Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Growing Anger as Protestors Demand Accountability; Community Bands Together to Begin Rebuilding after Blast; International Offers of Aid Pouring into Lebanon; CDC Warns 9 U.S. Cities of Rise in COVID- 19 Infections; New Model: U.S. Death Toll Could Reach 300,000 by December; Trump Signs Order Banning TikTok, WeChat in 45 Days; Trump Says Vaccine Could Be Ready by Election Day; Woman Plays Piano Surrounded by Debris from Blast. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired August 07, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I am Robyn Curnow here in Atlanta, live from CNN's world news headquarters.
[00:00:31]
So ahead this hour, lots of anger and few answers. Protesters demand to know who's responsible for the deadly Beirut explosion.
And also, new fears in the U.S. that the coronavirus death toll could nearly double by the end of the year unless more people decide to wear a mask.
And relations between the world's two largest economies suffer another blow after Donald Trump bans two Chinese social media giants.
As the dust begins to settle in Beirut, an investigation is underway to determine who's responsible for that massive explosion that rocked the port in Lebanon's capital.
Now, according to Lebanese national news agencies, at least 16 port employees have been detained. Lebanon's central bank has ordered a freeze on the accounts of the heads of the Beirut port and Lebanese customs.
So far, at least 137 people we know are dead. Five thousand people are injured, and hundreds have been reported missing.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, toured the devastated city on Thursday, who promised to mobilize international aid while calling on the government to crack down on corruption and implement political reforms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): The requirement of a friend in times of need is to rush to the scene when times are hard, but not to hand out blank checks to a system that is not trusted by the people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: The blast is fueling anger in the streets. As we've been saying, anti-government protesters clashed with police, many accusing the government of negligence after it ignored repeated warnings about the stockpile of ammonium nitrate for years.
So let's go straight to Jomana Karadsheh. And this certainly, this very angry public and where do you think it's all going in the midst of the trauma that Beirut is experiencing, the whole of Lebanon is experiencing?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, you have to look at this as, you know, the final straw pretty much for so many people there. You know, the anger has been building for such a long time in that country, as you know very well, you know, back in October. You saw the start of this popular uprising. People took to the streets because they were fed up with the situation in the country, the economic crisis, the country on the verge of bankruptcy and the impact that it's having on the lives of every single Lebanese person.
So you know, and they are just blaming the -- the current state of their country, the misery of so many, is being blamed on the political elite who have been ruling this country for decades now, since the civil war. And you know, it's their mismanagement, they say. It is the entrenched corruption, this endemic corruption that Lebanon -- Lebanon suffers from, you know, that they blame for what is going on in that country.
So when you look at what's happening right now, you know, you can understand the anger, because people are just fed up. They've had enough. They have been calling for an overhaul of the entire political system. They have been calling for change, and now this. They say the negligence, the complacency, the ineptitude of these officials has basically destroyed Beirut, destroyed the lives of so many.
You have 300,000 people who are now homeless. So you know, when the government comes out and says, Robyn, that they are investigating this, you hear these announcements about officials being -- you know, their accounts being frozen, about a number of people being brought in for questioning.
This is not enough for the Lebanese public, because they know that people higher up are the ones who need to be held accountable for the state of the country, for these, you know, incidents where you had ammonium nitrate being stored in Beirut port for six years without anyone doing anything about it, despite the fact that there was -- there were a chain of emails, documents that show that officials were notified about this. That they knew that this was there, but no one did anything about it.
[00:05:03]
So there is very little trust in this government, in the authorities to deliver a real, transparent, credible investigation to really hold to account those who are really responsible for this. And this is why you are seeing more and more calls right now, Robyn, for an international independent investigation that is free of any sort of political interference from the authorities and politicians in the country.
CURNOW: We have live pictures, Jomana, that we're getting in here to CNN of the location of the blast. You can see here it is a wasteland. It is huge, this blast radius.
We know that people have been trying to find survivors in the past few days, no doubt hope running out on that.
This port brought in food. That's a grain silo, I think, that we see there, the remnants of it. What happens in terms of basic necessities that were already low, but there's no way anything is going to get through that right now and even in the coming months or perhaps even years? What happens to daily life and supplies?
KARADSHEH: This is the biggest concern right now. This port was a lifeline for this country. It was the main entry point for about 60 percent of the country's imports. Lebanon depends on imports of its food and its basic goods.
They have started using other ports in the country like the Tripoli port up in the north, but it's much smaller. It doesn't have the kind of capacity or ability to -- to handle the kind of traffic that Beirut ports would have.
And then you have the other major issue here is the storage facilities that were in Beirut port that were devastated. We're still waiting to hear the extent of the damage. You had the grain silos, as you mentioned, holding the country's store of wheat, and there's a lot of concern right now that the country does not have enough wheat to sustain itself in the coming weeks and months. That this could have an impact like bread shortages in the country and others.
And we've heard from government ministers saying that they are working to try and deal with that situation. And then you have storage facilities that are holding things like medical supplies. You know, the impact of this, Robyn, is just devastating. And we're still finding out and learning more day-by-day about the extent of the damage and what was lost, including human life.
CURNOW: OK. Thanks for that. Jomana Karadsheh there.
So the aftermath of the explosion is being felt across the city; streets filled with shattered glass and debris, and the blast actually impacted nearly every home and business. And yet, CNN's Ben Wedeman shows us now how the community are really wasting no time in jumping into action, determined to rebuild in the midst of all of this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For Beirut residents, life is now divided between what came before and what came after. A staff member at the Barbell House Gym captured these images on his phone. He was unharmed. Shiva Karout is a trainer at the gym.
SHIVA KAROUT, TRAINER, BARBELL HOUSE GYM: As soon as I saw that nothing happened to me, I -- I went up, went to the gym and started helping people out. A lot of people were wounded. A lot of people were on the floor, disoriented. I just picked them up and put them outside and took them to the hospital.
Less than two days later, with blood still on the weights, gym members are doing the heavy lifting to restore a semblance of routine.
In the Mar Maroun (ph) Maronite church, the priest conducts a livestreamed mask, cut short by the tremor and then the crash of shattering glass. Father Marwan Moawad was sitting in the pews and immediately assumed it was a political assassination in the streets outside.
"We thought God save us. God save us," he recalls. "We wanted to get out of here with the least possible damage."
Glass shards tore into the pews, mostly empty Tuesday evening, because of coronavirus restrictions. Two stained glass panels were spared, one depicting Jesus, the other, Mar Chabel (ph), a Lebanese saint renowned for miracles. Not a miracle, but perhaps a glimmer of hope that Lebanon's spirit is far from broken is on vivid display in the crowded streets of Mar Mikhael, the neighborhood next to the port.
Social distancing has been sacrificed in an effort to cling to a spirit of community in a land where the very system of government is based upon divisions between the country's 18 officially recognized religious sects.
[00:10:07]
Their work done for the day, an ad hoc volunteer crew heads home singing a popular song with the refrain, Lebanon will come back.
The city is bruised, bleeding, and battered, but unbowed.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Well, this is a man who knows about bleeding and battered. Let's get more about what happened on Beirut's overwhelmed streets now. We're going to talk to the emergency room doctor, Bassam Osman.
Doctor, hi. You say that you worked for 52 hours straight after the blast. What was that like and have you had any sleep since then?
DR. BASSAM OSMAN, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Hello, Robyn, thank you for having me. It's such a story to tell. Actually, it has been one long day after the blast. We had nearly no sleep. Minimal food. The conditions we were working in were absolute catastrophe. It was -- it was really a tragedy. CURNOW: No words. You've got this very powerful Twitter thread, and I
urge our viewers to go and read it, because you -- you were so eloquent in the midst of all of this. Your words really speaking not just to the horror but also to the emotional impact it was having on you.
Just talk us through the sense of being in the chaos of it and the community that you spoke about with all the hospital staff.
OSMAN: Well, to start with, the population, the people, the Lebanese people are already living in a huge mess. And the blast just came like the cherry on top of it all.
The very first moments after the blast, you could see -- you could really see, not only the effects of the blast, but the -- the effects of the whole thing that has been going on since October. People were coming in injured, bleeding, screaming, and it -- and we really had little resources at our hands, because of the ongoing situation since the last year. And all we had were -- were available resources in the emergency department. So --
CURNOW: It was difficult, wasn't it? And how did you manage to triage all of these people? Hundreds of them, you know, in these conditions.
OSMAN: So the major challenge after the blast was receiving a huge number of patients with serious injuries. On a regular day, two patients with severe injuries would get your whole emergency department, your whole hospital occupied.
So imagine having, like, 450 patients, all with severe injuries, just slamming through your door. The triage attempt was our most successful -- the most successful thing to do. We had limited resources, limited people, and around 450 people.
So they did a great job in disposing patients to the right place, which is -- which gives people insight and more efficiency to work. So each person was getting the right person to -- the right injured patient to deal with.
So we're seeing people with many injuries. We're seeing people with hurt (ph) injuries. But also, we're seeing with minimal injuries, and the -- and some of them do not need to be in the emergency department.
However, this very specific thing led to more problems as people were panicking and they were trying to go into the emergency department by force so the triage -- the triage point was a huge success for us and a huge challenge, as well.
CURNOW: A huge challenge. And quickly before we go, you talked about this blast being an emotional explosion, as well and that people don't want to hear how strong they are. They don't want to rise up. They just need help. What do you need right now from the international community?
OSMAN: I have very few words that I really need to say regarding this. People in Lebanon have been suffering since October, not -- not a physically blast, but an emotional blast on all others.
[00:15:04]
We've been struck by -- for massive forces of basic community destruction, starting with the uprising, starting with the hyperinflation in this country.
CURNOW: Yes. It certainly -- it's certainly been, really, an excruciating, difficult year. But right now, in terms of the practicalities of what you as a doctor need, what -- what is most important?
OSMAN: What's most important for us now is that, for the medical community who have been suffering with -- with not being able to get supplies into the country due to the economic crisis.
And then these -- the supplies that we already have have been burned out by the corona uptick. And now, we arrived hugely to an explosion, and our supplies are being cut in half day by day.
So we're ending up with only little supplies to deal with. So our medical -- medical supplies is a huge challenge for us.
CURNOW: OK.
OSMAN: And you have now a huge number of the population which is injured, and these people need follow-up on the long term, and they need to be cared for in the long term, which is also a financial burden on itself on many communities.
CURNOW: So tough days ahead. So the international community listening to you. Hopefully, here's your plea for medical supplies, and to get it in there quickly.
Dr. Bassam Osman, I really appreciate you speaking to us. All the lives you no doubt saved in those early hours, thank you, and I hope you manage to get some sleep at some point. Thank you, sir.
OSMAN: Thank you, Robyn. Thank you.
CURNOW: All the best.
So offers of international-- international offers of aid for Lebanon are pouring in. That is a good thing.
But you can't give enough. France, Turkey, the U.K., the U.S., UAE, Israel, are all helping. And some non-governmental organizations are already on the ground. It has been difficult for them, though, to coordinate.
The need, as you heard from the doctor there, is urgent. Urgent and vast. Many people had already lost their jobs, as he was saying, and watched their savings disintegrate.
Plus, operations at the port are paralyzed because of the explosion. And that is the main route for food imports. Well, Isa Soares has more on the global efforts to help the stricken
country. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amidst the rubble, an expression of sympathy, and the promise of support.
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): In the coming days, we will organize more support in France and on a European level. I would like to organize European cooperation, and more widely, international cooperation.
SOARES: The French president is the first world leader to visit the blast site. His offer of help, though, came with a warning.
MACRON (through translator): For months, and years now, France has been demanding indispensable reforms in certain sectors. Energy, government, procurement, and the fight against corruption. If these reforms are not carried out, Lebanon will continue to sink.
SOARES: With each passing hour, the scale of the devastation becomes clearer. So, too, does the immense need for a global response to the crisis. The European Union has already pledged $40 million.
Italy has already dispatched planeloads of medical aid and rescue workers. Turkey, too, has sent humanitarian aid, along with teams to scour the rubble for survivors.
From the United Kingdom, a message of condolence from the royal family, along with a government pledge of nearly $7 million and humanitarian assistance.
DOMINIC RAAB, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: We are going to stand by the Lebanese people in their time of need.
SOARES: Many other countries, including Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, have made contributions. The U.S. says it will send aid, too.
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We are ready to assist the government of Lebanon as it grapples with this horrible tragedy.
SOARES: But even before the blast, Lebanon's economy was in freefall. With anti-government protests skyrocketing, unemployment and a plummeting currency.
Then came the coronavirus pandemic. And now this. For a country that had slowly pulled itself out of the ruin of a civil war, the events of this week are a catastrophic setback. And once again, Lebanon finds itself dependent on foreign aid to try to rebuild.
Isa Soares, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CURNOW: If you'd like to help the victims of Tuesday's blast in Beirut, we have made it a little bit easier for you. Just log onto our Impact the World website. It's CNN.com/impact.
Some groups are still assessing needs, but you can count on CNN to keep you updated. Again, that address is CNN.com/impact.
And of course, we'll have more in-depth coverage of the Beirut explosion, including a closer look at how people are coping. We know that anger is spreading as the cleanup goes underway.
But first, we're going to talk about the coronavirus and how it's stealing the lives of thousands of Americans each day. Researchers say it is going to get much, much worse. But they say there's a guaranteed way to slow those numbers. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:22:23]
CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow.
So coronavirus is continuing to ravage much of the world. You know that. In Peru, Columbia, and Argentina, though, each reported a record number of cases on Thursday.
India is about to hit two million total infections. Here in the U.S., the virus has killed more than 160,000 people. And some researchers say, that number could easily double by the end of the year.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation is predicting nearly 300,000 deaths in America by December. But they say tens of thousands of lives could be saved if 95 percent of Americans consistently wear masks.
Now, the CDC is urging people to avoid masks with valves, or vents, like these. That's because the point is to stop respiratory droplets from spreading in the air, and these vents actually don't help. That's interesting.
Meanwhile, the U.S. president says he's hopeful about a vaccine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said that a vaccine could be ready around November. Are you optimistic that that will happen? And will that give you a boost in the election?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A vaccine? I am. I'm optimistic that it will be probably around that date. I believe we'll have the vaccine before the end of the year certainly, but around that date, yes, I think so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, top U.S. infectious disease doctors says it's time for the country to get serious in order to lower these infection rates by November. Here's Athena Jones with that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: This is a predictor of trouble ahead.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new warning for 9 U.S. cities and California's Central Valley, where the rate of people testing positive for coronavirus is rising.
FAUCI: It's a clear indication that you are getting an uptick in cases, which, inevitably, as we've seen in the southern states, leads to surges, and then you get hospitalizations, and then you get deaths.
JONES: In a recording of a private phone call with state and local officials obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, the White House's coronavirus task force coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, urging these areas to take measures to mitigate the spread, like avoiding crowds and using masks, arguing data from previous hotspots show such measures work.
In fact, Dr. Anthony Fauci says these simple measures could bring COVID infections down to manageable levels by election day.
FAUCI: If we pay attention to the fundamental tenants of infection control, and diminution of transmission, we could be way down in November.
JONES: But far too many people haven't gotten the message.
In Los Angeles, house parties like this one leading authorities to say that they'll start turning off power and water at places that host such functions, especially repeat offenders.
MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI (D), LOS ANGELES: These large house parties have essentially become nightclubs. Some research has shown that 10 percent of people cause 80 percent of the spread.
JONES: Since the beginning of June, the infection rate in Los Angeles county tripled among 30- to 39-year-olds, and nearly quadrupled among 18- to 29-year-olds, Dr. Fauci pleading --
FAUCI: Don't be a weak link in the chain. Be a very strong part of the chain of ultimately getting us down.
JONES: In a stunning move, the town of Sturgis, South Dakota, preparing to host a motorcycle rally, expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people, no masks required.
MAYOR MARK CARSTENSEN, STURGIS, SOUTH DAKOTA: We want to stress personal responsibility to our visitors and our residents as this gathering moves forward.
JONES: While new infections are steady or falling in all but three states, it isn't all good news. Mississippi reporting the highest COVID test positivity rate in the country, at nearly 26 percent, while Louisiana has the most cases per capita. And with testing rates falling off, these positive trends likely don't show the whole picture.
Meanwhile, the number of daily deaths on the rise in 15 states and stubbornly high nationwide, averaging more than 1,000 a day for the past seven days.
The University of Washington now predicting nearly 300,000 U.S. deaths from COVID by December 1. And as more schools reopen for in-person classes, cases of coronavirus are popping up daily.
DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: We're trying to open up schools in the middle of a raging forest fire in many parts of the country, and we can't do that.
Outbreaks in Georgia and Mississippi proof in-person learning is risky in some places, which is why nearly seven million children will begin the year remotely.
(on camera): And one cautionary tale about schools: more than 260 employees of Gwinnett County Schools have either tested positive for COVID-19 or are under quarantine. Just another sign of how difficult it is to reopen schools in a place where the virus is still surging.
Athena Jones, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez is an internal medicine and viral specialist; joins me now from Los Angeles.
Dr. Rodriguez, good to see you again. So what do you make of this latest projection that, up to 300,000 people could die by December here in the U.S.? It's mind-boggling.
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: It is mind-boggling. And it's at least accurate, if not a little bit under what may happen.
Listen, we've been having at least 1,000 cases over the past week. If that continues for the next 120, 150 days, which takes us to December, we will easily, unfortunately, hit 300,000.
My concern is that we are starting then to go into the winter months, and all projections are that it could be worse during that time.
So the time to make a difference was actually yesterday. But today is second best to really start wearing your mask, and making, you know, a dent in this upkeep that we have in cases.
CURNOW: Yes. Just an uptick on those graphs, it's daunting to look at.
I want to talk about, you know, there's studies coming out of everywhere at the moment. And it's difficult to figure out which ones you really want to pay attention to. We're hearing one coming out of Hong Kong, which says that the
coronavirus infection appears to suppress the function of these important immune system cells. I mean, do we know that already? That this is preventing the body from fighting off infection? And what -- what are -- new are you learning from that particular study?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, what we're learning is that a specific type of white blood cell, called the T lymphocyte -- now, there are many -- it's very complicated. There are many different type of white blood cells. But this is a type of cell that makes antibodies. This is a type of cells that sometimes remembers that you've had an infection and keeps it as a memory, and helps fight it.
If someone has weakened T cells, which by the way, is what the HIV virus attacks, then maybe they cannot mount a response.
So we're getting a lot of information fast and furious. We're seeing -- appearing to know where the virus is attacking and what response it causes. And we shouldn't right now pin too much on this, because it is just one step in a huge ladder that's going to eventually tell us how the virus attacks, who it attacks the most. And if we know that, we can then maybe find out what population may be at greater risk. And this is just one piece of a puzzle that is quickly becoming evident.
CURNOW: And also, importantly, how to treat it.
RODRIGUEZ: Yes.
CURNOW: I know we just heard our reporter talk about school closures and that sort of thing. I know this is a question that's been felt across the world. A British official, you know, I heard said that school should be the last to close and the first to open. Parents are agonizing about these school reopenings, particularly here in the U.S.
But I find it interesting that, you know, a place like Georgia, tattoo parlors, beauty salons, bowling -- bowling alleys, are all open. So you can take your kids to a concert at Billy Bob's Texas Honky-Tonk, I kid you not, where there are thousand people all gathering watching a concert, but you can't take your kids to school.
[00:30:17]
And there seems to be a disconnect between what is important. Shouldn't -- shouldn't clubs and pubs be closed and schools be open?
RODRIGUEZ: Actually, right now I think that right now they should all be closed, to be honest.
CURNOW: Everything?
RODRIGUEZ: Yes, I do. Because we -- we don't really know enough.
But I think you absolutely hit on a very important point. There is a disconnect. And part of the disconnect is that some people's "freedom", quote unquote, they define it as being able to do what they want and have fun. And children are -- are sacred, obviously. And we don't want them to
be at risk. But this is the problem here in the U.S. We need to be consistent with our policies across the board. Closed spaces, not good. Great number of people, not good. Whether that's in a school or in a bar. We need to be consistent. You hit it right on the head.
CURNOW: OK. Dr. Rodriguez, always good to speak with you. Thanks for your expertise --
RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.
CURNOW: -- and the work you're doing, as well. Appreciate it.
RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.
CURNOW: So anger is spilling onto the streets of Lebanon. Just ahead, cries for justice and accountability are growing as Beirut tries, tries to clean up after this devastating explosion.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CURNOW: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Roby Curnow. Thanks so much for joining me this hour, live from CNN's world news headquarters here in Atlanta, Georgia.
So back to our top story. We've been talking about this anger is growing in Lebanon over those reports of ignored warnings over the storage of highly-explosive compounds at the scene of Tuesday's blast. Calls for accountability and government reform are growing, as well.
Well, our Arwa Damon is in Beirut as ordinary Lebanese search for answers, justice, and some hope.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Could there be anyone left alive? It's a hope dozens of family members of the missing cling to, knowing that it's unlikely, but not wanting to accept that their loved one could be gone.
Others are laid to rest. Lives utterly shattered in the trail of destruction by Tuesday's explosion Lebanon's capital.
Those who survived are trying to pick up the pieces.
Glass and debris crunch below the feet of an army of volunteers, stepping in where the government is not, attempting to clear the rubble of billions of dollars of damage. They urge each other on, but for others, it's all just too much.
[00:35:08]
The intensity of the emotional rollercoaster that is being Lebanese has left them hollow shells.
"What should we feel?" asks one resident. "You can't feel anything in Lebanon. There's nothing to be sad about anymore," he says.
As the cleanup continues, a rage grows across the country at how a new disaster could happen. Still, without any clear explanation or apology.
As French President Emmanuel Macron toured the wreckage, the first foreign leader to set foot here, he was surrounded by hundreds of Lebanese calling for revolution, urging him, begging him, do something. He vowed that France would stand with the Lebanese people but cautioned its leaders.
MACRON (through translator): The requirement of a friend in times of need is to rush to the scene when times are hard, but not to hand out blank checks to a system not trusted by the people.
DAMON: From outside and inside the country, demands for answers grow louder as calls for an independent probe into the explosion. This is not just about accountability, or how the country is going to rebuild, emotionally and physically. It's about how it's going to find its soul.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: I want to show you some very powerful video now. It's the moment of the explosion, captured on security cameras inside a Greek Orthodox church. The church is little more than 6 kilometers from downtown Beirut.
No one was there when the blast went off on the video, and it looks like everything, as you can see from these images, in that church was impacted except the alter. A priest there says he considers that a message of hope.
And here's another view of that terrifying moment. A nanny and some children were watching the fire at the port from a window when the blast went off and the shockwave hit their building. They were on the 17th floor. You can see the nanny here shielding two of the kids while another stumbles in confusion after the impact. Obviously, this is just horrifying, terrifying experience for all of them. And you know, no doubt parents very, very relieved to see them all OK.
And it's one of the most recognizable, yet disturbing images from Tuesday's blast. The viral video of a young bride on what's supposed to be the happiest day of her life, but that joy was shattered in an instant.
Jomana Karadsheh talks to her about that terrifying experience.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARADSHEH (voice-over): It was a picture-perfect wedding shoot. The glowing bride posing for photos a short block from the luxury wedding venue in downtown Beirut. As a smiling Dr. Israa Seblani looks down at her bouquet, horror strikes. Her big day, blown away in an instant. The couple and the video crew run for cover. Destruction, all around
them.
DR. ISRAA SEBLANI, BRIDE: At that moment, one thing I thought about, now I'm losing my life, I'm losing my husband. I'm going to be buried under a building. Now I'm going to die. I'm -- now I'm waiting for the moment. How am I going to die? Is it going to be fast? Am I going to feel it? Am I going to be near him?
KARADSHEH: Twenty-nine-year-old Seblani, a U.S. resident, came back to her native Lebanon to get married. The original plan was to have the wedding party in the United States. But husband Ahmad Sbeih says he's been waiting for his U.S. visa for three years.
With immigration laws getting stricter by the day under the Trump administration, the couple says they didn't want to be apart any longer and finally settled on celebrating their marriage in Beirut, with friends and family, in the city where their love first blossomed.
SEBLANI: At that moment, the beautiful place I was in, where the people were dining in the restaurant, shopping, walking, it turned out into a ghost town filled with dust, shattered glasses. People yelling, bleeding. It was a nightmare.
KARADSHEH: Seblani did a final run-through of the bridal suite where she and Sbeih would spend the night after the party.
SEBLANI: Oh, very nice.
KARADSHEH: Oohing and aahing over the flourishes. When the couple returned, the red rose petals thrown off the bed were all that remained of the romance they'd envisioned.
AHMAD SBEIH, HUSBAND: Because we are alive, we can continue. And don't be sad or anything. We will continue and we will pass it; and we will make it.
KARADSHEH (on camera): And Israa, this is very emotional for you.
SEBLANI: I don't know what to do, but trust me, there is no word to describe, really, what I feel. No matter how I talk.
[00:40:08]
KARADSHEH (voice-over): In a city where life was turned upside-down in seconds, Israa and Ahmad are just grateful to be alive.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: And it might not be long before TikTok is offline in the U.S. President Trump is sticking to his promise to ban the social media app. We'll talk more about that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CURNOW: U.S. President Donald Trump is making good on his threat to crack down on the popular video sharing app, TikTok. He just issued an executive order banning the app from operating in the U.S. unless it's sold within 45 days.
He says TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company, is effectively spyware.
Well, Steven Jiang joins us now from Beijing for more on all of this. What more can you tell us? Hi, Steven.
STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Hi, Robyn.
So far, the Chinese government has not officially responded to these latest moves in Washington, but it's obviously not surprising, given the warnings and threats we have been hearing from Washington for days and weeks now.
But I think the more surprising or more startling action here is actually the other executive order regarding WeChat. Now, this of course, is a lower profile app in the U.S. with fewer users, but globally, it is actually a do everything app for more than one billion users, including the majority of Chinese people living overseas, including those living in the U.S. They do everything from messaging to sharing information and content and financial transactions.
So I think that's precisely why it's being targeted. That's why, if it's actually been effectively banned in the U.S., the consequences would be a lot more severe.
Now, the Chinese government and state media, of course, have been saying for days that these moves and decisions by the U.S. is the U.S. abusing the concept of national security, trying to crack down on Chinese technology companies without concrete evidence, and also just another form of economic bullying, with some state media even calling the U.S. "nasty," quote unquote, treatment of the TikTok company, really it's a smash-and-grab strategy of the U.S. competitors and a government trying to steal TikTok from its Chinese owner -- Robyn.
CURNOW: That's interesting. But also, I mean, this is not just about those two apps anymore. We know that Mike Pompeo is talking about a clean network, so a suggestion that that could go further than these two apps.
And then also, this plays into the broader geopolitical tensions we've been seeing between China and the U.S. So where does this go?
JIANG: You're exactly right. This is really another reflection of this broader trend of decoupling, if you will, between the two countries, between the two governments in a growing number of areas, with technology being just one of them.
[00:45:07]
That Mike Pompeo announcement or speech you just mentioned earlier this week, that is really startling, because the secretary of state really laid out this plan to purge all Chinese technologies and companies from the entire U.S. cyberspace, not just apps, but also apps stores, cloud services, mobile and carrier networks, and undersea Internet cables, because according to him, Chinese companies and technologies collect a vast amount of user data without them knowing, including in the U.S., and potentially sending them to the ruling Chinese communist party.
Now, of course, all these companies have denied these allegations. But I think this trend is unmistakable. That is the Internet is no longer just the Internet, singular word, but also separated and segregated, depending on where you are and depending on your politics, Robyn.
CURNOW: Yes, you make an excellent point there. Steven Jiang, great to have you up. Thanks so much. Important story.
So President Trump says he's hopeful that a vaccine against COVID -- COVID-19 could be here by November the 3rd, which is, yes, conveniently, election day here in the U.S. He made the prediction on his way to an event in Ohio, where he was unable to meet with the state's governor, who has tested positive for the virus, just moments before he was set to greet Mr. Trump.
It all seemed a close call, but the governor had a second test come back negative a few hours later. Jim Acosta reports on all of that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump appears to have a target date for the release of a coronavirus vaccine. It just so happens to fall on November 3, election day.
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS HOST: Then November 3?
TRUMP: I think -- I think in some cases, yes, it's possible before, but right around that time.
ACOSTA: Even though top health experts have cautioned there is no guarantee a vaccine will be ready by November, the president reiterated that goal to reporters, while insisting the timeline has nothing to do with his reelection bid.
TRUMP: I believe we'll have a vaccine before the end of the year, certainly, but around that date. Yes, I think so, but I'm not doing that. I'm doing it not for the election. I want it fast, because I want to save a lot of lives.
ACOSTA: The president was also asked if he stands by his tone-deaf comment about the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S., that it is what it is.
TRUMP: Nobody can do what I've done in terms of all of the things that we're doing to combat this horrible disease. It never should have been sent to us.
ACOSTA: Mr. Trump is asking Americans to trust his leadership on the pandemic, despite his false claim that children are, quote, "almost immune" from the virus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What evidence have you seen about children being immune from this virus?
TRUMP: All you have to do is read the newspapers or read the -- read the medical reports.
ACOSTA: But that's not true. And that remark to FOX News --
TRUMP (via phone): If you look at children, children are almost, and I would almost say definitely, but almost immune from this disease.
ACOSTA: -- was later posted on social media by the Trump campaign. Both Twitter and Facebook blocked it. Twitter removed the message, saying this tweet violated its rules.
Top administration health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci warned children can contract the virus and pass it along to vulnerable family members.
FAUCI: That's the message we've got to get to young people, because obviously, they're not doing anything deliberately or maliciously. But what they're doing is, inadvertently, they're propagating the outbreak.
ACOSTA: The president almost came in close contact with the virus, as Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine tested positive for COVID-19 and had to suddenly sit out an event with Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: And we want to wish him the best. He'll be fine. I guess he's going for a secondary test.
ACOSTA: The president is shifting to campaign mode, attacking mail-in voting, tweeting, "How can voters be sending in Ballots starting, in some cases, one month before the First Presidential Debate. Move the First Debate up."
Mr. Trump is attacking Joe Biden, accusing the former vice president of somehow hurting God.
TRUMP: Take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything. Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He's against God.
ACOSTA: The Biden campaign jabbed back, noting the administration's violent clearing of Lafayette Park for the president's photo-op last June. Biden says he will use the debates to push back.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm so forward- looking to having an opportunity to sit with the president or stand with the president in debates. There's going to be plenty of time.
ACOSTA (on camera): The president delivered a speech in Ohio on what was billed as an official White House event, but the president repeatedly attacked Joe Biden during the speech, saying the former vice president often says the wrong thing. This was after Mr. Trump, during the speech, mispronounced "Thailand" and said "Thighland."
Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thanks, Jim.
So ahead on CNN, surrounded by debris, one Lebanese woman is inspiring others by playing the piano. You must have seen this. But you do want to stick around, because after the break, I speak with her granddaughter about how she's holding onto hope after being knocked down time and time again.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:51:52]
CURNOW: The video of a Lebanese woman playing her piano, surrounded by the debris from the Beirut blast, is certainly striking a chord with people around the world.
May Abboud Melki returned to her home one day after the explosion. While the windows were broken and the walls were punctured, her beloved piano was seemingly unscathed, so she began playing "Auld Lang Syne" while her family and volunteers helped to clean up the debris.
Her granddaughter shared the moment on social media. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC: "AULD LANG SYNE")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: May-Lee Melki is the granddaughter of Mrs. Melki, who is playing in that video. She's the one who posted it on social media, and she joins me now from Washington.
Your name is May-Lee. You're named after your grandmother, who is called May. She -- that video that you posted of her playing the piano has touched so many people around the world. Why do you think that is?
MAY-LEE MELKI, GRANDDAUGHTER OF MAY ABBOUD MELKI: Honestly, I posted it in a very, very raw moment. I was away from my family. I had just moved to the states a week, exactly, to the day before the explosion. And I posted it in a very raw moment, trying to be connected. And everything I was seeing, my heart was wrenched. I really wanted to be there. I wanted to rush, and I knew that their house was destroyed.
My mother sends it to me just kind of to give me a glimpse of just the music is still going on. Hey, look what Grandma is doing, what she loved. And it tore me apart into tears. And for me, it was really something to pull me out of bed and to say that the weeks that we spent in the uprising, me and my friends, fighting against corruption, wanting to see a better Lebanon, they thought we were the hope, but actually, she was the one that was carrying us through, even though she has seen so much more tragedy than any of us.
CURNOW: Yes, that generation has seen so much more. She, no doubt, has gone through a lot. How has music sustained her?
MELKI: She has played that piano, that same exact piano that was gifted to her on her wedding day 60 years ago. She's played on it every day since she -- since she got it. And she found solace in music when she lost her mother at the age of 14 and pushed through the entire civil war, raising four kids and maintaining the family together through her music.
And when she walked in for the first time, she rushed to the piano, she dusted it off. She said, "It's OK. I'm OK. We're going to be OK."
CURNOW: If the piano survived? She just wanted to make sure --
MELKI: Yes --
CURNOW: -- that was the one thing that made it through in that apartment?
MELKI: Absolutely. And it was. It was the only item.
CURNOW: Was it?
MELKI: Yes.
CURNOW: I mean, you can see the devastation in there, in that apartment. I mean, are they ever going to be able to go back, do you think? And is the piano there now and protected, or has it been removed out of there? Where is she, and is she still connected with that piano right now?
MELKI: She -- she cannot stay in her apartment, obviously, because of the devastation so they are staying away, and thankfully, our family is able to have another place.
[00:55:05]
And this is something that I do not say lightly. I do not say lightly that she has shelter. She is able to go somewhere else, her and my grandfather. This is not the case for the hundreds who have lost their -- their loved ones, or the hundreds of souls and for those bodies that they have that are still missing.
And to be honest, it hurts our hearts. It's not something that we take lightly. Playing on the piano was a simple gesture of strength and pushing through pain, but it does not compared to what is going on.
CURNOW: I want to just play another clip, because it moves -- it moves me, it's moved so many people over and over again. I just want to listen to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: There's such a tenderness to the way she's playing. Why did she choose those songs? In particular, "Auld Lang Syne"?
MELKI: To be honest, in 27 years of growing up around her, I had never heard her play "Auld Lang Syne" before. I don't know that choice, but what I do know is that, in a sad conversation I had with her and with my mother, she said it was a way for her to express her sadness in the moment. She did not know how to express herself. She was not able to speak. And she said that -- that just felt fitting for that moment, and kind of an ode to everything and everyone that was in the desperate, hurting situation right now.
CURNOW: Yes, isn't it -- isn't it strange that a Scottish ballad from the 1700s that talks about, you know, should old acquaintances be forgot became so powerful in that moment, you know, in Beirut in 2020? It just -- it just spoke across generations and centuries, didn't it?
May-Lee, it also talks about change, and that's certainly something the people of Beirut are facing right now. May-Lee, thank you so much for joining us. Please send your love to your grandmother and your grandfather.
MELKI: Will do.
CURNOW: And thank them.
MELKI: Thank you so much, Robyn. Thank you.
CURNOW: Wonderful story. All our love, indeed, to the people of Beirut. I'm Robyn Curnow. You've got another hour of me after this short break. The news, of course, will continue here at CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
