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Russia Torches Village Outside Ukraine's Second Biggest City; Ginni Thomas Pressed Arizona Lawmakers To Overturn Biden's Win; Rudy Giuliani Meets With January 6th Committee For More Than Nine Hours; Depp's Former Friends, Associates Testify On Alleged Substance Abuse; JPMorgan Warns California's $6 Gas Could Spread Nationwide In August; Millions Of Afghans Face Dire Levels Of Hunger And Poverty. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired May 21, 2022 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:17]
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.
President Biden is in the middle of his first presidential visit to Asia but even there the Ukraine crisis is a top priority. Today in Seoul, South Korea he signed a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine. The bill was flown in from Washington showing just how time sensitive every bit of military support is for Ukraine.
This next round of assistance comes as Russia claims it destroyed a stockpile of weapons provided by Europe and the U.S. near Kyiv. Russia has also unleashed a fresh round of air strikes. You're seeing some of what we're talking about right there, including a missile strike on a cultural center in eastern Ukraine. That was the explosion you just saw a few moments ago -- actually you're seeing it right now.
Ukraine's President Zelenskyy calling this absolute evil. Also, Ukraine's last stand in Mariupol appears to be over. The remaining fighters at the steel plant there have surrendered. Russia is claiming victory in all of this. It would be Putin's biggest win yet in this brutal war.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh got a look at the brutality first hand after Russians dropped incendiary munitions on a village near Kharkiv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): Putin would choke the light and life out of here. We are driving into the smoke of an incendiary munitions attack we're told here against this civilian village. Homes, fields, even the air itself torched. Vera says she saw it falling from the sky and her neighbor hit.
VERA, TSYRKUNY RESIDENT (through text translation): Phosphorus or bright sparks of some kind were flying. That's a fire. Before that, a bomb landed there. It blew up three houses, I think.
WALSH: The incendiary munition, which burns hot through everything in its path, came after heavy normal shelling, which makes you question like so much here exactly why Russia needed to hit fire on top of heavy explosive.
It hit just 10 minutes ago, this man says, pointing the way. Some left bewildered, others in the first moments of shock.
Valentina is very matter of fact, as she describes what happened to Viktor in her neighbor's house.
VALENTINA, TSYRKUNY RESIDENT (through text translation): There was an explosion, smoke all around. He climbed into the attic to see if it was on fire. Immediately, there was another explosion in the yard. I shouted, Viktor. He's not there. I go to the attic, he's not there.
WALSH: She shows us the courtyard where a dead man lies, a large hole in his chest. An ear torn off. She points to the body just behind the tree and then says who he is.
VALENTINA (through text translator): He's my husband.
WALSH: Viktor had rushed to check on their neighbor's home.
Russia occupied here for weeks and as it retreats, these tiny corners of green where it visits its anger. Up the road towards Russia's last positions before the border, the shells land even closer.
Natalia's husband died in shelling weeks ago and their house is like almost everything here ruined.
NATALIA, CHERKASKI TYSHKY RESIDENT (through text translation): I have no strength or patience left after my husband was torn to pieces. You must understand how hard it is.
WALSH: For the weeks we're in here was occupied, she lived across the street from an enormous Russian base. Our guides from Ukrainian Rapid Response Unit are cautious. Fighting is intensifying up the road and they know the Russians got comfortable here. Their base even needed this aircraft warning device up high to tell Russian jets it was friendly.
(On-camera): This is their problem each time they move forward. Here they are in what was once a Russian position and look, look all around you, impossible to know who's really in control of this area with a fight happening just on the other side of the hill.
(Voice-over): The smell of corpses among the pines. Under every footstep the threat of mines.
(On-camera): Everywhere you look, foxholes, ammunition boxes, clearly a significant Russian base here. They're calling it a little town using this forest as cover but clearly hit really hard.
[16:05:05]
(Voice-over): The tomb of the unknown Russian soldiers, this says. Ghoulish relics here where it once buzzed with the brutish, clumsy task of besieging a city. Smoldering in the trees here but swallowed in that tall silence.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, outside Rus'ki Tyshky in Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Joining me now is CNN military analyst and retired lieutenant general Mark Hertling, former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and the 7th Army.
General Hertling, great to have you as always. Let's start with your reaction to the report we just saw. Just terrific reporting again from our Nick Paton Walsh. And then this Russian incendiary munition attack, torching a village, killing civilians. You know, we've reported on attacks on civilians before. This is again downright horrific.
I mean, are these attacks serving any purpose? I know we've asked you this before. It just seems just wanton destruction.
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It is a terror attack against the citizens, Jim. But it's also an attempt to intimidate Ukrainian forces, the constant artillery fire. You asked first if I've ever seen anything like this, I was just thinking to myself as I watched Nick, that brilliant report by Nick Paton Walsh, talking and walking through the forest.
You know, during my career I've done what the army calls staff rides where you go to past battlefields and walk. And that scene just reminded me of some of the places I've been in France, in Belgium, where we've looked at battles of World War I, World War II, where the same kind of terror and civilian involvement was portrayed, where civilians were sucked into the battlefield amidst the killings.
But the difference was that was maneuver fighting. Forces were going through the cities trying to attack one another. What it seems to be occurring now is this is denigrated to a stalemate where Russia is only attempting, not so much to hit the Ukrainian forces, but to destroy the villages, the way of life and the culture of the Ukrainian people. And that's what's so different about this and what is so horrific about the Russian way of waging war.
They also did this during World War II to Germany on the eastern front, but this is something where it seemed to be almost directly geared toward hurting Ukrainian population and culture as opposed to obtaining any kind of military objective or military advantage. It just boggles my mind as a soldier.
ACOSTA: And General, I mean, we've been showing this video throughout the program, of this attack, this cultural center being just obliterated by a Russian missile strike.
HERTLING: Yes.
ACOSTA: President Zelenskyy's office has called this evil, you know, but at the same time, a NATO official has floated this idea that Ukraine could recapture Crimea and Donbas. Is that a possibility? And what should the viewers do at home, General, when they see these catastrophic bombing attacks? You know, it obviously catches your attention and perhaps leads you to believe that, OK, perhaps the Russians can pull this out long term.
Then at the same time you have NATO officials saying, no, Ukraine is still positioned well to hand the Russians defeat after defeat after defeat.
HERTLING: And I believe the latter. This is just -- it is going again, Jim, it's going back to assaulting the culture of Ukraine, not attempting to gain any military objectives. When the Russian forces do try and maneuver, they gain ground to a degree, but then they're immediately pushed back. What we're going to see is much like the trench lines of World War II, we're going to see a little bit of a stalemate.
But I think what we're seeing is the advantage is tipping more and more toward the potential for the Ukrainian forces to maneuver. Do I believe as President Zelenskyy said that they're going to regain the territory that has been lost during the 2014 invasions by Russia both in the Donbas and Crimea? I think yes, there's a pretty good chance of that because Ukraine's forces are generating momentum where every indicator that we see from the intelligence sector is Russia is not only losing soldiers and equipment, but their morale is exceedingly low.
And in every kind of war crime we're seeing, the Ukrainian morale seems to get even stronger. That they want to take back their sovereign territory which is their strategic objective.
ACOSTA: Well, and that leads me to my next question. And I've been curious about this. Russia is claiming that the last Ukrainian fighters have surrendered at that steel plant in Mariupol. We've been focusing on this for weeks. We've been talking about it for weeks. It could mark a symbolic victory, I suppose, for the Kremlin.
[16:10:00]
But is it substantial enough to really do much of anything to impact morale? Again, are we sort of giving the Kremlin maybe more credit than it's worth here?
HERTLING: I'm giving the credit zero -- I'm giving the Kremlin zero credit, Jim. There were about 1500 soldiers, plus or minus 100 Ukrainian soldiers in that Azovstal plant. They held off between -- some estimates are between 12,000 and 14,000 Russian soldiers. This was a battlefield victory even though at the end the Ukrainian forces had to surrender because of a lack of supplies, food and water.
But they held out against probably close to 20 battalion tactical groups. They could have been used elsewhere in the fight and Russia could not regenerate those forces to go into the Donbas. So this fight in Mariupol is going to go down in Ukrainian history, I firmly believe, much like the battle of Baston, the battle of Trenton in New Jersey. You know, all of the historical battles of wars where there was
seeming defeat that was later turned into victory, I think this is going to live on in Ukrainian legend and heraldry in hundreds of years into the future of what those fighters did in Mariupol.
ACOSTA: I couldn't agree with you more. Absolutely. They've just fought heroically throughout all of this. It's just been an impressive sight.
General Hertling, great to have you on again. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.
HERTLING: Always a pleasure, Jim. Thank you.
ACOSTA: All right. Thank you.
Coming up, new e-mails revealing how the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas tried to upend President Biden's election victory in the key state of Arizona.
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[16:15:54]
ACOSTA: Newly revealed e-mails show the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas urged Arizona lawmakers to overturn President Biden's win in the 2020 election. According to e-mails obtained by the "Washington Post," Ginni Thomas asked two Arizona state representatives to set aside Biden's victory and choose a, quote, "clean slate of electors."
The revelations have led critics to question her husband's participation in a Supreme Court case earlier this year that rejected Trump's bid to withhold documents from the January 6th Committee investigating the insurrection. Thomas was the only justice to dissent.
And joining me now to talk about this, CNN political commentator Ana Navarro, and CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "TheGrio," April Ryan.
Ladies, always great to have you on especially together. It's always a fun discussion.
April, let me start with you first. How problematic is this for Justice Thomas? He's been out there on the speaking circuit lecturing everybody about this, that and the other thing, and then just more information comes out showing what Ginni Thomas has been up to. It's just incredible.
APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Right, the hypocrisy. I really wonder what kind of pillow talk these two have in the evenings when they're together. But what this does to all of these revolutions that the January 6th Select Committee is pulling out about Ginni Thomas is further -- calling Clarence Thomas into question about his integrity because of his close proximity to Ginni Thomas who happens to be his wife.
And then once it deals with Clarence Thomas and all that integrity issue, it moves a little bit over into the U.S. Supreme Court. How can he adequately lay down decisions, make decisions on various issues to include possibly January 6th issues when his wife has been said through documents from January 6th to have funded buses for January 6th? Talk to Mark Meadows asking now revelations that the Arizona numbers be overturned.
I mean, it brings into question the integrity of the court through Clarence Thomas who is the wife of Ginni Thomas.
ACOSTA: Yes.
RYAN: And the husband, excuse me, of Ginni Thomas.
ACOSTA: And Ana, I want to get you to chime in on Pennsylvania because this is a, you know, what took place in the Pennsylvania GOP primary this past week has just been on my mind for days and days now. Trump is pushing the candidate he endorsed Dr. Oz to declare victory in a Republican Senate primary that's expected to go to a recount. When the other candidate David McCormick was leading on election night, Trump wasn't saying stop the vote. And now of course he wants, you know, Oz to declare victory.
You know, during the 2020 election he was trying to say stop the count which obviously would have disenfranchised both Republican and Democratic voters. But in Pennsylvania he's just trying to deny the will of Republican voters in that primary.
And this is what the "Wall Street Journal" editorial board is saying, "If Mr. McCormick wins the final count, will Mr. Trump smear him as an election thief? Would GOP voters believe that nonsense? By taking a political hatchet to Mr. McCormick, Trump could discourage Republicans from supporting him in November giving away a winnable Senate seat."
Do they make a point there, do you think, Ana? What are your thoughts on all this?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Listen, Donald Trump, we know this, Melania knows this, everybody knows this, cares about one thing and one thing only, Donald Trump. And so he's looking at his win and loss sheet. Right? And so for him, it's not about Mehmet Oz. It's about I endorsed this guy, therefore it's my name, it's my record, it's how much I've won, how much I matter, how influential, how relevant I still am, how much I still own and dominate the Republican Party.
That's why he's pushing Mehmet Oz to declare victory, to say that there's cheating, to say this and to say that because it's all about how it reflects on Trump. That's why you see him abandoning Perdue in Georgia because that race and that -- which was an obsession of Trump's, right?
ACOSTA: Right.
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NAVARRO: We know he's been obsessed with Georgia. We know he's been obsessed with settling scores with Governor Brian Kemp because he thought he wasn't vocal enough and supportive enough during the challenges to Trump's elections. But he's now abandoned Perdue because anybody with two eyes, hell, anybody with one eye can see that Perdue is losing. Right? That corpse has begun to smell already.
So Trump has walked away from it, he's throwing him overboard because again it reflects on one thing. It reflects on Trump and the fact that this is going to go down in the loss column for Donald Trump, and it goes back to the narrative of how much does Trump still influence Republican primary voters. That's the only he cares about.
ACOSTA: Yes, and honestly, I mean, and we were seeing this with a different, you know, panel discussion in the last hour. I sort of feel like all this horse race talk is kind of a distraction from what is I mean, really, you know, a much more serious issue, and that is, I mean, just about every Republican candidate under the sun, nobody is repudiating Donald Trump. I mean, I can't think of anybody who's, you know, really repudiating Donald Trump.
And they're almost all election denialists and outspoken about, I think, April, with the exception of what's taking place in Georgia. And as Ana was saying, it seems David Perdue may have seen the writing on the walls, his campaign is spending zero dollars on TV ads for the entire last week of the race. I mean, he's had Trump's backing. He even had Sarah Palin come into town. Let's take a listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Kemp had opportunity to do something about the shenanigans that had gone on in this past election. I don't know why he was so hesitant, why, you know, he kind of just went along to go along, and that's unfortunate and we can count on David Perdue to do opposite of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: What do you think, April?
RYAN: The shenanigans. The shenanigans of it all. At the end of the day, Sarah Palin is trying to play cleanup. She is trying now, since Donald Trump has moved on, she's trying now to make sure that her name is out there yet again for whatever she wants to do and run for and see if it does work, that she could help bolster Perdue. And at the end of the day she's saying the old tried and true thing, the them versus us.
You know, the Democrats are hurting America. She's going back to what she stood on -- what she lost when she ran with John McCain for that presidential ticket, us versus them again.
NAVARRO: Listen, the other thing is, Sarah Palin was there for the closing event of Perdue's campaign. Right? There's two huge events, really significant events, important when it comes to how they're portrayed in the media for a campaign, the launch and the closer. That event, that Perdue closing event could have fit in a studio apartment in New York City and there would have still been room to spare. So, you know, it tells you everything.
ACOSTA: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
RYAN: It does tell you everything, but also --
ACOSTA: Go ahead, April.
RYAN: But also look at what Mike Pence did. Mike Pence is now basically crossing the line again saying that I'm standing with who? Kemp? Someone Trump didn't want. So the division within the Republican Party who stands for what is very interesting, whether it's closer, beginning, middle or end to watch the, quote-unquote, "shenanigans" is something to behold. It's news.
ACOSTA: Yes.
RYAN: More than (INAUDIBLE) to reality.
ACOSTA: And Ana, Marjorie Taylor Greene is spreading yet another conspiracy theory, this time, you know, just when you think it can't get more bananas, it can get more bananas. This time connecting the current monkeypox outbreak to billionaire Bill Gates. Let's take a listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Back in 2003 they went ahead and started talking about something called monkeypox. This is something that Bill Gates has certainly been talking about, monkeypox.
You know, Bill Gates, I want to remind everyone, he wants to grow fake meat in a petri dish and he wants us to drink poop water. So I don't know why we're letting Bill Gates decide our health decisions.
Bill Gates is very concerned about monkeypox because this is something apparently he can make a lot of money off of, and him and his other buddies, you know, all the Democrat donors that is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Yes, Ana, I don't know about monkeypox, but I have a migraine after listening to that.
NAVARRO: Listen, I even hate the fact that we're talking about it and that we're amplifying it because I just think it's so hurtful and so damaging when these ridiculous narratives are amplified. If you are getting your medical advice from Marjorie Taylor Greene, you should not be worried about monkeypox, you should be worried about brain damage.
ACOSTA: And -- (LAUGHTER)
ACOSTA: But, you know, but she's up for re-election, April.
[16:25:01]
And, you know, I -- is anybody going to be able to beat her? I mean, it's a safe red district this Republican primary. There are other candidates trying to take her out. What do you think?
RYAN: It's about the tolerance of that community. And we'll have to see. But let me say this to you, what she's spewing about monkeypox sounds so familiar when we started with COVID. What was it? A Democratic hoax from the president of the United States? She's starting that -- she's channeling what we have seen before, this theater that is detrimental to the health of America and particularly Georgians.
So the question is, what tolerance do they have from this speak from Marjorie Taylor Greene and this awful rhetoric that she's -- this divisive, racist, harmful health rhetoric that she's giving. That's the question.
ACOSTA: Yes. You saw the Republican Party knock Madison Cawthorn out of North Carolina.
RYAN: Yes.
ACOSTA: But they're not doing that with Marjorie Taylor Greene. It's fascinating to watch.
RYAN: Yes.
ACOSTA: All right, Ana Navarro, April Ryan, thank you very much, ladies. It's great to see both of you.
NAVARRO: Thank you.
ACOSTA: Really appreciate it. Good to see you.
RYAN: Thanks.
ACOSTA: And former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has finally answered questions from the January 6th Committee. Sources tell CNN Friday's interview lasted more than nine hours. Details now from CNN's Ryan Nobles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani may be one of the most important players in the investigation into what led to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th. And on Friday he met for the first time with the committee and it was a lengthy interview. We're told more than nine hours he was deposed by investigators for the committee. Now this came after Giuliani had a back and forth between the
committee, they had his deposition scheduled to happen, he backed out at the last minute because he wanted to record the deposition and then release the information on his own. The committee wasn't interested in that. They backed off and then had more negotiations that led to this deposition that took place on Friday.
Now Giuliani is an important player for a number of reasons. The most principal one being that he was at the center of this effort to undermine the 2020 election results. Serving as the president's personal attorney, he worked with a team of lawyers from all over the country to try and undermine election results in several swing states.
He also was behind some of the plots that involved trying to get the former vice president, Mike Pence, to prevent the certification of the election results, issuing a fake set of electors that senators could perhaps vote on as well as a number of other attempts at the state level to try and convince legislators to toss out election results.
And it's important because the committee truly believes that that activity, and the time between the election in November and what happened on January 6th, are definitively linked, that you don't have one without the other. And Giuliani was working on these efforts to undermine the election results right up until January 6th.
Now Giuliani has taken a different route than some other associates of the former president, who are very close to them including Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows who have both defied the committee's request to appear before them. They are now facing a criminal contempt of Congress charge. So the question is, what does the committee do with this information that Giuliani provided to them?
Of course, they do have a series of high-stakes public hearings that will take place in the month of June. And we'll have to see if what Giuliani told them this week will be any part of that report.
Ryan Nobles, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Coming up, actress Ellen Barkin taking the stand in Johnny Depp's defamation case against Amber Heard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELLEN BARKIN, ACTRESS: He's just a jealous man, controlling. Where are you going? Who are you going with? What did you do last night?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:33:06]
ACOSTA: The Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial featured key witnesses, including Depp's former friends and co-workers. They testified about the actor's alleged struggles with substance abuse. Next week, Depp will have a chance to respond to those claiMs.
CNN's Chloe Melas has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNNY DEPP, ACTOR: How are you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Johnny!
CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER (voice-over): Fans cheered on Johnny Depp as he arrived to court Thursday, but inside, it was silent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
MELAS: Jurors in the actor's defamation trial against his ex-wife saw a series of taped depositions describing Depp as increasingly difficult to work with.
JOEL MANDEL, FORMER BUSINESS MANAGER: It became clear over time that there were issues with alcohol and drugs. And that translated into more erratic behavior.
MELAS: Former friends and associates testified that their relationships with the actor had deteriorated and his career suffered as his substance abuse worsened.
Depp has instead alleged that it was a 2018 opinion piece Amber Heard wrote in "The Washington Post," which did not mention him by name, that falsely painted him as an abuser.
He claimed that caused him to lose out on a multimillion-dollar payday for a sixth "Pirates of the Caribbean" film.
But a longtime Disney executive couldn't recall having seen the article.
UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: Are you aware of any decision maker within Disney who has ever said they are not casting Johnny Depp in "Pirate 6" or any other role because of Amber Heard's op-ed?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
MELAS: Depp's former agent of 30 years said his alleged substance abuse issues contributed to his unprofessional attitude on set, including needing to wear an earpiece in order to be fed lines during filming.
[16:35:01]
TRACEY JACOBS, DEPP'S FORMER AGENT: Because his star had dimmed due to it getting harder to get him jobs, given the reputation that he had acquired due to his lateness and -- and other things.
MELAS: Depp's former business manager said he became verbally aggressive when confronted with his dire financial situation. MANDEL: Pretty strange in his relationship with Amber, the use of alcohol and drugs made my job more challenging.
MELAS: Depp sued Mandel's company in 2017, accusing him of mismanaging his finances. It settled in 2018.
MANDEL: The ability to coordinate and find times when he would meet became more difficult.
MELAS: Actress Ellen Barkin testified how Depp was drunk most of the time during their brief sexual relationship in the '90s.
ELLEN BARKIN, ACTRESS: Mr. Depp threw a wine bottle across the room, the hotel room on one instance in Las Vegas while we were shooting "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
MELAS: Barkin also said that he was jealous and controlling.
BARKIN: I had a scratch on my back once that I got him very, very angry because he insisted it came from me having sex with a person who wasn't him.
MELAS: One of Depp's former friends also expressed concern about his drug and alcohol use and testified that he had seen injuries on both Depp and Amber Heard at one point, including a bruise on Heard's upper arm.
UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: Can you tell me more specifics about that bruise, what it looked like?
BRUCE WITKIN, RECORD PRODUCER, FORMER FRIEND OF DEPP: Like I said, it just looked like she was grabbed. That's all. That's what I've seen the finger marks.
UNIDENTIFIED ATTORNEY: And did you ever talk to Amber about that bruise?
WITKIN: No.
MELAS: Depp has testified he never abused his ex-wife.
WITKIN: I've never seen them physically abuse each other, no.
MELAS (on camera): Now, one of the standout moments from Amber Heard's testimony when she stated that she had not yet completed her 2016 pledge of donating her divorce settlement pledged to the ACLU and the Children's Hospital, Los Angeles.
Monday begins the final week of the trial and the jury expected to begin deliberating on May 27th.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Coming up, gas prices in California soar above $6.00 a gallon as experts warn other parts of the country will be paying that much before you know it.
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[16:41:59]
ACOSTA: Every day it seems like it costs more to fill up your car. JPMorgan is warning there's a risk that the nationwide average cost of gas could be six bucks a gallon by August.
It's not just sky-high prices at the pump. Inflation has also driven up food prices.
CNN's Paul Vercammen joins me from a farmer's pantry in Los Angeles.
Paul, everybody is talking about this. It's all anybody talks about. Doesn't matter who they are, what kind of car they drive.
What are you hearing from folks?
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm hearing a lot of pain and misery. Look over my right shoulder. These are a;; mom-and-pop vendors that have come to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Farmer's Market.
Many drive from central California or other parts of California. They tell stories of, we used to pay $80 for a round trip and now it's $200.
You have people right over here, like Malick, who sells kettle corn. He makes several stops throughout the Los Angeles area in a given week.
He said, to run the generator and to buy the gas, suddenly, he finds himself barely scraping by. These are not huge margins these vendors make.
I'll ask a quick question for Malick.
What has this been like for you now that gas is at a record just under $6.10 a gallon in Los Angeles?
MALICK NDIAYE, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: To be honest, it's very challenging. You always have to look for the gas station that sells it less so you can save some money.
I can give you a quick example. On the generator that I use, it used to cost me about $13 to fill it up. Now it costs me about $23 to fill it up. Not even talking about the gas you have to put in your car.
So definitely, you're spending an extra $100, $150 a week just to try to get by. That definitely put a shrink on your profit.
VERCAMMEN: I super appreciate you taking time out.
If you talk to the people, many of them immigrants, by the way. Malick is from Senegal. We talked to other vendors from Mexico. They're just trying to make a living. It's not easy. Over my left shoulder, there's a bakery called Mommie Helen's Bakery.
They're telling us, look at this staple, something like sugar, dramatic increase.
Or the increase in peaches. It used to be about $5.20 a can, but now it's $8.00 and something. That's for their staple peach cobbler, Jim. Tough time at this farmer's market.
ACOSTA: That's right. As a result, people cut back, tighten their belts. You can see how this is going to have a ripple effect across the economy.
Paul Vercammen, thank you very much.
Tomorrow night, Stanley Tucci goes "SEARCHING FOR ITALY" in London, an unexpected mecca of amazing Italian food.
Here is a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STANLEY TUCCI, CNN HOST, "SEARCHING FOR ITALY": Speaking of family, Angela's mother, Juliana, Aunt Viv and Uncle Wren have arrived just in time to do the hard work of filling the unulini.
[16:45:04]
So you were all born here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get that great confusion between cultures of making pasta, drinking tea. It's crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the filling I made with Stanley earlier, mom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see what it's like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A bit more salt?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A bit more salt. That's fine. We can put a little bit more salt.
TUCCI: I'm getting the sense, in this family, Angela's Michelin Star doesn't count for all that much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a system.
TUCCI: It is a lot of work. This is what people did because you weren't doing everything else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone wants quick recipes. But actually, good recipes take time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little less on the filling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, don't go too big, Mr. Tucci.
TUCCI: I'm sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, honestly, turn your back for one minute and it all goes to pot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Be sure to tune in. "STANLEY TUCCI: SEARCHING FOR ITALY" airs tomorrow night at 9:00 right here on CNN.
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[16:50:44]
ACOSTA: Incredible images from Europe's tallest active volcano. Italy's Mt. Etna erupting, sending huge plumes of smoke and lava high into the sky. The volcano can erupt several times a year. Despite these ominous images, there's no direct threat to residents who live nearby.
Afghanistan's hunger crisis is no longer just desperate. It's a full- on catastrophe. The United Nations now says about half the population of Afghanistan is on the brink of starvation.
As CNN's Christiane Amanpour found out, the children are suffering most.
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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): Under a scorching sun, standing patiently for hours in organized lines, hundreds of newly poor Afghans wait for their monthly handout, men on one side, women on the other.
Here, the U.N.'s World Food Program is delivering cash assistance, the equivalent of $43 per family.
Khalid Ahmadzai is the coordinator. He says he's seen the need explode. And right from the start, the stories are dire.
KHALID AHMADZAI, WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: A few days ago, one woman came to me, and she told me that, I want to give you my son. Buy 16,000 Afghani. Just give me the Afghani.
And he was -- she was really crying. And that was the worst feeling that I had in my life.
AMANPOUR (on camera): Are you serious?
AHMADZAI: Yes, this is a serious thing that we had a distribution at the first day. So the hunger is too much high here. AMANPOUR: You know, we have heard those stories, but I have never heard it --
AHMADZAI: Yes.
AMANPOUR: -- from somebody who's actually seen it.
AHMADZAI: Yes. Yes. Yes, I have seen it. It's too much bad. And it hurts me a lot.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Everyone we met is hurting.
According to the International Rescue Committee, almost half the population of Afghanistan lives on less than one meal a day. And the U.N. says nearly nine million people risk famine-like conditions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
AMANPOUR: Khatima is a window.
"They should let us work because we have to become the men of the family so we can find bread for the children. None of my six kids have shoes. And with 3,000 Afghanis, what will I be able to do in six months' time?"
AMANPOUR (on camera): You just want work?
(voice-over): "I have to work," she says.
At this WFP distribution site in Kabul, you do see women working and women mostly with their faces uncovered.
Outside, Taliban slogans plastered over the blast walls tout victory over the Americans and claim to be of the people, for the people.
But while security has improved since they took over, the country is facing economic collapse.
And that shows up all over the tiny bodies we see at the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital. It's the biggest in Afghanistan, now heaving under the extra weight.
Dr. Mohammad Yaqob Sharafat tells us that 20 to 30 percent of the babies in this neonatal ward are malnourished.
Suddenly, he rushes to the side of one who stopped breathing.
For five minutes, we watched him pump his heart until he comes back to life. But for how long? Even in the womb, the deck are stacked against them.
DR. MOHAMMAD YAQOB SHARAFAT, INDIRA GANDHI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: From one side, the mothers are not getting well nutritions.
AMANPOUR (on camera): Wow. So it's a triple whammy. The mothers aren't nourished enough. SHARAFAT: Yes.
AMANPOUR: The economy is bad.
SHARAFAT: Bad.
AMANPOUR: They have too many children.
SHARAFAT: Children.
AMANPOUR: And they're overworking themselves.
SHARAFAT: Work.
So, all these factors together make the situations to they give birth premature babies.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Because they're under sanctions, the Taliban are struggling to pay salaries.
So the International Committee of the Red Cross pays all the doctors and nurses at this hospital and at 32 others across the country. That's about 10,000 health workers in all.
(on camera): Look at this child. He's 2.5 years old.
(voice-over): His name is Mohammed. He's malnourished.
(on camera): How much food is she able to give her child at home? Why does he look like this?
(voice-over): His mother says she's had nothing but breast milk to feed him, but now can't afford enough to eat to keep producing even that.
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It's the same for Shazia. Her seven-month-old baby has severe pneumonia. But at least she gets fed here at the hospital so that she can breast-feed her daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
AMANPOUR: "Back home, we don't have this kind of food, unfortunately," she says. "If we have food for lunch, we don't have anything for dinner."
(on camera): While we're here, the electricity has gone out.
(voice-over): "It happens all the time," the director tells us.
We watch a doctor carry on by the light of a mobile phone until the electricity comes back.
We end this day in the tiniest dwellings amongst the poorest of Kabul's poor. Waliullah and Basmina have six children. He tells us their 10-month- old baby is malnourished.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
While she prepares their meal of eggs, two small bowls of beans and two flatbreads, the 8- and 10-year-old are out scavenging wastepaper to sell and polishing shoes.
"I always worry and stress about this," says Basmina.
But she tells her kids --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
AMANPOUR: -- "God will be kind to us one day."
Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.
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