Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Florida Prepares For Big Storm Amid Pandemic; Astronauts Head Home On SpaceX Capsule; New School Year Brings Fears Of Virus Among Kids; U.K. Scores 90 Million In-Development Vaccine Doses; Doctors Observe Many Young People Ignoring Safety Guidance; Hundreds Of California Firefighters Battling Blaze In Scorching Heat; Los Angeles Church Gives Food To Thousands In Need; TikTok Scoffs At Trump's Ban Threat; Thousands Protest Netanyahu In Jerusalem. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 02, 2020 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Bracing for the storm: tropical storm Isaias is expected to become a hurricane once more as it heads now for Florida. Florida struggling to deal with the coronavirus and the coming storm is making that even more difficult.

Also this hour, the coronavirus vaccine quest. I talk with the head of Britain's vaccine task force about how to secure millions of vaccines and who will be first in line to get one.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Natalie Allen and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: Tropical storm Isaias, just shy of hurricane strength, is already being felt as it approaches South Florida's East Coast right now. It is a major concern in a state struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 has already infected more than 480,000 people in Florida and killed more than 7,000. Even with strict safety protocols in place in the state's evacuation shelters, health officials fear the virus could spread further among those inside.

With the storm's full impact expected in the coming hours, the state has temporarily shut down its virus testing sites. Officials are concerned they'll see a new surge of cases once the storm has passed and testing resumes.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ALLEN: Keeping people safe from both the storm and the coronavirus is the immediate challenge facing Florida officials. The administrator of Palm Beach County spoke with CNN earlier about what her county is doing. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VERDENIA BAKER, PALM BEACH ADMINISTRATOR: Right now, we've opened roughly about 4 shelters and our special needs shelter. This is to accommodate residents who live in mobile homes. We have quite a few mobile home parks in Palm Beach County. The tropical force winds could definitely have dangerous repercussions for individuals living there.

Also, we opened them to address the needs of our residents that have comparable (ph) housing.

[03:05:00]

BAKER: So if their roofs are not anchored properly or windows and they do not feel safe, then we have accomplished setting up shelter for them as well.

As you know, we are in the midst of a pandemic here and so we had to open more shelters in order to accommodate a smaller number of people than normal. We have to do the safe distancing, we will also require people to wear face masks in the shelter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Again, power outages are expected and utility crews from about 20 states have arrived in Florida to respond. For the latest on the state's storm preparation, here's CNN's Randi Kaye in Palm Beach.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Palm Beach, Florida, we are expecting a 2- to 4-foot storm surge and that is on top of the regular tide. Also, on Monday, we expect to see a full moon. So the high tide will be even higher, making that storm surge even worse for this area.

Also, we are experiencing pretty heavy wind gusts. Earlier, we had one that was about 40 to 50 miles per hour. We are told to expect about 80 miles per hour here.

Here, in Palm Beach County, they have opened up five shelters for people. There's more than 100 people that have already gone to one of these shelters. They have one that is just for people who want to bring their pets along; they can bring a dog or a cat or a bird even. But they have people going to that, as they have a voluntary evacuation underway, here, in Palm Beach County.

The state is considering trying to open some hotel rooms. Because of COVID-19, they are trying to open these rooms for people who might feel like they're symptomatic for the coronavirus. They want to put them in a safe place, away from these emergency shelters.

Meanwhile, the Division of Emergency Management is giving some guidance for the shelters, saying that they would like to have no more than 50 people in these shelters. They would, also, like to have them social distanced. They want about 60 square feet per person in the shelter. And they

also want to make sure they're wearing masks, using hand sanitizer and getting their temperatures checked as well.

We are getting word of some power outages in the area. We know that Florida Power and Light has a big staging area in Daytona, Florida. They have crews, about 10,000 personnel in all, but they have crews from New York and Texas and elsewhere, all coming together, from 20 different states, to try and help in terms of the power outage that we are expecting to see here.

We also know that the National Guard has been mobilized here, in case they need to do some search and rescue as well. And the governor is, of course, telling people that he recommends they have at least three to seven days of food, water and any medicine, just in case this storm does get really bad -- I'm Randi Kaye reporting in Palm Beach, Florida. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: The storm has already inundated the Bahamas with wind and rain. Let's get more on this with eyewitness reporter Royston Jones. He is live from the Bahamas via Skype.

Good morning, Royston.

What are you hearing about the storm's impact across the Bahamas?

ROYSTON JONES, JOURNALIST: Good morning, Natalie. (INAUDIBLE) effect for the (INAUDIBLE). Those islands are still experiencing tropical storm force winds at the last report. The assessments of the kind of damage we're going see for those islands has yet to be done.

But we will continue keeping communication with them until we see what the extent of the damage is. Of course, throughout the day we saw reports of downed power lines, trees toppled in the roads, blocking the roads, and moderate flooding. As you know, it only takes a little bit of rain to flood low-lying areas, especially islands in the central and northwest of the Bahamas, which compounds an already difficult situation, especially for people on the coastline.

As of early Friday, officials were warning residents on the coastline to move inland and to seek to evacuate to shelters. I can tell you over 135 people have evacuated from the northwest into those shelters and we're continuing to monitor the situation in the shelters.

Of course, we're dealing with the pandemic of COVID-19 at the same time. Officials are dealing with two crises, the health crisis and the storm preparedness and were seeking to ensure that they were, as best they can, separate in the shelters and using classrooms to keep people separated to ensure social distancing.

So certainly facing two different fronts with two different issues. We'll continue to keep a close eye on what it's doing in those northwest islands. We'll touch base with them as soon as we can to get more word of what the extent of the damage is there. ALLEN: All right, thank you so much, Royston Jones, live from the

Bahamas for us. We'll talk to you soon.

JONES: Thank you.

ALLEN: We're watching the storm carefully. Our two American astronauts now in orbit on their SpaceX Dragon capsule. They're preparing for a splashdown hopefully off the U.S. Gulf Coast, off Pensacola, not in the Atlantic near this storm.

[03:10:00]

ALLEN: Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley undocked from the International Space Station just a few hours ago. In May, they were the first NASA astronauts to launch from U.S. soil since the shuttle program ended in 2011.

This is the first manned flight on a spacecraft from SpaceX, which is partnering with the U.S. space agency. We'll cover their splashdown in the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus is growing daily and health experts believe it will get much worse in the weeks ahead just as a new school year begins. We'll have more about that coming up here.

Also, TikTok's head of U.S. operations does not seem to be bothered by President Trump's threat to ban the popular video sharing app. We'll have the latest on this coming next.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: Well, over 1,000 Americans lost their lives to COVID-19 on Saturday. The total U.S. death toll is now nearing 155,000 people.

[03:15:00]

ALLEN: And it is only expected to get worse. CNN's Polo Sandoval has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The coronavirus may kill another 20,000 Americans by late August according to a sobering fresh forecast from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC projections warn of an increase in reported deaths in Puerto Rico, Washington state, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and New Jersey. The governor there says house parties are contributing to COVID spread among young people.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): We are not past this. Everyone who walks around refusing to wear a mask or who hosts an indoor house party or who overstuffs a boat is directly contributing to these increases. SANDOVAL: The White House Coronavirus Task Force says COVID cases are plateauing in the hard-hit states of California, Arizona and Texas. Florida is also on that list, though it may face further complications with approaching hurricane Isaias. Nearly 8,400 COVID patients remain in Florida hospitals and there's a possibility some Floridians through the storm's path may have to turn to shelters.

MAYOR DEAN TRANTALIS (D), FORT LAUDERDALE, FL: The storm exacerbates the conditions. What it does is it forces people to remain in close quarters. And this is where we need to get that message out, that people need to make sure that those protocols are not sacrificed, that they understand how important it is to wear face masks.

SANDOVAL: This week, Texas became the latest state to surpass New York in the number of COVID cases. The hot spot is in south Texas where death counts are staggering. Ron Rivera, a funeral director in hard hit Hidalgo County, says his facility is overwhelmed. They're turning to additional storage for the influx of bodies and worried surviving family members may worsen the spread of the virus.

RON RIVERA, OWNER-DIRECTOR, RIVERA FUNERAL HOME: It's the loved ones, the families that come in to give their condolences to the families, that's where the danger is. And you get all sorts of people coming in at one time and that's what really makes these families vulnerable to having this disease spread amongst the living, not actually the dead.

SANDOVAL: With many schools nearing reopening, a new CDC study offers insight into what can happen when young people are allowed to assemble. Researchers looked at a Georgia summer camp, not named in the study and found high infection rates among campers at that facility. The data shows the camp followed most but not all of the CDC safety guidelines.

DR. ROSHINI RAJAPAKSA, NYU LANGONE HEALTH: As this study shows, when you have large groups of people and children especially, because you really can't expect children to strictly adhere to some of these safety precautions, there is a very high risk of transmission.

SANDOVAL: Students already back in the classroom in Indiana's Hancock County where the local health department confirmed on the first day of school that a middle schooler tested positive for the virus. Officials with the school district told parents the student was immediately isolated -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: A look at cases around the world for you. Australia has declared a state of disaster in Victoria after 671 new coronavirus cases and seven deaths were reported Saturday. Officials also announced new lockdown measures in Melbourne. Only one person can go out once a day now to pick up goods.

Recreational activities will be stopped and a new curfew will be implemented. The new restrictions will be in effect for six weeks.

Several countries saw record-breaking increases for the coronavirus on Saturday. Mexico reported its highest daily number of new cases and deaths in the past 24 hours. Mexico now has the third highest number of fatalities worldwide.

The Philippines are reporting nearly 5,000 new cases, the country's largest single day increase of the pandemic. More than 2,000 people in the nation have died.

South Africa has just surpassed more than half a million cases. It is the hardest hit nation on the African continent with the fifth highest number of known cases in the world. South Africa's national department of health reported more than 10,000 new confirmed infections on Saturday.

With the virus accelerating, as you just heard there, in many parts of the world, countries are racing to find a safe vaccine. The British government has secured early access to some 90 million doses of vaccines in development.

For more, let's bring in Kate Bingham, chairwoman of the British government's Coronavirus Task Force, joining me now.

Thanks for coming on. Good morning to you.

KATE BINGHAM, CHAIRWOMAN, BRITISH CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: Good morning.

ALLEN: You are head of the task force. You report directly to the prime minister.

How promising are the vaccines that you're looking to secure that are being researched right now?

[03:20:00]

BINGHAM: Thank you, Natalie. So the answer is that I think the different vaccines that are being developed are quite promising. We've secured rights to four different main types of vaccine.

But the real answer is we don't know whether or not any of these vaccines are going to work. We've taken a view that we need to have a portfolio approach with different vaccine modalities so that we can be sure that, if any vaccine works, we will have rights to it. But at this moment we don't know whether any of these vaccines will work.

ALLEN: You have to be out ahead of it.

How important is it to coordinate this?

You have to figure out how to get tens of millions of vaccines and from where?

What's the number you're expecting and how are you going about it?

BINGHAM: So we are expecting to build a portfolio of maybe eight, maybe 10, up to -- maybe up to 10 vaccines across the different modalities. And the way we're going about it is to bring in a small team of highly expert vaccine specialists, who are scouring the world, reviewing the data, wherever it's come from, to then identify which are the most promising.

And then we pick up the phone and we talk to them directly and talk about how we in the U.K. can contribute to the development and manufacturing of their vaccine so that we can secure rights, not just for the U.K., but to ensure there is global distribution of these vaccines, so that we can ensure that we can end this global pandemic as soon as possible.

ALLEN: And when and if it happens, who would get vaccinated first?

BINGHAM: That will be dependent on each individual country's policies. But in the U.K. we have a committee called the Joint Committee of Vaccinations and Immunization and they give guidance to the government.

In our case the priority groups to be vaccinated include the elderly, which is anyone over the age of 50, it includes people between 18 and 50 with co-morbidities, such as type two diabetes or obesity or heart disease.

It includes ethnic minorities and front line workers. So those are the target populations in the U.K. But I imagine each country will have somewhat different definitions. But it's likely to include those different cohorts.

ALLEN: As you reach out around the world to try to secure vaccines, is there an issue with nationalism right now?

How do you avoid a potential problem of, say, every country in it for themselves, a vaccine grab?

BINGHAM: So I think there is an issue or a potential issue with vaccine nationalism. I think it's not unrealistic to expected politicians to want to be able to protect the vulnerable people in each of their countries.

However, I've been really struck by the level of cooperation coordination between different countries so that we can establish a global pool of vaccines so that we can basically provide at least 2 billion doses of vaccine around the world so that we can end the acute phase of the pandemic by the end of next year.

ALLEN: That sounds really good. We'll end on that note. It's got to be all in. It's a global effort. Appreciate your efforts and what you're doing, Kate Bingham, we wish you the best. Thank you.

BINGHAM: Thank you.

ALLEN: Meantime, health experts say it again and again. Do not gather in large crowds. It is too risky right now when this virus is running rampant. And those same doctors get very worried when they see people, especially young people, ignoring their guidance. For more about this, here's Brian Todd in Washington for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Officers respond to a house party in Jackson, New Jersey. Police say it took them more than five hours to break up the party on Sunday because more than 700 people were there. About 600 more than Governor Phil Murphy's executive order allows.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D), NEW JERSEY: We simply cannot continue to have crowded house parties. They are not safe period. This is no time for anyone to be vying for induction into the Knucklehead Hall of Fame.

TODD (voice-over): State health officials say they're worried that that house party could lead to a new cluster of coronavirus cases. How bad could that cluster get?

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: That's a nightmare situation from the perspective of epidemic control because you've got so many people exposed to each other. And then that job of contact tracing means that you're following up not with a few people, not with tens of people, but with potentially hundreds of people.

TODD (voice-over): Tonight, top doctors are concerned that large gatherings of young people still haven't stopped despite dire warnings in recent weeks that they can be super spreaders.

New York State officials investigating this drive-in concert at the Hamptons in recent days.

[03:25:00]

TODD (voice-over): After footage appeared to show large groups of people not socially distancing. In Weld County, Colorado, over the weekend, thousands packed into a field for a day of live music. Many people at these gatherings have been observed not wearing masks despite the constant pleadings of health officials and experts around the world.

New video from researchers in Australia shows on the top left how far droplets travel in the air from someone talking, sneezing and coughing while not wearing a mask. On the right and in the other frames, you can barely see any droplets when the person is wearing a mask or adding layers to the mask.

DR. ROSHINI RAJ, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, NYU LANGONE HEALTH: If you are going to be outside and you're going to be in any sort of gathering, you really want to be protecting yourself only when you're with your immediate close family and loved ones should you not be wearing a mask.

TODD (voice-over): A daunting question looms tonight. Why are so many people, many of them under 40 ditching guidelines and still going to these crowded events?

RAJ: People are tired, they're fatigued of the isolation and they're craving that contact or some return to normalcy. But what everyone has to realize is we still do not have a cure, a really good treatment for the disease or a vaccine.

TODD (voice-over): One expert says it's a careless game of Russian roulette and not just with these people's own lives.

DR. CHARLES LOCKWOOD, DEAN, USF HEALTH MORSANI COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: They may infect their parents or their grandparents or their teachers or their employer who might be over the age of 65, who might have an underlying condition and they will die.

TODD: Experts say young people who go to the parties and concerts should remember even if they get COVID-19 and recover for it, it could cause other complications for them later in life, things like kidney, heart failure, lung disease or chronic fatigue -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: The latest on the strong tropical storm approaching Florida right now. We'll have that just ahead. It's been building up speed and could regain hurricane status in the coming hours.

Also, a terrible sign of the coronavirus impact, Americans waiting for hours for a box of groceries. We'll have that from Los Angeles.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Natalie Allen and this is CNN NEWSROOM live from Atlanta.

Tropical storm Isaias is not quite a hurricane but that could change soon. South Florida's East Coast is already experiencing wind and rain from the storm's outer band. Florida officials face the difficult task of trying to keep people's faith even as the world grapples with the worst outbreaks in the country.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ALLEN: There is another emergency situation on the other side of the country. California's already dealing with a large number of coronavirus cases. Now they have to screen people going to shelters because of a raging wildfire.

This is about 70 miles east of Los Angeles in Riverside County. Fire officials say the Apple Fire started Friday and exploded in size on Saturday, as these things do in California. The fire has now burned more than 12,000 acres and thousands have been evacuated.

The combination of COVID-19 and economic hardship is pushing many to the margins. California just reported 219 related deaths Saturday. That is the most ever in a single day since this began. And with a number of cases rising, so are concerns about food and housing. Paul Vercammen visited a food charity in Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They work late in the afternoon, cleaning up after a huge food giveaway in the First Unitarian Church. This is Koreatown in downtown Los Angeles.

They served boxes of meals or sent them out to more than 2,000 people, 1,500 of them walked up here, some have been in line since midnight. And then they shipped out another 500 boxes to nearby churches as well as a grocery workers' union.

[03:35:00]

VERCAMMEN: The workers here reflecting on just how trying it is for them to see the biggest numbers of people ever come into these food lines in the middle of a pandemic because a lot of renters' protection is running out, because unemployment benefits are running out. Some of these people without a job, something close to half a year right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's surreal to see, you know, that many people standing in those lines for food and it's really a larger indictment of a failed system and of the federal government to take care of the people because at the end of the day, it's unconscionable to live in a world where people have to wait for 7 hours for a box of groceries.

VERCAMMEN: Just boxes and boxes of food went out here, as we said, 1,500 people walked up to grab their box and another 500 boxes went out to nearby churches and a grocery store workers' union.

And for people handing out the boxes, they said this was rather heartening because they could see the look of relief in people's eyes as they knew that many of them might not have any income right now during the pandemic -- reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen, now back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: And that is just a microcosm of the larger picture of what so many Americans face right now. Saturday saw no agreement on new stimulus measures to help Americans forced out of work by the pandemic.

According to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, there is an impasse over short term versus long-term provisions. The White House has offered a 1-week extension of the $600 unemployment benefit that expired Friday. Another Republican proposal would cut that payment to $200.

The Democrats want to extend the $600 weekly benefit through January. But we will say, for the first time, both sides sound hopeful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: This was the longest meeting we had. And it was more productive than the other meetings. There are many issues that are still very much outstanding where we're apart. But we had a serious discussion and we went down piece by piece and so where each side is at.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: We have to get rid of this virus, so that we can open our economy, safely open our schools and to do so in a way that does not give a cut in benefits to America's workers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: President Trump, as you know, has had a testy relationship with some news organizations, to say the least. But now Republicans are doing something unprecedented in U.S. politics, banning news media from their convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The closed press event will be smaller, less boisterous and with fewer participants than the one in Ohio back in 2016. The party says that is due to social distancing rules the state's Democratic governor has imposed. A Republican officials says the vote to nominate Mr. Trump as their candidate will be livestreamed August 24th.

In Jerusalem, the largest protest yet. Thousands of Israelis demanding prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu resign. Coming up, we'll go to Jerusalem live for the latest.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:40:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: The head of U.S. operations for TikTok does not appear to be fazed by the U.S. president's threat to ban the video sharing app. Vanessa Papa said in Twitter video Saturday that TikTok wasn't going anywhere.

The threat called attention all over the world but it's unclear how it could actually happen. Jeremy Diamond has more from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, after threatening on Friday night to ban TikTok from the United States, President Trump has yet to actually make good on that threat.

The president on Friday telling reporters on Air Force One that he plans to ban TikTok from the United States, suggesting that he would likely do so via an executive order. The president said that that executive order would likely come on Saturday.

But by the end of the day on Saturday, no executive order in sight. Of course, the president has several tools at his disposal to actually make good on that threat. There is the possibility of an executive order but there are also other mechanisms that the president could use, including emergency economic powers that he is also -- that are also within his quiver.

Of course, there has been a national security investigation into TikTok for some time and there has been significant concern among U.S. national security officials about the fact that it is owned by a Chinese company and what potentially that Chinese company could do with the data of hundreds of millions of Americans, including potentially giving that data to the Chinese government.

Now TikTok, of course, for its part, insists it is being very safe with Americans' data. They say in a statement, "TikTok U.S. user data is stored in the U.S. with strict controls on employee access. TikTok's biggest investors come from the U.S. We are committed to protecting our users' privacy and safety as we continue working to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform."

U.S. officials are pushing for the ideal scenario, for an American company to come in and wholly buy TikTok from the Chinese company Byte Dance. But the president seemed to suggest that would not work for him, as reports emerged that Microsoft was in the running to buy TikTok from the Chinese company.

It is important to note this all comes in the face of a widening U.S.- China rift. That has been propelled in large part by the coronavirus pandemic. Coronavirus did indeed originate in China.

But the president is also trying to deflect blame for his mishandling of the pandemic by repeatedly pointing to China. And there has been a widening rift between the U.S. and China for years now and specifically there have been tensions in the technology space.

So this latest battle over TikTok really is just the latest iterations of those tensions -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Let's dig deeper into this story and bring in CNN business reporter Hadas Gold, joining us live from London.

Good morning to you, Hadas. We just heard Jeremy lay out some of the issues there.

What more can you tell us about the kind of security threat that TikTok could pose?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's two issues here really, Natalie. One is about the type of information that TikTok controls when it -- in terms of what it shows to its users. TikTok has a feed like an algorithm. There are concerns that in the past TikTok has been censoring by not servicing certain videos.

[03:45:00] GOLD: They might be speaking about issues they might not like or has full on to shut down accounts. There was an issue last year with a woman who made a video about the treatment of Uyghur Muslims. Her account was suspended. TikTok later said it was a mistake related to a different account that she has.

But there are concern that it could control or really influence how people view the world, how people view politics. That's one issue.

The other issue is the national security issue. That's where we go into the type of data that they have. Some of the most popular apps, hundreds of millions if not billions have downloaded it. There is concerns about all of the data they have on you.

This could be things like location, where you are, who you follow, who you interact with. But cyber security experts who I spoke with ,say for the average person, teens dancing, doing memes, the average information they share is the same as the information they share on Facebook. It's the same level of access.

It's a bit of a different story if you work for the government or the military. That's seen places like the Pentagon tell people they cannot have TikTok on their smartphone apps. That's because there is a law in China that companies must cooperate with the Chinese government and hand over data is requested.

That's where the fear is. Because TikTok is ultimately owned by a Chinese company, they could be forced -- even if they say they would never do it, they could be forced to hand over the data.

Is the data they have that valuable?

It's not clear how valuable it is for a teenager.

For a government officials, it's a bit of a different story.

ALLEN: Yes, and teenagers are pushing back on TikTok, making it quite evident where they stand on this.

What would a ban mean for all the TikTok users?

GOLD: Well, obviously for the people who enjoy it, they are very worried they would lose something that has been a lifeline for them during this lockdown, especially. But there's a lot of influencers on TikTok. This is how they make a living. They sponsor posts.

A lot of them say it's not so easy to just switch platforms. I've spoken to a few who say because of these reports, they're already trying to start to move their audiences to other platforms in order to salvage what has essentially become their careers.

We are seeing some action from TikTokers doing things like giving negative ratings to the Trump 2020 campaign app trying to get it to go down in the rankings, political pushback against Donald Trump they say in retaliation for this because, for them, they love TikTok. They're huge fans of it. They don't want it to go away. For a lot of them, when you ask them, are you worried about security issues?

Listen, all of our lives are online anyway. So what difference does it make who has that data?

ALLEN: These young people are saying they're going to vote in November.

Who would think that one of the issues at the ballot box would be TikTok?

It's an interesting world. Hadas Gold for us in London, thank you so much.

After a short break, a massive far-right protest in Germany against coronavirus restrictions, including neo-Nazi groups, and very few wearing masks. This on a day when Germany reported more than 950 new infections.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:50:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: Jerusalem on Saturday saw its biggest protest yet against Israel's prime minister. Thousands came out in the city and across Israel to demand Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation. He is on trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust and the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis is adding to their ire. Let's get the latest live from Elliott Gotkine, live in Jerusalem.

That was a very big crowd.

And what was their message to the prime minister, Elliott?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Natalie, it was a huge crowd and the message, as you say, is that Netanyahu needs to resign because he shouldn't remain in office while going on trial for corruption.

I should say police arrested 1,500 people last night demonstrating against Netanyahu. His official residence is the other side of that wall. They demanded the prime minister step down because of the corruption charges that he is facing.

There was very much the kind of an atmosphere here last night, mainly young people, some with small children in two. There were people banging drums and at a square known as Paris Square, there were a couple of people that set up tables to give demonstrators massages.

This isn't the only place the rallies were taking place and it happened in Tel Aviv and a little bit beyond that in Caesarea, where Netanyahu has a home, and also in Haifa.

Netanyahu, for his part, denies all the charges that he is facing. His Likud Party put out a statement last night, complaining about the media coverage of the demonstrations, saying they were artificially inflating the number of people who turned out to encourage more people to join them, quipping that North Korean television could learn a thing or two from some of the TV channels here in Israel.

In contrast to some of the demonstrations we've seen in recent days, there wasn't much by way of violence. Certainly there were no right- wing football hooligans gaining access to the anti-Netanyahu demonstrators, attacking them.

There were some incidents around the country. Some anti-Netanyahu protesters were spat on, another had a rock thrown at her and was mildly injured. Here at the main demonstration, there were some incidents at the end of the evening. Most of the demonstrators left around midnight.

And but still by 1:30 there were a number of stalwarts here. The police repeatedly asked them to move on. When they refused, the police did so by force and there were about a dozen arrests.

But some of the violence that some of the authorities feared might take place didn't occur last night.

ALLEN: Thanks so much, Elliott Gotkine, with the latest in Jerusalem.

[03:55:00]

ALLEN: A massive crowd including neo-Nazi and other far right groups gathered Saturday at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to protest the government's coronavirus restrictions. The rally coming after Germany reported its highest daily number of new cases since May. Michael Holmes shows us what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Thousands took to the streets of Germany's capital, Berlin, to protest the country's coronavirus restrictions. Demonstrators say the measures, which include maintaining a distance of 5 feet and, when that's not possible, wearing face masks, violate their rights and freedoms.

"Away with these laws that have been imposed on us," this protester says. "Away with the masks that make us slaves."

In a tweet on Saturday, German health minister Jens Spahn blasted protesters for ignoring the government measures meant to contain the pandemic.

"Yes, demonstrations must also be possible in times of corona but not like this. We will defeat the corona pandemic by being reasonable, having stamina and with team spirit. The more responsible we treat each other in everyday life, the more normality is possible despite corona."

The crowd, which included members of anti-vax, far-right and neo-Nazi groups, then gathered for a sit-in at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate to protest the German government's coronavirus restrictions. The crowds later dispersed peacefully -- Michael Holmes, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen. Thank you so much for watching this hour. I invite you to follow me on Instagram or Twitter and I'll see you next time. My colleague Kim Brunhuber picks it up next.