Page 3 - Ben Wideman News Today

Many thanks for that report. appreciate it. well, vaccine misinformation is taking a tragic toll in much of eastern europe. this map gives you a sense of the difference. the darker a country is shaded, the more people that are vaccinated. its especially acute in romania. that country has among the lowest vaccination rates in europe, with just over 36% fully vaccinated, and one of the highest mortality rates in the world. something sadly evident in the hospitals and the morgues across the count...

Die. but that message just doesnt seem to be getting through. now, the numbers are starting to go down here, but doctors and medical personnel say they are bracing for a fifth wave of the disease, isa. >> you can only imagine how frustrated those doctors must be. ben wideman in bucharest. thanks very much, ben. in jerusalem, a recent uptick in transmission rate, that might mean a new spike really on infections. help us make sense of why were seeing this, why were seeing a rise in the r rate he...

>> youre going to be busy the next several days. thank you very, very much. in a few hours, the presidents of france and the united states will sit down together here in rome. it will be the first time that joe biden and emanuel macron have spoken face to face since they had a serious falling out in september over a canceled submarine deal. paris is still furious over what it calls americas betrayal for leaving it completely in the dark. secretly negotiated security agreement between australia, ...

Towards a more engaging position vis-a-vis china. we are now seeing angela merkel stepping out of the chancellory after 16 years. interesting also bringing her successor, likely successor who is currently her finance minister, even though hes not from the same party to the same table to the same room to meet with other g20 leaders. well have to see what his policy is going to be on china and also the french president emanuel macron, you know hes a very critical -- vocal proponent of strategic au...

Touch with you as usual. thank you very, very much. i want to bring in our senior international correspondent ben wideman he is here in rome watching this unfold. set the scene for us on whats expected to emerge from the world leaders who have gathered here in rome. >> reporter: well, there are sort of muted expectations from the g20 given that several of the major leaders will not be here. among them, the leaders of russia, china, japan and mexico for a variety of reasons. for instance, vladimi...

Economies. they dont necessarily see eye to eye. for instance, china and india are resisting the demands that everybody bring their greenhouse gas emissions down as quickly as possible. so there may be at the end some sort of communique where some vague and broad goals are endorsed. but in terms of specifics, its not really clear whats going to come out of this meeting, wolf. >> there will be a very significant meeting between president macron of france and president biden given the tense relati...

European allies was on the mend after the administration of donald trump. wolf? >> all right, ben, thank you very much. ben wideman reporting from here in rome as well. joining us now, stuart lau, the eu china correspondent. thanks very much for coming in. what are you going to be looking for specifically today and torment? >> -- tomorrow? >> we are looking possibly a communique on what ben was saying, describing to be broad and vague commitments about climate, about vaccine distribution. what...

Here, but as i said, the collapse continues and yesterday it accelerated. isa? >> important context there from our ben wideman in beruit. thanks very much, ben. good to see you. now, hundreds more are fleeing their homes as lava spews from the volcano la palma in the canary islands. weve been showing you images every day. its been erupting nearly a month. 6000 people have been displaced. the lava has destroyed more than 100 structures. the strongest magnitude 4.5. in california, warm tempera...

Used sectarian divisions to pull it apart. the pressure from the street is mounting. and in just days the results. repeatedly the government here has retreated. it scrapped the whats app tax. it promised no more taxes on ordinary citizens and its dropped the idea of an austerity budget. none of those steps, however, has had much impact on these protests. as the sun sets over beruit, the streets remain full. this long suffering country has seen flashes of hope. ben wideman, cnn, beruit. >> well, ...

The mood is beginning to change in the country, but lebanese people of all ages, backgrounds and religions promised to keep fighting. ben wideman has our report. >> reporter: its the drum beat of revolution. banging in beruit, and across lebanon. for the fourth straight day, the protests continued. each day bigger than the day before. the atmosphere is jubilant. but the underlying grievances are real. anger over a faltering economy, officials corruption, and barely functioning basic services. 5-...