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Biden In Favor Of Police Reform, Not Defunding; Fatal Shooting During Protests In Portland; Jacob Blake's Father: Shooting Was Attempted Murder; Russian Fighter Jets' "Unsafe" Intercept Of U.S. B- 52; Trump Tours Hurricane Laura Aftermath; COVID-19 Increasing In Children; Program Allows COVID-19 Survivors To Keep Patients Company; Migrants Evacuated From Banksy-Funded Rescue Boat; Milwaukee, Orlando Kneel During National Anthem; Climate Crisis. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired August 30, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone, I'm Natalie Allen at CNN Center in Atlanta. Our breaking news comes out of Portland, Oregon.
One person has been shot and killed near the site of fierce and violent clashes among protesters. Police are calling it a homicide. To be clear, we do not know if the killing is linked to the unrest.
The shooting came after a huge caravan filled with supporters of U.S. president Trump rolled into town earlier Saturday and it was met by furious counter-demonstrators. Let's go to Portland now. Mike Baker is a "New York Times" correspondent. He joins me from there.
Mike, you were there during these clashes.
What did you witness regarding the shooting that occurred?
And do we have any information as of yet on the victim?
MIKE BAKER, CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Yes, so the shooting occurred while there were a bunch of Trump, pro-Trump vehicles driving through downtown. As you covered there, there was a gathering out in the suburbs of Trump supporters and they were going to drive around sort of the outskirts of the city but a lot of them decided to come through into downtown where they met a bunch of protesters who were there wanting to confront them.
And sort of during the hours that -- of that happening, there were reports of gunfire. I went over to the scene and the police had blocked it off. There was a man who had been shot in the chest, who was being treated at the time and it appears to have been wearing Patriot Prayer hat on his head, a Patriot Prayer, a far-right group here in the Portland area.
ALLEN: Tell us more about the clashes between these two groups, Mike, throughout this evening.
And what was the police presence like during this situation?
What did they do to try and help defuse this back-and-forth between the Trump supporters and the protesters?
BAKER: And some of the supporters were coming in, driving into the city; there were protesters that were blocking the street. Police came and moved them off the street. Then later on, some of the protesters -- as some of the Trump supporters went downtown, some of the protesters were confronting them there and again the police kind of came in, trying to redirect the crowd, the right-wing crowd, to keep the groups away.
But at the same time they are just driving all over downtown. You have trucks going up one street and down another in different directions, protesters going all different directions as well. So it became an unwieldy situation, where there was not a central location where the clashes were happening.
ALLEN: The protests, for the most part, have been isolated to a few blocks of Portland as we understand it, and it has been 93 days. Tomorrow is day 94.
What is the concern going forward here after what we have seen on this night?
BAKER: The protests have really fluctuated a lot in size. Before the federal government sent in their forces at the beginning of July, the numbers were getting below 200 people that were protesting.
And then the federal government came and the numbers were up to 1,000 just because there was such outrage about the tactics the federal government brought. In the last 2 nights, I have been here most of the week following the protests. And they have come back down to 200, maybe a little more than 200 some nights, people out.
And police had largely kept them under control. They let them go out to protest, sometimes they would light a fire or spray-paint on buildings and then the police would come in and make a bunch of arrests. So it seemed to be on a path toward something more calm and under control.
Who knows, tonight, after something like this?
I don't know where we are headed here.
ALLEN: Understood. And as I understand it, the Trump supporters, Portland is a very liberal city.
Where did the Trump supporters come from?
Did they come from areas outside of Portland?
Do you know anything more about how they organized?
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BAKER: There were plenty of people from the region around Oregon but also people had driven in from other states. This was a group that had been organizing on Facebook for several days, getting this event together. So there is a mix of local people and people from outside.
I think that is one other thing that has been sort of inserted here, a lot more the last week. A week ago there was a far-right demonstration in Portland that was a chance for that group to say that they are going to be here and fight local protesters if need be.
And that all day turned to a volatile situation as well, where people were shooting paintball guns and fighting in the streets. And one person brandished a gun and it felt like a moment where it could be something deadly there as well. And here tonight it was.
ALLEN: A tragic scene for sure and it is just so disturbing also, just to think of Americans pitted against each other in the streets, fist fighting, just a tragic scene all around. And we really appreciate your reporting for us and your time, Mike Baker with "The New York Times," thanks, Mike.
We will, of course, continue to track this story and bring you any more information about the death that occurred during these protests.
Wisconsin is also the site of protests over racial justice and police reform. After a Black man was shot by a white police officer, the key swing state has become a political flashpoint.
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ALLEN (voice-over): Chanting there, "You can't stop the revolution," the family of 29-year-old Jacob Blake led a diverse and peaceful march in Kenosha Saturday afternoon. Blake was shot seven times in the back last Sunday and is paralyzed from the waist down. Kenosha has seen daily protests in the days since, including one where two people were killed allegedly by a right-wing teenager.
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ALLEN: U.S. president Trump plans to go to Kenosha Tuesday. The White House says he will meet with law enforcement and view damage from recent protests. White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond has more about his plans.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: On the way back, as he landed in Washington, the White House deputy press secretary confirmed that the president will be going to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
They say that he will be surveying some of the damage from the fires there as well as meeting with law enforcement officials on Tuesday.
The president earlier in the day had suggested that this was a possibility but it wasn't clear that plans were actually in action for this to happen. But now we know that the president will be going to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
And certainly this could be a very combustible situation. The president entering that situation, it's really hard to see how the president can help alleviate tensions there. This is not a president who has chosen in the past to be that consoler in chief.
He has seized on divisions happening in the country, including over this reckoning on racism and police brutality in this country over the last few months, seized on those divisions for his own political gain.
The president has been seizing on some of the protests, some of the protests that have turned more violent into riots in parts of the country as he has tried to tout this law and order message as he tries to win re-election in the 2020 campaign.
Certainly we will have to see how the president handles this very, very delicate visit on Tuesday. And as of now, again, there are no plans for the president to meet with Jacob Blake or the family of Jacob Blake. We will have to wait and see whether something on that front develops. As of now, no plans for that.
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ALLEN: Our Sara Sidner spoke with Blake's father Saturday on the sidelines of that March in Kenosha. Here is her report on that, plus the latest on the investigation into the shooting in Wisconsin.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in Kenosha there was about 2,000 people who came out in support of Jacob Blake and Jacob Blake's family. His family was leading the protests here in Kenosha, several blocks, that ended up at the courthouse where they then. Spoke we heard from Jacob Blake's uncle and his sister.
We heard from Jacob Blake's father as well, all speaking about a couple of. Things one, asking for peaceful protests but two, telling people that they must vote. That is the next thing after protesting in the streets.
We also talked to Jacob Blake's father about what happened in this case and what he sees should happen going forward after the police association here in Kenosha made allegations against Jacob Blake.
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SIDNER: That he was armed and he was fighting with the police, that he had a police officer in a headlock any had to be Tased. His father reacting saying what he sees certainly did not prove a intimate threat to the officer who ended up shooting him in the back seven times.
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JACOB BLAKE SR., JACOB BLAKE'S FATHER: How can you be an imminent danger when a person has nothing in their hands?
What was he, Superman?
He could see the knife through the walls of the car?
The police union means nothing to me. It's a bunch of caps that pay a bunch of dudes to have a title, a union. They do nothing but support their bad cops.
He's a bad cop. It didn't take seven shots to find out. That -- the first shot told you, the second one was coming. The third shot should've told you that the fourth one, he's trying to kill him.
The fifth shot damn, how many more times you going to shoot?
By the time the seventh shot got there, that's attempted murder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: But no officer at this point has been charged in this case. We do know, of course, there is an investigation underway.
The State Department of Justice is investigating and saying that they are going to be doing an impartial investigation and that the police association does not speak for anyone, other than the defense of the officers. They are very adamant and clear in that they are the investigating agency in this case -- Sara Sidner, CNN, Kenosha.
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ALLEN: Joining me now in Los Angeles, CNN legal analyst Areva Martin.
Thank you for coming on.
AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely.
ALLEN: Well, President Trump is going to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday to meet with law enforcement and to survey some of the damage from recent protests.
What do you expect to hear from the president on this trip?
MARTIN: I think we are going to hear more of his law and order message. He made it clear, Natalie, that for him, this issue isn't about the systemic racism, not about police brutality, not about the peaceful protesters.
But it's about him beating this drum of law and order and trying to paint the peaceful protesters as mobs, trying to incite in some ways violence, invoke fears and to create this narrative, particularly for those suburban voters who he is not polling very well with, that, if he is not re-elected, their cities are going to be overrun by looters and people intent on engaging in violent activity.
ALLEN: Right. He recently sent a message to suburban moms about, you better watch out, you're not safe in the suburbs.
Do you think he sees fear of unrest as his ticket to a second term? MARTIN: Oh, absolutely. He made that very clear during the four days of that RNC convention that we watched. We watched speaker after speaker, you know, talk about this, these mobs that are going to somehow invade the suburbs.
Even before the convention, we saw him tweeting to suburban women, again, in this antiquated notion that somehow the suburbs look the way they did in the 1950s, that these all-white housewives in the suburbs who are fearful of immigrants and fearful of African Americans and Latinx people, and he is he so tone-deaf.
When you talk to people who live in the suburbs, the suburbs are so diverse, they have immigrants, they have African Americans. The women that living in the suburbs are educated. They are moms. My conversations with them, their biggest issue isn't some mythical mob that's going to invade their communities but it's COVID-19, which has their kids home from school and which has, you know, upended their entire lives.
He doesn't seem to get that, that the suburbs of the 2020 are not the suburbs of the 1950s.
ALLEN: Well, Trump and Pence say Biden wants to defund the police. But Biden has stated clearly he is not for that.
Do you think Biden and Harris will be effective in debunking the Republicans' claim?
MARTIN: I think so, Natalie. Trump and Pence and, again, many of his surrogates repeatedly make that statement about the Biden-Harris ticket being in favor of the notion of defunding the police.
Biden has said it over and over again, that he is in favor of looking at the systemic racism in police departments around this country. He is interested in looking how to reform police departments, particularly those that have had an issue with police brutality.
But he has made it very clear he does not support any efforts to defund the police. And Trump keeps making that misstatement and it keeps getting repeated over and over again. I think those voters who are listening are clear that that is not a premise of the platform for Biden and Harris.
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ALLEN: Well, as President Trump warns of crime taking over streets of America under Biden, statistics show, actually, a surge in violent crime has occurred this year in several American cities; that would be on President Trump's watch. The Chicago mayor has blamed guns coming in across state lines for it.
How might Trump counter that?
MARTIN: You know, that's the irony, Natalie. He keeps talking about this America under Joe Biden. The reality is, the America he is painting is happening on his watch. And he hasn't been effective in addressing the violence in the streets of Chicago.
In fact, his rhetoric is actually inciting the violence. He hasn't talked about the 17-year old in Wisconsin, who walked about brazenly with an automatic weapon and shot three people, killing two people.
So I think this message that Donald Trump is trying to communicate is going to backfire. People are far more sophisticated; they see what's happening in the streets. They can distinguish between peaceful protesters and those intent upon engaging in violent conduct.
And they can see that this, you know, world that he says is going to exist under Joe Biden is the world that Donald Trump is -- that we are living in today. And he is the president of the United States.
ALLEN: We always appreciate your insights. Thanks for joining us. Areva Martin. Thank you, Areva.
MARTIN: Thank you, Natalie.
ALLEN: U.S. intelligence has already warned of interference from Russia, China and Iran in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. But Congress will no longer get in-person briefings on the matter from the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, right there.
His office informed both the U.S. Senate and House Intelligence Committees on Saturday that future updates will be made only in writing. That means U.S. lawmakers will be denied the opportunity to hold hearings and question Ratcliffe about foreign interference.
Democrats, who had been expecting a briefing next month, were outraged.
House intelligence chairman Adam Schiff tweeted, "As usual, President Trump is lying and projecting. Trump fired the last DNI for briefing Congress on Russian efforts to help his campaign. Now he is ending briefings all together. Trump doesn't want the American people to know about Russia's efforts to aid his re-election."
President Trump claims it is because classified information is being leaked from the committees, although he offered no evidence of that. Independent senator Angus King accused the administration of withholding vital information at a crucial time.
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SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME): We, the people, should have the benefit, the knowledge that that intelligence. Brings learning about it next February or March doesn't do much good. We're talking about interference with our election this year, which we know is going on. The intelligence community has already told us that.
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ALLEN: President Trump's Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, delivered swift condemnation in this statement. It reads, "For his administration to constrain the information being
provided to the people's representatives in Congress, as this national security threat multiplies, especially given Donald Trump's unprecedented welcoming of these assaults on our democracy for his own gain, is deeply alarming. This should be reversed immediately."
President Trump visited the U.S. Gulf Coast to tour the damage left by Hurricane Laura. We will have more about his visit there and efforts to help the people.
Plus, American college campuses are becoming new hot spots for the coronavirus. The latest in the U.S. and around the world just ahead here. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.
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ALLEN: U.S. military officials say two Russian fighter jets made a, quote, "unsafe, unprofessional intercept" of a U.S. B-52 bomber on Friday. The U.S. flight was taking part in a show of solidarity with NATO, flying over 30 countries. The close encounter happened over the Black Sea. CNN's Barbara Starr has more about it.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: What apparently happened is two Russian pilots, their fighter jets, crossed within 100 feet of the nose of the U.S. B-52 bomber, multiple times. That caused turbulence, making it difficult, the Pentagon says, for the B-52 to actually correctly maneuver.
The Pentagon, calling this unsafe, unprofessional action, by the Russians.
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ALLEN: Russia has had these dangerous close encounters before with American aircraft.
The storm-stricken U.S. Gulf Coast is cleaning up after the category 4 Hurricane Laura roared through last week. President Trump toured some of the most damaged areas Saturday. He talked about how he thought federal agencies were handling the disaster.
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TRUMP: FEMA has delivered 2.6 million leaders of water and 1.4 million meals. That's a lot of meals. Pretty busy, I guess, hey?
That's incredible. Great job. You people are incredible. I've haven't had one complaint, with all of the storms we've had in Texas and here, I've not had one complaint. You've done a hell of a job.
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ALLEN: More than 465,000 homes and businesses are still without power in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. And some areas are so devastated, the energy infrastructure will have to be completely rebuilt before power can restored. For more about it, here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Orange, Texas, a small town on the border of Louisiana, this area was hit by Hurricane Laura, behind me, a grocery company, HEB, a large company in Texas, doing something wonderful.
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TUCHMAN: They are feeding thousands of people.
Stores and restaurants are closed because of the hurricane. Many people are without water. So what they are doing, is they are giving hamburgers, French fries, salads, water and ice to hundreds of people coming in cars. The cars are lined up for blocks to get this food and water. And they are very grateful. It is good to see this.
Right near where we are, President Trump was here earlier in the day. He had a meeting with officials here in Texas, emergency officials. Before, that he was in the state of Louisiana right across the border only about a 40 minute drive away.
In the city of Lake Charles, some 78,000 people that may be the most hardhit area from this hurricane. The fact is, hundreds of homes have been totally demolished, thousands of homes have been damaged and right, now there is no power in the city and no water. It makes it very difficult.
A lot of hurricanes we cover, power goes out; that's very common and it'll take weeks to get back. That's what will happen this time. But it's unusual to have everyone without water. But water plants were demolished so it's a very difficult time for people, in this very hot weather, they have no water, they have no power and many people right now, are homeless.
The president toured an area in Lake Charles, saw some of the devastated homes, saw the trees down, saw the power lines. He got an idea, he also talked to politicians in Louisiana. He praised the work of his emergency officials, emergency funding is on its way to Louisiana and Texas.
What we can tell you is this. It is tragic. The death toll, 12 people in the state of Louisiana, three in Texas. But it is relatively low considering that this was the strongest hurricane to hit the state of Louisiana in 150 years. It was even stronger than Hurricane Katrina, 15 years ago, exactly 15 years ago, which caused so many deaths between 1,200-1800 people were killed in Louisiana and Mississippi, from Hurricane Katrina. So this was a stronger storm, people took it very seriously, they are
still searching for missing people, we hope, we just hope that the death toll doesn't go much higher than this -- this is Gary Tuchman, CNN, in Orange, Texas.
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ALLEN: A hospital in Israel has found a clever way to give coronavirus patients some company. We'll have that story next.
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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.
We want to recap our top story, a chaotic night of violence and death in Portland, Oregon. Police were investigating a homicide after a person was shot and killed downtown.
The killing came amid fierce and violent clashes between Trump supporters and anti-racism protests protesters in the city. To be clear, we are waiting to see if police believe the shooting is related to the unrest.
Fights broke out after a huge caravan filled with supporters of President Trump rolled into town earlier Saturday. It was met by furious counterdemonstrators.
There are now 25 million coronavirus cases in the world. And it took the world less than one year to get there. That according to Johns Hopkins University, which also counts more than 842,000 global deaths.
The most confirmed cases are right here in the United States. The U.S. is very close to reaching 6 million coronavirus cases and the country has more than 182,000 deaths.
Meantime, cases are flaring up on college campuses across the country. The University of Alabama says more than 1,000 students on just one of its campuses have tested positive since classes resumed less than two weeks ago.
It's not just U.S. college students who don't want to follow public health guidelines. Thousands in London came out against COVID-19 restrictions and the government's handling of the pandemic.
There were similar scenes in Paris and Zurich. In London's Trafalgar Square, protesters called for an end to lockdown, social distancing, mask-wearing as well as track and trace systems. This, even though the U.K. continues to see a rise in virus infection rates. Protests against social distancing and mask-wearing also happened in
Germany. But as CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports, there is a lot more at play here than what you might think.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Tens of thousands of people came here to the center of Berlin to protest against the coronavirus restrictions of the German government.
However, the protesters didn't just come from all over Germany; they came from all over Europe. Certainly there were people holding the flags of many European countries and the flag of Russia as well.
Now the people here say they want to get rid of some of the coronavirus restrictions that have been put in place by the German government, like physical distancing, like for instance, wearing masks in areas where you can't physically distance as well.
Now the Berlin authorities didn't want this demonstration to take place. They originally banned this demonstration, however a court before the demonstrations started said that it can take place.
However in the middle of the demonstration, authorities came in and said the people weren't physically distancing and they weren't wearing masks so that's why the Berlin administration stopped this demonstration from happening.
But as you can see, many people here turned out and stayed until well into the afternoon to speak their mind and to say they believe that the coronavirus restrictions that have been put in place by politicians in Germany but in other countries as well are excessive -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
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ALLEN: A recent study published in "The British Medical Journal" seeks to further expand what is known about kids and COVID-19. It looked at children with coronavirus in hospitals around the United Kingdom and found that severe illness was rare and that death was exceptionally rare.
Joining me now to talk about it is Dr. Olivia Swann. She's the lead author on that study. She's also a clinical lecturer in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh.
Dr. Swann, hello. Thanks for coming. On
DR. OLIVIA SWANN, PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: Good morning, thank you for inviting me.
ALLEN: That study is encouraging news, especially at a time when we just heard more than 70,000 new cases in children have been reported across the U.S. since early August. Can tell us more about your findings regarding children and the
effects of COVID on them?
SWANN: Absolutely. So you're absolutely right. This was a large study across the U.K. across England, Scotland and Wales. And we looked admissions with COVID-19 in children under 19.
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SWANN: In 138 hospitals, we found children only made up a tiny proportion, less than 1 percent of all admissions across all age groups to hospital with COVID.
As you said, the death was exceptionally rare amongst children, less than 1 percent. Of this 1 percent of children died in hospital with COVID. Every death of a child with COVID is a tragedy, I'm not trying to downplay that but what I'm trying to say, is it really was staggeringly low, as opposed to the all age group at 27 percent.
ALLEN: And are the odds of severe disease and death low in children across all ethnicities?
SWANN: That's a really good question. One of the things that we looked at in our study was admissions to intensive care units. We found that there were a number of factors associated with an increased risk of a child needing extra care.
One of those factors, as you say, was ethnicity. So children with Black ethnicity were 3 times higher of needing critical care. But what I want to really stress is that the chance of children needing extra help was really very tiny.
So when we're talking about an increased risk of 3 times, if we think about it as the volume control on a radio, where you're going from zero to 100, these children are not going from 30 to 90, they're going from 1 to 3. So the absolute risk is tiny. But yes the increased chance in our study appeared to be related to ethnicity.
ALLEN: What are the underlying causes for children who do become severely ill from COVID-19, even though the numbers are low?
What are the causes?
SWANN: So the other factors that we found in our study were neonates, babies under one month of age.
Children 10 to 14 seem to be the group who seem to be associated with the inflammatory syndrome as well as children who are obese, those born prematurely and those with underlying cardiac and respiratory disease.
ALLEN: Another U.S. report, Doctor, a joint report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association showed child cases increased by 21 percent between August 6th and August 20th.
What is the likelihood that that could be related to young people returning to school?
SWANN: So our study didn't look at transmission dynamics. We are really just reporting on children who've already been hospitalized. I think an important thing is to say that although children do seem to be at lower risk of severe disease, it's not no risk. And there really should not be complacency about the things that we know work.
So social distancing and handwashing for example. I think those messages need to still be driven home at the same time as being reassured by the findings of this study.
ALLEN: We know the problem that the United States is having on college campuses right now. But these are young adults who, for the most part, aren't social distancing; they're going to parties, not wearing masks. That's different from younger children in school.
Talk about how susceptible young children are to getting COVID in the first place.
What would you tell a parent who is contemplating sending a child back into the classroom right now?
SWANN: So you're right. Our study only looked at young people up to the age of 19 so we didn't look at children of university age, young people of a university age in our study.
But what I would like to say is that I have children myself, I'm a children's doctor and a scientist.
With all of those different hats on, I find the numbers of this study and our findings very reassuring and I hope they serve to reassure parents being comfortable sending their children back to school.
ALLEN: I'm sure it will because, as you know, everyone wants their kids back in school. It's good for them and it's good for the parents. Everybody's been going kind of nuts the past few months.
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ALLEN: I'm sure you can. We want to do it safely. So thank you for your research and for sharing with us, Dr. Olivia Swann, thank you.
SWANN: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: One of the most devastating aspects of the coronavirus pandemic is how lonely it is for people who are sick. No doubt you have read countless stories about that.
In hospitals around the world, patients who are living their scariest moments are kept apart from visitors and loved ones. But one medical center in Israel is trying to change that. Elliott Gotkine has our story about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Israel has been hit hard by coronavirus. More than 100,000 people have contracted COVID- 19. Out of a population of just over 9 million, more than 800 have died.
Like hospitals the world over, Hadassah Medical Center isolates its coronavirus patients.
[04:40:00]
GOTKINE: They are not allowed visitors except in exceptional circumstances.
Now though, thanks to a new initiative, there is one other group of people who are also allowed in.
GOTKINE (voice-over): Call them coronavirus veterans, people like Shuki Rock, who have recovered from COVID-19, giving them what medical evidence increasingly suggests is at least a measure of immunity for a short period of time.
Twice a week, he takes time out from his day job as a tech company product manager to volunteer.
SHUKI ROCK, CORONAVIRUS WARD VOLUNTEER: We go into the coronavirus wards here. Basically, do two main things. One is helping out with anything that is non-medical, getting a cup of coffee for those who can't get out of bed because they are too weak or just taking away, you know, trays of food after lunch, things like that.
Second aspect is, I'd say, more moral-mental-emotional. You have people here who come in for a week or two, sometimes even more, and they are alone.
GOTKINE (voice-over): Shuki says his own experience of the virus when he and his wife were ill compelled him to act.
ROCK: We were sick for about a month. During that time, we just got so much help from friends and family that just left food on our doorstep, did shopping for us. And we understood the feeling of being assisted and helped.
When we saw this post on Facebook, saying that Hadassah started this project of having coronavirus veterans going into the wards here, we looked at each other and we said, you know, this is where we give back.
GOTKINE (voice-over): Simply being with the patients may seem like a small gesture but it has a big impact.
DR. REY ALON, HADASSAH MEDICAL CENTER: It was really a huge difference for the patients so they don't feel alone. Someone can pray with them, can give them food, help the nurses, they are running around with a lot of patients in the department.
GOTKINE (voice-over): Shuki, who has his blood tested each month for COVID antibodies, now hopes other hospitals in Israel and around the world will follow Hadassah's example -- Elliott Gotkine, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Next here, the migrant crisis on the Mediterranean Sea is worsening. The latest rescue and the people with nowhere to go, we will have a live report for you on this in just a moment.
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ALLEN: A rescue boat in the Mediterranean, funded by British street artist Banksy, was so overcrowded with immigrants it needed help itself. The people and families onboard were transferred on to two other boats. The United Nations Refugee Agency says the migrants must be allowed to disembark in a port as soon as possible.
CNN contributor Barbie Nadeau is following the story from Rome.
What more do we know about these people and where they might be heading next, Barbie?
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This particular boat is symptomatic of a very much larger problem. Just because there is star power involved in this one that we are paying attention to it, but we had boats coming from across North Africa, across the sea the last couple of weeks, with greater intensity.
And the people on this particular boat need safe harbor. There are storms in the sea predicted for this week but Italy has been resistant in allowing migrants to come in under the excuse of COVID essentially.
And so it's going to be very, very difficult for them to find a safe harbor. But we had over the last 24 hours more than 500 people in 30 small boats arrive on the island. Those people were given safe harbor to save their lives.
This boat will eventually find a home. There is no question. It will probably through the collaboration of other European nations that take a dozen here, a dozen there. But it's indicative of a larger problem, as is always the case, Natalie.
ALLEN: Absolutely. The migrants keep coming. Barbie Nadeau, thank you so much.
Next here, a little penguin is the only one of its kind in Australia. How caretakers are using technology to connect the little guy with his fellow penguins. We'll have that one for you in just a minute.
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ALLEN: The NBA resumed its playoffs Saturday after postponing nine games in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake.
And this powerful moment at the NBA bubble in Orlando, Florida, this afternoon.
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ALLEN (voice-over): The Milwaukee Bucks and Orlando Magic kneeled during the national anthem; also kneeling in unity, players, coaches and game officials.
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ALLEN: Now remember in normal times the Milwaukee Bucks arena is in Wisconsin, less than 50 miles from the scene where Jacob Blake was shot by police seven times.
Hurricanes and fires are just some of many threats to the world has had to face in this year of 2020. It has been an incredibly difficult year, to say the least, not just for humans but for the planet we live on as well. CNN's Bill Weir brings us up to date on the current state of our climate crisis.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Between a shattered Gulf Coast in the South, a million-acre gigafire out West and 10 million acres in the heartland, you will be forgiven for not noticing the typhoon that just hit Asia, the fear of a dam failure in China, heat waves in the Arctic and plagues of locusts from Africa to India.
The words "Biblical proportion" come to mind this month. But even the plagues of Egypt didn't come all at once.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of the world's scientists continue to remind us that this is only going to get worse until humanity can figure out a way to power our lives without using fuels that burn.
KATHARINE HAYHOE, TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY: For so long, in studying climate change, we are studying the future. Now the future is here.
WEIR (voice-over): But watching the Republican National Convention, if you didn't know, you wouldn't know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Democratic Party of Joe Biden is pushing the so-called Green New Deal.
WEIR (voice-over): Even when Iowa senator Joni Ernst brought up the 140-mile-per-hour winds that ripped apart her state... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About one-third of our crops here were damaged.
WEIR (voice-over): -- she made no mention of climate change but mocked Joe Biden's ambitious climate plan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If given power, they would essentially ban animal agriculture and eliminate gas-powered cars.
WEIR (voice-over): There is no mention of cow or car bans in the Green New Deal resolution but it does lay out the urgent need to move to clean power ASAP and to get ready for what the U.S. military has long called a threat multiplier.
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Something's happening. You know, Bill, you know, right after Katrina, we had Rita.
WEIR (voice-over): Fifteen years ago, Lieutenant General Russel Honore took command of Operation Katrina after a botched federal response.
HONORE: One of your colleagues asked me, said, Do you think we have just had two hurricanes?
You think any of this have anything to do with global warming?
And I was stunned. And I gave him some smart answer. And I was haunted for days after that.
WEIR (voice-over): He says it was the first time he realized that the warnings of science are already coming true and, if he could take command now, he would put the nation to work, bracing for what is inevitable.
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HONORE: Most of our dams and bridges are rated D or C. We had one break last year up in Michigan.
Fix the dams. Fix the roads. Raise the highways. Start with culture and the economy. I think our future economy can be driven by finding solutions to pollution.
WEIR (voice-over): And often lost in the politics is how much progress is happening between the storms.
HAYHOE: They don't know that 70 percent of new electricity being installed around the world now is clean energy. They are unaware that solar energy plus storage is actually cheaper than natural gas in California or that Texas has more installed wind energy than any other state in the country or that Texas has the first carbon-neutral airport, DFW, or the biggest Army base in the U.S., Ft. Hood, is supplied by wind and solar energy. The reality is that the solutions are already here.
WEIR (voice-over): A reminder for future generations that this was the year America decided how much pain it is willing to swallow. WEIR: As another example of climate as a threat multiplier during a
pandemic here in California, folks are being forced to choose between the type of mask that helps protect against smoke but doesn't stop the spread of COVID or the kind that works against COVID but is useless with smoke.
And one other grim symbol in wine country, folks are really worried that the 2021 vintage will go down as the one that tastes like smoke -- Bill Weir, CNN, Napa County, California.
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ALLEN: Finally this hour, we got an animal story for you, it's a good one.
It can be a little lonely when you are the only one of your species in all of Australasia. The Perth Zoo says this fellow named Pierre has taken to liking a children's TV series about a family of -- guess what?
Penguins -- as well as documentaries about his own endangered species.
Look at him looking at the iPad. I can't believe it.
Pierre is a rock hopper penguin.
