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First Move with Julia Chatterley

Lebanese Media Reports 16 Port Workers Detained In Investigation; U.S.-China Tech Tensions Continue As Donald Trump Issues Executive Order Targeting TikTok And WeChat; U.S. Jobs Growth Slows In July. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired August 07, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:14]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: Welcome to FIRST MOVE. Plenty of news to bring you at this hour. Our top story, once again, the very latest

from Lebanon and the investigation into Tuesday's fatal explosion at the port in Beirut.

As the recovery efforts continue, CNN has learned that bank account belonging to both the Port Director and the Customs Director have been

frozen.

Lebanese media is reporting that Lebanese authorities have detained 16 port workers. Meanwhile, the number of people who have lost their lives now

stands at 137, with around 5,000 people wounded.

It's now known that nearly 3,000 tons of hazardous ammonium nitrate was stored in the port warehouse. Residents embraced France's President Macron

as he visited Beirut on Thursday as shock turned to anger towards the government.

Documents show officials were warned repeatedly about the hazardous stockpile, but nothing was ever done. Arwa Damon reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Could there be anyone left alive? It's a hope dozens of family members of the

missing cling to. Knowing that it is unlikely, but not wanting to accept that their loved one could be gone.

Others are laid to rest. Lives utterly shattered in the trail of destruction by Tuesday's explosion in Lebanon's capital city. Those who

survived are trying to pick up the pieces.

Glass and debris crunch below the feet of an army of volunteers, stepping in where the government is not, attempting to clear the rubble of billions

of dollars of damage.

They urge each other on, but for others, it's all just too much.

The intensity of the emotional rollercoaster that is being Lebanese, has left them hollow shells.

"What should we feel?" Asks one resident, "You can't feel anything in Lebanon, there's nothing to be sad about it anymore," he says.

As the cleanup continues, a rage grows across the country at how a new disaster could happen, still without any clear explanation or apology.

As French President Emmanuel Macron toured the wreckage, the first foreign leader to set foot here, he was surrounded by hundreds of Lebanese calling

for revolution, urging him, begging him do something. He vowed that France would stand with the Lebanese people but cautioned its leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): The requirement of a friend in times of need is to rush to scene when times are hard, but not

to hand out blank checks to assist them, not trusted by the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON (voice-over): From outside and inside the country, demands for answers grow louder, as calls emerge for an independent probe into the

explosion. This is not just about accountability or how the country is going to rebuild emotionally and physically. It's about how it is going to

find its soul.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHATTERLEY: Arwa Damon there, and Sam Kiley joins us now from Beirut.

Finding its soul, Sam. Finding survivors, what can you tell us about the recovery efforts? I've just heard in the last few moments that actually the

death toll now is standing at 154 lives.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the death toll continues to climb, Julia, inevitably, because of course there is a rescue

operation going on for the people who may well -- almost certainly have been buried in the rubble when that supersonic shockwave spread out up to

nine kilometers, it was felt and causing damage away from the epicenter, so people closer are missing.

There are many, many dozens of people reported missing, and sadly, no doubt, the death toll will inevitably rise as the rescue operation goes on

in the rubble of Central Beruit.

But on top of that, of course, Julia, you have, as Arwa was saying there, increasing demands for an independent inquiry, increasing demands,

questions coming from the street and indeed, we had the French President there saying how the street does not trust its own government about how on

Earth it was possible that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a potentially explosive material was left in a warehouse for six or seven years -- Julia.

CHATTERLEY: Huge questions to be asked here of the government, why action wasn't taken over those number of years to try to make this safe and

protect the people.

But as you both you and Arwa were saying, people increasingly angry at the government searching for answers and asking questions here, what do we know

else about the investigation into simply what happened? What started this?

[09:05:17]

KILEY: Well, there are -- if we look at what the authorities here have done thus far, they've frozen the accounts of senior officials involved

with the port administration and they've detained 16 people who have been working at the port, we understand at low and high levels.

Now, this is against a background of CNN has seen documents relating to repeated requests through the judiciary by the Customs Authorities under

two different sets of leaders to get another authority, to get the Lebanese government to move this material out of the port.

The last efforts were about three years ago, but they began back in 2014 when this huge amount of ammonium nitrate was taken off a Russian ship that

was foundering and brought to port and the owner simply walked away from the problem entirely.

Now, what this tells us of course, is about extreme dysfunction at the most critical interactions between Lebanon and the outside world and in terms of

Lebanon being able to look after itself when it comes to the storage of materials that can be turned relatively simply into a high explosive. They

simply sat there for a long period of time.

But then we have the analysis of the ignition process and there had been more evidence coming out to support expert opinion that has been expressed

to CNN that in the view of experts, there was some kind of fire, nobody knows what caused that fire, perhaps in a warehouse containing fireworks or

stored ammunition. Again, we have anecdotal reporting that suggests that it was quite routine for those high explosive or highly dangerous materials to

be stored quite next to or even in the same warehouse as the ammonium nitrate.

That somehow was set fire to and it is that fire, an intense fire was required to set off this enormous amount of ammonium nitrate that generated

what one minister here described as something close to the size of Hiroshima. I think that's possibly an exaggeration, but we've all seen the

videos and it really has been a most devastating explosion.

And it is that process that now is going to be focused on in terms of the course of the international community to get involved, in terms of an

investigation to look at the forensic details and figure out how it was that this explosion came about, and then at the back, there is a

suggestion, often being repeated now or put out there, speculation coming from government officials that perhaps there was some kind of malicious

intent, not in the explosion of the ammonium nitrate, but in the other location.

But that, frankly, is the sort of chaff that one might expect government officials are worried about their potentially negligent role in this

process to put out. It's pretty easy to blame others in this region for the violent extinguishing of life.

CHATTERLEY: And why many Lebanese are saying that they want an independent investigation here, precisely to your point, Sam. Great to have you with

us. Thank you for that update there. Sam Kiley there in Beirut.

Now, we will take you back to Beirut for the latest coming up this hour. But first, I want to bring you up to speed with two of the other major

stories that we are following throughout the show today.

President Trump taking new action against Chinese tech apps, formally issuing Executive Orders targeting not only TikTok, but also Tencent owned,

WeChat in the United States, too. Plus a sharp deceleration in the pace of job gains here in the United States, though more jobs were added than

expected in July.

Let me give you a look at how we're seeing futures react at this moment. They've been all over the place, I can tell you. We were much lower than

this earlier, so we've recovered slightly. All eyes, as I mentioned, on tech today.

Overnight shares of Tencent, the parent company of WeChat falling some five percent. Alibaba shares in Hong Kong slumped, too. Both companies have U.S.

based investments that could be scrutinized, too in the future. So perhaps some of that, the reaction there.

All right let's talk about jobs. The U.S. economy added 1.8 million jobs last month, a little bit stronger than expected, though the range of

predictions, I have to say, was vast.

A material slowdown from June, that's clear, where a net five million jobs were created. Nothing in the last 24 hours justifies a delay in agreeing an

extension to the vital benefits for American families.

President Trump has said he will take Executive Action as soon as today to get aid flowing again if Congress won't.

Let's get to the drivers. Christine Romans joins me now. Christine, all sorts of details in this, 7.5-plus million people falling out of the

numbers because they didn't search for jobs. Classification issues with the unemployment rate. It remains a huge crisis.

[09:10:12]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is. We are in a huge jobs hole here, a big deficit of jobs, 13 million is the deficit

of jobs since this pandemic began. And what I think this number -- these numbers, these charts tell us, is that in July, a recovery in the job

market was intact, but fragile and slowing. August, we have no idea what's going to happen in August.

Also, August numbers could be very interesting. It will be the first without the shock absorbers of PPP funding for small business and $600.00 a

week in extra funding for people who have lost their jobs. So now, people are going it alone in terms of job loss here.

When you look at the trend, 10.2 percent unemployment rate, I think you're absolutely right to point out what the government has been saying. Right

there every month, it says that it could be higher if we classified people who were truly out of work as out of work. It has to do with how people

answer the question on the forms and in the survey questions from the government, so maybe 11 percent.

So even though this is an improvement in unemployment rate, it is still higher than the worst of the great recession. There's a lot of work to do

here. It is still a jobs recession, a jobs crisis.

Outside of Wall Street, outside of the Beltway, people are feeling it every day, the pandemic recession and this is a grinding, grindingly negative job

situation still.

CHATTERLEY: The challenge here as well is, as you and I discussed, if this was a really great number, its argument for the Republicans here to say,

look, the time is right to bring down some of these benefits.

If it was an incredible weak number, then the Democrats therefore are armed to say, look, we need to continue here. I think you and I agree, the

evidence is here that support is required, and it should continue, but we've got stalemate it seems in D.C.

ROMANS: You know, and what they do will determine what the recovery looks like. I mean, that's just the truth. So the President is talking about big

numbers and everything coming back with a bang and a V-shape recovery. You will not get a V-shaped recovery if you don't have Congress continuing to

provide support for Main Street.

I'm talking small business. I'm talking actual people who have lost their job. Because you look at Wall Street, stocks are up. I mean, investors are

making money. The beltway, it sounds like process and business as usual, but really, I mean, constituents are feeling this. Everyone knows somebody

who has lost their job.

I mean, just even the biggest number, when you look at everybody who was working at the beginning of March, 55 million of those people have filed

for the first time for unemployment benefits sometime over the summer.

Now, some of them have been hired back as you can see in these numbers, but job loss is something that's touched probably every American family here

and there's a danger that without the proper support from Washington, you're going to have permanent job losses and you're going to have

permanent income loss for people and that will hold the recovery back further into 2021.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, a real inflection point and of course, we can't keep up with the health crisis in terms of collecting data and analyzing it. So,

three weeks old and three weeks is a really long time in this country at the moment.

ROMANS: It sure is.

CHATTERLEY: Christine Romans, thank you so much for that.

ROMANS: Bye-bye.

CHATTERLEY: All right, from one standoff to another, President Trump has extended his crackdown on Chinese' owned social media apps. He signed

Executive Orders banning TikTok and Tencent owned WeChat from operating here in the United States within 45 days unless they're sold.

Ivan Watson joins me now. Ivan, we were awaiting confirmation of that Executive Order on TikTok. Microsoft now has a timeline for negotiations

here if they're going to purchase it. But WeChat extends the issue. All eyes now on China to see how they respond.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, because these two Executive Orders, they target Chinese successful tech sector

companies, saying that the U.S. government will ban transactions with these companies within 45 days, and the Executive Orders do that on the grounds

of national security, making the case that both of these applications that they suck up vast amounts of data that could then fall into the hands, they

allege, of the Chinese Communist Party and then could be used for, for example, blackmail or for stealing intellectual property.

Of course, these are all things that are denied by the Chinese government. Another allegation made by the White House here is that these platforms can

be used to disseminate Chinese government propaganda and disinformation.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry, of course, does not like this. Take a listen to what a Foreign Ministry spokesperson has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WANG WENBIN, SPOKESMAN, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): We urge the U.S. to carefully listen rational voices inside the U.S. and

across the international community. Correct its mistaken acts, stop politicizing economic issues and stop oppressing certain companies and

provide an open, fair, and nondiscriminatory environment for businesses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:15:16]

WATSON: Now, Tencent, the spokesperson for Tencent, the owner of WeChat has said that they're reviewing the Executive Order to get a full

understanding.

Meanwhile, TikTok has issued a statement calling on its supporters to show their opposition to this move and adding, quote, "We will pursue all

remedies available to us in order to ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and our users are treated fairly, if not by

the administration, then by the U.S. courts."

But this is what I really want to highlight here, Julia. The Trump administration, the State Department has been signaling very overtly this

week that this is just the beginning of a much broader campaign by the Trump administration against Chinese telecommunications and tech companies.

Secretary of State Pompeo -- Mike Pompeo -- announced something he calls the Clean Network this week, and they've indicated that the moves against

Huawei trying to keep Chinese telecommunications company, Huawei out of countries' 5G networks is just beginning, now, you have this move against

TikTok and WeChat and that it will be expanded to create so-called clean stores that will remove quote, "untrusted Chinese apps" from U.S. app

stores.

Clean carriers, no Chinese telecommunication companies in international telecommunications, clean apps to prevent un-trusted vendors from

preinstalling or making available for download most popular U.S. apps, clean cloud, clean cable keeping Chinese companies from being able to

compromise undersea cables that share information around the world, how the internet essentially functions.

This is clearly a major salvo in what you could argue is a much broader trade war that the Trump administration is declaring, again, against

Chinese telecommunications companies and tech companies -- Julia.

CHATTERLEY: Ivan, you're describing a purging of Chinese technology in all forms from the United States of America, and you were the one that pointed

out to me earlier this week that the irony is in many ways that's already the case in China as far as American technology and access is concerned.

WATSON: That's right. I mean, the great Chinese firewall which has been put into place nearly a decade ago, where if you go to Mainland China, you

don't have access to the internet that the rest of the world has, so that includes U.S. giants like Facebook and Google and Instagram and Twitter --

all of these things are off limits to Chinese users.

And the Trump administration is using national security grounds to say that it doesn't want the Chinese government to be able to influence the internet

and telecommunications and e-commerce, but they're also -- if you read between the lines -- making the case that if China is walling the rest of

the world off from China's internet, then Chinese companies cannot make money off of the world's internet outside of the great Chinese firewall.

The question will be, how effective will the Trump administration be at convincing other governments to join on board this new campaign that

they're calling the Clean Network.

They've had some success convincing allied governments not to do contracts with Huawei, can they extend that to other giants? And mentioned in this

initiative are companies like Alibaba, Baidu, China mobile telecom, Tencent.

The implications of this are enormous. It will be important to see how the Trump administration can follow through on this declared threat.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's going to be really interesting, because the future is going to be determined by the presidential election in November and in

the interim, Apple and probably Tesla, who do operate in China, will be very carefully watching this, cautiously watching for retaliation.

Ivan Watson, thank you so much for that.

All right, we're going to take a break here on FIRST MOVE, but still to come, more on our top story out of Lebanon. We speak to a charity working

to get the children made homeless by the blast off the streets.

We'll also take a look at the challenges of cleaning up from a disaster in the age of coronavirus. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:44]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. U.S. markets on track for a softer open on the last trading day of the week. The snapshot, latest U.S.

unemployment numbers showing a sharp deceleration in job gains compared to last month, but it was a better number for July than expected. The

unemployment rate falling to 10.2 percent, though again, classifications would have this one percentage point higher if people said they were

unemployed when they were.

Jason Furman is the Economics Professor at Harvard University. He is also former Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Jason, great

to have you on the show, as always.

This data is three weeks old. What is your assessment of where the jobs market is today?

JASON FURMAN, ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Julia, I think this number is a relief. It's a little bit better than expected, but we still

have a huge way to go and we've gotten about nearly 10 million jobs back. The next 10 million are going to be even harder to get back than this first

set was.

A lot of what we've seen so far is people coming back from temporary layoff. There's a large number of unemployed people above and beyond that

group that will be much harder for them to get back to work.

CHATTERLEY: You called it, Jason, right at the beginning of this, you said actually half of this will come back very quickly and what looks like a V-

shaped recovery, an immediate bounce back, and then getting the rest back to work is going to be far harder.

Have you adjusted your thinking on where the unemployment rate will be even by the end of this year just based on what you're seeing?

FURMAN: I've adjusted my thinking down a little bit. I had been worried that we would end the year with double digit unemployment. I think we'll

end the year with single digit unemployment.

The problem is that once you're done with this phase of the recovery, this partial bounce back where people are going back to their old jobs, at that

point it's very hard for the unemployment rate to fall by more than one percentage point per year.

So if the unemployment rate ends the year at eight percent, it would be, I think, a pretty optimistic scenario, and it would take another four years

for it to get back to where it was before the pandemic.

CHATTERLEY: Washington at this moment, the two parties are disagreeing over whether or not to extend the $600.00 bump-up a week in unemployment

benefits. I know you've been analyzing whether or not this provides a disincentive effect for people to go back to work. That clearly also ties

to how many jobs are available for people to even go back to.

[09:25:19]

FURMAN: One of the really unusual things about this recovery is even with the incredibly high unemployment rate, consumer spending is right back

where it was 12 months ago.

The only reason that happened is because people are getting a lot more money in unemployment insurance and they're also getting stimulus checks.

Those have both now ended, and so that raises the possibility that we'll get a dip in consumer spending and that that will take jobs with it.

So the evidence on unemployment insurance is very clear that it leads to more spending. It can be a disincentive to work. I don't think it has been

in the last couple of months. Maybe you want to tweak it going forward for the next six months.

But I think, far and away, the largest effect it has at least in the short run is larger unemployment insurance, more spending, more spending, more

jobs.

CHATTERLEY: Define tweak, Jason. Should this payment be tied in some way to evidence of sustained recovery, i.e., a reduction in the unemployment

rate?

FURMAN: That's what I would like. I would like to make it a function of the unemployment rate and then if you're optimistic and think it's a V-

shaped recovery, you don't need to worry because you know it will go away.

And if you're pessimistic and think the unemployment rate will remain high, then we'll continue to support people at something like the high level

we've done now.

So I think that is both the right path forward economically, but it also lets each party, if they want to, declare victory based on the different

economic forecasts that they have.

CHATTERLEY: Jason, what about job matching to people's skills? Is there evidence to suggest that if you just allow people to take benefits for a

shorter or longer period of time that you have a bit more time to find the right job rather than perhaps going into a job because they need the money

that might not actually utilize all the skills that they have? They accept less money because they're desperate?

FURMAN: Yes, no, that's exactly right and I think sometimes people miss that. Even if there is a small work disincentive from the benefits, you

want people in the right job. You don't want somebody taking the very first job that comes their way, so this can improve the quality of job matches.

Also absent unemployment insurance in the past, we've seen people go on disability insurance. When you go on disability insurance, you tend not to

get off it. And unemployment insurance, it requires you to be searching for a job to be on it, or at least in normal times, it does.

So I think, there's a lot of things about ways in which unemployment insurance doesn't just protect people, but it also improves the functioning

of the labor market.

CHATTERLEY: I think it's an important moment not to forget that, quite frankly. Jason, very quickly, just given what we're seeing in terms of the

health crisis and handling of it, can you give me a sense of what your expectations are for the August non-farm payrolls number? Do you think we

can still keep adding jobs or are you worried that perhaps we stall, even reverse?

FURMAN: It's so hard to tell because gross flows are so large, we're losing millions and millions of jobs, we're gaining millions and millions

of jobs. The August number will be the difference between those two large numbers. It could be anything.

But I think almost certainly, it will be below the 1.8 million that we saw in July, possibly could be below zero.

CHATTERLEY: Jason Furman, great to have you with us, as always. Thank you for your wisdom.

All right, international aid pouring into Beruit where so many families are in need after Tuesday's massive explosion. We'll be speaking to the

director of a charity focused on helping Lebanon's children. That's coming up. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:32:17]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back. Beirut, shaken to the core by Tuesday's deadly blast and now there's growing outrage towards Lebanon's leaders.

Documents show requests to move a massive stockpile of volatile chemicals from the port were ignored by government officials for years. At least 16

port employees have been detained as part of an ongoing investigation into the explosion. Now, cleanup and rebuilding falls to the people and they're

looking for help.

Since 1975, World Vision Lebanon has worked to end poverty and injustice in the country. Rami Shamma is the Field Operations Director for the

humanitarian organization and he joins us live now from Beirut.

Rami, great to have you with us. I know you and your team are incredibly busy. You've done an immediate priority assessment. What are you thinking

here? What is most vital?

RAMI SHAMMA, FIELD OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, WORLD VISION LEBANON: Hello. Can you hear me?

CHATTERLEY: I can hear you, Rammi. Can you hear me? This is Julia.

SHAMMA: Yes, great.

CHATTERLEY: Great, we've got you.

SHAMMA: Hello, Julia. Good morning to you.

CHATTERLEY: Hello. Great to have you with us. Good morning.

SHAMMA: Thank you for having me. And I'm actually in Beirut now. We just finished a meeting with the Governor for the International Organizations to

see how we can actually coordinate our efforts together. This is why I'm speaking to you from my car, so apologies for this.

Actually, in our initial assessment that we are making with the communities that have been impacted, we're noticing that there are three main

priorities at this stage from our perspective, and especially that we are a child-focused organization.

So we have the first one, which is the shelter needs and this is regarding the people who have lost their houses or have their houses damaged due to

the explosion.

The second need is the basic need -- basic assistance, so we're talking here about food, we are talking about hygiene. We're talking about

disinfection kits because we need to consider that this explosion came on top of three crises that Lebanon is dealing with right now, including the

COVID-19 crisis at the same time.

So we need to take into consideration that those families are safely and -- well, safely able to go back to their houses.

And the third one, which is quite crucial, especially at this stage, and specifically for children, is the psychological first aid, and here, we are

talking about social support for children because the amount of trauma that those children have gone through, being either near the blast or even 30

kilometers away from the blast, when they heard the actual explosion take place, this was a shock to a lot of people.

And then they saw the pictures and then they saw the videos and then most probably they would have a friend or family member who they have either

lost or have injured in the explosion.

And so this kind of support is utterly needed at this time for those who have been impacted.

[09:35:33]

CHATTERLEY: I know your focus, too, Rammi, is on children, as you've mentioned. UNICEF is saying 80,000 children have lost their homes, others

estimates say it is 300,000 families. Where are they now? How do you protect people just in the short-term?

SHAMMA: So there's the short-term and there's the mid-term. For the short- term those families went to either friends or family members. Some of them are still actually sitting in their houses that were damaged and there's a

very big risk for them because the buildings have been impacted and the infrastructure, but people are afraid to leave their houses so that they

don't get stolen at the same time.

And there are some community initiatives that have opened doors to either small apartments, collective shelters from municipalities, so it is

communal at this level. But eventually, we would need a more systemized way of protecting those people and providing shelter for them, to the point

where they have the opportunity to go back to their actual houses, if they exist at the same time.

We need to think about it, because a lot of people have actually lost their houses fully and this would need a different type of intervention.

CHATTERLEY: Of course. I mean, social distancing under these conditions is clearly impossible. Rami, I know one of your observations, obviously the

Lebanese people are incredibly proud, poverty is an embarrassing thing, admitting it.

I mean, they were already dealing with an economic crisis. What does the nation need? If viewers are watching and want to provide support or help,

what does the country need most desperately?

SHAMMA: I think at the first level, we need hope and I believe the solidarity that we have seen from either Lebanese who are in Lebanon who

are directly on the street and started helping out and getting the debris from the floor, the glass, trying to support their families and friends.

Even some people who they don't know in the first place, and the solidarity as well from actual international communities, including the U.S., by the

way, and other European countries, Arab countries, I think that this hope that somebody is next to us, this is utterly important.

And then the next support would be definitely the basic needs, the medical equipment. We are looking here at an explosion that happened in a port. The

main port of the country, in which we rely on all of the imported goods coming from this channel.

And so in one way or another, we are risking depletion of food items, of medical equipment, of medical items in this tough times, and the economic

level and the economic situation is not actually helping at all.

And so I believe, the financial support at this stage to the communities who have been impacted at least to have a dignified life.

I mean, come to think about it, a lot of people who I have talked to, the main sentence that they come up with now is, why us? Why also this crisis

in 2020? Didn't we see enough economic deterioration, the Lebanese pounds have barely any existence at this level. The unemployment rate is

increasing drastically in the country. The COVID-19 pandemic came and also had a very huge impact on the communities and on the people, and then this

comes.

So I think these would be the two most important things from the international community at this stage.

CHATTERLEY: Rami, our hearts are with you. Thank you for the work you and your team are doing and we wish you well. Rami Shamma of World Vision

Lebanon there.

SHAMMA: Thank you.

CHATTERLEY: Thank you, sir. We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:42:46]

CHATTERLEY: An existential event, that's how the CEO of Delta Airlines describes the impact of the pandemic on the aviation industry.

The firm now says one in five workers have voluntarily left their jobs amid a dramatic cost-cutting drive. In June, Delta was burning through $27

million in cash every day. That's actually down from $100 million a day in March.

New safety protocols at the company include leaving the middle seats empty, capping passenger loads at some 60 percent and the company just introduced

a new long-term testing program to protect its employees.

Delta's CEO, Ed Bastian joins us now. Ed, fantastic to have you on the show with us. Incredibly challenging times. One in five workers now voluntarily

choosing to leave. Does that mean no further job losses will be required or is it still too early to tell?

ED BASTIAN, CEO, DELTA AIRLINES: Well, thanks for having me, Julia. Good to talk to you. It's too early to tell. We have had an amazing turnout from

our employees, 20 percent as you mentioned have voluntarily agreed to an early retirement opportunity that we made available to all of our employees

and we were proud of them for stepping up.

We still have thousands of employees that are out, continuing on voluntary leaves of absence without pay, which I'm very proud of. It's too early to

know whether we're going to be able to continue to get through this on solely voluntary measures, but that's our goal.

CHATTERLEY: You've brought costs down by 50 percent, which is an eye- watering amount in such a short space of time. But you've also made a choice, a strategic choice here, and I know you call it people before

profits, to implement all sorts of safety measures to the point where you're basically losing money on every flight.

BASTIAN: Our principal goal -- obviously safety is the most important goal -- is to restore confidence in air travel, specifically on Delta, and every

step we've taken to re-examine the safety from a passenger standpoint as well as our employees' standpoint with respect to the hygiene of the

aircraft, distancing protocols, capping load factors making certain that on every Delta flight, the seat next to our passenger is open, is making a

huge difference in restoring confidence.

Wee bottomed out in April with carrying about 25,000 passengers a day, which is about five percent of our typical load. Today, we'll carry about

150,000 passengers, so we're up to 25 percent, and we're slowly walking back confidence.

[09:45:30]

BASTIAN: But our consumers are telling us it is working. Our people are telling us they're feeling comfortable in the environment. And we're going

to continue to work on getting air travel back, but it has to come through the eyes of our customers.

CHATTERLEY: That comes down to trust, it comes down to people believing it's safe to fly again. We were just showing some images there of cleaning

of the planes. We saw, I believe, some images there of you actually being tested as well.

Are we at the point where we can say, look, getting on a plane is as safe perhaps as getting in a car, taking an Uber or a ride-sharing ride, for

example? Are you confident enough to say that?

BASTIAN: I am absolutely confidence enough to say that. Getting on a plane is safer than in a car or getting in an Uber or ride sharing or any other

form of public transportation.

We've proven that over time. Air travel is, particularly in the U.S., the safest form of transportation there is. Period. And because of the

pandemic, it's caused us to not only double down, but significantly increase the amount of focus we have on the personal safety, the hygiene of

the aircraft.

You know, a couple of things that we monitor. One of the things, Julia, is the air quality on board our planes. We have high-quality HEPA filters,

which is the cleanest filtration system that exists. Period. It's what hospitals use in their emergency rooms.

We measure -- we have sensors on board our planes. We test the quality of the air. And candidly, it's five to seven times cleaner than the air that

you and I are breathing right now or in an UBER or any other public setting.

And when you couple all of these protocols, including the enforcement of masks onboard our planes, I'm a hundred percent confident it is absolutely

safe to be on air travel.

CHATTERLEY: And the other way to prove this, I guess, would be to test your employees and you watch infection rates to just get a sense versus

what we're seeing around the country in terms of how you're protecting your employees.

You've had some tough decisions to make, including the passenger in flight where you've turned around and said if you're not wearing a mask, we're not

taking off.

BASTIAN: That's correct. We are enforcing masks. It's a critical component to the safety of all of our customers and all of our people onboard.

We've had well over a hundred people that have refused to keep their mask on during the flight. First of all, you can't get on the plane without

wearing your mask, but we do have some customers that don't want to keep their mask on during flight.

We remind them several times over the course of getting ready to take off to please keep their mask on, but if they insist upon not wearing it, we

insist that they are not going to travel on Delta.

CHATTERLEY: Ed, talk to me about how important more financial support is. I know you took over $5 billion worth of aid. You've requested access to

several further billion. How much more money is needed?

BASTIAN: Well, the CARES Act was incredibly important to our industry. We were one of the industries early on in the pandemic in March and April

where the U.S. government prioritized maintaining the U.S. air transportation system as an essential service to restoring the economy, as

well as the mobility of hundreds of millions people that access that system throughout the course of the year in the U.S.

And at Delta, we received a $5 billion part grant, part loan, which enabled us to keep all of our employees in place for the six-month period from

April 1st through the end of September. We kept all of our employees in place. They're still in place.

Voluntarily, we've had people retire, which were able to do, but there's nothing been done on an involuntary basis, and it has given us the

opportunity to get a sense to have an orderly plan to deal with the pandemic.

Back then, in March and April, none of us knew how long this pandemic was going to take to recover. But I believe, a fair number of people thought we

would be in a better place in containing the virus today than we were then. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

The virus has continued to spread at an alarming rate, and air travel has not returned at anywhere near the levels that we thought at that point in

time.

So the logic that made sense then to keep airlines in place as an essential service is critically important for the next six months as well.

As an industry we know we're looking at potentially up to a hundred thousand or more employees that would be furloughed. I'm not talking Delta,

I'm talking specifically to the airline -- the industry as a whole, and we want to do everything we can to protect jobs.

CHATTERLEY: That makes perfect sense to me, Ed. I wanted to talk to you about Delta's approach to equality and diversity but I've run out of time

to. Please come back very soon because we will talk specifically about this, because I know you've been listening to your employees and have some

pointed comments to make on that.

But for now, great to have a conversation with you. Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Airlines. Sir, thank you for joining us on the show.

BASTIAN: Thank you.

CHATTERLEY: Thank you. All right, coming up here on FIRST MOVE, down, but certainly not out. People in Beirut wasting no time trying to bounce back

after the massive explosion. Signs of hope in the Lebanese capital after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:53:02]

CHATTERLEY: In Beirut, the aftermath of the devastating explosion, yet, and many residents in the Lebanese capital jumping right into action,

determined to rebuild. Ben Wedeman has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Beirut residents, life is now divided between what came before and what

came after. The staff member of the Barbell House gym captured these images on his phone. He was unharmed.

Shiva Karout is a trainer in the gym.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIVA KAROUT, TRAINER, BARBELL HOUSE GYM: As soon as I saw that nothing happened to me, I ran out, ran to the gym, tried helping people out.

A lot of people were wounded, a lot of people were on the floor, disoriented. We just picked them up, and put them outside, took them to the

hospital.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Less than two days later, with blood still on the weights, gym members are doing the heavy lifting to restore a semblance of

routine.

In the Maroun Maronite Church, the priest conducts a live streamed mass, cut short by the tremor and then the crash of shattering glass. Father

Marwan Mouawad was sitting in the pews, and immediately assumed it was a political assassination in the streets outside.

"God save us. God save us," he recalls. "We wanted to get out of here with the least possible damage."

Glass shards tore into the pews, mostly empty Tuesday evening because of coronavirus restrictions. Two stained glass panels were spared, one

depicting Jesus, the other Mar Charbel, a Lebanese saint renowned for miracles.

Not a miracle, but perhaps a glimmer of hope that Lebanon's spirit is far from broken is on vivid display in the crowded streets of Mar Mikhael, the

neighborhood next to the port.

Social distancing has been sacrificed in the effort to cling to a spirit of community in a land where the very system of government is based upon

divisions between the countries 18 officially recognized religious sects.

[09:55:13]

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Their work done for the day, an ad hoc volunteer crew heads home, singing a popular song with the refrain "Lebanon will come

back."

The city is bruised, bleeding, and battered, but unbowed.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)F

CHATTERLEY: Amid the devastation, hope. Our hearts go out to everyone involved.

That's it for the show. We will continue our coverage of the ongoing events in Beruit throughout programming once again today.

For now, I'm Julia Chatterley. Stay safe. Have a safe weekend and we'll see you next week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

END