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Florida Braces For Hurricane Milton; Helene Debris Could Become Projectiles In Strong Wind; Tampa Trauma Center Built Fence To Withstand Storm Surge. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired October 09, 2024 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:28]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead. Florida braces for catastrophe as Hurricane Milton closes in on the state's Gulf Coast, threatening historic devastation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns Lebanon could face destruction similar to Gaza as he urges the country to oust Hezbollah from positions of power.

And a new book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward makes some surprising claims about Netanyahu, U.S. President Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. Well, the U.S. State of Florida is bracing for the arrival of one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record. Just hours from now, Hurricane Milton will slam into Florida's gulf coast with torrential rain, piercing winds and potential devastation on a scale this region has never seen before. Right now, Milton is back to a rare category five strength in the Gulf of Mexico and while experts predict it may weaken before landfall. They also expect it to double in size. Meaning the damage could be far more widespread.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A local emergency currently exists quickly securing your home or business and safely evacuate the area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Officials have been relentlessly urging the millions of people in Milton's path to get out of harm's way. And many are doing just that. Here is what the traffic looked like on one of Florida's interstates just hours ago. Statewide, about one in five gas stations are out of fuel due to the mass exodus. That's according to the tracking Web site GasBuddy. People are leaving behind many of their possessions, as well as the wreckage caused by Hurricane Helene just two weeks ago.

Many fear the debris from that storm will become dangerous projectiles when Milton's powerful winds come ashore. Well, for the Tampa metropolitan area, home to more than three million people, a direct hit from a hurricane hasn't happened in over a century, and while it's too soon to say where exactly Milton will come ashore, Tampa's mayor has made her warning blunt and crystal clear. This storm is a matter of life and death. More now from CNN's Isabel Rosales.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When we heard Tampa's Mayor Jane Castor telling people, if you decide to stay in an evacuation zone, that's a mandatory evacuation zone against what we're asking you to do, you're going to die. I worked here. I lived here for several years in the Tampa Bay area. I have never heard such blunt language from Tampa's mayor ever before, and I've covered many storms.

They're telling people to get out. Please heat our warnings debris. That's also a huge concern. Getting it out of the neighborhoods. You're looking at gusts up to 150 miles per hour here in Tampa, those are become flying projectiles, extremely dangerous. But then you have Tampa General Hospital where I'm at right now, Davis islands, that's a neighborhood of Tampa. This is the region's only level one trauma center.

They cannot evacuate. They're too big, too specialized. The patients that they have are too sick. So, what do they do? They put millions of dollars in tools like this. This is the aqua fence that they have bolted down to the ground. It can withstand storm surge in different parts, different heights up to 15 feet high. We're anticipating 10 to 15 feet here in the Tampa Bay. But look at this. This is why it's so serious. They're on a manmade island.

Look at this. I could throw a rock right over to the Hillsborough Bay. This is the first time this season by Helene that the Aqua fence has been tested and waters did reach right up there. It withstood. It kept the hospital dry. It kept their patients, their staff safe. They're hoping, if it comes to this, that it will do it again.

CHURCH: And CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir is in St. Petersburg, Florida, where residents are working against the clock to prepare in the final hours before landfall.

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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Both physically and emotionally, they are already picking up the pieces on Florida's Gulf Coast.

BETH CALDWELL, LONG KEY, FLORIDA RESIDENT: It's like hysterical. I can't sleep, I can't eat. And then you're calling the nets. And then you're like, it is what it

is. You got to keep living.

[02:05:10]

WEIR (voice-over): Now, Beth Caldwell must cut short her search for her mother's wedding ring to evacuate for the second time in as many weeks.

WEIR: You're saying you're really worried about folks who made it through this one, but may not.

CALDWELL: Well, yes, because the amount of debris on this street and the winds, even if it slows down.

WEIR (on camera): Governor DeSantis said this morning that even with 24/7-degree removal, they wouldn't have all of Helene's damage cleaned up in time for Milton to make landfall. And this is why there is one front loader over here waiting to fill up a line of empty dump trucks. That's approximately two miles long.

And this beach was covered in millions of dollars of fresh sand to try to protect this community which just got washed away.

SUSAN GLICKMAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF POLICY AND PARTNERSHIP, THE CLED INSTITUTE: That's right.

WEIR (on camera): What does that tell you about how we prepare and how we have to adjust to this new earth?

GLICKMAN: The fact is, is you cannot adapt your way out of the climate crisis.

WEIR (voice-over): Susan Glickman grew up around this bungalow where her husband and a dear 90-year-old friend called Nanny survived Helene. But ironically, she's also a community climate organizer in Florida, desperately trying to convince officials and neighbors that this is what scientists have been warning about for generations.

GLICKMAN: It is beyond criminal if we do not dramatically address the root cause of the problem immediately, but if we keep putting climate pollution and burning fossil fuels, we're just going to make a lot of this planet in general just unlivable.

WEIR (on camera): Here in downtown St. Petersburg, we're about 24, 36 hours before landfall, and it's obvious that the evacuation orders are taking -- being taken seriously by folks. You do see some souls walking dogs, a few cars out, but mostly empty. Officials did voice some concern about in addition to all the worries the construction towers that are all over this growing city here in these category four winds, those could come down, and they admitted they don't have enough time to disassemble them before landfall.

But honestly, even if they were to come down in a worst-case scenario, so much of this area is evacuated, it may not cost a lot of life. What is really worrisome is that mound of water being pushed by category five winds, less than 500 miles away from this part of Tampa. Keep in mind, the last time a major storm hit this part of Florida 100 years ago. The population has gone up by about 3-1/2 million people and sea level has gone up by a foot.

Bill Weir, CNN, St. Petersburg, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: Joining me now on the phone is Jodie Fiske, the Public Safety Director for Manatee County in Florida. Appreciate you talking with us at this difficult time and of course, busy time.

JODIE FISKE, PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR, MANATEE COUNTY: Sure, of course.

CHURCH: So, the message does appear to be getting through that this storm is deadly, so we are seeing Florida residents evacuating in droves as the category five hurricane approaches, but the roads are packed bumper to bumper, and fuel is now running low. So, what is your advice to those who haven't left yet but do intend to go?

FISKE: So, right now our evacuation orders. We have about 5000 people in our shelters. So, if people don't have enough fuel to evacuate with their what -- their original plan was, we do have nine shelters, including our special needs shelter open here in the county. And then we also have our 311 that people can call and we can arrange transportation to one of our shelters.

CHURCH: Well, that's certainly good to know. And, of course, what is the latest on those evacuation efforts and how many people do you think will try to hunker down and ride this out?

FISKE: We don't have any numbers on specifics on how many people are choosing to stay in the evacuation levels. We - our first responders and our beach patrol lifeguards actually went door to door yesterday. And today, telling people that, you know, now is the time to go. They were met with no resistance from the residents. So, I am very hopeful that people did heed the warning. You know, the fact that highways are packed is a sign that people are taking this very seriously.

CHURCH: Yes, absolutely. And your county utility crews are shutting off the water service to the barrier island communities. Why is this being done, and who all will be affected by this?

FISKE: So, the water was actually shut off this morning at 10:00 to the barrier islands. That was done in collaboration with the cities. And, you know, like I said, we did the door-to-door knock for everyone, telling them it was time to go. So, it only affects those on the depths that were on the barrier island.

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CHURCH: And what is -- what's your biggest concern right now as this hurricane approaches the Florida coast?

FISKE: As far as the threat goes, you know that 10-to-15-foot storm surge is obviously a huge concern but our biggest concern is those who chose not to evacuate and to ride it out. And we would just ask those people, if they find themselves in a situation where they need help, they can dial 911. And as long as our first responders are able to respond, they will come out and try and get them.

CHURCH: And Jodie, you mentioned the 5000 people are in the shelters. They're nine shelters, you say. So, what's the capacity? FISKE: We're actually only at about 50 percent capacity right now, just coming up to that. So, we actually have additional shelters on standby. For Hurricane Irma, we actually sheltered about 27,000 people here at the county.

CHURCH: All right. Well, we wish you all the best. Stay safe. Jodie Fiske talking to us there, bring us up to date on the evacuation situation. Appreciate it.

FISKE: Thank you so much.

CHURCH: All right. Let's turn now to the Middle East where Israel says it's still assessing whether it killed the successor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Tuesday that Hashem Safieddine had been eliminated but the IDF says it's still checking. Meanwhile, Israel reports it's expanding its military campaign into Southwest Lebanon, despite calling the ground operation limited.

Lebanese state media reports strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs caused massive destruction, including the collapse of four residential buildings. And Hezbollah's deputy leader is saying, for the first time, he supports a ceasefire with Israel. The militant group had previously insisted the fighting in Gaza must end as well.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now live from Abu Dhabi. So, Paula, what more are you learning about the claims from Israel that it may have killed Nasrallah's replacement?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Rosemary, what we're hearing from the Israeli prime minister is something quite definitive that Hashem Safieddine, he believes, was killed in an air strike in the southern suburbs Dayiheh of Beirut last Friday. Also suggesting that Hezbollah is trying to conceal the fact that he was killed. Generally, Hezbollah does acknowledge when its commanders have been killed.

We heard something less definitive, though, from the military side. Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, for example, speaking to troops, said that he was probably had been eliminated. And then the Israeli military itself said the results of this attack are still being assessed. Let's listen to what the Prime Minister said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: We've degraded Hezbollah's capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and as Nasrallah replacement and the replacement of his replacement. Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it's been for many, many years. Now, you, the Lebanese people, you stand at a significant crossroads. It is your choice. You can now take back your country. You can return it to a path of peace and prosperity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Netanyahu, also speaking to the people of Lebanon, warned of destruction similar to what we see in Gaza. And it's what we've been hearing from U.N. officials that the methods of warfare being used in Lebanon are very similar to what we saw in Gaza, the massive air power, the destruction that we're seeing. And certainly, that is a concern to those in Lebanon believing that they are going to be subjected to the same fate as residents in Gaza.

And we also saw that the Israeli forces had raised an Israeli flag within -- on the suburbs of one of those villages in southern Lebanon. This was the village of Maroun El Ras. Satellite images from a few days ago show Israeli military vehicles based there as well, we have reached out to the IDF about why this would have happened. We also know it was very close to a base of UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeepers within southern Lebanon. Rosemary?

CHURCH: And Paula, Iran's President is weighing in, accusing Israel of ignoring the rules of war. What more can you tell us about that?

HANCOCKS: So, this was a speech by Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, accusing Israel of indiscriminate attacks on women and children and the elderly. Also criticizing Israel's allies for supporting this kind of behavior.

[02:15:02]

He says that it was supporting a barbaric government, as he puts it, also criticizing the fact that Iran is accused of human rights abuses, and yet what Israel is doing, he says, in the region, is not being criticized as much as this at this point. No, it's unsurprising remarks from the Iranian president but it comes also as Iran is bracing itself and waiting to see what kind of response Israel is going to give to last week's ballistic missile launches from Tehran.

They say around 200 ballistic missiles were fired at Israel. The majority of them were intercepted, but some did hit targets in Israel. And the question now is, what will the response be from Israel and is it going to be large enough that there will be concerns of what is already really a regional conflict spreading even further. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Paula Hancocks bringing us that live report from Abu Dhabi. Many thanks. And as Paula just mentioned, top U.N. officials are raising concerns that Lebanon could become another Gaza. A spokesperson for the Human Rights Commissioner, says civilians are paying the ultimate price with destruction everywhere. A million people displaced, and hospitals and schools closed. He also says Israel is using the same means and methods of warfare in both conflicts.

Well, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in the north of the country. And it's destroyed Lebanese villages along the border. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh reports.

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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Serene and picturesque. It's what Al Mashhad once was. Today, much of this Lebanese border village lies in ruins. The destruction is horrific, says Hana Zarov (ph). Homes in Al Mashhad are destroyed, completely devastated by strikes. The face of the entire areas changed. He says war hit his village long before most were paying attention. It began on October 8th when Hezbollah launched attacks against Israel under the banner of solidarity with Gaza, sparking a year of tit for tat cross border attacks.

Homes in Al Mashhad were destroyed. Almost its entire population, including local official Zardo (ph) was forced to flee. The border conflict has now expanded to all-out war.

The last 10 days, no one can imagine the level of brutality, Hana says. They began using different weapons against the village whenever there is an air strike now it destroys a whole neighborhood, five to six homes destroyed at the same time. Hana thought like previous wars, the Christian village would be spared the worst of the violence. He believes its strategic position right on the border, overlooking Israel, has turned it this time into a battlefield for both sides and its people are paying the price.

Like 90-year-old Um Jamil, she was too old to leave, killed late last month in an Israeli strike on her home. Hana, like many of his generation has seen every war in Lebanon since the 1970s. He says the Israeli onslaught in recent weeks is like nothing he'd seen before. He doesn't name Hezbollah but he questions those who started this war.

Was that banner of solidarity with Gaza worth all the pain, destruction and displacement? He asks. Now we talk about help for Lebanon and have forgotten that solidarity. Hana and his wife Sarad (ph) show us what's left of the neighborhood where they grew up.

When these homes were hit, I felt like a part of my childhood is gone, Sarad says. The memories are gone. It was all erased in an instant. The pain is unbearable. It hurts so much.

Aalma El Chaeb is now a ghost town. The last of its residents have now fled. Their livelihood, these agricultural lands, olive trees gone.

The big question is, will we ever return to our homes? Will we ever go back to our village? Hana says. Will we rebuild it again, and who will rebuild it? If this had stopped 10 days ago, maybe, but now, with this level of destruction and devastation war has spread far beyond their small village. Home now the mountains above Beirut. What will become of their village and their country has never been so uncertain.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still ahead. Bombshell new details about Donald Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin. A new book offers a behind the scenes look at their conversations, including a secret shipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. We'll have details just ahead.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, legendary journalist Bob Woodward has captured a rare look behind the scenes at the highest levels of global politics. In his new book called War, it reveals conversations from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, often about or involving other world leaders. And he describes previously unknown details about the relationship between former President Trump and Vladimir Putin, including that there may have been as many as seven calls between the two men since Trump left the White House.

And a secret shipment of COVID-19 testing supplies that Trump sent to the Russian president at the height of the pandemic. Jamie Gangel has more.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: These are never before revealed phone calls that Woodward is reporting about between Trump and Putin, including this verbatim conversation where they discuss what you mentioned, that President Trump apparently secretly sent the Russian president this scarce shipment of COVID test machines for his personal use.

So, here is the exchange from the book. Putin, please don't tell anybody you sent these to me. Trump, I don't care. Fine. Putin, no, no, I don't want you to tell anybody, because people will get mad at you, not me. They don't care about me. Former President Trump today denied sending the test to Putin. President Biden, reacting to the reports that Trump had sent these according to Woodward said, "What the hell is wrong with this guy?" Meaning Trump.

CHURCH: Our thanks to Jamie Gangel for that report. And among other new details, Bob Woodward reports that Biden's national security team at one point believed there was a real threat, a 50 percent chance that Putin would use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. During a conversation about his son's legal troubles, President Biden said he, "should never have picked Merrick Garland to be U.S. Attorney General."

And he criticized former President Barack Obama for his handling of Putin's invasion of Crimea in 2014 concluding that Obama "never took Putin seriously."

Well, earlier, I asked CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein for his take on the shocking revelations about Trump that were laid out in Woodward's book.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: This was the kind of revelation that earlier in Trump's career would have prompted a whole series of Republicans to raise alarms, and that today there was silence. You know, maybe the -- maybe the turning point was the death of John McCain.

[02:25:00]

But it does reinforce a message that Harris is really pushing, and in fact is pushing on the air which is how many -- not only former Republican national security officials from other administrations, but Republican national security officials from his own administration are warning and arguing that Trump is not fit to be president again. And I suspect, as Harris emphasizes, that cross party support Liz Cheney and others that she will be talking quite a bit about that specific example of Trump sending the covid tests of Vladimir Putin when Americans were struggling to get them themselves.

CHURCH: The meantime, of course, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has been on a media blitz that has, not surprisingly, been criticized by rival Donald Trump as she calls out his multiple falsehoods and answers some pretty tough questions. What's your assessment of her many media appearances so far, particularly on the view Tuesday, when she said that nothing came to mind when asked if there was anything she would do differently to what President Biden has done?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, first of all, I think in all of these I've listened to the podcasts, the two podcasts that she's done and Howard Stern and The View. I'm struck by how much emphasis She's putting on personal relatability, rather than emphasizing her agenda. I mean, really focusing on making each of these different audiences, young women, black men, younger men, which is the stern audience, and of course, kind of working-class, middle-class women in The View feel that they can relate to her personally in a way they can't with Trump.

And I think that's a way of trying to get at her response on the economy, right? I mean, if you ask people who they trust more on the economy in a macro sense, they say Trump. If they ask who -- if you ask who you care, who cares more about people like you, who is trying to improve your family's life, Harris does much better. And I think by and large, that's what she's going at in these -- in these media appearances.

I did not think that was a great moment for her. I'm surprised she didn't have an answer ready to something to the effect of, obviously, there have been some, but I'm not going to kind of air our internal conversations here in public. I do think overall, The View appearance was the best one of the four by far for her. It was pretty close to pitch perfect in terms of both the policy agenda, in terms of Medicare, creating Medicare program for home -- health care for seniors.

But also, that personal relatability and the creating an ability for working class moms to see her as someone who would get their lives because she's lived something like it herself. I thought that was a very effective performance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And my full interview with Ron Brownstein is coming up next hour here on CNN Newsroom. Still to come, we continue to monitor Hurricane Milton as the rare category five hurricane is on track to hit Florida's gulf coast as a major storm in just a matter of hours. Do stay with us.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN. More people get their news from CNN than any other news source.

CHURCH: Right now, Hurricane Milton is once again, a rare category five storm in the Gulf of Mexico with landfall expected on Florida's heavily populated west coast, sometime in the day ahead. It's forecast to weaken before then likely to category three strength, but forecasters warn the powerful winds and storm surge will still be life threatening.

The city of Tampa is bracing for the worst case scenario officials there say one thing that makes Milton even scarier is what it could do to all the debris left behind by Hurricane Helene, which hit the region just two weeks ago. CNN's Carlos Suarez is in Fort Myers with the latest on storm prep there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Storm preparations are well underway here in Lee County. Business owners began the process of boarding up their businesses on Tuesday. Workers at this one location here filled this inflatable dam with water, all in hopes of keeping the place from flooding.

Now, the current forecast is calling for a 6 to 10 foot storm surge and downtown Fort Myers is in a low lying part of the county. Just two years ago, it was flooded by Hurricane Ian. Now there are mandatory evacuation orders in place for the town of Fort Myers beach and Sanibel. Those are two parts of the county that were badly damaged by Hurricane Ian. Here now is one resident who told us she decided to evacuate to her parents' house because they live in higher ground.

FORT MYERS' RESIDENT: After Ian, people literally losing their homes and seeing homes on Fort Myer's beaches get lifted up and just taken off. I think people are starting to realize like, okay, hey, might as well protect ourselves a little better. And you know, do okay during the storm versus like taking a chance. So my parents have their home all boarded up. We all have generators. We've we always have a supply of water. Like we're just more prepared now because it's just not worth it to, you know, when you -- if you know, you're going to be without power, it's just not worth it to, you know, take it lightly.

SUAREZ: Business owners here tell us that during Hurricane Ian, over four feet of storm surge flooded their businesses. And they're worried that the damage is going to be a lot worse with the storm. Carlos Suarez CNN, Fort Myers, Florida.

CHURCH: U.S. President Joe Biden has canceled his overseas trips this week saying he needs to be in the country when Hurricane Milton strikes. Mr. Biden had planned to make his first presidential state visit to Berlin, where he was also said to meet with the German, British, and French leaders to discuss support for Ukraine. This weekend Ukraine's president will attend the Ukraine Defense

Contact Group Summit with NATO members. Mr. Zelensky says he will present his country's victory plan, "clear concrete steps toward a just end to Russia's war."

Well, meanwhile, civilians continue to suffer from Russian attacks on Eastern Ukraine. Regional officials say at least two people were killed and three wounded in a Russian glide bomb attack on the city of Kharkiv on Tuesday. Residents were left, shaken and terrified after the attack, which came in broad daylight as people were walking down the street.

NATALIA KHUDOBA, KHARKIV RESIDENT: I heard that something was flying through the air. I grabbed my child to run away towards a pit behind the building. I sat down and protected her. I heard something shattering around and glass splinters were everywhere. And that was it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A new report from the UN found that July was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since October, 2022. The High Commissioner for Human Rights says the heavy toll is due in part to a large scale coordinated Russian attack on July 8th on targets across Ukraine. In addition to the continued bombardment and assaults on the front lines.

[02:35:11]

UN data shows Russia's war on Ukraine has killed at least 11,743 civilians and wounded more than 24,000. Well, the head of the MI5 says ISIS and Al-Qaeda present a resurgent threat to the UK. The agency's director general, Ken McCallum also highlighted the increasing risk of state sponsored sabotage by Russia and Iran and out of the tensions in the Middle East could trigger terrorist action in Britain. McCallum said Russia's intelligence agency, GRU, is intent on causing mayhem as well.

KEN MCCALLUM, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF MI5: The GRU in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets. We've seen arson, sabotage, and more dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness and having precisely the opposite effect of what the Russian state intends in driving increased operation cooperational coordination with partners across Europe and beyond.

CHURCH: Russia's embassy in London has called his claims unsubstantiated. And we'll be right back.

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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well most Apple iPhones are made in Chinese factories, but the brand isn't getting a lot of love from China's nationalist influencers lately. They are spreading rumors on social media, telling people that iPhones can explode. CNN's Will Ripley tells us what's behind the sudden burst of informa- misinformation. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On China's tightly controlled social media. The sensors have allowed this 2011 video of an exploding iPhone to go viral, drawing misleading comparisons to the deadly attacks in Lebanon.

Thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies rigged with explosives. Chinese social media influencers are using the 13 year old video spreading rumors about Apple iPhones, suggesting without evidence ordinary iPhones that haven't been tampered with can be remotely detonated, making them deadly weapons.

CHRIS BODEN, YOUTUBER & HOST OF @Physicsduck: You can't just make an iPhone blow up like that without putting explosives in it.

RIPLEY: We tracked down the man behind the original viral video, American YouTuber, Chris Boden. He says this iPhone was hooked up to a high voltage machine.

BODEN: To make that little iPhone blow up, we had to have a power supply that was bigger than a refrigerator and weighs about half a ton.

RIPLEY: Despite efforts from some Chinese state media to debunk online rumors, fears that iPhones could explode are spreading quickly online.

"It's a very real threat," one user rights. Another says, "if we want to protect our lives, we should use Chinese products." Some influencers are encouraging users to switch to Chinese brands. Cyber nationalism in China creates fertile ground for false attacks on foreign brands like Apple. These posts untouched by Beijing's army of online sensors.

ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: If you had one of these iPhones...

RIPLEY: Former CIA operative Bob Bayer points out iPhones are primarily assembled in China.

[02:40:00]

BAER: I mean, if the Chinese government were involved, they could rig any of these phones.

RIPLEY: -- says there is no evidence any phones are being weaponized.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any phone with a chip is insecure. You can blow somebody up if you can put in a detonator and explosive.

RIPLEY: He also says there is plenty of easier ways to kill someone without getting a hold of their phone. He says it's actually impossible for a phone to spontaneously explode without adding explosives, the most it could do was the battery overheat and catch fire. But that is not stopping a host of conspiracy theories ever since the Lebanon attacks, especially in China, where one construction company has already banned iPhones at works, saying employees could be fired if they bring an iPhone, even offering vouchers to buy a Chinese-made alternative.

Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Few companies can say they have created as many widely beloved characters and seminal childhood experiences as Nintendo. Now, a new museum in Japan is celebrating the video game company's history with interactive displays and other nostalgic fun. CNN's Hanako Montgomery shows us around.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That is the sound that brings childhood memories to millions. Nintendo opens its very first museum, giving people the chance to explore Mario's world and guiding visitors through the company's 135-year history.

FERNANDO PATINO, MEXICAN TOURIST: When I was a little boy, I imagined like, wow, I'm going to be a (inaudible) programmer some day. But in Mexico, it was like, where, do you know, it is something super new (ph) even in these days. But the music of the game says is the thing that I like the most. I think it was very creative.

PENG MINGDA, NINTENDO FAN (through translator): The characters are really cute and the games are pretty good. They always put new ideas into the games which I really like.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): From adorable characters like Toad to interactive games, and even a burger-themed restaurant, the museum also features a massive hall with almost every product ever released by the company. Nintendo fans can now enjoy an interactive experience with their favorite characters.

MINGDA (through translator): Zelda.

(LAUGH)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Link

PATINO: Mario, Zelda, (inaudible).

MINGDA (through translator): "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild."

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): And you may encounter another fan favorite -- Pikachu. A Poke Lid with an original Pikachu design featuring a Gameboy is also on display. But visiting this highly anticipated museum is not as easy as it sounds. Visitors have to sign up for a lottery ticket system at least three months in advance. Even with the wait, fans are excited to be a part of Nintendo for a few hours.

MINGDA (through translator): I think they've added a new route for us to find out more about Nintendo, not just the goods, but also the history of Nintendo in the past. It feels like we've gained another tool.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And thanks so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. "World Sport" is coming up next. Then I'll be back in 15 minutes with more "CNN Newsroom." Do stick around.

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