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Home Amidst the Rubble in Italy; Trump Softening His Immigration Stance; Biden Tries to Reassure Turkey after Failed Coup; Rescue Crews in Amatrice Scramble to Save Lives; Children Impacted and Traumatized by War. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired August 25, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:11] SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

Ahead this hour.

Buried in rubble: amid the death and destruction caused by a massive earth that hit central Italy, some hope.

And softening his stance -- Donald Trump may not deport millions of undocumented migrants after all, so why the change of heart?

And children in war -- the images that stirred our souls this week but what efforts are being taken to save the most vulnerable.

Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Sara Sidner. NEWSROOM LOS ANGELES starts right now.

A landscape dramatically altered in the middle of the night in a matter of terrifying minutes. This is the scene in central Italy after Wednesday's powerful earthquake. Villages flattened as buildings collapsed, frightening aftershocks are keeping people on edge there.

The magnitude 6.2 quake hit near the village of Amatrice -- roads were blocked hampering rescue efforts. At least 159 people have been killed. And hundreds more are hurt according to authorities. The death toll is expected to rise.

But there have been some moments of hope like this one here. You hear people clapping as workers pulled a young girl out of the rubble alive. Rescuers are working around the clock, sometimes moving debris with their bare hands just to try to find survivors. Watch this encounter from earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you able to breathe a bit?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Only a bit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The important thing is to stay calm. Police officials are on the way now. We will try to remove this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Wow. Italy sits on two fault lines. The last major quake in 2009 killed more than 300 people. It was the deadliest quake in Italy since 1980.

CNN contributor Barbie Nadeau has been on the story throughout the night and today. She joins us now from Saletta.

Can you tell us what you've been seeing throughout the day and I know you experienced quite a terrifying moment yourself, today.

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, you know, we really are in a ghost town right now. You know all of these buildings behind me are just reduced to rubble. Yesterday earlier we saw some dramatic attempts at rescuing people. But the people for the most part, you know, were dead. We saw lots of bodies being carried out of the rubble here, you know.

It was a cold night last night. The civil protection authorities have lit a fire in the field just to try to keep warm. You know, all the residents were milling around here in the earlier hours in their pajamas, have been moved to tent camps there in relative safety. But the ground is still moving.

There has been even a dramatic change in just the rubble in the last six or seven hours as each tremor moves the earth, you know, more and more of these old stone buildings fall. And people are now -- the rescuers more than 4,000 are working on this around the clock. 26 hours now since the earthquake took place. They are moving very slowly though obviously from hopes of rescue to just sheer recovery at this point -- Sara.

SIDNER: You talk about those scenes today. I know they're hard for anyone to take seeing bodies, seeing the destruction there. Have you seen any moments yourself of some of these different buildings collapsing? Are you still feeling the aftereffects and the aftershocks there?

NADEAU: Yes, absolutely. This morning, there are reports of tremors. We haven't felt any yet. We are just in position now after a little bit of a break. But we were yesterday in front of a building about 50 yards from me right now, doing a live shot, and the building collapsed as we were on air.

You know, everything -- I think it just speaks to the fact that these buildings are not safe. And so these rescue workers looking for people who might still be alive are also at risk as the ground moves, you know, they're in a vulnerable position as well.

One of the things we did see in recent hours, though, once they've been able to clear some of these roads and secure some of these old, you know, ancient sort of byways into the countryside -- we have just seen convoy after convoy of heavy equipment to try to lift some of this rubble up. Up until, you know, about six hours ago people were using their hands. I saw people yesterday using garden tools and a farmer's tractor, you know, just trying to lift rubble, trying to find their neighbors, you know.

This is a tight knit community in this part of Italy and everybody really has each other's back. They know who is in town. They know, you know, where the bedrooms are in the houses and things like that.

[00:05:08] There was some concern yesterday in terms of the tourists though in the area that might be in these outlying areas, you know, in these beautiful old villas that have been renovated as tourist homes. People are checking in with Facebook and things like that to say that they're safe. But there's no way they've been able to reach all the outlying areas at this point.

We don't have yet a number of people that are missing and that they are searching for. We are just, you know, working on the number of dead -- as you said, at least 159 so far. I'm sure that number is going to change though because throughout the night they were removing bodies from the rubble -- Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, the picture behind you is just stunningly bad. Thank you so much Barbie Nadeau joining us there from the scene of the destruction of that terrible earthquake.

Let's now bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

Pedram -- we understand that there has just been an aftershock in the region. How large was it?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, it's actually one of the largest -- if not the second perhaps the third largest -- aftershock we have seen since the initial 6.2 a little over 24 hours ago. But you know, you think about this aftershock -- a 4.7. This is now the tenth aftershock that was between a 4 and a 4.9 and we had one aftershock that has been a 5.5. So again, a total of 11 aftershocks -- pretty significant ones.

And of course, we know the structural integrity has been jeopardized across this region of these structures. So any of these aftershocks are life threatening and the question a lot of people ask is how long can you survive if you are trapped underneath a rubble and you're encased in some of these areas.

We know in Haiti, a story of a girl who survived 14 days trapped beneath the rubble. A healthy human can actually survive up to eight weeks without food. It's water that's the critical component -- three to five days is all you have. Even the healthiest humans would succumb with five days or more without any water. So if there is any sort of water around someone that's is encased across this rubble on top of them that is the best bet for survival.

But we touched on the one aftershock. This is historically what you would get, one in the 5 magnitude. You would get about ten in the 4 magnitude, precisely what we have had so far. From point forward you expect hundreds and then thousands of aftershocks to follow. They'll be smaller in nature and that would continue for several weeks, potentially well into 2017, believe it or not when it comes to these aftershocks continuing.

The before and after pictures across this region really remarkable. This is the Civic Tower. This picture from this location that actually dates back these structures to the 1,300 area, and notice the structure right here, notice this area here begin to crumble after the quake.

The clock right there, Sara, I don't know if you can tell, but that is locked in at 3:36 a.m. That is precisely when the quake happened -- incredible to see this photo here. The clock stopping right at the time the quake occurred there -- Sara.

SIDNER: Pedram -- incredible picture there. It really is stunning to see just how much damage and you did talk a lot about the fact that there are old buildings. We appreciate you letting us know.

And as Pedram just reported, there has been a large aftershock. So I'm sure a lot of people's nerves further rattled after going through such a terrible night.

We are joined now by Kerri Murray. She is the president of Shelter Box, a disaster relief organization that helps people survive basically in these situations. Kerri -- first talk to me a little bit about what it is your organization does and how it is you help when something like this happens?

KERRI MURRAY, SHELTER BOX: Sure, well, Sara -- this is a horrible tragedy. We have seen over 150 people that have been killed in central Italy. Over 4,000 people are now homeless. Shelter Box is working every single prepare for the worst day ever. And in central Italy this is the worst day ever.

And what you see in emergencies is this urgency to act but not a lot of good information on which to act. But there are basic needs that people have for survival in a disaster such as the earthquake -- food, water, health care and shelter.

Shelter Box focuses on shelter and literally bringing a family back together with the essential supplies they need to sustain their life in the immediate aftermath of an emergency.

SIDNER: You brought one of these boxes here with you.

MURRAY: We did and I brought one of the boxes that Shelter Box actually provided in the 2009 and 2012 earthquakes in Italy. So there were earthquakes in that central Italian region.

And so inside the shelter box the center of gravity is a family emergency tent. Six to ten people can live in this tent for a matter of weeks or months. What we know about this emergency is that it is in a mountainous area. And it's very difficult to get to. It could be a matter of weeks or months before the rebuilding happens. As you saw, we are in relief and search and rescue now. We'll move into relief and recovery and then longer term community development. But inside that box are just basic supplies. It's a tent, it's water purification units for when you have contamination of the water supply, blankets, ground mats, solar lights for large power outages. You also have tool kits.

[00:10:05] You heard about people digging out with their hands. There's basic shovels and axe and rope and tools to help people start to rebuild. There is a children's activity set in here and then there's cooking equipment.

So when you're bringing in lots of food and humanitarian agencies that focus on food bring food in you need something to cook it in.

SIDNER: Right.

MURRAY: So it's very basic supplies. This is one of the classic boxes that Shelter Box provides. And at any given time we are responding all around the world.

SIDNER: How do you get those boxes there? They are large. How do you get them there in time to really do what they need to do? Because usually it's pretty immediate that people need these things especially looking at those pictures.

MURRAY: It is. And you know what, you can't do in disasters what you don't do otherwise. So every day Shelter Box is prepositioning these items. So we have shelter boxes, shelter kits, we have palletized aide of lights and water units that we preposition in hubs all over the world.

So right now we have prepositioned stock in the U.K. and also across Europe. So we are actually -- when the response team has been deployed to the region, they're going to be in Rietta tomorrow working with our local Rotary partners as well as we have an office in Italy, as well as the Civil Protection Agency.

They will then determine and do assessments on exactly what is required. And so if the organization is responding with these boxes what we try to do is pull from local hubs that we prepositioned aid in.

SIDNER: It makes a lot of sense.

Kerri Murray -- thank you so much for coming and explaining some of what you do and it is important that people have some of these things. We're seeing these pictures and they are devastating and we know there are so many hundreds even thousands of people who are not injured. They survived. But they have no home to go to and probably difficulties getting out of the area as well.

MURRAY: Very much so.

SIDNER: We appreciate your time.

MURRAY: Thank you.

SIDNER: Thanks for being here.

You can help those affected by the earthquake in Italy. You can head to cnn.com/impact where you will find a list of groups that are working in the area trying to do some good amidst all the devastation.

Now let's move on to Afghanistan where we have just learned 12 people have been killed in an attack on the American university in Kabul. Seven of the victims were students. Police say they gunned down the two attackers about ten hours after the militants stormed the campus there.

Witnesses are describing the chaotic scenes during the attack. Many said they tried to run or hide when they heard explosions and gunfire.

Authorities now say 30 students have been wounded. No group has claimed responsibility but the Taliban has recently increased attacks all across that country.

Still to come he blasted his way past his competition with a plan to deport millions of undocumented workers. But now Donald Trump seems to be changing his tune, outlining a different plan of action.

Plus -- let's see these pictures. Tanks are rolling across the Syrian border as Turkey pushes ahead with its plan to destroy ISIS. A look at what happened there today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump is spelling out the major changes to his immigration plan. He won the Republican primary and promised to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and build a wall along the U.S./Mexico border.

Now Trump says when it comes to undocumented immigrants he will allow some exceptions so that some can stay in the United States. But he told Fox's Sean Hannity he would not grant them citizenship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Originally you had said they're all out and there was a big brouhaha. But you're saying that if somebody can prove that they've been here, proven to be a -- but here's the big question though.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Go ahead.

HANNITY: No citizenship?

TRUMP: No citizenship. No citizenship.

HANNITY: Everyone agree with that? All right.

TRUMP: Let me go a step further. They will pay back taxes. They have to pay taxes. There's no amnesty as such. There's no amnesty. But we work with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Donald Trump seems to be speaking in an echo chamber there -- the people there listening to him seem to applaud. Joining us here in L.A., Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic".

Let's discuss what we're hearing. Is this indeed a softening of his position? And also, he's talked a lot about other politicians saying I'm not a politician, I say what I mean but it does sound like he's going back on that now and could this hurt him with those people, those very people who were cheering for him there who wanted him to stick with what he said at the beginning.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Softening is not the word. This is one of the greatest policy reversals or flip flops, whatever you want to call it, between the primary and the general election in the history of modern American politics.

Donald Trump ran explicitly and repeatedly on a program of mass deportation of all undocumented immigrants. He ridiculed and criticized any of his rivals who talked about any legal status for any of those 11 million undocumented immigrants. And in that conversation with Sean Hannity he was trying to lead him to the most positive portrayal of it from the point of view of conservatives. He basically, you know, seemed to adopt the position of people like Jeb Bush, which is the Republican alternative.

Democrats say there should be a path way to citizenship for the undocumented. The Republicans like Jeb Bush or the Gang of Eight in the Senate in 2013, you know, argued for a legal status short of citizenship which seemed to be where Donald Trump was ending up which would be an extraordinary reversal of where he has been but one that reflects the simple math that the program that he run on in the primary has left him stuck at around 40 percent in the general election. And his new team I think is quite correctly trying to figure out ways to broaden his appeal.

The question is, as you note, is whether this undermines his connection with those who got him to this point.

[00:19:58] SIDNER: You do make a point that he did criticize Jeb Bush during the primaries for some of those very policies.

I want to get to something that he said. He was in the Deep South, talking to lots of folks and he called Hillary Clinton a name that a lot of people have used for Donald Trump himself. Here's what he said and here's Hillary Clinton's response to our Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future. She's going to do nothing for African-Americans. She's going to do nothing for the Hispanics. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Someone who has questioned

the citizenship of the first African-American president, who has courted white supremacists, who has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color, who's attacked a judge for his Mexican heritage and promised a mass deportation force is someone who is, you know, very much peddling bigotry and prejudice and paranoia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So you're hearing the two -- the back and forth there, obviously, Hillary Clinton heard what he said and responded to Anderson Cooper.

Is his work to woo the African-American community going to work?

BROWNSTEIN: Look, it's very, you know, for all of the reasons that Hillary Clinton laid out there, it is very hard for Donald Trump I think at this point after 15 months of a campaign that has been as racially-barbed, as racially-polarizing as any since George Wallace in 1968 and 1972 to make significant inroads with the African-American or Hispanic communities, looking at historic deficits with both groups.

What this may be more about is trying to reassure a big portion of white collar, white America which in polling like the ABC/Washington Post poll 60 percent of college educated whites say they view Donald Trump as biased against minorities and for that matter against women.

And I think, you know, if you look at where Donald Trump is today the biggest barrier between where he is and where he needs to get is that he is under performing other Republican nominees among those white collar whites. And this may be more of an effort to reach out to them.

But, you know, overall you'd say Donald Trump's speeches this week have been more coherent. There is a more focused message of change but you see kind of that Trumpian note of going perhaps too far in using the word "bigot" to describe Hillary Clinton and allowing her to turn it around from the broader message of change that he has been delivering I think more effectively in the last few days and really at almost any point since he has become effectively the nominee in May.

SIDNER: Ron Brownstein -- thank you so much for joining us -- a lot of points there. I do want to point out that the woman behind him when he said that has this look of a shock on her face after he says that. And a lot of people are talking about that on social media.

We will talk to you again later. Thank you. I appreciate you for being here.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

SIDNER: Turkish media is reporting that Syrian rebels backed by Turkish forces have captured a key border town from ISIS. Jarabulus is less than a kilometer from Turkey. Turkey's semi-official Andalu (ph) agency says it was the last major community on the Syrian/Turkish frontier held by that terror group.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Turkey hours after that offensive began. Biden is there to reaffirm America's support after a failed military coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

We now are joined by Congressman Brad Sherman who is here with us to discuss some of these very important issues. He's a senior member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Biden is in town. He has been talking to President Erdogan who has said repeatedly to the United States via media that there is no excuse for not turning over Fetullah Gulen, who is here in the United States, who he believes is behind the coup. Is the United States prepared to do something about or even considering doing that?

REP. BRAD SHERMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: I think it would be an incredible dishonor to the United States to turn over someone with no evidence and they presented no evidence. This cleric, Mr. Gulen has been a political opponent of Erdogan for a while. They were once allies. And for us to turn -- we've already kowtowed to Turkey because of their political position. We've refused to call the Armenian genocide a "genocide".

We have an air force base there which until last year they wouldn't allow us to use against ISIS. And keep in mind Erdogan has been -- has been hand in glove with ISIS right up until about last summer.

SIDNER: And, of course, he will dispute that. Gulen, for his part, has denied any involvement in this coup.

But Turkey is in a very important spot strategically speaking. Is our relationship deteriorating? I mean this seems like a problem between the United States and Turkey?

[00:25:01] SHERMAN: I think our relationship is actually better than it was when Turkey was working almost hand in glove with ISIS as they were up until last summer. ISIS has turned on Turkey. You see all these terrorist attacks against the Turkish people.

But there was a time when all the foreign fighters went through Turkey and all the oil produced by ISIS went to Turkey. So I think we're -- Turkey has decided that they continue to think of opposing Kurdish forces including those allied with us as their number one goal. But at least their number two goal is combating ISIS.

SIDNER: Give us a sense of how vital Turkey is to the United States. You did mention that, you know, there is a base there that we've been trying to use and now are using in the fight against ISIS. How vital is Turkey to the United States considering that there are a lot of unstable countries in that region?

SHERMAN: Not near as vital as we are to Turkey. I mean, Turkey is in a very dangerous neighborhood and relies upon the United States. Now that ISIS has trained their terrorists on Turkey, Turkey needs our support to try to push ISIS off their borders and it looks like that effort has been successful as far as the immediate border area. SIDNER: I want to move on to Iran. We saw pictures from the navy of

what happened in Iran today. And, you know, as the relationship there has at least they're speaking -- right. The United States and Iran, they're having conversations. They have come up with a nuclear deal, an agreement. But then you see pictures like this where the Navy says that four Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels conducted what they call high-speed intercept of the naval vessels from the United States.

And when you see something like this, is this being done for what reason? Is this being done because of the differences in opinion about the United States inside of Iran?

SHERMAN: This is being done because many in Iran view us as the enemy. Their Friday prayers they're chanting death to America and this is a way to kind of stick it to us and stick it to the United States Navy.

And we should not be fooled. We have a deal on the nuclear side. That deal has -- is not a binding treaty. It has virtually no standing but it is a deal that is going forward at the present time. But Iran remains the number one state sponsor of terrorism and very hostile to the United States.

SIDNER: I want to ask you this because this is something that Donald Trump has spoken about a lot and said look, things like this are examples of why we can't trust Iran. Is there any danger of this deal sort of going away and suddenly we're back to where we started, square one?

SHERMAN: Well, I don't think anybody thinks we can trust Iran -- or very few. Certainly, the Obama administration has never said "trust Iran". As to the deal, keep in mind that the nuclear restrictions are temporary. The sanctions relief is permanent. One would expect that a subsequent administration will be demanding that if these sanctions relief is going to continue the nuclear restrictions.

If President Obama can go to bed calm, knowing that -- that Iran has only a certain number of centrifuges, why should a future president have to accept a greater number of centrifuges? That president's asleep and our nation's security is just as important next decade as it is this decade. So I would suspect that we will not continue sanctions relief unless Iran continues to limit its nuclear program.

SIDNER: Still haven't been more equal when it comes to those two situations.

Congressman Sherman -- you have a lot of good points, a lot of insight. And we appreciate you coming on this show.

SHERMAN: Thank you very much.

SIDNER: Still ahead, the earthquake is over but there are aftershocks, we know a large one just happened. The heartache, the clean up is just beginning in central Italy. We'll take you there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:32:40] SIDNER: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles, I'm Sara Sidner. The headlines for you at this hour.

The death toll from the attack on the American university in Kabul has increased to 12. Most of them students. 30 more students have been wounded in those vicious attacks. Police say the attack ended about ten hours after gunmen stormed the campus there. Two militants were killed. No group has claimed responsibility, but the Taliban has recently increased attacks across Afghanistan.

North Korea's leader is declaring his country's latest missile test a great success. The country's state media report Kim Jong-un boasted about Wednesday's test saying it puts North Korea in the, quote, "front rank of nuclear military powers." The report also says Kim claims the U.S. and his operations in the Pacific are now within North Korea's striking range.

The death toll has climbed significantly. It started at 159 people and within the last couple of hours; it is now at 247 people that are dead due to the earthquake.

It has left towns demolished. Rescuers frantically searching for survivors of a powerful earthquake that hit Central Italy, while most people were sleeping.

Crews were able to pull an 8-year-old girl from the rubble in Amatrice, that is where the epicenter was. She is one of the lucky ones. At least 53 of her neighbors didn't make it. And the mayor of Amatrice says the town no longer exists.

Fred Pleitgen has more on the scramble to save lives and some moments of triumphs as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The deadly 6.2 magnitude quake struck in the middle of the night. The small town of Amatrice, around 90 miles northeast of Rome near the epicenter, devastated.

Amid the rubble, the town's clock tower still standing, frozen in time, 3:37 a.m., the moment the quake hit. Amatrice's mayor telling CNN, quote, "The town is no more."

UNIDENTIFIED MAYOR (through translator): It was very scary. There was a huge tremor. Everything was moving and we were not able to get up. There was no light, nothing. No one to rescue us. No one can try a rescue.

[00:35:00] PLEITGEN: Most of the three-storey buildings in the picturesque little villages pancaked. Buried under tons of concrete, a survivor.

"Are you able to breathe," the rescue worker asks?

The desperate answer, "Only a bit."

CNN's Barbie Nadeau was broadcasting live from nearby Saletto, which rescue workers on the roof of a damaged home. Suddenly, there's a roar.

Fortunately, no one appeared to be injured as the home next door collapsed. Residents, some still in their pajamas, dug with their bare hands to find survivors.

The arrival of heavy lifting equipment delayed by narrow, mountainous roads blocked by debris. Farm machinery was pressed into duty.

Amatrice was preparing for its annual food festival, the town's population swelled by tourists.

EMMA TUCKER, EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR: The house was trembling, and shaking, and got more and more intense. It's absolutely appalling noise, clinking, thundering, sort of rumble. It felt like someone put a bulldozer under the house to try to knock it down.

PLEITGEN: The death toll continues to rise throughout the day. Here a lone dog searches through the wreckage of the homes in the nearby town of Arquata del Tronto.

EMILY CHIESA, WITNESS: All the houses are just gone. There's no houses any more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Terrible scenes there.

From natural disasters to the horrors of war. Three scenes that made the world sit up and pay attention this week. A look at Syria's battles through the eyes of its children.

That's next on CNN NEWSROOM L.A.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: In just the past few days, the images of children emerging from bombings and air strikes in Syria have both stunned and sickened us, but most of all, they've made us pay attention to the war that has gone on now for five years.

Three images in particular are absolutely unforgettable. Deeply disturbing portraits of the suffering of innocents.

The week began with this image of Omran Daqneesh. He is 5 years old. This is just moments after a bomb blew his home to the ground. His ashen and blood-covered face had no expression. No tears, no cries, even though he is hurt. It turned out, the blast that he survived took his brother's life. Little Omran was born into war that continues around him.

Then this week, disturbing video emerged of a Syrian mother in labor. Here name is Mayesa (ph). On the way to the hospital, an air strike hits. Mayesa (ph) wails. Her arm and leg are broken. Her pregnant belly is pocked with shrapnel. When her baby is pulled from her body, he isn't breathing.

Doctors try CPR on his tiny body. They shake him and spank his bottom and then -- life. He takes his first breath. His mother has also survived the trauma. That's the good news.

The bad news, they are still stuck in the midst of hell. War is still waging all around them.

[00:40:15] And lastly, to a little Syrian girl who is singing happily like a child with no worries. The family is recording it on a cell phone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: (SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: That is her sweet voice, but it is suddenly cut short. The sound of war entered her home, sending everyone scrambling for safety.

You want to know what war looks like, this is it, from a child's perspective.

Joining us now to discuss what has been going on across the Middle East, and particularly in Syria, especially when it comes to the children of war, we are joined by Stephanie Hammond. She is the humanitarian policy adviser for World Vision.

Stephanie, thank you so much for joining us.

STEPHANIE HAMMOND, POLICY ADVISER, WORLD VISION: Thank you for having me.

SIDNER: We have just watched these haunting, horrifying images of what children have been going through. When the world sees these pictures, it used to really change perception, but why has this world sort of let this go on without major uproar.

What do you think is happening now?

HAMMOND: It's absolutely tragic that now we have entered the sixth year of the Syria crisis. And we're seeing mass displacements, mass numbers of refugees flowing into the surrounding countries of Syria. Places like Turkey, like Jordan, like Lebanon. Even into Iraq as well.

And the repercussions, too, on Syria's children. And I hope that these photos really present just the utter horror that is still happening within Syria.

SIDNER: We are watching right now a video from Aleppo of children that a lot of the world doesn't know. Yes, these three images have really grabbed our attention. But when you see how many children are affected and how many people are wounded, those who survive all of this, is there something that you would like to impart people about how they can help? Because I think a lot of people who are not living in Syria, who are not in the sort of world that you're in, of an NGO, they don't know what to do. They feel helpless.

HAMMOND: Right. And it is very easy to feel that way. And just feel numb, too. After seeing horrific photo and video after video like that, we've seen especially these past few weeks coming out of Aleppo, Syria. But there is really important work that the American people can do to prioritize funding for humanitarian relief organizations.

Giving to organizations like World Vision that are prioritizing life- saving relief for those who are most vulnerable, for Syria's children and going to WorldVision.org and giving to the response efforts.

I think it's also critical to prioritize child protection education, mental health programming for Syria's children. Like what we saw these last few days, just the -- these children are in a daze. They're stunned by this utter violence that they're exposed to, day in and day out. So it's important that we don't forget critical children's programming as a center of a humanitarian response.

SIDNER: Not just the physical pain, but the deep psychological trauma that these children are facing. We are glad that there are organizations that are trying to do something about that as well.

We thank you so much Stephanie Hammond of World Vision joining us on this very, very important issue. We appreciate your time.

HAMMOND: Thank you.

SIDNER: And we want to update you now on the developing situation there in Central Italy.

Italy's Civil Protection Department has just offered a dramatic increase in the number of dead after the country's powerful earthquake. At least 247 people have been killed after that 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck central Italy Wednesday morning at 3:36.

There have been some survivors. We have seen them pulled from the rubble and crews are working frantically still to find more survivors and pull them from the rubble.

I'm Sara Sidner in Los Angeles. "World Sport" is coming up next.

And, of course, Isha Sesay will have more on the developments in Italy. You're watching CNN.

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(WORLD SPORT)