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President Trump's Executive Actions on Virus Relief is Under Fire; Cases Surged After Schools Reopened in Israel; Hong Kong Media Mogul Jimmy Lai Arrested Under New National Security Law; Mass Protests in Belarus Following Disputed Election Results; School in Georgia Reopened then Closed; Lebanese Crying for Justice; Education Must Go On in U.K.; Face Masks Now Mandatory in France; Painful Way of Recovery for Families in Lebanon. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 10, 2020 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, one of the first schools in the U.S. to reopen now shutting its doors. At least for a couple of days after reporting COVID cases. The student who snapped this photo says the school used students as guinea pigs.

President Trump's power movement to support laid off Americans is causing more confusion than relief.

And anger again boils over into the streets of Beirut while rescuers search for the missing buried in the rubble of last week's blast.

Good to have you with us.

Well, the U.S. is far and away leading the world in coronavirus cases as the nation fails to contain the pandemic. The country reported five million cases Sunday, double the number since the end of June.

And you can see on this graph how the rate of the spread has accelerated. It took 99 days for the United States to reach the first million cases, but the jump from four million to five million took less than three weeks.

And deaths from the virus also are climbing. Johns Hopkins University says more than 1,000 have been reported each day over the last five days. And as more schools get ready to reopen, a Georgia school is already facing closure after opening last week.

North Paulding High School came under scrutiny after this photo of a crowded hallway went viral. The school is now moving to virtual lessons for today and tomorrow after reporting nine cases of COVID-19 among staff and students. And CNN spoke to the student who snapped that photo, 15-year-old

Hannah Watters. She was briefly suspended for posting that picture and is now allowed back to class.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNAH WATTERS, STUDENT WHO TOOK VIRAL PHOTO: The fact that we already have nine cases just at the end of that week is very concerning because even then we don't know how many people those nine people came in contact with and how many people aren't taking tests yet. So, they don't know and then they come back possibly this week too, so it's just going to spread like wildfire in that school.

We could've delayed school so they could find more safety measures to follow in the school. They could've found more plans for all the students and teachers and staff members. But they kind of send us into school and used this as Guinea pigs to see what would happen later on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And Hannah also says she's being the target of threats for sharing that photo.

Well, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says it's morally indefensible to keep schools closed across the U.K. The government has pledged about $1.3 billion in support to help get classrooms up and running.

Nic Robertson joins me now live from London. Good to see you, Nic. So, we've already seen other parts of the world open schools only to close and shortly after that because of increased infections. So, how can the U.K. be sure they won't follow that same pattern?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, the prime ministers has a lot riding on this. He has said it's socially intolerable, economically unsustainable as well that schools should remain closed. And I think that's part of the clue that economically unsustainable.

The prime minister knows that to get the economy back up and coming, he needs to free up parents. And the only way to free up parents is for the schools to reopen. And it is a huge issue here as it is everywhere else about the studies of children being affected.

There's evidence in the U.K. that children from less economically well-off backgrounds are not studying as much at home as those from better off backgrounds. So there is that sort of concern. But the perhaps the, of course, overriding concern is going to be of parents, is it really safe for their children to go back into the classroom and of teachers as well asking the same question.

And to that point, the government and the health secretary -- the school -- education secretary here in particular are pointing to an international study. In Germany and Ireland and a number of other countries that says the actual rate of infections in schools is relatively low. That indeed, among children of primary school age there's very little

cross infection between children. At secondary school age the infection rates between people are more similar to adults.

[03:05:06]

But they're saying, the government is saying, that despite this, or because the results are better than perhaps people imagined, that it is safe to reopen schools. But we also know that this is a bottom line for the prime minister, reopening them. It is his top priority.

But we've also heard as well from England's chief medical officer who said, look, in terms of easing the lockdown, the country has done everything that it can do. There's no more give. So, if infection rates go up to maintain schools remaining open, the prime minister has indicated that perhaps things like bars and restaurants may have to shut down in the future as a compromise for schools opening.

So, it really is a tightrope here that the government is walking but a very important one, and certainly the prime minister sort of taking his position on over COVID. And to that point he's going to a school today.

You have schools reopening in Scotland today and Northern Ireland next week. So, by the time England comes online with schools in early September, there will be some evidence from around the country perhaps that will give teachers and parents a slightly better idea of what may happen.

CHURCH: Yes, because of course it's all about the kid spreading it to the wider community. That's the worry here.

Many thanks to Nic Robertson joining us there live.

Joining me now is Michael Kinch. He is the director of the Center for Drug Discovery at Washington University in St. Louis. Good to have you with us.

MICHAEL KINCH, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR DRUG DISCOVERY, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS: Thank you for the opportunity.

CHURCH: So, the U.S. has now surpassed five million cases of the coronavirus and the death toll exceeds 162,000. With no apparent plan in place to crush these numbers, efforts to find a vaccine of course have mood at an incredible speed.

With Dr. Anthony Fauci suggesting we may have a viable vaccine by early next year. President Trump even hinted that he might announce one just before the November election. How realistic is any of this do you think?

KINCH: It's probably not terribly realistic. I mean, we can all be hopeful that there will be a home run as far as the results that come out of the ongoing studies, but I think we all need to prepare ourselves that it's probably likely to be a bit of a longer haul.

CHURCH: How long do you think?

KINCH: If I had to take a guess I would say, even with all the stops being pulled, probably the first half of next year you would get an approval. And then the question comes down really to logistics. As to how long it will be until we can manufacture and distribute enough of this vaccine to be able to make a meaningful impact on the current viral infections.

CHURCH: Right. OK. So very few of us want to hear that of course. And with polls showing only about 50 percent of Americans are willing to take the vaccine once it is available, there is a risk that we won't be able to eliminate this virus. So how do you convince everyone to take it once a safe him and effective vaccine has been approved? And how best do you explain the speed that which this is moving?

KINCH: Well, I think those two questions are in a related. One of the concerns is, if it's perceived by the public that we're moving too quickly, then the uptake, the likelihood that someone is willing to be injected with a vaccine is going to go down.

What we need to reassure the public is that this will be a safe and effective vaccine and that's where I think again, realistically we need to consider that it's going to take a bit longer. An October surprise might have political benefits but probably not public health benefits.

CHURCH: Right. And so, basically what you're telling us that we're going to have to learn to live with this virus and we know that the school in the state of Georgia just closed due to infections. I mean, most of us could actually see that coming, some apparently not. We saw photos from that school showing very few students wearing masks. They're all crammed together.

What do you think it will take to flatten that curve and why isn't that happening six months into this?

KINCH: Well, I think that we know what it takes to flatten the curve because frankly Europe and much of the world has done this already. We are lagging, I fear here in the United States in part because the preventative measures, for example, face masks have been largely politicized.

And that's incredibly unfortunate because this is a medical and a scientific point, not a political one. And fundamentally, if you distance yourself from others and you wear a face mask, that is the best way to stop the spread of this virus.

CHURCH: And this is the problem again for this country where you have a situation where we have more cases, more deaths than anywhere else in the world but a reluctance to do all of the things that we need to be doing to flatten that curve.

So how in the simplest of terms do you get people on board with this? If we're going to have to live with this until there's a vaccine, not until mid-next year, I mean we're talking a year away?

[03:10:05]

KINCH: I think what we need to convey is a message that what you do, your actions can help others. It can help your friends, it can help your relatives, the people around you. And those are the messages that are far more important again than we were mentioning earlier about politics.

Forget the politics. Protect your family, protect your community, take those measures that we know work. And those measures are primarily social distancing and wearing a mask. It's very straightforward and very simple.

CHURCH: It is and that is the message that's been sent out. But what it has revealed is an incredibly selfish nation in so many parts of the states across this land and it is, it is just extraordinary.

Michael Kinch, thank you so much for talking with us. We do appreciate it.

KINCH: Thank you.

CHURCH: And as the U.S. and the U.K. grapple with return to school strategies, Israel is dealing with the impact of sending students back to class during a lull in the pandemic. Well now the country is seeing a rise in cases. And we'll have a live report later this hour from Tel Aviv.

Paris has now made face masks mandatory in tourist hotspots and busy shopping areas. It took effect just last hour. Authorities say it's to combat a rising number of coronavirus cases in and around the French capital.

And Cyril Vanier joins us now live from Paris. Good to see you, Cyril, and to see you wearing that mask. Like it or not of course, masks are the most powerful weapon we all have to fight this virus in the absence of a vaccine. How are people there are responding to this mandate?

CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, at the moment people don't really like it because we're in the middle of a heat wave here in Paris so wearing a mask is not the most comfortable thing you could be doing on a day like today.

I wanted to bring you here. This is (Inaudible). We're in the heart of Paris. This is one of the hundred streets where face masks have now been made mandatory. This is been in effect for an hour.

As I look at people around me, I would say about 80 percent are wearing a face mask. Some 20 to 30 percent, this gentleman included, are not. Now you can -- they could be forgiven for not knowing that this is the case because this came into effect over the weekend but as we go forward, bear in mind that you do risk $160 fine, 135 euros if you don't wear your face mask.

Police isn't here, we haven't seen any type of enforcement, we also haven't seen any type of signage. The city hall had said that there would be signage to warn people when they're about to enter a street where you have to wear your face mask.

That being said, the logic of this policy, Rosemary, is not just to find people of course. It is to prevent the spread of the virus. And what happens here is at this moment the street is fairly quiet, fairly empty but it actually is a busy commercial street with lots of grocery stores. So, when people come here in the evening it can get pretty packed. And it can be very hard in fact impossible to socially distance.

And that is the whole point of the police authorities enforcing the face masks in a certain number of areas in the capital. Now there is going to be an exception because we are in France. You see these cafes here? The terraces? You don't have to wear a face mask in those.

So, in other words, even if the policy is properly enforce and everybody is wearing a face mask along the street, you can have people pretty much packed on that terrace not wearing one and that's OK.

CHURCH: Yes, it's an interesting cultural shift but eventually people will get there because they know it's going to be the only way to live with this virus until we get that vaccine.

Cyril Vanier, many thanks, joining us live from Paris. I appreciate it.

Well, grief and outrage boil over in the streets of Beirut. Protesters are demanding the ouster of the entire government in Lebanon. And we will get a live report from the Lebanese capital. We're back with that in just a moment.

[03:15:00]

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CHURCH: We go to Lebanon now where angry protesters crowded the streets of Beirut for a second day clashing with police as they demanded the entire government stepped down after Tuesday's massive explosion. And it seems some listen. Both the environmental minister and the minister of information have resigned amid investigations.

On Sunday, nearly $300 million was raised through a virtual donor's conference. But French President Emmanuel Macron and others are warning it can't be a blank check. A number of people are still missing and hope is fading for relatives waiting for word on their loved ones.

Arwa Damon has one story family story.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Michele hasn't slept in three days. Neither has her sister-in-law with whom she shares the same name and a love for Joe, husband and brother. Michelle struggles to form words and sentences in Arabic, never mind in English. Joe is an electrician at the port.

And this is the last video she got from him on Tuesday night. Minutes later, the entire building he was filming would explode. Jennifer, Joe and Michele's oldest child was in Beirut.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELE ANDOUN, JOE'S SISTER: So, she heard the explosion and she start shouting this is my dad's --

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: She knew that's where her dad worked?

ANDOUN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said, poor daddy. Poor mommy. Poor Joe.

DAMON: The entire family was frantic calling Joe nonstop.

ANDOUN: At midnight, Joe opened his phone for 21 seconds before we heard voices, deep voices that's what he said and then nothing.

DAMON: Another call also seem to have gone through on Wednesday for 43 seconds but there was silence on the other end. He must be alive, they thought. They had to get to him. Joe is strong, clever, he would've figured out a way to save himself.

[03:20:08]

They comb through video shot by others from other angles, looking for any clues to give teams locations to search.

You think that's Joe?

ANDOUN: Yes. This is on.

DAMON: You think one of those people is Joe?

ANDOUN: Of course. Yes, we are sure. And he was filming from here.

DAMON: It's the building right in front of the grain silo. A building that is now buried. But they still had hope. There's an operations room deep underground. They heard there are bunkers. Three bodies were pulled up but no Joe. Maybe he's deeper in, deeper under, somehow still alive.

ANDOUN: We have to keep searching.

DAMON: Michele was born in the U.S. The children also have American passports. Joe was just about to get his visa. All that now seems like a different reality.

ANDOUN: He loved life in every detail. He wanted to go to America because it's better for his -- for Jennifer, for Joy for better future but not for him.

DAMON: The women are trying to shield the children from their grief.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My shoes smelled bad so they washed me. DAMON: Jennifer doesn't know daddy is missing. Joy is thankfully too young to fully understand. Maybe they will never have to tell the girls their daddy is dead.

That night the fourth after the explosion, crews are searching around the clock. Searching the area where the family believed Joe would be found, clinging to the hope that he would still somehow be alive. At 4 a.m., they sent is a heartbroken message. Joe's body had been found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Impossibly sad there. We want to head to Beirut where CNN's senior international correspondent Arwa Damon joins us now. And Arwa it is so heartbreaking for all families missing love ones at this time and now angry protesters there out on the streets of Beirut demanding answers. What is the latest on that?

DAMON: Yes, they are, Rosemary. And you know, overnight again we saw smaller demonstrations than what we've seen on Saturday but still, people making it very clear at this stage that they will no longer tolerate this government remaining in power. Nor will they tolerate the status quo.

You know, this particular attack that strikes are that took -- explosion that took place. You get in the habit of talking about attacks and strikes when it comes to Beirut because that is what this population is normally used to.

But this particular blast, this is different than anything the country has gone through before. And look, the Lebanese have almost perfected the art of soldiering on given everything that they've been through in the last few decades, whether it's the Civil War or massive explosions that shook the entire capital or running street battles.

They know how to pick up the pieces, get through the pain and try to rebuild the country. But they've reached such a stage, they've been driven to such a stage right now, Rosemary, that they don't know how they're going to do that if this country's political elite continue to remain in power.

But of course, creating that kind of fundamental widespread political change that Lebanon needs, that's not going to happen overnight. But what these protesters aim is, is to send that very clear message to the government that they are not going to be backing down. Not this time, not anymore.

CHURCH: It is a powerful message. Arwa Damon bringing us the very latest there from Beirut. Many thanks.

And we do want to stay in Beirut and bring in Jad Sakr, the country director in Lebanon for Save the Children.

Thank you so much for being with us.

How desperate is the situation on the ground in Beirut in the aftermath of this devastating and deadly explosion and what is the most pressing need right now?

JAD SAKR, COUNTRY DIRECTOR IN LEBANON, SAVE THE CHILDREN: Hi. Thank you for having me.

The situation on the ground does remain quite desperate. I think of course the issue of the missing people, the fact that there are search and rescue efforts that are ongoing. That's really important but the lack of news I think generally is quite problematic, so there's desperation from that angle.

There is, of course the buildings that remain broken. Around 800,000 homes are the latest numbers we have, so that means 300,000 people, including 100,000 children are left homeless.

[03:24:56]

Now of course we've seen amazing efforts from civil society to clean up to -- for just activists to pick up their brooms and go on the streets and try to support. But the streets are still -- are still quite problematic.

Children continue to be very much affected. We have our teams currently conducting what we call a rapid needs assessment, we're trying to talk to the children, to the families, to community members to try to understand their needs. And there are rooms, they are afraid to go to, some of them are missing their toys, there's just an overall sense of uncertainty and fear. That's a problem of course.

There's the food, the poverty, some people have not eaten based on our interviews for three days. Some because they simply cannot, but some also because they cannot afford it. And that problem is going to continue and is going to grow, I think as time goes by, and we can discuss that in a moment.

But I think overall, the sense, I wouldn't call it the spare just yet, but just the sense of sadness of hopelessness, of -- it's quite -- the situation does remain quite tense. And people are still very much under shock. You were mentioning that people who were in the streets. And again, we can talk about that a bit further.

They were on the streets and they were protesting and some were trying to get their message across in different ways. But if you look at the faces from what I've been told, a lot of them were blank because a lot of the people protesting had to protest, had to get their message across, but in many ways they were still thinking about the houses they needed to rebuild, the children they need to comfort and all of the other concerns. All of the, you know, the relocation, the displacement.

Social solidarity has organized in such a magnificent way. So a lot of these homeless people have moved in with relative outside Beirut in Mount Lebanon and the Beqaa and other areas. But those are not sustainable solutions.

CHURCH: Right. How much -- how much do you worry about the mental health of the children who saw this explosion? Some of them have lost loved ones in that explosion. How much do you worry about them going forward?

SAKR: I mean, I worry enough. This is a very dramatic experience. Even adults by the way, some of them are unable to hear a door being shut down, you know. And then all of a sudden there's a sense of panic.

So, for children it's going to be 10 times worse. They don't understand it. We barely understand it. So, they're having a hard time grappling with it. So, what we need to do now us and other NGOs is first start organizing what we call sessions of psychological first aid. Like, really, the first layer of trying to talk to these children, trying to get them to overcome the trauma, trying to get them to understand in their own ways, to comprehend and accept.

And then we will have to take them through a very long process of cycle social support so that they're able to overcome this in the longer run. But it will be a long process. And then, of course, you have the children who have missed, who have lost their parents, you have the unaccompanied or separated children. You have children who have seen, you know, horrendous scenes.

CHURCH: Yes.

SAKR: So, it will take a long time, it's not -- it's not beyond repair but it will take a lot of time and effort. Yes.

CHURCH: It is a community pulling together and you can see that in Beirut and across Lebanon.

Jad Sakr, thank you so much for talking with us. I appreciate it.

SAKR: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well the U.S. president took a victory lap Sunday celebrating his newly signed virus relief package. But there are questions about how and whether his measures will work.

Back with that in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If it it's not a waste of time, we'll do it. But if it is a waste of time, it doesn't make sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. President Donald Trump there, suggesting he may be open to renewed stimulus negotiations with Democrats. His comments came as he celebrated the financial relief measures he signed on Saturday. But there are questions about how they will work and how quickly people will get the assistance they need. Jeremy Diamond has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president has been facing criticisms since he signed those executive actions on Saturday to bypass those stalled negotiations with Congress over coronavirus relief.

The Republican senator, Ben Sasse, is calling this 'unconstitutional slop.' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slamming this as 'absurdly unconstitutional.' But the president for his part on Sunday as he was returning from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, he was taking quite a victory lap.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

D. TRUMP: I think it actually works better if we do it the way we are doing it. We have got much of what we have wanted without having to give up anything. And that's very good. You can't beat that. You can't beat the deal we made. We have gotten much of what we wanted and they didn't get what they wanted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: President on Sunday is also answering questions about those enhanced unemployment benefits that he signed in an executive action on Saturday.

According to that executive action, $400 per week would go to an unemployed Americans, $300 of which would come from the federal government. But that is only contingent on states agreeing to administer this program and also agreeing to pony up that $100 per person to bring it to a total of $400.

But the president on Sunday, suggesting that there could be a situation where the federal government would pick up 100 percent of the cost. Not clear if that would be on the $300 or on $400. But the president is suggesting that if certain governors make that request of him, that that is indeed something that he would consider approving.

But, of course, the devil is in the details and we have yet to actually see those details from the White House.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well, joining me now to discuss all of this is CNN's Eleni Giokos. Good to see you, Eleni. So, even the top White House economic adviser goes confused and muddled trying to explain how some of President Trump's coronavirus executive actions would work. If he can't figure it out, how was anyone else expected to?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, such a good question, because the big point here is, where is the money going to come from? We know the issue has always been the enhanced benefits. Six hundred dollars a week is what we have seen going into pockets of vulnerable Americans, and we know Republicans have wanted to scale that back for quite some time.

You and I have been discussing this, that it is being the big sticking point. Now, President Trump has intervened after the talks stalled on Friday, issuing executive orders, and talking about $400 a week. Where is this money going to come from? That has been the big question over the last couple of days.

We know that President Trump wants to see states funding some of this money and the rest will be federal.

[03:35:03]

GIOKOS: But you got to remember here, Rosemary, that Congress, of course, is the last, has the last say in terms of how money is spent or it has to be coming from an existing budget and that money needs to be reallocated.

I want you to take a listen to an exchange with Dana Bash, as well as Larry Kudlow over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KUDLOW, UNITED STATES NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: And I think it's going to come to about $1,200 per person. That's a huge wage increase.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You keep saying $1,200 per person. Are you talking about in addition to the unemployment that they are already getting?

KUDLOW: Oh, no. That's the payroll --

BASH: Where does that number come from?

KUDLOW: I beg your pardon. The $1,200 will come from the payroll tax. It should be 800 bucks. I beg your pardon. It should be 800 buck for the unemployment.

BASH: Eight hundred or 400?

KUDLOW: No, it should be 400 -- it should be $800. If the states step up, we are prepared to match. That should be come out $400 federal, $400 states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: And look, just hearing Larry Kudlow there, again, confusion about where the money is going to come from. A $1,200 check is the stimulus check that make -- millions Americans will be eligible to receive. But that is very different from the enhanced unemployment benefits, which of course is really important right now.

And Rosemary, you have unemployment rate, yes, looking slightly better, better than people had expected that came through on Friday, but still much higher than what we saw during the peak of the global financial crisis.

All these issues are paying a really strong role in terms of how the stimulus talks are going to go going forward. And importantly, they are failed. Republicans and Democrats are sitting at two very different numbers. Democrats are still talking about over $3 trillion on the table and Republicans want $1 trillion.

I mean, points of divergence here, we have many to talk about. The question is: What is going to be the common ground?

CHURCH: Yeah. And what is so frustrating is for some Americans, they wait and they decide whether they are going to live on the streets or in their car. It is so frustrating. But we will see whether something comes of this.

Eleni Giokos, thank you so much for joining us, appreciate it.

We are about a week away from the start of the democratic convention. That means speculation over who presumed nominee Joe Biden will pick to be his running mate. That is in full swing, of course. The former vice president has stated that he will, in fact, pick a woman.

And this is how the field of likely contenders is shaping up: Senator Kamala Harris, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren among others, so all on that short list. Biden is expected to formally announce his choice this week. We will be waiting for that.

Well, the most senior American official to visit Taiwan in over 40 years has met with the island's president. Alex Azar conveyed to Tsai Ing-wen the Trump administration's strong support and friendship for Taiwan.

The U.S. Health and Human Services secretary also praised what he called Taiwan's incredibly effective response to the coronavirus pandemic. His trip has been condemned by China, which claimed the self-governing island as part of its territory.

Well, children in Israel had already gone back to school. They returned in May after two months of lockdown. They are out now for the summer. For the decision makers, it looked like the right time. But they have learned some incredibly hard lessons that the world could do well to listen to.

And Elliott Gotkine joins me now live from Tel Aviv. Good to see you, Elliott. So, what happened when those kids went back to school and what's the big lesson here?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Rosemary, when schools like this one went back in May, the government did have a plan in place. But it quickly unravelled. The plans were things for mask wearing, hygiene, ventilation, social distancing, and the like. The couple of examples have come undone. When the kids went back, there was a heat wave around the same time. Parents complained. The government enacted a four-day mask holiday so kids weren't wearing masks. Keeping desks apart, it is very hard to keep them six feet apart, two meters apart, when you regularly got 35 kids or more in a classroom.

So there was a plan in place. But they were either -- they didn't or couldn't stick to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOTKINE (voice-over): From teachers' pet to near-bottom of the class. On some measures, Israel is now grappling with one of the world's worst COVID outbreaks. Schools like this one in Jerusalem, this alumni include President Reuven Rivlin, (INAUDIBLE), are a big reason why.

Ari Kaplan is head of the Jerusalem Parent-Teacher Association.

ARI KAPLAN, HEAD, JERUSALEM PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATION: We have a kid that is a super spreader. And because of it, we have like 150 kids infected, like 25 teachers.

[03:40:04]

KAPLAN: It's a huge school. It's like 1,200 students. And they have brothers and sisters all around Jerusalem. We had like 25 schools that were closed.

GOTKINE (voice-over): Soon after the school reopened, it had to close again. All students and staff went into quarantine. It was almost certainly too late. Now, half of all Israeli coronavirus cases in June as Israel's second waive began could be traced to school outbreaks.

GABI BARBASH, FORMER CEO, TEL AVIV SOURASKY MEDICAL CENTER: I think Israel got too optimistic when it saw the numbers declining.

GOTKINE (voice-over): Professor Gabi Barbash is one of Israel's leading disease experts. He says plans to reopen schools after the summer are premature.

BARBASH: I think we are not ready for that. I think Israel is clearly seeing now 1,700 to 2,000 cases per day, new infections per day. It is impossible to open the education system by the first of September if that doesn't come down.

GOTKINE (voice-over): The government is having none of it.

YOAV GALANT, ISRAELI EDUCATION MINISTER (through translator): We are determined to start the school year in 25 days' time. I want to make it clear though, not everything will be perfect. With corona, it is not possible to commit to full study program for everybody.

GOTKINE (voice-over): The plan is for children up to grade two to attend school as usual. Grade three and above will see class sizes capped at 18 per room. And from grade five, learning will be split between school and home with most of the teaching expected online. That, of course, assumes the plan goes ahead.

(On camera): Israel's dilemma is shared by many others, reopen schools after the summer and risk another COVID surge or keep kids at home and risk harming their education and an already reeling economy. There's no easy solution.

(Voice-over): An extended summer recess could yet be on the cards.

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GOTKINE: And Israel's education minister, who we saw in that piece, again reiterating this morning that that won't happen, there won't be an extended recess. In fact, he says the school year will open on September 1st, and whoever says otherwise is sewing panic among the public. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Learning as we go along. Elliott Gotkine, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

And this is "CNN Newsroom." Coming up is one of the highest profile arrests so far in Hong Kong under the controversial national security law. Media mogul Jimmy Lai has been detained. We are live from Hong Kong in just a moment.

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CHURCH: Well, police in Hong Kong have arrested media mogul Jimmy Lai under the controversial national security law. Lai, who owns the Apple Daily newspaper, was taken into custody on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces, a crime punishable by life in prison. And six others were also arrested.

For more, CNN's Will Ripley joins me now live from Hong Kong. And Will, this has sent shockwaves across the world and certainly through the world of journalism. What exactly happened here and what are the ramifications of these arrests?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Not just world of journalism but academics, activists, anybody who speaks publicly against the government in Beijing has a reason to worry potentially under this new Hong Kong national security law.

Jimmy Lai has been one of the most outspoken activists, one of the few wealthy elite in the city who is publicly, you know, repeatedly gone against Beijing and its viewpoints for decades.

He own Apply Daily, which is a newspaper, which has been very fierce in its support of the pro-democracy anti-government protest movement, even, you know, offering pages that protesters could print out on the paper and go and bring to demonstrations, carrying slogans that might now get people arrested under this national security law that was imposed less than two months ago. These arrests -- we are still waiting to learn details about the charges. We don't know, you know, potentially how serious they could be and what police are doing is they are gathering evidence right now.

And the fact that they are at the newsroom of the Apple Daily potentially going through reporters' computers and notes, looking for contacts, looking for interviews with people who may be considered, you know, in violation of the national security law. And the reporters' association, well, they could also put them in jeopardy.

You can just see why the Hong Kong Journalists Association is calling this scary, saying that this kind of scene which has been seen in developing countries has really been very rare for place like Hong Kong that enjoyed freedom of the press for decades, but apparently not anymore, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yeah. And all of this, of course, is happening while the rest of the world is distracted by the pandemic.

Will Ripley, joining us live from Hong Kong, many thanks for bringing us up-to-date on that very concerning story.

Well, Afghanistan's president has agreed to release another 400 Taliban prisoners in order to start direct peace talks with the group. A grand assembly of tribal elders says President Ashraf Ghani will sign the order and that peace talks should start immediately after the prisoners' release.

They are the last of 5,000 prisoners to be freed by the Afghan government. The assembly of elders stressed the need for an immediate and lasting ceasefire with the Taliban.

Still to come, riot police are breaking up crowds of protesters in Belarus. The country's presidential election is in dispute, and we will have much more on these developments after the break.

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CHURCH (voice-over): Tense moments between protesters and riot police in Minsk when clashes broke out across Belarus. Riot police cracked down on protesters demonstrating against the early results in the foremost Soviet country's presidential election.

The Central Election Commission says six-term incumbent president, Alexander Lukashenko, has won by a landslide. The main opposition candidate and independent monitoring group's dispute those results.

So, let's turn to CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. He is tracking the developments from Berlin. He joins us now live. It is good to see you, Fred. So, what is the latest on these results and the protests?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rosemary. Well, so far, we are hearing the opposition still says that they dispute these results. They don't believe that Alexander Lukashenko really won and got 80 percent of the vote. In fact, they still belief that they are the ones who essentially won or they are the ones who won this election.

In fact, in about 10 minutes, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was the only woman who is running against Alexander Lukashenko and certainly his most potent opponent in basically any of the elections that he has faced so far in that country, says she is going to hold a press conference in about 10 minutes from now. We are going to wait and see what she has to say about all of this very, very soon.

But you're absolutely right, after those first exit polls came in from that election yesterday and it was really running up to that in the -- while the voting was still going on as well, there were protests that took place in Minsk and in other cities as well, where you have riot police out, you also have the military out on the street there as well, and you did see a lot of violence in a lot of this town in Belarus.

From everything that we have been able to discern, from walking (ph) those videos, from also hearing first-hand the counts, it seems as though the protests started very peacefully. People came out on the streets demanding change as they have been in the run-up to the election, as well.

And security forces then started arresting people on the streets there. And that is when in many cases the situation got out of hand. Now, there is one independent monitoring group who came out and said 213 people had been arrested or detained.

Obviously, there was a lot of tear gas being used. There were flash bangs being used, certainly something that we are not used to seeing from Belarus, which of course has been under the rule of Alexander Lukashenho for 26 years now.

So, it will be very interesting to see how all of this evolves, whether or not the opposition is going to come out on the streets once again today. Again, they are disputing these results. They are saying that the election was fraudulent, that there was vote rigging.

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PLEITGEN: It is something that had been said as the election was going on. And as you mentioned, there were no independent outside monitors that able to see what exactly was going on in those polling stations, as well, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And just very quickly, you said these protesters are calling for change. How likely is it they will see that?

PLEITGEN: It is really up in the air right now. You know, Belarus is one of those countries that had been very, very quiet for a very long time. It is certainly not one where we are used to seeing things like political unrest or used to even seeing much from the opposition either.

So this is certainly something that is very, very different than usual. So whether or not this is a movement that lasts is something that we are going to have to wait and see.

But if we look at the way that this movement evolved, Rosemary, it basically started with a lot of -- or several opposition candidates were arrested by the authorities, then essentially their wives took over the movement and became more popular than any opposition figure ever had been before.

And these protests, these rallies that they held were something that in size and scope and in scale were unprecedented for Belarus and certainly something that seemed very alarming to the authorities.

In the week in the run-up to the election, there were a lot of people who were detained, including the campaign manager for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and still they managed to get people out on the streets. They then essentially hijacked pro-government concerts and had people come out there.

So it certainly does seem as though there is a fairly large grassroots movement in that country that does want change to happen there, Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. We will be watching very closely. Fred Pleitgen is bringing us the very latest there from Berlin. Many thanks.

And thank you for watching. I am Rosemary Church. I'll be back with another hour of news in just a moment. Do stay with us.

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