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Connect the World
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; Eritrean Troops Blocking Aid in Tigray; Nearly All Indian States under Lockdowns or Restrictions; Climber Witnesses COVID-19 Infections at Everest. Aired 10-10:45a ET
Aired May 13, 2021 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Mob violence in Israeli cities as the Hamas rocket barrage and Israeli airstrikes escalate. We are live on
the ground for you.
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NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The soldiers close in on us.
As we're called to one side, we turn on our covert camera.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Rare access as CNN takes you inside Tigray, making a stark discovery. Why and how aid is being blocked. That's ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON (voice-over): And Nepal calls on Everest climbers to send back oxygen tanks. The country running low on resources as COVID cases there
spike.
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ANDERSON: I'm Becky Anderson. Hello and welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD.
This hour, we're seeing the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians explode onto a new front, just hours after Israel launched more targeted
airstrikes on Gaza and militants fired more rockets into Israel.
First, that new front. Rioting and violent clashes through several Israeli cities with fighting between Arab and Jewish citizens, these scenes reveal
the situation in the city of Lod, not far from Tel Aviv.
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ANDERSON (voice-over): Here, another view of the unrest there. Other, more graphic videos show people badly beaten and hurt by multiple attackers
elsewhere in Israel; the country's prime minister calling them lynchings. We'll bring you that video later in this show. We are also seeing further
attacks on Gaza and on Israel.
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ANDERSON (voice-over): This is the rubble of buildings in Gaza taken out by Israeli airstrikes. The Israeli military says it has hit hundreds of
terror targets. The Palestinian health ministry now says 83 people have been killed. That number includes 17 children, kids, again, paying the
price of conflict.
In Israel, here the damage from a rocket that hit a residential building. Seven Israelis have been killed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON (voice-over): We are also tracking the push to end this fighting from the most powerful country on Earth. America's secretary of state
Antony Blinken talk with the Israeli and with the Palestinian leaders.
CNN's Ben Wedeman has been reporting from this region for an awfully long time and has seen many flare-ups before. He's in Lod for more with more on
those clashes.
And we'll get to you, momentarily, Ben.
CNN's Hadas Gold is in Tel Aviv where I want to start this hour.
Hadas, what is the situation where you are?
HADAS GOLD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, I am in northern Tel Aviv, which experienced quite a few rockets overnight. And actually
earlier today, while we were standing here, reporting. We heard an air raid siren and had to go running for cover.
I want to show you the impact of one of these rockets. You can just see the sheer size of what one of these rockets can do. The impact of this blast
even taking out windows and balconies in the buildings above us.
And we'll pan over into this garage. You can see how it affected the cars inside. Several cars inside have been destroyed. The Israeli military
saying this rocket is one of about 1,600 they say have thus far been fired from Gaza into Israel.
The Israeli military saying it is responding with force, targeting more than 600, what it calls, militant targets within Gaza. Everything from
rocket launchers to drone launchers to leveling several buildings, which they say housed important Hamas military and intelligence operations.
They also say they've taken out some senior Hamas commanders and operatives and they don't seem to be letting up anytime soon. They are not taking off
the table a ground operation. They say they're not necessarily immediately preparing for one but they are not taking it off the table.
And what we're hearing from the prime minister, from the defense minister, that they plan to continue this operation. But as you noted, the death toll
and the casualties and the people who are paying the price for this is rising.
The Palestinian ministry of health saying that 83 people have died, 17 of them children. Israel saying it's investigating any civilian casualties; in
Israel seven people have been killed, including a 6-year-old boy and one soldier. But one thing that I think it's important to note in what's
happening.
[10:05:00]
GOLD: What we're seeing right now is in the last major conflict we saw like this in 2014, the leveling of buildings, the rockets being fired to
Tel Aviv and to north of Tel Aviv, that happened at the end of the conflict. And we seem to still be in the beginning stages of this conflict
and that's where we're starting from and that's very concerning.
ANDERSON: Ben, you're in Lod, one of the cities that is seeing -- I want to describe them as clashes but I'm not sure that is the right word. You
tell me. The prime minister of Israel had this to say about the violence.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL (through translator): Citizens of Israel, what is happening in the towns of Israel in recent days
is intolerable. You've seen Arab rioters torching synagogues, torching cars, storming policemen, hurting peaceful and innocent civilians.
This is not something we can accept. This is anarchy. Nothing can justify it.
And I will tell you more than that. Nothing can justify a lynching of Jews by Arabs and nothing can justify a lynching of Arabs by Jews. We will bring
back governance to Israel's cities everywhere, in all cities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: What's going on, on these -- the streets of the cities, Ben?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is communal violence, the like of which hasn't really been seen here since sort of the
period prior to the creation of Israel in 1948.
These are mobs, whether they be Palestinian Israelis or Jewish Israelis, going after the other. We have seen some fairly graphic video, I must warn
viewers, of, for instance, in the town near Tel Aviv --
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WEDEMAN (voice-over): -- where a mob of young Israelis stops a car, apparently driven by a Palestinian Israeli. He gets out and he's violently
attacked. He's thrown to the ground where he's spat upon and beat. And those scenes have been repeated in many Israeli cities and towns over the
last 48 hours.
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WEDEMAN: And even though these tensions were sparked by the situation in Jerusalem with the forced house evictions, the situation between Gaza and
Israel -- but clearly there is fertile ground for these tensions.
Now here in Lod, the Israeli border police have been redeployed from the occupied West Bank to this town, where there is an overnight curfew, 8:00
pm to 4:00 am in place, to try to restore order.
It's a little puzzling, however. We have seen busloads of young men coming in, in civilian clothing; the bus being marked coming from a well-known
settlement in the West Bank. I'm not sure how that's going to help restore order here.
But we did speak to one young Jewish Israeli woman, who told us that, night before last, she heard a lot of commotion in the streets, rocks being
thrown through her windows and she decided to leave and stay with her mother in Jerusalem.
And there has been a wave of vandalism here going both ways. For instance, here, my cameraman, Richard Harlow (ph), will pan the camera; over there
you see a few cars that have been burned. Many cars have been burned in this city. We've seen shops that are damaged.
It's relatively quiet at the moment today because it's the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. But the people we've
spoken to are bracing for more trouble in the hours and days ahead -- Becky.
ANDERSON: That's what's happening on these streets.
And Hadas, you described the situation in the north of Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, we continue to see this -- and, again, "tit-for-that" sort of demeans to a
certain extent or dismisses the ferocity of what we've seen between the Israeli air force with strikes on Gaza and rocket barrages from Gaza, of
course, into Israel.
The IDF say they've been able to strike a majority of the military leadership of Hamas in the past three days of bombardment.
What more do we know at this point?
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GOLD: Well, we know that the Israeli military has also called up what it says thousands of reservists and that they have several brigades around
Gaza. And they have not confirmed that they are going to start any sort of ground operation yet but they are not taking it off the table.
Of course, that would be a very, very major and very serious escalation because, as of right now, all of the strikes have been without any sort of
ground presence there. They say that they are continuing to target throughout the past few days what they say are very key strategic locations
where they say rockets are being launched.
We've also seen reports of drones coming from Gaza, targeting offices that they say housed key Hamas officials and they say they've made quite an
impact on the senior Hamas levels.
And then here, the rockets that we're seeing fired into Israel, it's the number of rockets that Israel has not seen for some time and especially in
places here like northern Tel Aviv. This is not an area that is used to getting the rocket fire.
This is not a town like in the very south of the country right near the border of Gaza, which, when things flare up, they, unfortunately, are used
to seeing that rocket fire. This is unusual for this location.
We were at another residential neighborhood that had a rocket fall through a wall and they luckily did not injure anybody. It actually did not
explode. So we were able to see the size of these things. These rockets are at least 1.5 meters long. The house resident said it took four police
officers to lift it up, just how heavy it was.
And here where we're standing we see the shrapnel of this -- of this bomb - - of this missile or rocket that was landed here and just how we can see how it's causing pockmarks on the concrete all around us.
And, of course, in Gaza, unfortunately for many Gazans, they don't have the bomb shelters that people here can run to. And they are also suffering
through, although Israel says they are targeted military strikes, they are also suffering through what is a very, very terrifying situation.
ANDERSON: Ben, you've described the scenes of mob violence that we have seen in Lod and across several cities. Meanwhile, critics accuse both sides
-- and I'm talking about the bigger picture here -- of being opportunistic. Hamas displaying a significant ability to strike deep into Israeli
territory whilst Benjamin Netanyahu, I think it the "FT" who described him as "reasserting himself as Mr. Security."
A prime minister who was, until a week ago, on the cusp of losing his premiership. That may be a cynical view.
Is there any merit in it?
WEDEMAN: Well, I think there is. On the one hand, look at on the Palestinian side; recently it was announced that elections that had long
been planned and are long overdue were canceled. And there's not much happiness with either the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas in
Ramallah or Hamas, which governs Gaza.
But by latching on to this situation in Jerusalem, with the forced house evictions, Hamas has really taken over the narrative and is showing
ordinary Palestinians that it can fight back against Israel.
No one entertains the fantasies that the fundamental realities of the ground will change. But at least it can stand up and say, we are strong and
we resist the Israelis. Look at Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, sitting in his presidential area, doing very little than occasional rhetoric.
And on the Israeli side, don't forget that Israel has been through these inconclusive elections, time and time again. Benjamin Netanyahu is now
waiting for somebody else to form a government.
But as long as he's actually in the prime minister's office, he can manage this war. And he can show leadership that will boost his position, boost
his power. So you know, in warfare, there's always more to it than just the guns and the dead. There's also a political game at play. And every side is
looking at how it can take advantage of that.
ANDERSON: The consequences of that game, were we to call it that, is, as you point out, death and injury on both sides -- and significant death in
Gaza, including children, and also deaths on the Israeli side as well.
Thank you both.
It's remarkable that a conflict that's grabbed the world's attention is happening over what is such a small piece of land.
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ANDERSON: You can see it here. Gaza on the lower left, only about 60 kilometers to the north, nothing more than a short car ride.
There's Tel Aviv, the target of Hamas rockets this week, along with several other Israeli cities you see there, all close by. As nearly 2 million
Gazans packed into that tiny area endure massive Israeli firepower, the geographic divide could not be smaller. The political, economic and living
conditions leading up to this conflict quite the opposite.
These tensions colliding with Ramadan, as we have been reporting. Today is Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the fasting of month for Muslims. It's a
day of celebrations. In Jerusalem, worshipers seen here at the al Aqsa mosque, a stark contrast to the scenes we saw several days ago.
The al Aqsa mosque a flashpoint of that violence that helped trigger the escalating strikes.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, prayers taking place amid the rubble. A day of happiness and love replaced with sadness and fear.
We will be right back.
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ANDERSON: After months of reporting on the crisis in Ethiopia's Tigray region from outside of the country, a CNN team has finally been granted
access by Ethiopia's government. You will, if you are a regular viewer, be aware of what is going on. We have provided a lot of space on this show to
talk about the conflict in Ethiopia.
What our team found was obstructed aid routes, Eritrean soldiers watching checkpoints and reprisals against civilians. The U.N. and U.S. have been
receiving these reports for weeks.
Now for the first time, CNN has captured what is this awful reality on camera. Traveling across Tigray from the regional capital city of Mekelle,
CNN's crew were the first journalists into the besieged city of Axum, the holiest city in Ethiopia. The team has this exclusive report.
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ELBAGIR (voice-over): It's been over a month now since the Ethiopian government promised the United States, the U.N., the world that Eritrean
troops had begun withdrawal.
We went to see whether that was true
ELBAGIR (voice-over): A show of force by Ethiopia's national defense force in its Tigray region, a government visibly flexing control.
[10:20:00]
ELBAGIR (voice-over): We traveled outside of the capital, Mekelle, across the region, to see if the Ethiopian government has kept the promises to the
world. Unimpeded access and the withdrawal of the Eritrean allies. The conflict for control of Tigray blazes on.
Days earlier, these Tigrayan forces fighting for regional autonomy pushed out Eritrean troops from this town.
As we arrived, one young man Kasa (ph) wants to show us where his father, brother and cousin were taken and executed just days ago. The blood is
still visible. It stains the ground.
They didn't want to wash away his blood. He says they wanted to leave it there. The body they took to the graveyard, but the blood, the place where
his father was executed, he -- the family still wants that place marked.
Just a few meters from where Kasa's father died, his brother and cousin were executed, murdered, he says, by Eritreans. The same Eritreans who were
supposed to have withdrawn.
We returned with Kasa to his family. In total, just this one family lost seven loved ones less than a week ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of us have to run and hide when they come and even the women. They rape the women and then kill them. May God bring mercy
on us, because we don't know what we can do.
ELBAGIR: The Eritreans are not only still here, but a day into our journey and we have found evidence of fresh atrocities. We hear that the holy city
of Axum to the west have been sealed off by
Eritrean soldiers for 12 days. We need to see for ourselves.
So, we head out towards Axum, but don't get very far. Something is not right. The team car behind us radios in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Locals said there was shooting up ahead.
ELBAGIR: There's a car coming.
A U.N. driver flashes us a warning, but we decide to press on.
Hello. Salam. Can we go ahead? We are going to go.
UNIDENTIIFED MALE: No problem.
ELBAGIR: Thank you.
But the road ahead is blocked. We get out of the car with our hands up and identify ourselves to the Ethiopian soldiers.
Hey, hello, hello, hello, CNN, CNN, we are CNN, journalists.
We are journalists. Sir. Tell us --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before ask our commander.
(CROSSTALK)
ELBAGIR (voice-over): The soldier spots our camera. They are incredibly tense.
ELBAGIR: It's OK, it's OK. We --
ELBAGIR (voice-over): The soldiers close in on us.
ELBAGIR: We aren't there.
(CROSSTALK)
ELBAGIR: We are.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): As we are pulled to one side, we turn on our covert camera.
ELBAGIR: Unless we are detained, unless we are detained, we are not giving them the camera.
We will only go to the administration, the civilian administration. If you want to have detained a CNN team that's what's happening now. Because
we're not going to the camp willingly.
They have now said, that we are allowed to go and meet the general in a civilian location but it is still against our will but we're going.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): On our way to the headquarters we're able to hide our footage and we are later released.
At the local hospital, we find out why the soldiers didn't us to film.
What happened? It's OK. You are clearly in shock. Just take a moment to breathe and then tell us what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We were in the bus station when the shooting started and running to try to get away. That's when it
happened.
ELBAGIR: This girl is so scared she is covering her face, but she wants to tell us what happened which is that a grenade detonated in front of a group
of soldiers and they started to randomly opening fire on civilians and she is clearly not a soldier. She is a teenage girl and she says that she was
shot through the leg.
This is the main route to Axum. It's a vital supply artery, but for 12 days now, nothing has been able to pass.
First checkpoint, Ethiopian soldiers let us through and ahead, we have been warned by senior Ethiopian military sources, we'll find the Eritrean
soldiers.
As we cross the hill, before we reached the second checkpoint, we turn on our covert cameras.
Hello, sir. Can I show you our papers?
We are CNN, journalists. And we have permission to travel.
These are the Eritrean troops captured here for the first time on camera, a ragtag army in their distinctive light colored fatigues, some are also
wearing a previously retired Ethiopian army uniform.
[10:25:00]
ELBAGIR (voice-over): A clear bid to sow confusion as to whether they are Ethiopian or Eritrean.
Eritrean solders are telling us that we don't have permission to travel, even though the Ethiopian soldiers waived us through. The other thing is,
Eritrean solders are supposed to have begun withdrawing, but here they are manning a checkpoint and blocking us from going forward.
Hello, sir. How are you? Journalists. We have permission.
You are asking us to turn back? OK. We have been sent back.
Both Eritrea and Ethiopia promised these troops would withdraw weeks ago and yet this foreign force is still here and occupying, obstructing a key
supply route with impunity.
After calling the interim government, military contacts and others, on our fourth attempt, we make it through.
Three days after setting off, we finally arrived in Axum, a UNESCO heritage site, the holiest city of Ethiopia and place of pilgrimage, but even the
act of worship here is dangerous one. The war is never far away.
At a local health facility, we will see firsthand the consequences of this almost two-week siege. Two-month-old Johannes' life is hanging in the
balance. His mother risked her life and his to get him past the soldiers encircling the city so that he can receive life-saving oxygen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When he first got ill, it was a hard time so I couldn't bring him. There was an act of war and he got
weaker, but I could not find the transport and I had to travel roads along to get him here.
ELBAGIR: He is not out of danger yet, the hospital electricity flickers on and off and they are still waiting to get more cylinders of oxygen.
In the almost two weeks that Axum has been cut off from the outside world, violence has spiked. We find this 24-year-old teacher.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They found us, they took our money, beat the man and raped the two of us.
ELGABIR: Do you know who did this to you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eritreans.
ELBAGIR: Eritrean soldiers did this? I'm so sorry.
This is one case that we are able to capture, because we are here, but it is impossible to know how many more women this was done to while this city
was closed off from the outside world.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): Another health facility, Aksum Referral Hospital, soldiers walk in and out of the hospital with impunity. One spots the
camera and runs off. They've run out of blood here. Doctors and medical students are donating their own but it's still not enough.
People who could have been saved are dying. Every patient you see here -- the old, the young, the helpless -- all injured in this conflict.
Our journey here has brought into focus the hollowness of Ethiopia's promises.
As we leave Axum, a line of soldiers encircles the hospital. There is no respite.
ELBAGIR: CNN reached out to the Eritrean and Ethiopian governments with multiple requests for comment but they did not respond -- Nima Elbagir,
CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: After CNN's investigation, the United Nations has now confirmed that military forces are interfering with humanitarian relief efforts to
the Tigray region.
The U.N. says, quote, "Blockades by military forces had severely impeded the ability of food assistance to reach rural areas. That's where shortages
and medical needs are most severe for more than 5 million people."
And you can find more of that reporting, of course, on the digital site, cnn.com.
Up next, as Indian state leaders impose lockdowns, workers finding themselves out of jobs and having to head home.
What is that doing to the spread of COVID-19?
Plus, desperate times call for desperate measures. Nepal asking for empty oxygen tanks from Mt. Everest to treat COVID patients as cases there soar.
We'll have more on the situation at Everest Base Camp.
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ANDERSON: Israel and Palestinian militants both vow to keep up the fight as the bloodshed continues in the Middle East. This video you are about to
see is disturbing. So I'm just going to pause for a moment if you want to look away. What it shows is, it's not just militants versus the military
but neighbor versus neighbor.
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ANDERSON (voice-over): This Jewish mob chased down an Arab driver and beat him. In another city, an Arab mob left a Jewish man with critical injuries.
Since Monday, the Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 83 Palestinians, while more than a thousand rockets shot into Israel have claimed seven
lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: The U.S. secretary of state is sending an envoy to the region after speak with the leaders of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Our coverage continues at the top of the next hour. We'll look at the diplomatic efforts with our Kiley Atwood at the U.S. State Department and a
spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry.
We will also get a view from inside Israel with CNN's Ben Wedeman and journalist Neri Zilber as well as a strategic adviser to the Palestinian
Authority president. All that is coming up in about a half hour's time.
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ANDERSON: To a sacred river and a scene out of hell, with dozens of bodies of suspected COVID victims washing ashore. Indian authorities have been
forced to place a net in the Ganges River to try and collect these bodies. India's second wave is translating into what is a heartbreaking death toll,
the virus taking more than 250,000 lives and, let's be quite clear, those are just the official figures.
The actual figures could be much higher. As the virus rampages through the countryside, just about every state has imposed a lockdown of some kind.
The effort to save lives is paramount, no question. But it's also destroying jobs.
A case in point, out-of-work migrants in the tech hub, Bangalore, are now waiting to leave the city. So it is looking as though there may be a
vicious cycle forming; first, locking down to try to contain the virus, then the economic impact and jobs disappearing as a result.
Finally, workers heading home, often to rural parts of the country.
The question is, are they taking the virus with them?
I'm connecting you to India's capital. CNN Vedika Sud is reporting for us from Delhi.
They are seeing a decline in cases, according to the deputy chief minister.
[10:35:00]
ANDERSON: Demand for oxygen also declining. And that is really good news.
But how does that compare to other parts of the country?
VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, it seems that there is a decrease in the positivity rate when it comes to New Delhi. It's come down
from 35 percent to 14 percent in the last 15 days, Becky.
But like you rightly pointed out, the worry lies in India's rural areas as well and small cities. Now one has to remember, over 60 percent of India's
population lives in rural areas. And that's where the medical system is not up to the mark, to be very frank with you, Becky.
Also the awareness levels of this pandemic, of this infection, is not very high in these villages. There is fear, there is panic, there's less medical
care and that's a worry. And the spread definitely has hit rural areas.
We were talking about the workforce as well, Becky, about the migrant laborers that want to go back to their villages. Just a few numbers for you
that we've got from the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy.
Apparently the labor force shrank by 1.1 million in the month of April. One of the reasons for this would be the lockdowns that you were mentioning,
partial and complete lockdowns at most of the states across India.
What's interesting is the last time there was a lockdown, which was last year, it was a national lockdown called by prime minister Modi. This time,
it's being call by the states, though there is this debate over lives versus livelihoods that exists.
ANDERSON: Vedika, thank you.
While cases may be declining in some parts of India, public anger is not. I want you to see this cover from "Outlook," which is a well-respected
political magazine. Featuring a "Missing" poster.
The name of the missing?
The government of India.
Its age?
Seven years.
And who to tell?
Everyone there.
Nepal has been dealing with skyrocketing COVID cases every day this week. Hospitals there facing a nightmare scenario. Life-saving oxygen supplies
are running low. The government now asking for empty oxygen cylinders left by climbers on Mt. Everest for use as emergency supplies.
These are the images coming to us. And, really, we've seen it now, how the virus is affecting those on the mountain. We have now, sadly, been
receiving information about just where the virus is hitting the most in Nepal, and Nepal around India, which are feeling the brunt of what has
happened in India.
Let's get this report now from Nepal -- or in Nepal -- from Anna Coren.
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ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Almost 6,000 meters above sea level in the Himalayas --
ALEX TXIKON, CLIMBER: (Speaking foreign language).
COREN (voice-over): -- is where Alex Txikon (ph) feels most at home.
TXIKON: (Speaking foreign language).
COREN (voice-over): The 39-year-old Spaniard traverses the crevices of the Khumbu (ph) icefall, a short distance from Mt. Everest Base Camp. It's part
of his preparation for his fourth attempt to summit Everest without oxygen.
TXIKON: I climbed more than 30 times here. I know this country.
COREN (voice-over): After canceling last year's climbing season as a result of the pandemic, the government of Nepal announced this year it was
open for business. More than 400 permits were issued, a record number.
And at $US11,000 a permit, a welcome windfall of more than $4 million for the government of this impoverished nation. But as more than 1,000
climbers, Sherpas and staff began arriving at base camp, word was spreading of India's second wave, surging across the border into Nepal.
And suddenly, there was an outbreak of COVID cases on the mountain.
TXIKON: Many people sick. A lot of people -- from one day to the other day disappearing. And nobody says nothing but a lot of people goes down and we
see that it is corona.
COREN (voice-over): The government maintains there have been no COVID cases at Mt. Everest, despite the evacuations of dozens of climbers to
hospitals in Kathmandu, who have then tested positive. There's still no COVID-19 testing facility at base camp.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The government were trying to keep the COVID cases under the carpet. And I'm afraid the worst case scenario has become true.
COREN (voice-over): For Alex Txikon, he wasn't taking any more risks. After 12 days at base camp, he decided to pull the pin.
TXIKON: I want to climb Everest without oxygen.
[10:40:00]
TXIKON: And if I catch the corona, come one or come two, I start with the symptoms, it's so dangerous. I feel myself that the Nepal government are
playing with our lives.
COREN (voice-over): The chairman of the biggest tour company on Everest told us earlier this week more than 30 of their Everest clients tested
positive. However, the company on Thursday announced two climbers, a U.S. and Swiss national, had died Wednesday during their Everest attempt, the
first deaths of the season.
Usually there are about 10 deaths a year. Exhaustion is being blamed. Officials won't confirm if the bodies will be tested for COVID.
TXIKON: If we lost one life, who is positive from corona, this has become a big, big problem for the Nepal government, in my opinion, because they
are hiding the reality.
COREN (voice-over): A team from the Bahrain royal family was among the first foreign group to summit Everest. The Indian government also had a
large chain of climbers. They joined for a photo-op with little social distancing.
While climbers chase their Everest dreams, an oxygen crisis is unfolding across the country, with hospitals running out as the second wave
devastates Nepal.
The government is calling on climbers to return used oxygen cylinders to help COVID patients. But it's a drop in the ocean, considering the scale of
this calamity -- Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: We'll take a very short break. Do stay with us. We will be right back.
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ANDERSON: Well, it is happening. The International Olympic Committee giving the green light to go full steam ahead for the Summer Games. That is
despite the pandemic. Amanda Davies is with me.
Some strong words of concern from one of the games' largest sponsors. Explain.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, very much at the same time that the IOC is saying they are moving full ahead, we've had these comments from
Toyota, one of the top 15 levels of Olympic sponsor. Concerned is the word that they are using about the amount of public concern around the games.
A very interesting phrase coming out of them, "We sincerely hope and wish for peace of mind for all athletes and the people of this country that can
be ensured."
So very much raising question marks about whether they feel this games should be going ahead, asking what they can do to help provide that peace
of mind. And we know with sponsors, money talks.
They are a very, very powerful piece of this Olympic jigsaw puzzle, aren't they?
And when one sponsor speaks out, often there's then a ripple effect; we hear from others as well. So it will be very interesting to see. This is
the first time we've heard from a sponsor of this level. So it will be very interesting to see what happens next.
ANDERSON: Of course. And they will be asking themselves what potential damage will be done to this brand if the games are mired in controversy.
And you're absolutely right to point out, money talks. Let's keep an eye on this one. Thank you, Amanda.
"WORLD SPORT" is up next.
[10:45:00]
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