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Van Der Sloot Agrees To U.S. Extradition After Prison Brawl In Peru; A.I. Industry And Researchers Warn Of "Extinction" Risk To Humans; Weight-Loss Surgery Becoming More Common Among Children & Teens; Smoke From Novia Scotia Fires Making Its Way Into Northeastern U.S.; Potential Evidence Tied To James Brown's Death Disappears. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 30, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:33:11]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway now agreeing to be transferred to the U.S. to face criminal charges here.

Joran van der Sloot's decision coming right after he was involved in a violent brawl in a prison in Peru. He's serving a 28-year sentence there for the 2010 murder of Stephanie Flores.

CNN's Jean Casarez is following this story for us.

What else are you learning here, Jean?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is what we're learning. And the reason that this is front and center right now is that he is days away from extradition to the United States to face criminal charges in regard to Natalee Holloway. The United States Alabama teen that went missing in 2005.

What we're learning, through his attorney that spoke with CNN Espanol, is that,, on Saturday in the prison, inmates began to fight. There was a brawl. And Joran van der Sloot got involved to help out a friend.

What ultimately resulted in that he has numerous injuries. He has injuries on his hands, on his fingers. And he was taken to the medical ward of this prison.

This is a huge prison in the southernmost tip of Peru. It is maximum security. You have the most violent inmates in Peru. Remember, he was convicted of a very violent murder in Peru.

And his attorney says that he can't speak with his client, Joran van der Sloot, because they aren't allowing Zoom at the moment. It has to be written correspondence. This is what he's learning.

The true extent of the injuries, I think, they may be left unknown at this point. But he is saying he's not sure if he's still in the medical unit. He does not know the status of that extradition. He says that he has

not been told by authorities.

[14:35:00]

But we know from the president of Peru saying that, within 30 days in May, she says, it would by the end of June, he would be extradited here.

And that is on federal charges of extortion, of money from Natalee Holloway's family, saying, give me the reward, I'll tell you exactly where her remains are.

They went to Aruba and then he ultimately took the cash and then said, guess what, I lied. I don't know where she is.

And they want the truth, the family of Natalee Holloway.

KEILAR: Yes, took the cash, went to Peru, and murdered a woman there.

CASAREZ: That's right.

KEILAR: Jean Casarez, thank you for the latest on that. We'll continue to follow it.

Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Well, a warning now from tech executives and artificial intelligence scientists. They are sounding the alarm about the very technology they're building. The industry leaders say that A.I. could pose, in their words, an "extinction risk" for humanity and should be a top priority.

CNN's Jon Sarlin joins us now with details.

Jon, we were just speaking about a whole other view of A.I., and that is the potential it has in health care and other positive uses here.

Here you have the other side, I suppose, drawing trend lines here out to the extreme of an extinction risk. I mean,

I wonder how big a risk they're talking about here. Is this only a hypothetical one? Are they saying it's very serious?

It's hard -- it's hard to balance all that you hear here because some is very positive and some is very negative.

JON SARLIN, CNN DIGITAL PRODUCER: Right. This is a short but concerning statement about the risks of A.I. from many of the people behind developing this technology.

The statement is short. It's 22 words. It reads, "Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority, alongside other societal scaled risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."

This is a statement saying that A.I. itself poses a risk of extinction.

Notably, the people who signed this letter are some of the executives building it themselves. People like Sam Altman, the CEO of Open Mind. You have people from Deep Mind, Google's A.I. company.

Although, there were some notable missing names from the letter, people like Elon Musk, who signed a previous letter saying that A.I. needed to be paused for six months. Although, Grimes, his partner and the pop star, did sign the letter.

What are the concerns? Organizers behind the letter told the "New York Times" that there weren't details specifically in this letter to unite the concerns of different so-called A.I. doomers, who see this technology as a significant threat.

There are concerns like disinformation which we're seeing in the 2024 election. But then also the more science-fictiony Sky Net scenarios where you have runaway A.I., A.I. that will become more intelligent than humans and we wouldn't be able to turn the switch off.

I talked to one tech executive who shares this belief. And he said, look, tigers have sharper teeth than humans and humans keep tigers in cages in zoos. The reason? We're smarter than them.

Well, if A.I. becomes smarter than humans and we're unable to control them, there's no saying what will happen next.

SCIUTTO: To be clear here, they're not saying abandon A.I., right? I mean, these are folks involved in developing it. They're saying, in effect, you need guardrails, regulations, safety measures around it?

SARLIN: That's correct. Obviously, there's a big debate on what exactly that would mean.

But you have people like Sam Altman calling for regulation. Notably, the letter says this is a global priority. This is not something that can just be solved by one country regulating it.

People like Sam Altman have called for an international agency, akin to the IAEA, the nuclear watchdog, to oversee A.I. regulation.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, it's a good point. It seems the technology is moving so quickly. You have very real conversations about exactly this sort of thing.

Jon Sarlin, thanks so much as always as covering -- for covering.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: New research shows that weight loss surgery is becoming a common way to treat obesity among children and teens. Details on that report.

[14:39:06]

Plus, Canadian officials say the wildfire in Nova Scotia is still not under control. The smoke now reaching the United States. More details ahead.

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KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour.

Rosalynn carter has been diagnosed with dementia, according to the Carter Center. The family says in a statement that the 95-year-old former first lady continues to live happily with her husband, the former president, who began home hospice care in February.

And the state Supreme Court in New York will soon decide whether to extend a temporary restraining order that blocks New York City from transporting migrants to Rockland County.

A judge issued the order earlier this month after Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to send asylum seekers to a hotel in Orangetown. Rockland County officials argue the plan violates local zoning laws.

And some travelers leaving Auckland International Airport will be asked to step on a scale before they board. According to Air New Zealand, it's all part of a survey to gather more precise data for load distribution on airplanes. The airline says the information collected will be anonymous.

Jim?

SCIUTTO: The CDC is calling childhood obesity here in the U.S., quote, "a serious problem." It affects millions of children and teens as well. Now new research shows that more children are having surgeries to treat it.

CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is here with me now.

Elizabeth, I wonder, how common this is and also is it recommended as a solution for obesity as children?

[14:45:00]

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, actually the American academy of pediatrics has come out with guidelines for when children should be offered this. And the growing consensus is that some children really do need it.

So let's take a look at sort of who qualifies by these American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines. You have to be severely obese. That's different based on gender and height and age.

Let's take, for example, 17-year-olds. If you're a 5'2" 17-year-old girl, your doctor could think about this if you weighed 200 pounds. For a boy who is 5'10" also 17 years old, it would be 240 pounds. These are the guidelines put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Childhood obesity has become a huge problem. If we look from 2015 to 2018, nearly five million more young people were designated to belong in that category as severely obese.

What this new study shows is that from 2020 to 2021, so just one year, the number of young people having bariatric surgery, having weight- loss surgery rose by 19 percent -- Jim?

SCIUTTO: Remarkable. Is there an age limit? A youngest age where this is recommended?

COHEN: Right, so the American Academy of Pediatrics says at 15. Not younger than that. They said, at 13, you could start considering medication. Younger than 13, do diet and exercise.

But I will say, Jim, the doctors sort of often stretch these kinds of guidelines. They don't have to abide by them. I wouldn't be surprised if children even younger than 15 were being offered weight-loss surgery.

SCIUTTO: Now there's the question, there are so many drug interventions as well out there.

Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: People living in the northeast may be in for a smokey start to the workweek. Wildfires that have scorched tens of thousands of acres in Nova Scotia are sending plumes of smoke towards the United States.

Those fires have already forced 16,000 people to evacuate the Canada province.

CNN's Chad Myers is tracking it all for us.

Chad, how dangerous could this smoke be drifting into the United States?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's quite a ways away. So it does get mixed into the atmosphere. But you can see it certainly on the satellite.

And now we have these orange dots on the map, which means unhealthy for sensitive groups. We're not all the way to the red or purple yet.

But you can see the kind of haze. Just look outside in the northeast, you'll see the hazy sky. That's what you're seeing.

And the smoke did come from Nova Scotia. Here it is right now on the weather model. And the wind is blowing from the east. Not the usual pattern, but it is.

And it's blowing it farther inland, into Bucks County, into New York City, all the way even into Scranton.

Now 1,700 wildfires in Canada already this year. Normal is about 1,500. That's not unusual. The unusual number is 6.4 million acres have already burned. That's 10 times normal.

Now talk about Nova Scotia property. That's 50,000 acres in Nova Scotia compared to the 6.4 in the western part of Canada. That's about the size of two Manhattan Islands that are burning in Nova Scotia in a much more highly populated area of Canada.

SANCHEZ: Significant figures there.

Chad Myers, thanks so much for the report.

Brianna?

KEILAR: When we come back, the evidence that one woman claims proves James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, was murdered. Evidence that is now missing.

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[14:52:58]

KEILAR: There is a new mystery surrounding the Godfather of Soul, James Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

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KEILAR: Makes you want to get up, right? Here's Brown seen performing one of his classics, "Get Up" on "Late Night with David Letterman" back in 1982.

The dynamo performer died in Atlanta back in 2006 when he was 73. And questions have remained ever since about what caused his demise. With several people who knew Brown claiming he was murdered.

Now CNN has learned potential evidence in the music icon's death is missing.

CNN senior writer, Thomas Lake, has reported extensively on the questions surrounding James Brown's final moments.

Thomas, tell us what you have learned here, the very latest development.

THOMAS LAKE, CNN DIGITAL SENIOR WRITER: That's right. In 2020, a woman named Jacque Hollander went into the Fulton County D.A.'s office and she had a meeting with then-District Attorney Paul Howard.

She brought in a large green plastic bin full of evidence that she believed would tend to prove that James Brown was murdered at an Atlanta hospital in 2006.

Well, the D.A.'s office took that evidence into custody. I've obtained video showing an assistant D.A. going through these items, placing them into evidence bags.

After that, from the documents I've found, it looks as if neither that D.A., Paul Howard, nor the next one, Fani Willis, did a whole lot to look into James Brown's death. I've seen no evidence that many witnesses were interviewed or evidence was tested.

Well, flash forward to 2022, Jacque Hollander, the woman who brought in these items, she said, please send this stuff back.

[14:54:59]

And so one of the D.A.'s employees said we've shipped back these items. She looks at the box. All this stuff that is seen on video, it's just missing.

Since then, the D.A.'s office has not provided any answers about where this stuff went.

KEILAR: And what are they doing, anything, the D.A.?

LAKE: Right. We've tried many times to get answers, any sort of -- you know, any explanation for where this stuff went, but there's this silence coming from the D.A.'s office. No response or any phone calls or emails.

Earlier this year, Jacque Hollander actually filed a lawsuit against the D.A. trying to get some answers. Months went by and there was no response to the lawsuit.

Finally, earlier this month, the D.A. did file a response to the lawsuit. That's all still pending. But many more questions than answers here.

KEILAR: Thomas, officially, what is Brown's death, his cause of death?

LAKE: His death certificate says heart attack and fluid in the lungs. Even the doctor who signed his death certificate told me he did not believe Brown died of natural causes and he wanted to see an autopsy, which many others want as well.

KEILAR: Yes, raising a lot of questions that certainly you will continue to follow.

Thomas Lake, thank you for that.

Jim?

LAKE: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Just minutes from now, the debt ceiling deal faces its first major test as a powerful committee gets ready to debate it and vote on it.

Kevin McCarthy says he is confident it will pass, even though his speakership has been threatened over it. Some Republicans threatening to buck the speaker. We'll be live on the Hill, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)