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First Move with Julia Chatterley

At Least 100 People Dead And 4,000 Others Injured In Beirut Blast; Clock Ticking For U.S. Stimulus; Upwork Matches Freelancers With Work Offers. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired August 05, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:30]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: You're watching CNN and we begin with the latest from Lebanon and the aftermath of the devastating

explosion in Beirut.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

CHATTERLEY: Here's what we know so far. At least 100 people have lost their lives and around 4,000 people are injured after a catastrophic explosion in

the port in lower Beirut. The blast, as you saw there, felt as far away as Cyprus, some 240 kilometers away.

According to the Lebanese Prime Minister, ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used in fertilizers and in bomb making has been sitting

in a warehouse there for some six years.

The port and nearby buildings have been reduced to smoldering ruins. The epicenter, in fact, still smoking.

CNN's Ben Wedeman was in Beruit when Tuesday's blast took place.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It felt like an earthquake and it looked like a mushroom cloud. The explosion in

Beirut, Tuesday, so massive it shook the ground all the way to Cyprus 150 miles away.

The level of devastation is still being assessed, with widespread destruction stretching for miles from the epicenter near Beirut's port.

Firefighters and emergency workers rushed to the scene, one that the city's governor, Marwan Abboud, described as resembling Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Local hospitals were immediately inundated with hundreds of victims and the Lebanese Red Cross put out an urgent call for blood donations. The casualty

count is staggering. Thousands injured and dozens dead, with a number of deaths surely to rise in the hours to come.

Initially, the state news agency attributed the cause of the blast to a fire at a fireworks' warehouse, but shortly afterwards the head of Lebanese

security said the explosion happened at the site of confiscated high explosive materials.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab later said it is unacceptable that a shipment of an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was stored in a

warehouse near the port for six years. That as the country launched an investigation into the cause expecting an initial report in the coming

days.

The Lebanese President has ordered military patrols in the wake of the incident in a country already on its knees due to a failing economy and the

spread of COVID-19.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHATTERLEY: And Ben Wedeman joins us now. Ben, as you were pointing out there, tragedy upon tragedy for this nation. What can you tell us about

what you're seeing this morning and the recovery efforts to search for more survivors, too?

WEDEMAN: Yes, we're in the neighborhood of Mar Mikhael which is very near - - behind the dust, is the port. What you're seeing, that large building there, is Beirut's main grain silo, and it was right next to that that the

warehouse with supposedly 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded at seven minutes last 6:00 p.m. yesterday.

And what we're seeing is that there's a massive effort by ordinary people to try to clean up the destruction, the massive widespread destruction that

was caused by that explosion.

Volunteers are out handing out water and sandwiches. People have come with brooms and shovels to try to clear away the rubble, but it's not just

rubble that's the problem. It's people's livelihoods have been destroyed. Shops, restaurants, bars are in shambles.

It's going to take a long time and get them back in operation, but Lebanon is not just suffering from the effects of this explosion, Julia. It's

suffering from a catastrophic economic collapse where the local currency has lost 80 percent of its value, and what we've seen since the beginning

of July is a tripling of the total number of coronavirus cases.

So this is a country that many people feel at the moment is cursed. In fact, one person said to me -- just told me, just get me a visa. Let me

leave this country. It's shocking.

[09:05:21]

CHATTERLEY: It is shocking. And we're just continuing to look at both the images of the devastation caused here and the explosion, too. I mean, it

takes your breath away.

Ben, as you've pointed out, its economic crisis, financial crisis, health crisis hereto, and you've said to us on the show in the past, this is a

nation that imports around 80 percent of what it consumes. When we're looking at pictures of a port here that's literally been devastated, it's

catastrophic damage, that's going to exacerbate getting food to people, essentials to people surely.

WEDEMAN: Yes, this is one of the side effects of this blast. The port is absolutely devastated. Every structure in there has just turned into a

lump, a pile of twisted metal.

How they're going to get the port up and running again is a very good question, and there's so little faith in the political leaders of this

country that they simply -- they've failed for so long to solve Lebanon's economic problems, its failing infrastructure.

In fact, we're right next to the Electricite du Liban, the public electrical company. Now, unfortunately, from this angle you can't see it,

but basically all of the windows have been blown out.

Lebanon suffers from recently, in Beirut, the power cuts were running at 20 hours a day. So, how do you function in a country that's bankrupt, where

there's very little electrical power, and now you have a port, the main port for Lebanon that is essentially knocked out of action.

It's mind-boggling the complexity, the multiple layers of the catastrophes that this small country is facing.

CHATTERLEY: It's heartbreaking, Ben. Obviously, going to complicate recovery efforts as we lose daylight hours as well. Thank you so much for

that report there. Stay safe and get that mask back on, please. I can see it on your wrist. Thank you for being there.

Ben Wedeman in Beirut for us.

All right, there have been many questions as to why these chemicals were stored in the port for so long. In Washington, President Trump says he has

been briefed by U.S. military Intelligence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was -- it seems to be,

according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHATTERLEY: Just to be clear, U.S. Defense Department officials directly contradicted the President's claim, telling CNN they see no evidence of an

attack.

Let get some expert analysis. Chris Hunter is a bomb disposal specialist and a former Army officer and he joins us now. Chris, great to have you

with us. Let's just talk specifically about some of the images that we were seeing there. Two very distinct and different explosions. What are your

thoughts on what we saw?

CHRIS HUNTER, BOMB DISPOSAL SPECIALIST AND FORMER ARMY OFFICER: I think if you look at it from a technical perspective, the first event, if you like,

the gray clouds that are coming up, the wisp of clouds and at the base of it, a fire, you could see a series of sparks and flashes and that's

consistent with what we call low explosives, something like fireworks, something like ammunition that you would put in rifles and handguns, that

sort of thing cooking off.

So it suggests to me that a fire had started and then whatever was being stored there, something like fireworks or gunpowder or propellants or

ammunition started to cook off.

And if it's in shipping containers, what you actually get is effectively a giant pipe bomb when heat is introduced to it. So that would cause the

first explosion.

And then moving on to the second explosion, the huge explosion. In 2013, there was 2.75 thousand tons of ammonium nitrate in a Maldivian flagged

vessel that was -- it was going through difficulties. It went into a port, it was inspected and was considered unseaworthy.

Now, it was considered that the ammonium nitrate fertilizer on board was unsafe to keep in the ship, and so it was moved into the port area.

Now, looking at the video footage, looking at the seat of the explosion, looking at the blast dynamics of the explosion, looking at a number of

other technical aspects of it, it would be consistent with what I've seen certainly with the first fire caused by fireworks and low explosives,

heated up the ammonium nitrate fertilizer and then caused it to effectively burn into a detonation, which was the huge, huge explosion that we saw on

the screens with the huge sort of white mushroom cloud afterwards.

[09:10:20]

CHATTERLEY: And obviously, we have to be very careful because we don't know enough yet about how the initial explosion was caused, though there was

obviously confusion created by the President and then his Defense officials that contradicted that.

But Chris, what about gases? The release of gases in the aftermath of this explosion, if indeed it is what we think it is at this stage? The potential

ecological damage as well. It's a port, there's water there.

HUNTER: There are two aspects to this. I mean, the first is that the grain storage silo that was mentioned in one of your previous reports, that

actually saved a lot of people and saved some damage in Beirut because it acted effectively directing some of the blast wall directing some of the

blast upwards.

But what we did see, of course, is a huge blast centered in the port area. Back in 2015 there was an 800-ton explosion in China where the crater

basically went down into the water table and then a series of chemicals seeped in caused ecological disaster really -- an ecological disaster.

What we're seeing here, of course, is an explosion many times greater than that. We're talking a sort of small knew nuclear yield effectively. You

know, on a par with that.

And therefore, you're in an industrial complex inside an international port with all sorts of materials, petrol and lubricants, you know, various

different chemicals, and it is very, very high risk that some of the gases moving both into the air and some of the chemicals going down into the

ground, and of course it was on the coast, so into the marina environment as well, we could see a serious ecological disaster as a result of this in

the next few days and weeks.

CHATTERLEY: I mean, we're looking at images here of the immediate vicinity of where this explosion happened or this dual explosion happened

devastated, and buildings afterwards that have clearly suffered catastrophic damage.

But what about the structural damage even beyond that? If we're talking about people 240 kilometers away feeling the tremors as a result of this,

the structural damage that's occurred in buildings that are even standing still must be pretty devastating, too.

HUNTER: That's absolutely right. I mean, whenever there is any sort of explosion, the blast waves travel out radially, if you like, in all

directions. If it is hard standing, then it is like a hemisphere if you like, coming outwards and it causes a compression of the air around it,

forming what is effectively like a wall of concrete.

When it's a detonation in something of this magnitude, it travels at supersonic speeds and it's like a wall of concrete hitting everything in

its path. But crucially when it comes to building design, most buildings, unless they're specifically designed to withstand a blast are designed for

wind loading and static loading, your gravity basically. They're not designed for forces pushing floors and ceilings upwards.

So what you get is, in effect, is as the blast wave travels outwards is it actually pushes windows and structures inwards, it pushes floors and

structures upwards, displacing them so they can fall down, and then you also have -- because it uses up the oxygen in the air, it causes this sort

of negative wave as well where it sucks everything out of the building, causing debris on the streets and glass and other stuff.

So you know, it really is a horrendous and horrific incident -- for 30 years, and you know, it is the most significant explosion I've seen outside

of a military type explosive ordinance.

CHATTERLEY: And that's what Lebanon and Beirut now have to deal with. Chris, great to get your insights and thoughts on this. Chris Hunter,

former bomb disposal expert there.

We will continue to keep you a breast of any further developments in Beirut. And as the cleaning up operation begins, the recovery efforts,

Lebanon of course facing both a human tragedy here on top because as we were discussing, an economic crisis. What more can be done to support the

nation?

And in the United States, more signs of progress on the stimulus talks. The latest from Washington, too.

Stay with us. Plenty more to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:19]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to the show, and straight to our breaking news story this morning. Lebanon's President is promising a transparent

investigation into the devastating explosion that tore through Beirut on Tuesday. He is vowing to punish those responsible.

At least 100 people have lost their lives, thousands wounded and hundreds are still unaccounted for. The cause of the blast has not yet been made

clear, but the government says thousands of metric tons of ammonium nitrate have been stored at a port warehouse, quote, "without preventive measures."

We will continue to bring you the latest on this story as we get it.

I want to turn now to Wall Street, where investors are once again focusing on science, on stimulus, and on the statistics. Biotech firm, Novavax says

its vaccine candidate is showing promising early stage signs in testing.

Negotiators meanwhile still far apart on a price tag for U.S. stimulus, further financial aid, but apparently are making some headway. U.S.

investors are assuming, I think, a deal gets done eventually. Stocks as you can see, higher premarket after three straight days of gains for the Dow,

five in fact for the NASDAQ.

As for the statistics though, a downside surprise, ADP reporting that just 167,000 private sector jobs were added to the U.S. economy last month.

That, a marked slowdown from the more than four million jobs that were added in June.

Christine Romans joins me now. Christine, we can talk about the job situation first. You and I have been very cautious about what the numbers

this week are going to tell us, whether it's on jobs added or people claiming for further help here. There's a warning in these numbers, a

warning to Congress, too.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No, it really is. There really is. I mean, a warning that outside of Wall Street and

outside of the Beltway, there is still real pain for small business owners and for people in this country who are facing what has been really epic

joblessness, and it looks like when you dig into the ADP numbers, it looks like the hiring was not coming back at restaurants and leisure and

hospitality kind of locations.

We had seen a month where -- that had spiked as there had been slow reopenings across the country and people started hiring back waitresses and

chefs and cooks. But now, it looks like some of that is slowing here.

So we will get the real number on Friday, the government number. The president promised this week that it will be a big number. He won't get a

peek at it until sometime late Thursday afternoon. So, Friday we'll know for sure what the job situation is.

We're still down some 17 million plus jobs since the crisis started. There is a real jobs problem -- jobs problem -- in this country still and that's

kind of I think the heat that is on Congress to get something done by the end of the week.

CHATTERLEY: And this number likely to be politicized as well. If it's a very good number, it's justification for the Republicans here to perhaps

re-argue that providing greater stimulus or financial aid to people is a disincentive to get back to work.

If it's a bad number, then the Democrats are going to say, look, we're still in a crisis here and we need to pay up.

[09:20:20]

ROMANS: And it's just a number in a very chaotic picture for economic news. And let's be very clear, what has happened to the American economy is so

unprecedented that each one of these numbers needs to be taken kind of with the whole picture, right?

I mean, we're going to get a lot of maybe even conflicting trajectories here in the coming days and weeks, always really important to look at the

trend -- the overall trend -- and not just one data point, especially if they can politicize it in Washington.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, those talks need to come to a conclusion ASAP. Christine Romans, great to have you with us. Thank you for that.

Greg Valliere is Chief U.S. Policy Strategist at AGF Investments joins us now. Greg, I know you were listening to that. Great to have you with us.

The President weighing in and talking about perhaps using executive powers to prevent people making payroll tax payments or even putting himself in

the middle of this and providing eviction relief. Can he do that?

GREG VALLIERE, CHIEF U.S. POLICY STRATEGIST, AGF INVESTMENTS: Unclear, although as we know, Julia, he has a habit of going outside the box.

Actually, I thought this was fairly clever to motivate Pelosi and McConnell.

Pelosi has got something she really wants, that's aid to state and local governments. McConnell has something he really wants and that's liability

protection for businesses.

If the President just goes off and does something through executive authority, both Pelosi and McConnell could wind up not getting what they

would like.

So this is, I think, now prompted them to negotiate seriously. It's going to be next week before we get a bill done, but I'm increasingly optimistic.

CHATTERLEY: Is that President Trump's style and way of bringing people together. It's explosive. It raises questions, but it may just do the trick

here. What's a reasonable deadline, then, Greg, do you think? Mid-August?

VALLIERE: Yes, I think that obviously they're not going to meet their Friday deadline, the 7th of August, to go on recess. It will go into next

week, maybe into next Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, something like that.

But I do think that at least half of the deal is done. Money for schools, money for people who could get evicted, money for testing. There's a lot

that's already been done in this bill.

CHATTERLEY: What's being discussed more, Greg, on the Beltway at this moment? Contested election results or the sort of eyebrow raising

negotiations with TikTok and the livid response from the Chinese that this represents some form of theft by the U.S. government? What is being debated

most?

VALLIERE: Well, TikTok, you know, young people talk about that a lot and I think that Microsoft has something to be happy about if they can get this

deal. That's an area they're not strong in.

So a lot of people are thinking this makes sense. But I would say the one thing that makes no sense and is really chilling is the prospect of a

disputed election, and it's no longer a wildcard long shot. It's a real possibility with the President saying that mail-in ballots are not valid,

that the election is rigged. And the Post Office may have some problems and the vote counters may have problems.

In New York State, as you know, it took several weeks for them to declare winners in the primaries this summer. So this is almost looking like a

perfect storm that we will not know on the night of November 3rd who won. It could take several days before we know.

CHATTERLEY: We're in a situation with the health crisis and rising cases around the country that makes the probability of people having to use a

postal vote way of voting a greater likelihood.

So it's almost a vicious circle that the worst handling of the health crisis, the more likely it is that a greater proportion of these votes are

postal votes. And to your point, that then will create an even greater delay beyond the actual Election Day and raise the likelihood that perhaps

people go, hang on a second, there's been cheating here.

VALLIERE: Well, Yes. That's a real risk. But I think the Republicans could be too clever for their own good in that most people, the majority of

people who have been voting by mail are Republicans, older voters.

So if we have something that calls all of this into question, this could actually backfire on the President.

CHATTERLEY: We're also waiting for Joe Biden to come up with his Vice President candidate. It feels like it's an ongoing issue and we hope to get

clarity. We're not sure if we will.

When do investors need to start paying attention to, one, that decision, but also the likelihood of a President Biden? Because the policy shift that

we've seen from this man is significant and it's a significant shift to the left.

VALLIERE: Yes, it is. I think that for the markets, people will have to pay careful attention by Labor Day, the first Monday in September. I think the

polls will mean more by then.

And I think the markets have to begin to factor in a blue wave with the Democrats taking the Senate, keeping the House, taking the presidency. Not

out of the question at all.

And I would have to say that in many regards, especially towards certain sectors, healthcare, financial services, defense, a Biden presidency could

be a real concern.

But in particular, taxes. If you look at all of the taxes that Biden will propose, that's something the markets have to be concerned about.

[09:25:41]

CHATTERLEY: It takes us full circle, back to the financial aid negotiations. I refuse to call them stimulus, Greg. How worried are you by

what we're seeing in the U.S. economy?

VALLIERE: I'm worried we're not doing enough. There was a great piece in "The Washington Post" last week quoting a couple of dozen leading

economists, all saying this is not enough if it's just $1 trillion.

You look back at the Great Depression in the 1930s, we under-stimulated. I would never think we would make this mistake again. Ben Bernanke has warned

about this. Jerome Powell has warned about this. So, that's my biggest concern, that we don't do enough and that the economy doesn't come back

very strongly.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, Greg Valliere, Chief U.S. Policy Strategist at AGF Investments. Great to have you on the show, sir, as always. Stay safe.

VALLIERE: You bet. You, too.

CHATTERLEY: All right up next, we head back to our breaking news story, the latest on the deadly explosion in the Lebanese capital, a tragedy which

comes and impacts a country already suffering from a deep economic crisis. The latest next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back. Even for a country devastated by years of Civil War, Lebanon has never seen anything like this.

A huge mushroom cloud caused by an explosion and the city's governor says is reminiscent of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

At least 100 people were killed and thousands more wounded in the blast at a port in Beirut that sent shock waves across the city and beyond.

It's not yet clear what caused the explosion, but authorities say tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored for years at a port warehouse without any

security precautions.

As Ben Wedeman reports, the death toll is likely to rise as hundreds of people remain missing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WEDEMAN (voice over): No one knows yet how many people died in Tuesday's blast in Beirut. The destruction was so extensive, the shock wave felt

across the city.

The Emergency Services are so overwhelmed, it was up to whoever could help to provide a bit of comfort to the injured. Open lots turned into field

hospitals.

The blast happened just after 6:00 in the evening with what started as a fire in a port warehouse, culminating with an explosion the likes of which

war-scarred Lebanon has never seen.

"The whole house collapsed upon us," this woman says.

In an instant, lives were lost and livelihoods destroyed. Michel Haibey has come to see the wreckage of what was his electrical goods store.

"Forty years," says Michel (ph), "war; we have seen woes of every kind but not like this. As if the economic crisis, coronavirus, the revolution were

not enough, this tops them all."

Life was already a struggle in Lebanon with its economy in freefall and coronavirus on the rise. And now this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HADI SHAHLAWI, BAR OWNER: We got here an hour ago and as you can see, it is completely and utterly destroyed. We have been open since October and we

have been fighting every month with different circumstances, economic situation that -- it's a catastrophe. What's happening in Lebanon is

catastrophic right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN (voice over): In the words of the Lebanese American poet, Gibran Khalil Gibran, "Pity the nation."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHATTERLEY: CNN's Ben Wedeman reporting there from Beirut.

Now, as Ben mentioned, Lebanon's economy was already in free fall even before the blast happened. Parts of Beirut are getting only a few hours of

electricity a day, fuel shortages are making existing blackouts worse. They're suffering rampant inflation, which means many cannot afford food.

Corruption and unemployment are rife.

Meanwhile, talks with the I.M.F. over a $10 billion loan stalled back in July. Much to discuss.

Joining us now is Pierre Achkar, he is President of Lebanon's Hotel Federation for Tourism, and he said up to 90 percent of Beirut's hotels

have been damaged by the blast.

Pierre, great to have you with us. Thank you so much for joining us. I know it is early hours and you're still trying to assess the damage, but just

give us a sense of what you've seen this morning today.

PIERRE ACHKAR, PRESIDENT, LEBANON HOTEL FEDERATION FOR TOURISM: It was the biggest blast we have ever seen. It was like -- for sure, it's a disaster

for Lebanon, for the economy, especially for tourism. We were maybe five percent to 15 percent occupancy because of corona, because of the political

problem with the Arab countries, and unfortunately what happened yesterday is a real disaster.

We do have 90 percent of our hotels in Beruit out of order for the moment. We have a lot of injured people inside our hotels. And I think we might

have a lot of hotels who are going to be out of order for a few days, few weeks. I don't know, if not maybe more for a few months.

CHATTERLEY: Pierre, you mentioned people there, whether it's workers, whether it's the hotel owners, whether it was the few customers that you

mentioned. What are you hearing about their safety? Is everyone accounted for?

ACHKAR: You know, we have transferred our people from Beirut to outside Beirut. This is what happens because all of the hotel outside Beirut were

in a better shape than the hotels in Beirut.

Unfortunately, we don't have sufficient room for the people because the people of Beirut, they have lost their houses, and then went out of Beirut

to all the hotels.

So all hotels outside Beirut are fully booked and moving the people who were already in Beirut was a little bit difficult for us. But this morning,

we used another way of management and we succeeded in putting all our people in all the hotels.

[09:35:31]

CHATTERLEY: Okay. That's a bright spot of good news among the devastation here, Pierre. Just give us a sense of the struggle for the industry

already. I mean, it was already suffering in light of the protests that we saw in the final quarter of last year, then of course coronavirus. The

occupancy rates must have been incredibly low already.

ACHKAR: You know, it was a shock for us and all our colleagues, calling the association, you know, what happens? What shall we do? And especially for

the insurance. You know that we have a problem of insurance. If it is a terrorist act, an attack, we are not covered. But if we are out of the act,

we would be covered by the insurance.

So the whole day, we were contact with our government to see the result of this blast and we are still waiting for the moment to know if all the

hotels are covered.

So this is a big problem for us because we have passed the last nine months out of clients, out of people, especially the tourism were very quiet. Our

airport was closed until the 1st of May, so we were expecting summer to recover a little bit from what happened with coronavirus.

CHATTERLEY: Yes. A tragedy upon tragedy. Pierre, what more support do you need? As you mentioned, firstly, when we're talking about insurance, you

need to ascertain actually what caused this, whether it was just a terrible accident or something else.

And of course we don't know that yet, but what more support do you need?

ACHKAR: We don't have any support for the moment and we might have French support. We are expecting maybe Qatari support, but until now, because of

the political problem and because of the Hezbollah problem in Lebanon, we are losing especially the support of people of the Gulf who were for the

last 50 years the better support of Lebanon financially, touristically and especially with all the support of capital and the investment.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, we understand. Our hearts go out to you and all the Lebanese people. Pierre, stay safe and take care.

ACHKAR: We are waiting especially also for the support as we have heard from the President of the United States that we are going to have a US.

support and we are really welcome for this support and we are expecting this support. We are used to the support of the United States.

CHATTERLEY: We hope many nations come to help you, sir. Thank you so much for joining us. Stay safe.

Pierre Achkar there, the President of Lebanon's Hotel Federation for Tourism.

We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:42:10]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back. And a reminder, once again, of our top story. The frantic search for survivors in Lebanon. Less than 24 hours after a

catastrophic explosion rocked Beirut, at least 100 people are lost their lives.

Thousands more have been wounded, hundreds remain unaccounted for and we have no clear answers as yet, but the focus now on thousands of metric tons

of the highly explosive ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse for some six years.

We will continue to bring you any further developments on this story, and of course we will take you to Beirut, Lebanon, throughout the day here on

CNN.

For now, I want to turn to Wall Street where U.S. stocks are higher in early trading, a continuation of the gains that we've seen in the past few

sessions. The NASDAQ is at fresh records here this morning.

Gold, which closed above $2,000.00 an ounce, for the first time ever Tuesday, as you can see got some glitter again today, too.

Disney also in focus, reporting an almost $5 billion Q3 loss, driven by a collapse in theme park revenue. But investors, it seems, were bracing for

the worst. There were a lot of bad news in the price here. Actually, you can see it up some 8.5 percent. A bright spot, Disney's streaming service,

Disney Plus now has more than 60 million paid subscribers, a big plus for the entertainment giant.

In the meantime, new economic data showing private sector employers adding just 167,000 new workers last month. It's a great number, except in the

environment that we're in right now, it's way below expectations. We'll get a fresh look at jobless claims, people asking for more benefits tomorrow,

and of course the U.S. Monthly Jobs Report is out for last month.

Jobs also the key focus at Upwork. It's a global platform that matches skilled freelancers with companies looking for talent. Demand for the

service has skyrocketed since the pandemic began. The virus and remote working has transformed the workplace and of course the labor market, too.

Joining us now is Hayden Brown, President and CEO of Upwork. Hayden, fantastic to have you on the show. Just describe what Upwork does in your

own words.

HAYDEN BROWN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, UPWORK: Thanks for having me, Julia. Good morning.

Upwork is a platform that matches skilled freelancers with clients looking for freelancers to do incredibly important work for them. So we work with

clients who range from small businesses all the way up through 30 percent of the Fortune 100 customers such as Microsoft, Glassdoor, NASDAQ, Airbnb.

They turn to our platform to find skilled workers to do things like web development, design and other key parts of their work, really when they

want to flex their workforce and tap into a labor pool that ordinarily they may not have thought of, but now has become a strategic part of their

workforce and is also a remote workforce for them.

Because all of the skilled workers on the Upwork platform are working remotely and that's been part of our model for 20 plus years.

[09:45:22]

CHATTERLEY: And you're working with businesses of all sizes, to your point, of course 180 different countries. So this really is about a global

workforce now or available global workforce. How do you vet the skills? How do you rank the skills and vet the individuals we're talking about

providing as talent for these businesses?

BROWN: So the Upwork platform functions as a two-sided marketplace. So clients and freelancers actually rate and review each other after every

engagement that happens, so all of the talent on the platform has been rated and reviewed by people who have paid those people to do projects and

left reviews, stating how great that work was, what their experience was working with that freelancer.

In addition to that, we provide a lot of screening and vetting on top of that for our clients. And so we curate pools of skilled talented

freelancers who have vetted in additional ways both using a human curation, as well as machine learning to really ensure our clients can tap into

exactly the freelancers they need with exactly the skill sets required for the types of work that they need to get done immediately.

CHATTERLEY: You know, it is interesting, people have a skill set but not everyone can do it remotely and operate alone somewhere in the world. No

one wants to profit from a crisis, Hayden, but you are in a sweet spot here with a dramatic shift in people suddenly having to remote work.

Can you give us a sense of the kind of growth that we've seen on the platform as a result?

BROWN: Absolutely. So even before the pandemic, people were leaning into remote work in a significant way, but absolutely overnight, Julia, we've

seen huge increases in remote work.

I mean, today, in America more than 50 percent of the workforce is working remotely, and as a company who has always been at the forefront of remote

work, we've been partnering with our customers to really help them navigate this transition.

And so, in the last quarter, we've worked with companies like Microsoft to help them stand up remote customer support teams and things like that to

really serve their customers at a critical moment when they need strategic talent that is already adept at working remotely in this environment.

And so, we've seen 19 percent year-over-year growth on our platform last quarter and a lot of that was fueled by both existing customers continuing

to use us and spend on our platform, as well as a surge in new customers coming to the site, signing up and starting to work with freelancers in new

ways.

And we believe that the current shifts we're seeing in the landscape around remote work are tectonic. These are huge changes that have happened during

the crisis, but really will be enduring because I think workers and companies are seeing the benefits of remote work and they're not going to

want to go fully back to the old models that they had prior to the crisis, and we're hearing that from customer after customer and seeing that in the

data as well, with so many companies reporting that remote work will be part of the new normal for them even once this pandemic passes.

CHATTERLEY: There will be people looking at this going, this is a disaster for workers that want some greater job security and we'll see a dramatic

shift towards greater use of freelancers, cheaper labor, perhaps. You go somewhere else in the world if you can pay someone less than can pay

someone close by at home. How do you respond to both those criticisms?

BROWN: You know, I think this can actually be a win-win for both clients and freelancers and there's a couple of things that we see around that. So,

the first one is as we talk to existing freelancers who are already part of the freelance economy, they actually feel more secure in many instances

right now because they have on average five clients that they're working with and they know that if one of those clients who may be furloughing

workers or firing full-time staff in this environment, if one of those goes away, they actually have the safety and security of other clients in their

roster that they're not dependent on just one of those as a full-time employee.

So that's one of the aspects of freelancing that actually they find comforting in an economic downturn. So, that's one of the things.

I think another important factor is clients and freelancers see the benefits of a platform like ours where really, the work can go to the

workers and where remote work is possible and it can go to the workers instead of requiring workers to relocate themselves, their families and

move to for example, urban centers and the places where historically have been kind of the centers of gravity for a lot of larger companies, there's

a ton of benefits.

One is, workers don't have to high the high costs of living in those geographies. They can stay closer to family and friends and locations that

maybe are much more palatable for them where they want to stay, and at the same time, companies can benefit from accessing pools of talent that may

not have been available to them when they were in this fully onsite model, and suddenly they're tapping into skills, expertise, workers who are not

mainly part of the mainstream workforce before.

But certainly are adding value to their business and often are doing so earning more money in the local geographies than their peers, but actually

costing the companies less than what they have to pay for those some exact skillsets in the most expensive cities where historically they have focused

their hiring. So it's a win-win on both sides.

[09:50:20]

CHATTERLEY: Yes, I have so many more questions for you and we will come back to this. My apologies for not taking so much time with you today

because I want to talk about your business model and how you get paid, too, but I like the point you made about the diversification of income stream,

more than one employer at critical times can help.

Hayden, great to chat to you about the business. Hayden Brown, President and CEO of Upwork, to be continued. Thank you.

BROWN: Thanks, Julia.

CHATTERLEY: All right. After the break, we return to our top story today, countries around the world standing up to help a devastated Beirut. At

least 300,000 people have been displaced by the blast. The latest next.

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CHATTERLEY: Welcome back. Countries in the Middle East and around the world rallying to support Lebanon. Qatar today loading a field hospital on its

way to help. Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq have also promised much needed medical units.

Iran's Foreign Minister says his country is ready to help in any way necessary. Britain, Turkey, France, Spain and Russia just some of the other

countries offering their condolences and support.

Journalist Elliott Gotkine is in Tel Aviv where Israel's President Rivlin is breaking decades of tense relations to declare Israel's support for

Lebanon. Great to have you with us, Elliott. A rare move here, the question is, will the Lebanese accept help?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: It seems unlikely, if history is any guide. There was an earthquake in Iran for example in 2017. Israel offered aid

there to the southeast of the country and that was rebuffed.

I don't think Lebanon itself is likely to accept Israel's offer of aid. Of course, there's little love lost between the two countries. Indeed, Lebanon

is one of a handful of countries that Israel still designates as an enemy state and there have been a number of wars between the two countries and

also between Hezbollah militants based in Lebanon and Israel.

And perhaps that's one reason why the Foreign Minister, Gabi Ashkenazi went on television shortly after these reports came out yesterday to say that

Israel had nothing to do with it. Indeed, saying that there's no evidence to suggest that this is anything other than a tragic accident.

His ministry, meanwhile, offered -- put out statements offering humanitarian aid to the Lebanese government. Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu instructed his National Security Council to liaise with the United Nations Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace here to see how

Israel could help.

And as you say, President Rivlin tweeting out in Hebrew, English and Arabic saying we share the pain of the Lebanese people and sincerely reach out to

offer our aid at this difficult time.

And you know, just a week ago, the words were very different between the two countries. The Israeli Army saying that it foiled an attempt by a squad

of Hezbollah militants infiltrating onto the Israeli side of the occupied Golan Heights and Israel then saying that look, if anything happens to

Israel and even the retaliation from Israel would be basically on the head not just of Hezbollah, but also of the Lebanese government.

[09:55:29]

GOTKINE: Of course, today, very much the focus is on this unfolding tragedy. And just one more thing to share, Julia, the Mayor of Tel Aviv has

said that the municipality, the town hall building in the center of Tel Aviv will be lit up this evening in the flag of Lebanon.

So a gesture of solidarity from the mayor of Tel Aviv towards the Lebanese people.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, I saw a tweet from the Israel Defense Forces saying this is the time to transcend conflict. Journalist, Elliott Gotkine, great to

have you with us. Thank you so much for that update there.

And that's it for the show. I'm Julia Chatterley. Stay right here. CNN covering the latest from Beirut throughout the day. You're with CNN.

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