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135 Killed, Crews Search for Many Still Missing; Deadly Blast is the Latest Crisis to Strike Lebanon; Americans Experience Food Insecurity as Crisis Deepens; Trump Pushes Schools to Reopen, Says Virus is 'Going Away'; Tel Aviv City Hall Lights Up as Lebanese Flag in Solidarity. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired August 06, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:00]
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): It's 7:00 am in Beirut, Lebanon, where the search is on for survivors of Tuesday's massive explosion in the port district. We know that the death toll now stands at 135, with more than 5,000 people wounded.
All signs point to a huge shipment of the volatile chemical ammonium nitrate as the cause of the blast. It was seized from a Russian ship and stored in a warehouse for the past six years.
Now take a look at this. Before and after images show the scope of the damage. Beirut's governor estimated the damage to be as high as $15 billion. The Lebanese cabinet has ordered port officials to be placed under house arrest during the investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHEL AOUN, LEBANESE PRESIDENT (through translator): To all the Lebanese people, we are determined to proceed with the investigations and to uncover the circumstances of what happened as quickly as possible and to hold accountable those responsible and inflict on them the most severe punishment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Lebanon's economy minister says every apartment and every business in Beirut has been impacted by the blast. The state media has reported that 90 percent of the hotels have been damaged.
It's staggering numbers and we get more now from Ben Wedeman in Beirut.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: George Faraoun has come with a friend to see what they can salvage from the remains of his parents' apartment, which looked directly onto Beirut's port.
Tuesday's blast turned it into a moonscape, a panorama of utter destruction. Dried blood marks the spot where his mother was resting in bed when the explosion sent a wall slamming on top of her. She's still in hospital.
This was his parents' retirement home.
GEORGE FARAOUN, BEIRUT RESIDENT: This was their life. Everything they did here. Look what happened.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Given the damage, they probably will never be able to move back.
Many neighbors were badly injured, others killed.
WEDEMAN: In addition to the dead and the wounded, many, many people have lost their homes. According to the governor of Beirut, more than 300,000 people in the city have been made homeless.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): People are packing up and moving out. While others try to salvage what they can, the area near the port is now a hive of activity as an army of volunteers like Maggy Demerjian has launched into a massive cleanup effort, perhaps to show themselves that, despite this country's mountain of woes, good will prevail.
MAGGY DEMERJIAN, LEBANESE CLEANUP VOLUNTEER: Lebanese people doesn't deserve. We are good people.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): They've come from all over the city, handing out food and water, pitching in wherever, however they can. Officials believe the blast emanated from a warehouse filled with 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, sitting there under lax security for six years.
The government has promised a quick and transparent investigation. Yet going back decades, Lebanon has witnessed a series of a high-profile assassinations and, rarely, if ever, has the truth emerged.
JAD ACHKAR, BEIRUT RESIDENT: This, this accident here, this crisis, for 20 years we're going to talk about the investigation. There's never going to be no conclusion and no results.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): And no confidence among many here that the truth will ever be known -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Jomana Karadsheh is following developments from Istanbul, Turkey, for us.
Jomana, hi, good to see you. I understand that they are still looking for survivors.
How likely is it that there are going to be people who will still be able to be rescued?
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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a very tough search and rescue mission, Robyn, when you take into consideration the limited resources the Lebanese have the limited capabilities the emergency services have, that is why officials from start have been calling for help, for support from the international community whether it is with rescue teams to help them.
And we've seen some several countries have already announced they have sent in several teams, including the country I'm in, Turkey, sending medical teams and search and rescue teams.
We understand another a number of European countries also doing the same. According to officials, hundreds of people are still unaccounted for. People have gone missing. They've not been in touch with their family members.
We've heard from family members of people who are missing. They are very concerned about what may have happened to their loved ones.
Are they still alive, trapped under the rubble?
Have they died?
They just don't know, they don't have answers and they say that they are unable to get these answers from the authorities, from the government.
You know this is a country that is stretched to its limits when it comes to the medical sector. It was already getting to a point that the hospitals were unable to deal with the pandemic. They were already, hours before the blast, Robyn, the hospitals, the health sector in the country was saying government hospitals had reached its limits.
Then you had thousands of wounded who ended up in these hospitals, where they're really running low on critical medical supplies. We understand that a number of hospitals, at least three, were taken out of service due to the blast.
So Lebanon right now needs all the help that it can get from the international community, whether it is with medical supplies, field hospitals that are already being flown in by different countries, or search and rescue teams to try and see if they're able to pull out anyone from underneath the rubble.
But officials have warned that the death toll is likely going to rise because of the hundreds of people who are still missing.
CURNOW: Thanks for that update, Jomana.
Lebanon's prime minister says the ammonium nitrate was stored an a warehouse was put in there without any protective measures. Local officials repeatedly warned the seized cargo was the equivalent of a floating bomb but it was never ever removed.
Well, as of now the evidence points to this being a accidental explosion, as Sam Kiley now reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a land so often cursed by violence, a catastrophe, more likely the product of human incompetence than malicious design.
At the core of the Beirut explosion, government officials fear, is some 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a common ingredient for fertilizer. But mixed with fuel or sugar it could be a precursor for homemade bombs.
They have been used by the IRA and terrorists worldwide. Antigovernment extremists used 2 tons and killed 168 in Oklahoma. Chris Hunter is a decorated bomb disposal expert. He served with British Special Forces and still works in Iraq and Syria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS HUNTER, BOMB DISPOSAL OPERATOR: What you can see is a series of sparks and flashes, basically down toward the base of the flames and the smoke. And that is consistent with something like fireworks cooking off. If it's confined in shipping containers, then what you can get is effectively a giant pipe bomb.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KILEY (voice-over): But that he says was just the detonator for the vast ammonium nitrate explosion.
HUNTER: Moments later, of course, we see the explosion itself. That's preceded by that sort of brilliant red-colored smoke coming up as well. That is consistent with chlorates and nitrates of the type used in fertilizer.
KILEY (voice-over): Lebanon's prime minister has vowed investigations and punishment for whoever allowed this to happen. Hunter says the white smoke further suggests it was an accident. A fuel mix, used in terror attacks, would be black.
The shock wave still supersonic. So in his expert opinion, the blast that flattened so much of Beirut was not an act of malice. But that doesn't explain how the fireworks store or ammunition dump caught fire, much less why -- Sam Kiley, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Well, Jeffrey Lewis is the director of the East Asian Non- proliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. We talked about how long this chemical had sat in this warehouse at the port, essentially like a ticking time bomb as Sam said.
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CURNOW: This is what Jeffrey told me.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEFFREY LEWIS, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Yes, we've seen this in the past, that when states seize cargos of munitions or explosives, they sometimes don't know what to do with them.
Things get caught up in legal processes and states that don't have great governance just leaving things sitting in warehouses. So this was a ticking time bomb.
CURNOW: What kind of information do you get from the video that we're seeing?
It's almost mesmerizing, seeing that video, that explosion over and over again.
When you do, as an expert, what do you see?
What draws your attention?
LEWIS: What you see is that there are two things that happen. First, there's a fire. And that's a really large fire that looks like it's consuming the warehouse. And that fire appears to involve munitions, ammunition. So what you hear is this kind of popping sound and you see flashes.
And what that looks like is that the munitions are essentially cooking. And that fire seems to ignite what the Lebanese government has said was a giant stockpile of almost 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, which blows up.
And you get this enormous fireball and this huge shock that crushes buildings. So you get this enormous, dangerous fire, followed by this extremely large explosion.
CURNOW: Obviously, you work in nonproliferation; you have a lot of focus on monitoring North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
But when you look at what happened in Beirut, in many ways you don't need a nuclear bomb to cause that damage. Essentially, we're looking at the equivalent of what 1 kiloton nuclear bomb damage in terms of what this caused.
LEWIS: So the estimates right now are pretty fluid. It's hard to know how big it was. We think it was maybe half a kiloton, maybe 500 tons. But that's an enormous explosion.
And the funny thing is, when we talk about nuclear weapons, the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima wasn't just 1 kiloton, it was 16. So we're talking orders of magnitude bigger. And when you mention the modern U.S. nuclear weapon, those are in the hundreds of kilotons.
So I think that we forget just how much destructive power exists in the world, both with conventional explosives like this, which are enough to flatten a significant portion of the city and will cause thousands of casualties, scaling up to even much larger nuclear weapons. CURNOW: And a final question. CNN is getting information that this
was stored, this was confiscated from a Russian ship that was on its way to Mozambique and it's been sitting there for six years because it was stopped halfway on that journey.
Why would a Russian ship be delivering nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate to a southeast African country?
LEWIS: It is a really good question. There are all kinds of uses for this material. It could have been for blasting and mining. But it could've had a third, more nefarious use. The reality is there's a lot of ammonium nitrate around the world. So there are legitimate reasons to sell this.
But the paperwork was not in order and that's ultimately why the Lebanese authorities seized it. So I think this is one of those mysteries that will be quite fun to unravel.
CURNOW: OK, Jeffrey Lewis, always good to speak to you. Thanks so much for your expertise.
LEWIS: My pleasure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: U.S. president Donald Trump says no one really knows yet what caused the Beirut explosion; on Tuesday he called an attack U.S. but military sources and the Lebanese government says there's no evidence of that. Reporters asked about that on Wednesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And how can you say accident?
Somebody was -- left some terrible explosive type devices and things around perhaps. Perhaps it was that, perhaps it was an attack. I don't think anybody can say right now. We're looking into very strongly. Right now, it's -- I mean, you have some people think it was an attack and you have some people that think it wasn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says most people believe it was an accident. He says U.S. intelligence is still getting information but so far there's no indication it was an attack.
There is no questioning that the blast had incredible power. Still to come, we'll look at the scale of this explosion and how the damage extended far, far away from the epicenter.
But first, will the coronavirus ever really go away?
It depends on who you ask.
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CURNOW: The global death toll from the coronavirus now exceeds 700,000 but there is growing hope a vaccine could be soon on the horizon. The top U.S. infectious disease expert says tens of millions of vaccine doses will likely be available by early next year.
And Dr. Anthony Fauci, says if we do have a vaccine the virus will no longer be a pandemic, capable of immobilizing the world and destroying economies but he says he doesn't think COVID-19 will ever truly be eradicated, just because it's so highly transmissible.
The U.S. president, though, does not seem to agree.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It's going away now. It'll go away like things go away, absolutely. It's --
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TRUMP: -- no question in my mind. It will go away. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
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CURNOW: Meanwhile Florida is now the second U.S. state to exceed half a million known COVID-19 cases. The first being California. Sara Sidner shows us the situation across the U.S. as schools debate whether or not to reopen.
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DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, FORMER DIRECTOR, CDC: The virus is winning and the American people are losing.
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The coronavirus teaching us a terrible lesson as some schools begin failing with students.
In-person learning already disrupted in Cherokee County, Georgia, after a second grade student tested positive within the first couple of days. Students and a teacher in that class now home for a 14-day quarantine.
In Georgia's largest school system, 260 school employees staying home due to positive tests or exposure to the virus.
ASHLEY NEWMAN, FORMER TEACHER: This is a community issue. And we need to find a way to be able to get through to the higher-ups and help them see that, if the teachers aren't safe, then the students aren't safe and then the community is not safe.
SIDNER: Dr. Anthony Fauci says if in person learning happens, one way to mitigate the danger...
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Keep the windows open, that to me, when you're dealing with a respiratory virus, its simplicity is so, so obvious.
SIDNER (voice-over): But in the third largest school district in the country, Chicago public school officials announcing the danger is too high to reopen.
MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D-IL), CHICAGO: But the fact of the matter is, we are seeing an increase in cases. Combined with the trends we're seeing the decision just to start remotely makes sense for a district of CPS' size and diversity.
SIDNER (voice-over): An American Academy of Pediatrics study revealing minority children had much greater rates of infections than their white counterparts.
In a study of 1,000 children, 30 percent of black children and 46.4 percent of Hispanic children tested positive for the virus, compared to 7.3 percent of white children. Across the country, a small bit of hope.
Forty-five of 50 states are seeing new case rates steadying or declining, but the death toll is still rising.
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SIDNER (voice-over): Nearly 1,400 people reported dead in one day.
FRIEDMAN: We need to focus on what's happening, 1,400 dead in one day is just a toll that is unacceptable. And we need to up our game.
SIDNER (voice-over): New York City's mayor announcing vehicle quarantine checkpoints after numbers show 20 percent of all new COVID- 19 cases in the city are coming from out-of state-travelers.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: The checkpoints, I think, are going to send a very powerful message that this quarantine law is serious.
SIDNER (voice-over): In Jackson, Mississippi, a different move to try and slow the spread, a nightly curfew for a five-day period, announced by its mayor.
SIDNER: And we are seeing, in the first week of school, just how disruptive coronavirus can be. Now we've learned that three more schools in that same Georgia district that had one student who tested positive, now have other people testing positive, meaning more than 60 students have to be quarantined in that district.
And we've also learned that, in Mississippi, they have seen several people test positive in one of their school districts, meaning that more than 100 students have to be quarantined there -- Sara Sidner, CNN, Los Angeles.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Dr. Armand Dorian is a physician and the chief medical officer of the USC Verdugo Hills Hospital. He's here from Los Angeles.
Doctor, hi.
What do you make of the president's comments, saying the virus will just go away?
DR. ARMAND DORIAN, USC VERDUGO HILLS HOSPITAL: There is really nothing to make about it besides the fact that it's wrong. I think the president is the first one to call out things that are wrong. And that statement is wrong.
This virus is not going away. It's quite infectious. We are hopeful that we will contain it until we have a vaccine but even when we do have a vaccine, considering its infectious nature, I think it will linger for a while; if not, we will be hearing about it for the rest of our lives.
The key is for us to get a handle on it and not have this type of pandemic.
CURNOW: People obviously are trying to deal with this in different ways. And one of the wrong ways to do that is to drink hand sanitizer. We have the CDC warning that people shouldn't do that. Folks are dying. I know you're in the emergency room; you are seeing people come into your hospital.
Why are people doing this?
This is not just in the U.S.
DORIAN: No, it's not. This was a problem before. There's two big reasons. There's a misconception for some, we heard the president say to disinfect on the inside.
Drinking hand sanitizer just -- let's set the record straight -- does not sanitize you. So number one, do not drink it. Number two, it is a source of alcohol that some people use to actually inebriate themselves.
Unfortunately, a lot of people don't understand the fact that the alcohol that's found in hand sanitizer can actually be extremely lethal. You can die from this. And we are actually, unfortunately, seeing that.
CURNOW: Some of the other repercussions, if you don't die, I think, you seem to have problems with your sight as well. It has some people being blinded by this.
DORIAN: Correct. One of the really tricky things about methanol toxicity and there's a certain type of alcohol called methanol that's found in certain hand sanitizers, is the fact that you don't even smell of alcohol on your breath.
And so, if somebody ingests it and they are embarrassed to tell the doctor, it's very difficult to diagnose and one of the consequences is blindness.
CURNOW: Goodness. We also know how this pandemic is unequal. We heard Sara Sidner, our correspondent, talking there about how this is hitting various minority communities, particularly here in the U.S, also in the U.K., I understand.
Are you seeing that as well in terms of people coming into your hospital?
And what can be done?
DORIAN: Well, first of all, we have to treat this as everybody is equal and everybody can get infected and everybody needs the same resources and everybody needs to mask.
If we can get everybody on the same game plan, we will significantly help everyone. The problem with minorities is many.
One, they live in close quarters and the potential for infecting is extremely higher. They also have a lot more employment in places where they are at higher risk. So there's so many factors that come into play.
But every single individual can do their part to help their neighbor. And it's by masking. If we can all do this, you are helping the person next to you, as well as helping yourself.
CURNOW: And as I said, you are an ER doctor and I know that many doctors around the world, all of us, have been watching with horror what played out in Beirut. So I wouldn't mind just getting your sense of expertise, what kind of injuries the doctors on the ground are dealing with there and just your thoughts on that.
DORIAN: You know, this is something you never want to experience as a physician, specifically a trauma or ER physician. But this type of high energy explosion causes multiple types of trauma.
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DORIAN: The first is the air that kind of compacts, causing all the gas filled spaces in your body to literally implode or explode, like your lungs, your intestines, your eyeballs, your ears. The second is shrapnel. Everything that flies around is like, think of millions of knives flying at you.
The third is the blast itself can toss you or throw you, causing head injury, fracturing your hip.
Finally, the fourth way you can get injured from this, is the chemicals, the burns that you'd suffer as a consequence of the burn.
You can imagine there is so many layers of ways to get injured from this or an explosion like this. And we are just getting started. We're going to learn so many problems coming from this one incident. It's so tragic and my heart goes out to everybody in Beirut.
CURNOW: Yes, our thoughts and prayers from all of us. Dr. Dorian, thank you for your expertise. Have a good evening.
You are watching CNN. Still ahead, a massive recovery effort is underway in Beirut and multiple countries are lending a hand. The global response to that explosion when we come back. You are watching CNN.
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CURNOW: Welcome back, you're watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow live from Atlanta. Back to our top story.
Now the deadly explosion in Beirut has left at least 135,000 dead, 5,000 injured. It was so powerful it caused nearly 10 kilometers away from the blast site. But people further away could also hear and feel it. Here's Becky Anderson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): An explosion, so powerful in Lebanon's capital, it generated seismic waves equivalent to a magnitude 3.3 earthquake. But if you look at a map of Beirut and even that comparison can't prepare you for how far the damage spread.
Damage to the epicenter of the blast was most devastating. In Beirut's industrial waterfront, drone footage shows everything flattened within a few hundred meters.
From the immediate port area, shock waves then raced into Beirut's neighborhoods and shopping districts, where the impact was strong enough to flip over cars.
As its force rippled across the city, structures within one kilometer suffered heavy damage.
[00:30:12]
Here at St. Marin's Church, three kilometers away, you can see the impact as the priest runs for cover and debris falls.
The explosion even caused damage nine kilometers away. Above the presidential palace, and the city's international airport. It was so powerful it was heard and felt some 240 kilometers away on the island of Cyprus.
Becky Anderson, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CURNOW: Now a number of countries are rushing to Lebanon's aide, promising emergency supplies and personnel. Turkey has already sent rescue teams to search for survivors under the rubble, and the country also plans to set up a field hospital to help to treat the wounded.
Iran is shipping 2,000 food packages to Lebanon, along with health equipment and medicine. And France said it would deploy military planes, personnel, and 15 tons of supplies. It's one of several European countries that have offered support.
And on Wednesday, the U.K. also pledged more than $6 million in aid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOMINIC RAAB, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: We have offered and are ready and now poised to offer medical experts, humanitarian aid, 5 million pounds, search-and-rescue experts. We've also got a Royal Navy survey ship in the area which can be deployed to help assess the damage at the port. All of that is ready to go. We also want to make sure we've got exactly what is tailored towards the Lebanese needs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Joining me now from Beirut is Hans Bederski, the national director for World Vision in Lebanon. Hans, thank you very much for joining us. Just before we get to, I know, what Beirut needs, how are you doing?
HANS BEDERSKI, LEBANON NATIONAL DIRECTOR, WORLD VISION: Thank you for asking and good morning. I'm doing well. This is the second warning after waking up after the blast nearly two days ago now.
CURNOW: And what are the needs on the ground right now?
BEDERSKI: The needs are multiple. And as you have already mentioned earlier, medical supplies, of course, are the most urgent needs right now. Search and rescue operations are still going on, but people are also looking into rebuilding their lives. Many homes have been destroyed, and -- and living and existence was already difficult prior to the blasts, so now to move on and rebuild on the -- on the precarious lives that they had before is hard and tough.
CURNOW: We understand, I think, one estimate that is that at least 300,000 people have been made homeless. And these aren't necessarily people who were struggling. It's just that their buildings were closer to the blast. Three hundred thousand people are homeless, and the fact that almost 90 percent of hotel rooms have been destroyed in some way. And every single building has been impacted in some way.
What is it like to be there right now?
BEDERSKI: Indeed. It is difficult. And we see all of us have relatives, friends, acquaintances who have been affected and directly affected, and there is not enough shelter to bring -- to accommodate people who have lost their homes, who have had their homes damaged. Life is chaotic right now. We do wonder when we will get our next shopping in, where people will get the materials to rebuild their homes, how to circulate and how to get any bits of -- of a normal life back in order in the next few days.
CURNOW: How concerned are you about hospitals and about the injured? We still really don't have any idea of the death toll. Five thousand people injured. What are the immediate needs, and how quickly can they get medicine, for example, or help, other help?
BEDERSKI: Access to medicine was already difficult prior to the blast. Medications are expensive and not easily available. Now with the disappearance of the port, it will be more difficult to get them in. So the aid of the international community is very much welcome to alleviate some of that shortage.
CURNOW: You work for World Vision. I mean, how -- how are you managing to coordinate in what looks like, I think, what our correspondent, Ben Wedeman called a moonscape?
BEDERSKI: Right now we're making -- we're already making -- we're making assessments, especially in the areas in Beirut where we already have a diplomatic presence. We're taking stock of the damage of homes of our beneficiaries and the most immediate needs. We're coordinating that with the local authorities and also with the larger humanitarian community here. We have a coordination forum where these assessments take place and where we exchange information.
CURNOW: OK. Hans Bederski from World Vision. Thank you for joining us. Good luck in the days ahead.
BEDERSKI: Thank you and thanks for the opportunity.
CURNOW: Thank you. Good luck.
So the people of Lebanon will need all the help they can get as you heard there. In an instant, that explosion dealt a terrible blow to a national that was already deep in crisis on multiple fronts.
Here's Nina Dos Santos with that.
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NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Beirut's deadly explosion could not have come at a worse time for Lebanon. The country has been in dire straits since last year, when its banking system, described as a Ponzi scheme, began to disintegrate, pushing unemployment up, the currency down, and bringing thousands onto the streets in protest.
Even before the blast, half of Lebanon's population, swollen by Syrian and Palestinian refugees, was estimated to be living in poverty. Many were also living in the dark, thanks to rolling blackouts. Now aid agencies are sounding the alarm.
TAMARA ALRIFAI, SPOKESWOMAN, U.N. RELIEF & WORKS AGENCY: It's an economic crisis, the financial crisis, a political crisis, a health crisis, and now this horrible explosion. So there are many layers to what's happening in Lebanon that is constantly testing the ability of the Lebanese and the refugees who live in Lebanon to be resilient.
DOS SANTOS: Much of the immediate concern comes from the supply chain. The port of Beirut, where the explosion occurred, is the main maritime hub for a nation heavily dependent on goods from abroad. Sixty percent of all imports pass through it, and it's where grain is stored, prompting fears of food shortages, in a market ravaged by soaring prices and years of corruption.
ALRIFAI: In the last few months, the Lebanese society has suffered greatly from economic and financial crisis, and the Lebanese and the refugees who live in Syria have found it more and more difficult to buy food and to buy goods.
DOS SANTOS: With financial support from gulf countries drying up as Hezbollah plays a more prominent role in its politics, Lebanon defaulted on some of its debt in March, at the time the coronavirus also took hold.
It tried to gain a $10 billion loan from the IMF, but those talks stalled last month, and Lebanon's credit rating was cut to the lowest rank by Moody's. On a par with Venezuela. Now one foreign revenue driver, tourism, has also been badly hit.
PIERRE ACHKAR, PRESIDENT, LEBANON'S HOTEL FEDERATION FOR TOURISM: It's a disaster for Lebanon, for the economy and especially for tourism. We were maybe 5 or 15 percent occupancy, because of corona, because of the political problems with the Arab countries. Unfortunately, what happened yesterday is the real disaster.
ALRIFAI: Straddling the geopolitical fault lines in the Middle East, Lebanon is no stranger to turmoil or tragedy. But the effects of this massive blast will shake this economy to its already fragile foundations.
Nine Dos Santos, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Well, Pope Francis is also sending condolences to the people of Lebanon in his weekly address on Wednesday. He encouraged Catholics to pray for the victims of the blast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE FRANCIS, LEADER OF CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): Yesterday in Beirut, near the port, there were massive explosions causing dozens of deaths, wounding thousands and causing serious destruction. Let us pray for the victims, for their families, and let us play for Lebanon so that, through the dedication of its social, political and religious elements, it might face this extremely tragic and painful moment, and with the help of the international community overcome the grave crisis they're experiencing.
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CURNOW: If you'd like to help the victims of Tuesday's blast in Beirut, we've made it easy. Please just log onto our Impact Your World website. It's CNN.com/impact. We know some groups, as you've heard on the show, are still addressing the need, but you can count on CNN to keep you updated. Again, please go to CNN.com/impact.
And we know that more Americans are starting to worry about paying for basic needs for their families like food. Still ahead, how the coronavirus pandemic has created a sense of insecurity here in the U.S., as well.
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CURNOW: So more than 40 straight days of rain are causing misery in South Korea. Floods and landslides have killed at least 15 people and forced some 1,500 people from their homes.
Take a look at these images. Many of them now are living in temporary shelters. Now, the city of Anseong, which is south of Seoul, has been the hardest hit. North Korean state media also warning of torrential rain and floods.
And more than 158,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus pandemic. And now a $600 federal boost to jobless benefits has expired, which means that millions more people in the U.S. are worried about just how to pay for food, as Brian Todd now explains.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Marguerite Camacho, putting food on the table for her and her two children is more of a daily challenge than ever. She lost her job as a massage therapist in California's Bay area and lost a second job with a tech company to the pandemic. Her $600 a week unemployment stimulus benefit expired a few days ago. Just buying food, she says, is stressful.
MARGUERITE CAMACHO, LOST TWO JOBS DURING PANDEMIC: Now with the loss of the 600, it's a lot harder to be able to afford fresh fruits and vegetables, the meats, and the milk.
TODD: Camacho can't return to her job at a spa, because California has renewed its restrictions on indoor personal care establishments. Her tech company's not bringing employees back until next year, so she's turned to her mother for help.
CAMACHO: My mom's limited on researchers herself with her own rent and bills, so she's using a credit card to help meet once a week to be able to purchase milk, fruits and vegetables, and meats for my family.
TODD: And tens of millions of other Americans are feeling the same pinch. Food insecurity bringing long lines at food banks and pantries.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People don't realize just how important stuff like this is.
TODD: The crush of unemployment and expiring stimulus benefits comes as food prices in America have been rising faster than they have in decades. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, beef and veal prices have gone up more than 20 percent just since February. Eggs have gone up 10.4 percent, poultry 8.6 percent, pork 8.5.
JOSEPH LLOBRERA, CENTER ON BUDGET AND POLICY PRIORITIES: About 30 million adults are saying that they can't put enough food on the table in the past week. That's roughly one in eight adults in America.
TODD: The reasons for the price spikes, according to analyst Joseph Llobrera, coronavirus outbreaks among workers at meat processing plants forced many of them to shut down, choking off supplies of meat, pork and poultry. And he says, panic buying during the first weeks of the pandemic, many Americans overbuying and hoarding food.
Llobrera says food insecurity is now prompting many Americans to cut corners nutritionally, eating fewer and smaller meals, which he says could have a frightening long-term effect.
[00:45:00]
LLOBRERA: If kids aren't eating well now, you know, they don't grow up to be as healthy, they don't do as well in school, and that has impacts further down the line. They don't make as much as -- as adults.
TODD: Observers say this food insecurity is made all the more painful as Americans watch Congress struggle to pass another stimulus bill.
MICHELLE SINGLETARY, PERSONAL FINANCE COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": People aren't asking to make them rich. They're just saying can you give me a little money so that I can make sure that I can keep a roof over my head and food on the table?
TODD: Still some members of Congress are balking at extending that $600-a-week unemployment benefit, or they want to reduce it, worried that it might disincentivize people from looking for a job.
Well, Marguerite Camacho, the woman in California we spoke to, disputes that notion passionately. She says because of her cost of living in California, for food, for rent, for insurance, those stimulus checks were just a way to survive. She wants to get back to work.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: And although numbers tell a vastly different story, President Trump continues to insist the coronavirus will just go away. Once source close to the task force has a startling assessment of the president's grasp of the situation.
Here's Jim Acosta with more on all of that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And what are you down? Because the percentage down is incredible. JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In his
latest push to convince schools to open across the U.S., President Trump is offering familiar assurances that haven't panned out before, that the converse will just disappear.
TRUMP (via phone): My view is the schools should open. This thing is going to go. It will go away, like things go away, and my view as a schools should be open.
ACOSTA: One day after the president sat down with his coronavirus task force in the Oval Office for the first time in months, a source familiar with that meeting said Mr. Trump does not grasp the severity of the pandemic in the U.S., telling CNN, "He still doesn't get it. He does not get it."
While the president is praising the administration's response to the pandemic --
TRUMP: The United States has done an amazing job, a great job.
ACOSTA: -- task force doctor Anthony Fauci says the numbers don't lie. The U.S. is lagging behind much of the world.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We in the United States have suffered as -- as -- worse -- you know, as much or worse than anyone.
ACOSTA: The reason some parts of the country simply never got on board with controlling the virus.
FAUCI: Some went up and some went down, and there were parts of the country you could look at that did very well, but totally, as a nation, we are in that situation where we've got to get that control way down to a low baseline.
ACOSTA: The president is finding ways to distract his base, teasing the idea of delivering his convention speech from the White House, turning taxpayer-funded property into a campaign prop.
TRUMP: I love the building. I'm there right now. I spend a lot of time here. A lot of people didn't spend as much time. I spend a lot of time here and I like it. And I think it's a great place and greatly representative of our -- our nation.
ACOSTA: Democrats say that's not happening.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): You can't do that. You can't do that. You don't have political events in the Capitol. You don't have political events in the White House.
ACOSTA: Mr. Trump is also complaining about mail-in balloting, objecting to plans to expand that voting method in Nevada.
TRUMP: So Nevada, we're in court. We'll see how it works out. But if it doesn't work out, you're not going to know the November 3 election results. I'm talking for the country. It could be for months and months. I mean actually, it could be for years.
ACOSTA: Even as he's pushing supporters in Florida to vote by mail.
TRUMP: So Florida has got a great Republican governor, and it had a great Republican governor. It's got Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, two great governors.
ACOSTA: Some fellow Republicans say mail-in voting works in their states.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R-KS): It comes down to the state and the local folks. But we've never had much of a problem in Kansas.
ACOSTA: The president is so worried about mail-in ballots he wants to move up his debates with Joe Biden.
TRUMP: The first debate should be before the first -- at least before the first ballots go out, and they have it a month later, almost a month later. It's ridiculous. I'm ready to debate. I don't care.
ACOSTA: Members of Congress don't sound like they'll be voting on a coronavirus relief bill any time soon, as both sides appear nowhere near an agreement.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The speaker and the Democratic leader continue to insist that federal unemployment assistance should pay people more not to work than the essential workers who kept working.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We cannot agree to an inadequate bill and then go home while the virus continues to spread.
ACOSTA (on camera): White House officials are disputing the notion the president does not understand the severity of the pandemic, saying in a statement to CNN the president is highly engaged on the fight to defeat COVID and is well-briefed on the virus, adding, quote, "He's leading our nation through this crisis."
Jim Acosta, CNN, White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Meantime, Twitter restricted President Trump's campaign from tweeting after it shared false claims about the coronavirus. The tweet was a video of the president's interview on FOX in which he said children are, quote, "almost immune to the virus," which is absolutely not true.
[00:50:06]
A Twitter spokesperson said the tweet had to be removed before the campaign could tweet again.
Hours earlier, Facebook removed a post from the president's main page for similar reasons.
Well, ahead on CNN, a moment of peace in a city reeling from disaster. How one grandmother in Beirut pushed through her pain to bring hope to others.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:52:12]
CURNOW: Take a look at that. A show of solidarity at midnight local time on Thursday. As you saw there, the Eiffel Tower going dark to honor the victims of the Beirut explosion as the death toll continues to climb, with thousands more wounded.
The city of Paris is sending more than $180,000 in emergency aid to Beirut.
And Israel is also showing support for its northern neighbor, putting politics aside. Tel Aviv's city hall lit up with the Lebanese flag to honor the blast victims. And the prime minister has offered to send aid.
These gestures are particularly notable as Israel considers Lebanon an enemy state.
Well, journalist Elliott Gotkine has more from Tel Aviv on that -- Elliott.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Just a week after tensions were rising by the border between Israel and Lebanon, there have been expressions of solidarity here for the northern neighbor from across the political spectrum.
The mayor of Tel Aviv beaming the flag of Lebanon onto the facade of the main municipal building here. Now, it's not uncommon to see flags of friendly countries or of countries with whom Israel has diplomatic relations beamed onto this building, but we're told that this is the first time that this has happened for an enemy state's flag.
Mayor Ron Huldai saying that humanity comes before any conflict. And these kind of sentiments have been heard today and also yesterday evening from the president and prime minister of Israel, as well. President Reuven Rivlin tweeting in Hebrew, English and in Arabic that "We share the pain of the Lebanese people and sincerely reach out to offer our aid at this difficult time."
And earlier this afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, and saying that, "On behalf of the Israeli government, I send my condolences to the people of Lebanon. We are prepared to extent humanitarian aid, as human beings to human beings."
Now whether the Lebanese decide to take up to offer seems unlikely. The only similar situation we've really seen was back in 2016, when there was a devastating earthquake in the southeast of Iran. Israel offered humanitarian aid through the International Red Cross, only to be rebuffed by the Iranians.
For CNN, this is Elliott Gotkine in Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Right now crews in Beirut are desperately searching for survivors as the city faces devastation, really, like it's never seen before. Homes, businesses, livelihoods are destroyed and were destroyed in an instant when that massive blast rocked the capital. Just take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (CHANTING)
[00:55:01]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no, no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God. There's no way to explain what happened.
I feel so sad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was shocked. I was wondering what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We went to another hospital outside of the city, and it was like people forgot about corona. We were just bleeding. Everyone was bleeding.
(SIRENS)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FRENCH)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the windows, all the stairs, everything, everything went closed (ph). It was a nightmare. It was -- We felt that for the first time.
JAMAL ITANI, BEIRUT MAYOR: Speechless, really. I can't -- I can't say much except that, you know, we feel so sorry for the losses that we have.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People can -- can bring it to rebirth (ph)?
ITANI: Of course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: It's too much to take in, isn't it? It's just devastating.
But amidst all of that chaos and all of that destruction, one grandmother in Beirut is bringing out some note of hope. Surrounded by debris, blown-out windows and punctured walls, May Abud Maliki (ph) sat in her home, playing, as you can hear her, "Auld Lang Syne" as her family and volunteers sifted through the rubble.
Her granddaughter sharing the moment on social media. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC: "AULD LANG SYNE")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Now shared more than 20,000 times, this video -- this video. And many people have commented, saying that it encapsulates the spirit of the Lebanese people.
I'm Robyn Curnow. I will be back with more CNN NEWSROOM after the break. Stay with us.
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[01:00:00]
