasha Chen has more on the grim outlook facing this state.
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NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Georgia is not doing enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19, that's according to White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendations from August 9th, a document obtained by the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution."
It reads "There is widespread and expanding community viral spread," and "There is no significant improvement in the Atlanta metro area, with continued high levels of new cases at a plateau. Mitigation efforts must increase."
Governor Brian Kemp's office fired back, sending CNN a list of its ongoing efforts to combat the spread of the virus, saying in part, quote, "The DPH lab has been working around the clock with multiple shifts since early summer," and that "Governor Kemp continues to rely on data, science and the public health advice of the state's public health director."
MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D-GA), ATLANTA: Georgia should roll back. I definitely think Georgia should roll back.
CHEN: In a state seeing at least 3,000 new cases every day over the last month, the Atlanta mayor says it's too soon for students to be in classrooms.
BOTTOMS: And we're seeing it already in our state. As schools have reopened, kids are getting infected. And in my opinion, this is my opinion as a parent, it's more disruptive to think you're sending your child to a situation and then have to pull them all back out.
CHEN: Courtney Smith pulled her daughters out of public school in Atlanta's suburbs altogether when they told her they saw 30 to 40 students in each classroom with few people wearing masks.
COURTNEY SMITH, PARENT: As parents, our number one task in life is to protect our babies and I really felt like I was dropping mine off at a death trap on Monday. So there were a lot of tears shed by me and shed by my children last week.
CHEN: After two days in their Cherokee County schools, Smith transferred them to a charter school, which she says has far fewer students in class and more of them wearing masks.
On Friday, Cherokee County's public school district confirmed 80 new cases of COVID-19 for the week, nearly triple the previous week's count. Two high schools in the district had to temporarily pause in- person learning.
SMITH: If you want your kids in school, your schools have to stay open. And for the schools to stay open, you have to contain your numbers of COVID cases.
And the best way that we know of to contain those cases is to implement masks and to also implement a hybrid program where you reduce the number of students in the building at one time.
CHEN: But there is no mask mandate in Cherokee County schools nor at Paulding County schools, where North Paulding High School also had to temporarily stop in-person classes due to students and staff testing positive. Starting Monday, that school will use a hybrid schedule with both in-person and digital learning.
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): There's definitely going to be issues when you open anything. We saw that when we opened businesses, we're seeing that when we open schools. We've given them guidance. We've worked with them to really give them the tools that they need to open.
CHEN: Those tools include shipments of masks that aren't required by the state. Though Kemp once sued Atlanta's mayor for mandating masks, he says local school officials are best positioned to make the best rules for their communities -- Natasha Chen, CNN, Atlanta.
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ALLEN: I am joined now by Dr. Peter Drobac, an infectious disease and global health expert at the University of Oxford.
Nice to see you, Peter.
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DR. PETER DROBAC, GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERT, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD: Good morning.
ALLEN: We have been talking for months now about these cases globally, so many cases still on the rise, here in the United States as well. I want to begin, though, since this is mid-August, to talk about schools, now bringing children back into the classroom.
We know cases among children are rising. Some schools have already had to pull back.
What are you expecting and what are your concerns as we head into the school season?
DROBAC: Well, Natalie, as we have been talking about now, for some time, it's really difficult to imagine how we will be able to safely open our schools in settings of high transmission, which still covers most of the U.S. right now.
Schools do not exist in a vacuum. They exist within communities, when there's high transmission in those communities, it's going to affect schools. We have already seen it in some schools that tried to open early and in many cases, they had to close because some kids and teachers were found to be positive.
There is a lot we should have been doing for a long time to get ready for this. But again, the number one thing we need to do is get a hold of this epidemic and bring transmission rates down. Otherwise schools over the next couple of weeks, it's just not going to last. We're putting kids and teachers at risk and unfortunately it will be a very difficult situation as schools then quickly start to close back down.
ALLEN: We are also seeing clusters in college dorms now, Notre Dame is one. University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill.
What is the challenge for colleges to limit the spread?
And also there is a threat to college towns as well.
DROBAC: Universities are actually really a special problem. We saw very early in the outbreak there were these big clusters of cases in the cruise chips. You remember seeing cruise ships stranded off the coast of the U.S. Universities are a little bit similar. You have young people from lots of different places, all coming into one concentrated area, staying in dormitories all at once.
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ALLEN: Well, more than half of the country's largest school districts are expected to start the year with full online teaching in a bid to avoid the kind of possible transmission Peter was speaking about there, infectious disease expert Peter Drobac there, joining me from the University of Oxford.
Weeks after tough lockdown restrictions eased in France, cases are on the rise once again. Police now enforcing mask mandates in some cities. We'll go live to Paris with more about that one.
Plus, the mental health challenges many people face because of the pandemic. We'll have a report from New Delhi straight ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM.
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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world, I'm Natalie Allen. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Public attractions and theme parks reopened in Brazil Saturday, including the towering Christ the Redeemer statue above Rio de Janeiro. Fewer visitors are allowed and precautions like temperature checks are in place. Brazil ranks second in the world in total coronavirus cases.
South Africa also easing restrictions as their case numbers are falling. More travel will be allowed and bans on alcohol and tobacco will be lifted. Restaurants and bars can reopen with strict hygiene protocols required.
And to France now. Paris police were out, enforcing a mandatory mask rule Saturday after the city was declared a zone of active circulation. Let's talk about what that is with our senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann, joining me now from Paris.
Hello to you, Jim.
What is causing this situation in France?
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, Natalie, it is the rapid growth of the number of cases here in France. We had 3,310 more new cases overnight, in the last 24 hours. And what is more, the growth rate seems to be expanding exponentially from one day to the next.
Four days in a row we've set new records and these are records that -- the numbers we haven't seen since back in early May, when the lockdown procedures here began to ease up.
So I think what the authorities are seeing is something that is going the wrong direction. So they are now working to solve that by going in the other direction with these lockdowns.
In Paris, large parts of Paris, about half of the city, I would say, are now zones where you have to wear a mask if you're out in public. And that includes pedestrians and people jogging. It does not include bicyclists but they're about the only ones that are excepted from this.
And you face a 135-euro fine in you're caught in violation of the rules. They also blocked off expanded areas of Marseilles in the same way and they're watching nearly a quarter of the departments, like the states in France, about a quarter are being watched very closely for what they believe are growing clusters of cases.
So it is a worrying situation, no doubt about it.
ALLEN: Here in the United States, Jim, mask wearing became a political thing. It seems that with the growing number of cases people -- more people are coming around to wearing a mask.
What is the situation there?
Did people seem to be in compliance, are they understanding?
BITTERMANN: It is hard to say really. I think they are in compliance to a large degree. It is very wearying, you know. They've been under orders, restrictions since back in March. So I think a lot of people are getting tired. They like the idea of the relaxed rules that have come about in the last few months.
But now it looks like it is going the other way. I don't think anybody wants to go back to the bad old days, when, in fact, you had restrictions on travel, you had to have a certificate to go out and move about. And you couldn't go much further than a kilometer from your house and that sort of thing. You had to have a special authorization.
So I think people look at that and say, we don't want to go back to that. If we've got to wear our mask, OK, we have to wear a mask. But it is going to impose some new rules on a number of different people.
For example, the labor minister saying that they're talking to the labor unions and she says that they're going to ask them to consider the idea of wearing masks in the workplace. A quarter of the new cases, they say, are coming from the workplaces.
So they're going to ask that workers in conference rooms and moving around their offices and that sort of thing, wear masks, even in private settings like that -- Natalie.
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ALLEN: Hope it succeeds for France there. Jim Bittermann, always appreciate you, thank you.
Japan has been battling a disturbing rise in coronavirus since mid- July. Saturday marked the third straight day of more than 1,000 new cases. Tokyo's government is urging bars and restaurants to close voluntarily at 10:00 pm. Some are complying but not all.
The pandemic is taking a toll on the mental well-being of people all around the world. Many who have recovered from the virus find they cannot really leave the experience behind. CNN's Vedika Sud reports from New Delhi for us.
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VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): This is a 39-year-old IT professional who's back to regular therapy sessions. After India announced its COVID-19 lockdown in March, he sensed an increase in stress and anxiety levels. He asked to be called by the pseudonym Pronoun, given the stigma that surrounds mental illness, something he's battled for years.
Pronoun said as soon as the lockdown started, work from home and work around the home became very stressful. Managing both was difficult and added to the pressure.
Therapist Anna Chandy, who has spent 27 years in the mental health domain, says she has seen a significant increase in clients ever since COVID-19. People are struggling to deal with their emotions.
ANNA CHANDY, THERAPIST: I think the lockdown has put all of us -- created fear because of the uncertainty. And when we are experiencing fear, we have an emotional brain which gets activated.
SUD (voice-over): Thirty-two-year-old Lata (ph), whose name has also been changed, is a school teacher who has been struggling ever since she started working from home.
Her sudden and unexplained outbursts made her reach out to a psychologist. Lata (ph) says she's constantly crying, is extremely nervous and mentally exhausted. What worries her, she says, is the fear of losing her job and dealing with mental stress, along with an uncertain future.
What is equally disturbing is how COVID-19 patients and front line healthcare workers in India are not only dealing with the stress of being infected but stigma as well.
CHANDY: Healthcare workers, those who suffer the illness and those who've just tested positive, they have a twofold issue, because one is they are dealt with like social pariahs and they're also going through the illness themselves, along with the fear.
SUD (voice-over): The Indian government says COVID-19 has thrown an unprecedented challenge for mental health across the country. According to a study by the WHO in 2016, India has just 0.3 psychiatrists and 0.7 psychologists per 10,000 people, much lower than the U.S.
SUD: According to medical experts, mental illness could be the next pandemic not only to grip India but the world.
SUD (voice-over): In 2017, according to "The Lancet" medical journal, one in seven Indians was affected by mental disorders of varying severity. While India attempts to cap its rising COVID-19 infections and deaths, its struggle with mental illness continues --- Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.
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ALLEN: A picturesque reef in the Indian Ocean is now covered with tons of oil. A leaking cargo ship has broken apart not far from a protected wildlife habitat. The environmental emergency in Mauritius next. We'll have a live report about it.
Also, the embattled president of Belarus vows not to give up the country to anyone, even as it is engulfed by protesters demanding he resign. We'll you what the crisis is about with a live report from Minsk next.
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ALLEN: Authorities in Mauritius have declared a major oil spill in the Indian Ocean a forbidden zone after a cargo ship split in two Saturday.
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ALLEN (voice-over): Take a look and you can see the damage in these beautiful waters there. Greenpeace Africa says volunteers working on the cleanup have been asked to stop over safety concerns.
The Japanese-owned ship was on its way from China to Brazil when it ran aground on a reef in late July. You can see right there what has happened since.
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ALLEN: Kaori Enjoji joins me now from Tokyo with more about it.
This is certainly an environmental emergency, Kaori.
KAORI ENJOJI, JOURNALIST: Absolutely, Natalie. This is an ecological disaster for Mauritius and the surrounding sea life there and some of the marshlands and the ecological reserves they have around the island.
It has been three weeks since this ship ran aground on the shallow waters near the reef off Mauritius. Yet we still don't have answers to the basic question as to what it was doing so close to the shore to begin with, even though it has been three weeks since that incident.
We had a dramatic turn of events over this weekend, with the hull cracking even further and literally splitting the ship into two. There was a very, very difficult salvage operation over the last couple of weeks to try to get the oil pumped out of the ship, originally carrying 4,000 tons of oil. About a thousand of that, a thousand tons, has already seeped into the
waters into the -- around the surrounding island. And 3,000 that remained was literally pumped out, using helicopters, volunteers around the island, literally scooping the oil out of the sea.
And so this was a salvage operation. But as you can imagine, as the ship split into two, there was still some remaining oil in the ship and, as you can see in some pictures, it turned the waters black.
There are going to be questions about responsibility. And as you pointed out, there are two Japanese companies involved. One is the owner of the ship, a very small company called Nagashiki Shipping.
Legally, according to what is known technically as the bunker roll, they are responsible for paying all of that. But when you consider the operator of the ship, which is another Japanese company, a very large shipping company called Mitsui OSK, they're technically not liable to pay for any of the cleanup costs.
But conservationists are saying, is it going to be enough to make just an apology when you have all of this environmental damage?
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ENJOJI: Not to mention, of course, this is a particularly difficult year for Mauritius because tourism has dried up with the coronavirus and the travel restrictions. And you have a fishing industry that really is the livelihood for many of the residents on Mauritius.
So this is an ongoing disaster. It could be months before the ship is moved out of the reef and towed away. This also could be a multimillion dollar liability issue as well.
One lawyer I spoke to said the cost could be anywhere between 2 and 7 billion Japanese yen. So a lot of unresolved issues. And the main question, what it was doing there to begin with.
ALLEN: Absolutely beautiful waters, covered now in oil. Thank you so much for that report, Kaori Enjoji for us. Thank you.
Now we turn to Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko doesn't want foreign mediation to calm the protests in his country, saying he, quote, "won't give up the country to anyone." But he has reached out to someone, Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Belarus has been rocked by protests for the past week after a highly contested presidential election. Lukashenko's party says he won 80 percent of the vote. Protesters say the vote was rigged.
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ALLEN (voice-over): Tens of thousands of people, you're seeing many of them right here, have risked arrest, violence and even alleged torture to demand Lukashenko step down.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ALLEN: Our Fred Pleitgen is in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, covering these protests and what the government's reaction is to it.
Hello to you, Fred.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Natalie. Certainly this could be another decisive day here for the future of Belarus, they have called for pro-government demonstrations.
And some things we have been seeing on social media is apparently they are busing a large number of people here into the Belarusian capital of Minsk to take part in the pro government demonstrations.
They're set to begin right about now, actually, with those demonstrations starting in the center of Minsk, which otherwise has been completely locked off. The folks you see here, the anti- government protesters, will have a harder time doing their own demonstrations.
The opposition called for demonstrations to happen today, certainly we can see that people are gathering for that. They're going to start a little bit later.
But you can see that there is certainly a very charged-up atmosphere here in the capital. In fact, a couple of minutes ago, we were standing right here at this Pushkin Square, which generally as been a place where people have been coming to, have been gathering and have been doing that honking that you can hear throughout the protests as they have been unfolding.
And then two buses came, which apparently had people in them, being bused to the pro government demonstrations. And you could hear them scream "shame" and wave at people, to try to get them to not go to the demonstration, something that in the end that did not happen.
You do feel the atmosphere here is very charged up, you can feel that, especially the folks on the opposition, they feel this is a decisive time. And at the same time, Alexander Lukashenko for himself, also very much saying he's not going to give up. He's not going to step down. Still contesting he won the election.
He had that phone call with Vladimir Putin just yesterday, where the results of that phone call, he sort of made more of that I think than the Russian president wanted him to make of that. There was a bit of confusion as to what exactly the two leaders spoke about and what exactly Russia plans to do next.
But you can feel that Alexander Lukashenko understands he's embattled. He understands he's possibly on the ropes and certainly he's trying to bring out his supporters today. And his supporters are being bused into the capital of Minsk from other places, Natalie.
ALLEN: All right, we will continue to follow it. We know you'll be there for us. Fred Pleitgen, thank you, Fred.
An intense heat wave is fueling a string of wildfires on the U.S. West Coast and tens of millions of Americans are under heat warnings.
How hot is it?
We'll have more about that next.
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ALLEN: Several wildfires are raging in the west right now and it could get worse as an intense heat wave sears much of the area. Almost 100 million Americans are under some form of heat advisory from Texas, California, into the Rockies and up the west coast to Washington state. Two of the most threatening wildfires in Colorado have grown in size over the past 24 hours.
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ALLEN: ALLEN: At least five people have been killed in shark attacks in Australia this year but a man in New South Wales wasn't going to let his girlfriend become the next victim. Police say the pair were surfing yesterday when a juvenile great white clamped its jaws on her leg.
The man went into attack mode himself, pounding on the predator until it let go. The shark got away and now area beaches are closed as authorities try to track it down.
The girlfriend, she's in serious but stable condition in a hospital, with bites on her calf and thigh. She's going to recover. And we proclaim her boyfriend a real catch. Good job there.
Thanks for watching this three hours of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. We'll see you soon.
