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Beirut Rescue Effort Underway as Signs of Life Detected; COVID-19 Project: 400,000 American Deaths By January; Trump Mocks Biden for Wearing Mask as Pandemic Worsens; Russia's Sputnik-V Results Published. Aired 10- 10:45a ET

Aired September 04, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:17]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They believe that they detected a thermal imaging and some kind of sign of breathing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Signs of life a month after that terrifying blast, a heart beat detected in the rubble of a Beirut building.

We are live at the scene of the rescue effort.

Then an unthinkable projection -- COVID-19 could take the lives of more than 400,000 Americans by January.

Plus, results are out for the world's first approved coronavirus vaccine. Russia calling initial trials a success.

(MUSIC)

ANDERSON: It's 5:00 p.m. in Beirut, it is 10:00 a.m. in D.C. and 6:00 in the evening here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Becky Anderson. Hello and welcome to

CONNECT THE WORLD from our Middle East broadcasting hub.

Well, this hour, an entire country is hoping for a miracle. And the world is looking on in support. These are pictures of the around the clock rescue

attempts in the residential district of Gemmayze in Beirut after a heart beat and slow breathing were detected beneath the rubble there. The

pictures aren't live, these are from moments ago because the rescue crews have asked for cameras to go off while they use special equipment to check

inside the rubble.

Now, you'll remember that much of the city was totally destroyed by a mammoth explosion a month ago. But they have been searching through the

rubble for pretty much a day straight now. It is slow going as you can see. Much of the work is being done by hand. Careful, deliberate moves to clear

the shattered remains away.

Heavy machinery might be faster but could do more harm than good. But this being Lebanon, the efforts are tainted by politics. The investigation was

suspended by the government last night, only because of a protest that broke out on the side and the search team got back to work.

Well, CNN's senior producer Ghazi Balkiz is at the scene. In fact, he's been there pretty much all night, and he is on the phone with us as we

speak.

Do describe the scene for us, where you are now. What's going on?

GHAZI BALKIZ, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER (via telephone): Well, Becky, as you said, the people are holding their breath and even though there's no

survivors that they have found so far, people are hoping that after -- at the end of today, after two long, humid days, that some sort of life would

emerge out of the rubble. Now it's very clear if there's indeed a survivor under the -- it's unclear if there's a survivor. The location that emitted

the signs of life, that were detected by the devices, turned out to be empty.

However, they did -- they were able to find other signs of life here, using the machines in a different location in the building. And they are still

looking for a survivor, that's still there.

Another member of the volunteer rescue team working with the Chilean team said there could be someone alive. And the rescue dog that detected -- from

the beginning can still -- they will continue working even if it's 1 percent possibility to find somebody alive. Yesterday --

ANDERSON: Yeah, Ghazi, I know that one of the Chilean volunteers and I think the one you're alluding to said it's rare, but not unheard of for

someone to survive under the rubble for a month, which does sound miraculous. I guess that is what is giving people hope, Ghazi.

BALKIZ: That's absolutely true. I think in the situation that Lebanon is now, I think people are grasping at every glimmer of hope or good news that

they could find because of the blast that destroyed so many lives, because of the economic crisis that crippled the economy and changed people's live

in an unimaginable way. I think people are grasping or the any piece of good news.

So, people are really, really happy and wishing to hear good news at the end of the day, because it's not only about them, but the whole country

having a small piece of good news in a very long period of very, very bad, depressing news.

[10:05:15]

ANDERSON: Ghazi, furious onlookers last night or in the middle of the night, claiming that Lebanese authorities had suspended this rescue effort

at one point. We have had a statement from the army that refutes that, saying that the Chilean team stopped work half an hour before midnight for

fears that a wall might collapse endangering them.

Is it clear exactly what happened? There is clearly significant criticism of the authorities, across the board, of course, in this effort to rescue

and then rebuild Beirut.

BALKIZ: We were at the scene when all of this took place and apparently what the Chilean and other civil defense workers were on top of the

building or the rubble, one of the cracked walls moved about two centimeters which deemed the situation or the location too dangerous for

the rescue team to continue their work.

So they decided to come down from the rubble and they requested a crane to come and to help to help the big concrete slabs. And what happened is that

security forces of the Lebanese -- the security forces present on the scene said that they could only secure -- between the next morning and that

infuriated people who were at the scene. They started to chant against the government, saying if it was a son or daughter under the rubble they could

have -- they could have found resources to do so.

And they said that when they wanted to block off areas to prevent protesters from coming in -- when it comes to finding out if somebody is

alive or not, they were able to do it. And some volunteers climbed up on the rubble and they decided not to come down until the rescue operation

resumes. And it looks like the authorities came in to the people and resumed the operation around 2:30 a.m. and it continues until now -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Ghazi, we will keep monitoring what is going on at that site. Of course, you will be there on site for us and a glimmer of hope still in

Beirut. The scene at present suggests that the Chilean teams have taking down the effort just for the time being.

Certainly, the rescue though -- the potential rescue goes on and we will keep monitoring the story for you.

Ghazi, for the time being, thank you.

I want to get you to America now. There's simply a staggering new COVID-19 projection there. A key model used by the White House projects that 400,000

Americans will die from coronavirus by January 1st. That means the death toll will more than double over the next four months.

As part of that, the -- in December, 3,000 people will be dying from the virus every single day and the research center behind the model has

consistently projected fewer deaths than there have ended up being. So, the actual number of deaths can go much higher.

So, all that only putting more pressure on the country and the race for a vaccine.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Now 892 people are dead every day and every day that we can be faster, we try to be faster. For us, there's

absolutely nothing to do with politics and many of us may or may not be supportive of this administration. It's irrelevant, frankly.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, to be clear, these dire predictions can be changed. Simple measures by the public could make a drastic difference. A model shows that

more than 120,000 of those lives could be saved if everyone just wore a mask.

But that's not the message that anyone is getting from the American president. He has been mocking his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, for

wearing a mask.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him? And then he makes a speech -- not always,

but a lot of times he has it hanging down, because you know what? It gives him a feeling of security. If I were a psychiatrist -- right? I would say -

- I would say this guy has some big issues, hanging down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:10:05]

ANDERSON: The president of the United States in the midst of a pandemic that's killed nearly 187,000 Americans using mask wearing as a punch line.

White House correspondent John Harwood is joining me now.

Even with so much death from COVID in the U.S., a new CNN poll, John, showing that only 3 out of 10 Trump supporters are worried about the virus,

versus 8 out of 10 Biden supporters. So perhaps the more flippant attitude is one that resonates and therefore is at least understandable to his

administration and supporters.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No question about it, Becky. This is why the president's leadership has been so ineffective. He has not

been willing to push the steps necessary to get on top of the pandemic in part because he was worried about interfering with the economy that he had

hoped would be his main argument for re-election.

Now the economy is in very bad shape, the unemployment rate though it was down to 8.4 percent in the United States today remains twice as high as it

was at the start of the year. We have 11 million fewer jobs.

And so, the president has been short sighted about this, thinking that he had to get the economy open more rapidly to preserve his chances. But it

makes the dealing with the pandemic much more difficult.

The second thing is he's turned it into the culture war issue to try to rally his base against the smarty pants public health experts in the cities

who are recommending mask wearing and trying to provoke, you know, you heard him there trying to promote a -- provoke a snickering reaction from

his followers, but that is not the way to get on top of the epidemic. In fact, some of his followers are paying with their lives for that attitude,

for his failure to promote public health measures that would be more successful.

ANDERSON: I was interested to read our colleague Stephen Collinson who said and I quote: In the seven days since the Republican convention, the

president has come perhaps as close as he's ever has to a full derailment.

Just explain what's going on behind the scenes at the Oval Office, if you could, right now.

HARWOOD: Well, Becky the president is in a difficult position. He had his convention. It was a successful convention by the standards of put on a

show and delivering a message. There was a little bit of outreach to people not now supporting him, but mostly trying to fire up his base which is

predominantly white working class voters.

We have seen since the convention that he's not moved the poll numbers, he remains substantially behind Joe Biden nationally and in the decisive

states. He was hit last night with an extremely damaging story in "The Atlantic" in which sources told our colleague Jeffrey Goldberg that the

president had derided people killed in service to their country -- service to the United States in war as suckers and losers.

The president had a furious denial of that story today, but he's not been defended by high-ranking military officers and the comments that he was

quoted as making are consistent with things that he said about John McCain publicly when he was running for president.

So, the president's flailing around trying to get a message out. But it is not resonating and he is taking serious incoming fire that is only

solidifying the difficulty of the re-election campaign.

ANDERSON: It's a two-month sprint to the White House for either the incumbent or Joe Biden. The campaign has kicked off with North Carolina

mailing ballots to voters today.

Now, John, this comes as the Department of Homeland Security warns that Russia is amplifying false claims that mail-in voting will lead to

widespread fraud. Those are claims being made repeatedly by President Trump.

How big of a role will mail-in voting play in this election and do the American people trust the process?

HARWOOD: Well, the president's trying to make them distrust it. They have trusted it. Mail-in voting has been on the rise in American elections for a

couple of decades now. 2016, about 1 in 5 votes in the presidential election was cast by mail.

Five states before the pandemic conducted all of their elections by mail.

[10:15:02]

It's done smoothly. There's not been widespread fraud.

But what's happening now is that the president because he's losing is trying to discredit the outcome of the election. And raise clouds over the

entire process and he's amplifying Russian propaganda in doing this.

This resembles what happened in 2016. Russia benefits by dividing the United States. Donald Trump is a divisive figure. They tried to get him

elected. He -- they assisted his election. He was elected. He's taken actions to benefit Russia since he was elected and now they're trying to

foster his re-election again.

So the messages of Russia and the messages of the Trump campaign and Republicans aligned with the president from U.S. Senator Ron Johnson of

Wisconsin who's conducting an investigation that amplifies Russian propaganda to Attorney General Bill Barr who amplified Russian propaganda

about mail-in balloting on our air with Wolf Blitzer a couple of days ago, that messaging goes hand in glove with one another. It's not working so

far, but two months to go.

ANDERSON: Joe Biden was in Kenosha in Wisconsin yesterday, a couple of days after the U.S. president.

Just have a listen, John, to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, I think all of what's been unleashed with a lot of people is they understand that fear

doesn't solve problems. Only hope does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Others will say that fear absolutely sells though when it comes to the U.S. politics.

How will Joe Biden's narrative play from here on in?

HARWOOD: Well, it's playing very well so far and partly because, Becky, Americans are exhausted, they're worn down by the turmoil, the

divisiveness, the toll of the pandemic both in health terms and the economy. The president has plainly failed to get control of the pandemic,

so both by his behavior and by his performance in office he has been extremely unpopular throughout his term. But that unpopularity has been

solidified by his conduct over the last few months.

There was an ABC poll that came out today that Americans were asked, are President Trump's comments about protests in American cities helping or

hurting? Thirteen percent of Americans said his comments were making things better, 55 percent said that they were making things worse. That tracks Joe

Biden's advantage in the polls which in the average of the polls is seven or eight points right now. He's right around 50 percent.

So Biden's message of unity and healing has been playing quite well so far. President Trump's trying to change the equation by ramping up the fear. We

will see whether that is successful or not.

ANDERSON: John, always a pleasure. Thank you.

Well, more on the virus ahead as Russia get out of mass vaccination, following a study into its COVID trials. What the study said is next.

And, Russia can do anything. That is the claim from the wife of Aleksandr Litvinenko, poisoned in 2016. She speaks out about the Navalny case. We

will speak to her during this show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:46]

ANDERSON: This hour, the pride of a nation is not in a show of a military might or the unveiling of a monolith. Instead, these days at least, it is

in the results of a medical trial. Russia says it plans to begin mass trials as soon as next week after the publication of a study into phase 1

and 2 of its COVID-19 vaccine trials.

The study says the vaccine generated crucial immune response needed to protect the body from COVID-19, but Moscow has been come under fire for

being too hasty for phase 3 of the process not being complete.

Matthew Chance has been covering Russia's vaccine race from day one, joining us now from Moscow with the latest.

The CEO of the fund backing this vaccine says the results from phase 1 and 2 are and I quote him here, a powerful response to skeptics who

unreasonably criticized the Russian vaccine. Phase 3 as I understand it to be published in October or November.

Is it clear where Russia expects to distribute this vaccine?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the controversial thing. Even though it's only today that the data from the

first clinical trials have been made public, published in "The Lancet," that very prestigious medical journal and even though phase 3 trials have

not yet finished and may not even be properly under way yet, the government has already approved the vaccine for use inside Russia.

It's identified front line health workers like doctors and teachers and people in the military as being the people that are being administered the

vaccine. In fact, on state television this morning it was filled with the images of the defense minister, Sergey Shoygu, getting a vaccination. The

mayor of Moscow appeared on television, telling Vladimir Putin that he had also had the vaccination as well.

So, it's already -- it's already out there. You're right. The Russians are saying the fact that these test results -- these clinical trial results

have been put out there confirms the high safety and efficacy of the Russian vaccine. That's another quote from Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the

sovereign wealth fund that's funding this vaccine research.

And indeed, there's some good news. "The Lancet" says that the vaccine shows no serious side effects, it seems to be pretty safe and it generated

the antibody response in the participants, only 76 people have taken part in the study so far.

And so, what "Lancet" points out is that way too few people to ascertain whether this vaccine actually prevents illness from COVID-19 at this stage

or not -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Well, we are going to speak to the chief of "The Lancet," where the latest results were published in the next couple of minutes.

So we'll leave that story for the time being because I wanted to also get from you what we are learning about the events that led to Navalny's

poisoning -- Alexei Navalny's poisoning. What do we know at this point, Matthew?

CHANCE: Well, Becky, we don't know a great deal except that within the past couple of hours the Russian investigative committee said it started an

investigation into the hospitalization of Alexei Navalny. That might be, you know, the first step towards trying to get to the bottom of what

actually occurred in Siberia that led to him falling so ill with what the German doctors have said is the poisoning by the nerve agent Novichok.

You would think that Alexei Navalny because he's such a controversial dissident in this country, they can find out what happened to him almost

immediately because he's watched almost 24/7.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice-over): There's no need to blame the Russian state says the Kremlin. But for years, state surveillance of Alexei Navalny fighting for

his life in a German clinic appears to be constant.

[10:25:01]

This slick documentary broadcast in 2017 uses surveillance videos of Navalny with his family, provided by the Russian security services, one of

the filmmaker's told me, to suggest the anti-corruption campaigner lives in luxury.

DMITRY BELOUSOV, FORMER PRO-KREMLIN JOURNALIST: It was spy videos of meetings, Navalny with other politicians. It was a kompromat about where

you got money. Main message: where are you, Alexei Navalny got money.

CHANCE: The idea of course was to discredit his popular anti-corruption campaigns that have made Alexei Navalny a painful thorn in the Kremlin's

side. Even during his latest trip to Siberia, his colleagues say he was closely monitored, openly filmed in the streets as he recorded the

investigation.

Just days later, Navalny was writhing in agony, being stretchered off a plane, forced to make an emergency landing on the way back to Moscow.

German officials say he was poisoned with a nerve agent. The Kremlin insists no toxic substances were found in his body.

BELOUSOV: All kinds of his life were open to the FSB. It was a message, we are watching you all from the FSB.

CHANCE (on camera): So if they're watching him all the time, if Alexei Navalny was poisoned, then presumably the people watching him would have

seen that happen, wouldn't they?

BELOUSOV: Exactly. If they're watching for every step of him, they must know who and when did it. They must know. They must know.

CHANCE (voice-over): Surveillance operations say the Kremlin were a matter for the secret services alone, not approved by them. But for a man watched

as closely as Alexei Navalny, it's hard to imagine his poisoning could have been missed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: Well, Becky, there's been broad international condemn nation of the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. Even the White House has joined in on

that, although President Trump has remained silent on the issue.

The big question now is what consequences if any the Russian state may face as the United States, the allies and others get together and decide what

their response should be -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Matthew Chance is in Moscow for you. Thank you, Matthew.

The next hour, I'm going to speak to the widow of the former Russian double agent who was poisoned in 2006. We'll hear what she has to say about the

poisoning of Alexei Navalny.

(COMMERCIOAL BREAK)

[10:30:08]

ANDERSON: All right. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson for you.

Back to where one of the top stories now. The key model used by the White House to -- a key model, at least, that's used by the White House predicts

that more than 400,000 Americans will die from the coronavirus by January the 1st. Experts in the U.S. are concerned COVID-19 cases could spike

following the Labor Day weekend this weekend and are urging Americans to be vigilant over the holiday.

CNN's Nick Valencia reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This morning, a grim outlook for the United States. As one updated model projects the U.S. death

toll could reach over 410,000 by January 1st. But also suggests consistently wearing masks could save about 122,000 lives in that time

period.

Dr. Anthony Fauci hopes Americans will practice safety guidelines this holiday weekend to avoid similar spikes seen after Memorial Day and the 4th

of July.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We don't want to see a surge under any circumstances. But

particularly as we go on the other side of Labor Day and enter into the fall, we want to go into that with a running start in the right direction.

We don't want to go into that with another surge that we have to turn around again.

VALENCIA: Health officials like Fauci pleading with young adults to be careful.

In Missouri, the governor reporting nearly 7,000 people between 18 and 24 tested positive in August alone.

GOV. MIKE PARSON (R), MISSOURI: As of late, approximately 30 percent of the new cases have been among this age group.

VALENCIA: Students returning to campus, turning some college towns into coronavirus hot spots. In Upstate New York, SUNY Oneonta suspended in-

person learning for the rest of the semester.

The university reporting over 500 cases since the start of the academic year. At the University of Georgia, nearly 800 students reported cases.

And on Tuesday, the Ohio State University reporting 191 new cases in a 24- hour period.

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R), OHIO: And to our friends and colleagues, you know, again, we ask you to be careful because while all of us when we were your

age thought we were invincible, you can pass this on.

VALENCIA: This as the race to find the vaccine presses forward. Pfizer says it could know if it's treatment is safe and effective by the end of

next month. Their CEO insisting they will not cut corners before submitting for approval.

Meanwhile, President Trump saying a vaccine could be ready for the election, one of those leading operation Warp Speeds effort to find a

vaccine, says, that's extremely unlikely.

MONCEF SLAOUI, OPERATION WARP SPEED: There's a low, low chance that the trials we are running as we speak could read before the end of October.

VALENCIA: Dr. Fauci agreeing that the timeline will likely stretch into the end of next year.

FAUCI: Most of us project that's going to be by November, by December, by the end of the year. Could this be earlier, sure. It is conceivable you

could have it by October though I don't think that's likely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: That was CNN's Nick Valencia reporting.

While America goes full speed ahead trying to put the vaccine together, Russia, as we have been reporting, says it already plans to begin mass

trials as soon as next week after the publication of a study into its COVID vaccine. The results say it did indeed generate an immune response in phase

1 and 2 of its trial. Phase 3 though is still not complete.

Well, my next guest is editor in chief of "The Lancet" where these latest results were published. Richard Horton joins me now from London.

And it's a pleasure to have you on, sir. For our audience at home, do we have a COVID vaccine? Can we say that now?

RICHARD HORTON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE LANCET: No, we cannot say that we have a vaccine that's ready for wide-scale public use. What we can say is

that this new Russian vaccine the results are encouraging, but it would be premature -- highly premature to think that this is the basis for a

successful vaccine for public use.

ANDERSON: Why? Why premature?

HORTON: First of all, this was a very small study. Just 76 volunteers, compare that with the Oxford vaccine study, that was over 1,000

participants. So, this is a tiny study. What it has established clearly is that the vaccine definitely elicits the immune response that you want it to

elicit.

It was quite a strong response and based upon these 76 participants, so far, the vaccine seems to be safe and free of any serious adverse effects.

[10:35:02]

But as you just said, we now need these large-scale randomized trials and they're ongoing. They are continuing in about 40,000 participants. They

have already begun in Moscow and we need to wait for the results of those studies before we can say anything more definitive.

ANDERSON: I made the point earlier in this show that the pride of a nation is not in a show of military might or the unveiling of a monolith at these

days. Instead, it seems to be the results of a medical trial.

How concerned are you about what is seemingly gearing up to be this race to be first?

HORTON: Yeah. I mean, I listen to the media briefing that was held today - - this afternoon in Moscow. And it was unfortunate, I think, because the way that the results were being presented was as a challenge to Western

science.

The presenters were saying that they have received a lot of criticism, this was the response to the criticism. Their vaccine was better than the

AstraZeneca vaccine and now up to AstraZeneca and Western scientists to answer to their citizens.

I think if we start setting nation against nation, vaccine against vaccine, company against company, this is going to completely undermine any kind of

rationale response. This is a global crisis, Becky. A global crisis needs a global response and a global solution.

We do want lots of vaccines coming in phase 3 trials because some are going to succeed, and some are going to fail. But this isn't a war between

countries, it should be about cooperation. So, I think it was unfortunate the way it was presented.

ANDERSON: Well, you might say tell that to the U.S. president. Here is his latest with regard to vaccines. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It will be delivered in my opinion, before the end of the year, but it might even be delivered before the end of October. How do you like that?

Wouldn't that be nice?

That would be nice. You know what? Not because of the election. It would be nice because we want to save people. That's why it would be nice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: When you hear the U.S. president -- yeah, go on, please, your response is what I'm asking.

HORTON: Well, I wish that it was true. Trials are ongoing in areas where there is high levels of community transmission. Brazil, South Africa, in

some European countries, in the United States. But we're not going to have those results through and be sure until the end of the year.

And then even when you have the results of a trial, you then have to go through those data meticulously, the regulators is going to ask many, many

questions to establish the safety, not just whether it works. And that process needs to take time to get it right because if we get it wrong,

Becky, if we make a mistake and license a vaccine too early, just think, we have already got the growing anti-vaccine movement which is extremely

disturbing.

We can't cut corners. There will not be a vaccine available for public use by end of the October. President Trump is simply wrong about that. And I

have no understanding why he's saying it, because his advisers will surely be telling him that that's just impossible.

ANDERSON: That's fascinating.

Final question to you and briefly, as I understand it, this is the first time that Russia data has been peer-reviewed, correct? Is that significant?

HORTON: It is significant and I am -- I compliment the Russian scientists, actually. The original announcement of the results of this study came from

President Vladimir Putin himself and I think that was highly regrettable to make those claims before there was a publication. Nevertheless, the Russian

scientists have subjected their data to international scrutiny.

The peer reviewers who studied this paper were all from outside of Russia and by doing so, they have succeeded in having their vaccine accepted in

the court of international scientific opinion. And that we need to move forward into the phase 3 studies. So it was a good start, as I say,

encouraging, but we're not quite there yet.

ANDERSON: With that we'll leave it there. It is always a pleasure. Thank you. Your insight is invaluable to the viewers.

HORTON: Thank you.

ANDERSON: All right. We'll take a very short break. Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Welcome back.

Here's riddle for you. What do dirty nappies, tennis rackets and waking up at 2:00 a.m. all have in common? Answer -- actually, for the answer, let me

bring in television's very own Don Riddell.

So, riddle for Don Riddell.

DON RIDDELL, CNN ANCHOR, WORLD SPORT: Yeah.

ANDERSON: Decipher it for me, if you will, sir.

RIDDELL: Well, you must be talking about the U.S. Open which served up an incredible trio of story lines yesterday. We already knew that the word

nine mothers starting in the singles draw at Flushing Meadows this year. We know what Serena Williams is capable of, of course.

But we had three moms winning their matches and making it through to the third round of the tournament, which is just a fantastic achievement and a

wonderful story and proof because it can be difficult for female athletes once they become moms to carry on with their careers at a high level. But

here we have these three ladies proving it is more than possible.

ANDERSON: Good on them.

Well, "World Sport" is up next. See you in about 15 minutes' time. Don is with you after the break.

(WORLD SPORTS)

END