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Maui County Wildfire Lawsuit: Hawaiian Electric Responsible; WAPO: Lawyers Say Maui Utility Compromised Evidence In Wildfire Disaster By Removing Downed Power Lines; Russia Denies Involvement In Prigozhin Plane Crash; Several Tributes Pop Up In Prigozhin's Hometown Of St. Petersburg; U.S.: "Likely" Prigozhin Was Killed In Plane Crash; Updated COVID-19 Vaccines Coming Mid-September; Spanish Women's Soccer Team: We Won't Play Until Federation President Removed. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 25, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: The list, though, thankfully, is much shorter than first estimates of the missing, which exceeded more than 1,000 people at times in the days just after the August 8th disaster.

The police chief explained why Maui County is now releasing the names.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN PELLETIER, CHIEF, MAUI COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: We do know that once those names come out, it can and will cause pain for some folks that are affected by this.

This is not an easy thing to do, but we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can possibly to make this investigation the most complete, thorough to date.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Has to be hard to read that list.

Now Maui County is suing Hawaii's electric company and its subsidiaries alleging the power companies', quote, "negligence and recklessness" are directly responsible for the wildfire that has killed, at this point, 115 people.

CNN's Natasha Chen joins us with part of the story.

So, Natasha, when you look at this lawsuit, what exactly is it alleging to substantiate the electric company's responsibility here?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, there's a lot of discussion in this lawsuit about how the electric company did not maintain their equipment, that there was advanced wood decay.

And that they did not heed some of the warnings from the National Weather Service in those days leading up to the fires about high wind watches, red flag warnings. As well as previous studies and plans from the state seeing that western Maui was very prone, more than 90 percent probability, of having wildfires.

Yet, they're saying, they're alleging that the electric companies did not de-energize lines, did not power down, even though that is a tactic that the county says has been seen as successful in California here, Nevada, Oregon.

And this is part of the lawsuit statement from the county saying, "Defendants' inactions caused loss of life, severe injuries, complete destruction of homes and businesses, displacement of thousands of people, and damage to many of Hawaii's historic and cultural sites."

But it's worth noting the CEO and president of Hawaii Electric made this statement on August 14th about the idea of de-energizing lines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHELEE KIMURA, CEO & PRESIDENT, HAWAII ELECTRIC: It's worth noting that even in places where this has been used, it is controversial and it's not universally accepted.

It's seen as -- can be seen as creating a hardship for those customers that have medical needs, that are higher risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: And, Jim, the electric company's spokesperson told CNN they're disappointed the county took this litigious route.

SCIUTTO: "The Washington Post" is reporting, Natasha, that the power company -- this is quite alarming to hear -- may have compromised, deliberately even, compromised evidence. What are the details exactly? How so?

CHEN: Well, "The Washington Post" went through court records, letters, and documents where they say the utility removed damaged poles, lines, and other equipment from where the Lahaina fire reportedly started before investigators were able to view the scene.

And CNN is still working to confirm those details independently.

But the "Post" reports that this violated national guidelines on how utilities should handle and preserve evidence after a wildfire, that this deprives investigators the opportunity to view these downed poles and lines.

In response, a spokesperson from the company told "The Washington Post" that they are in regular communication with ATF and local authorities/

And are cooperating to provide them as well as attorneys representing people affected by the wildfires with inventories and access to the removed equipment, which they say we have carefully photographed, documented, and stored -- Jim? SCIUTTO: So to be clear, is the story alleging that the power company

removed the evidence to hide the evidence or that it just went in and started removing things too early, right, based on what the protocols are?

CHEN: The bottom line is that the investigators did not have a chance to go and look at the scene undisturbed. So the utility companies, though, say they documented and photographed what things looked like before they removed them.

SCIUTTO: Understood.

Natasha Chen, thank you so much.

Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We have some breaking news out of Louisiana. A fire has broken out at a Marathon Petroleum site in St. John the Baptist Parish. This is about 40 miles west of New Orleans.

An emergency declaration and a mandatory evacuation is now in place for all residents within a two-mile radius. The parish president says they have opened shelters as emergency responders are working to contain the fire.

We are keeping an eye on it. Obviously, some pretty stunning pictures coming in here.

And Covid rates are creeping up just as millions of children are headed back to school. But we now have an idea of when updated Covid vaccines may be available.

[13:34:58]

And it is blisteringly hot outside in much of the U.S. with no relief for at least a few days. We have the latest forecast from one place where people are really feeling the heat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: This just in. Russian investigators say they have recovered flight recorders from the crash site -- from the crash that reportedly killed Wagner Group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

An investigative committee released a statement saying 10 bodies were recovered from the crash site. Genetic testing now under way to confirm if Prigozhin was, in fact, on that plane.

[13:40:00]

But the cause of the crash remains under investigation.

And now the Kremlin is speaking out for the first time, forcefully denying it had anything to do with what happened. It's calling any speculation about that, quote, "an absolute lie."

U.S. officials say the Wagner Group chief was likely one of the passengers.

In the meantime, there are several tributes in Prigozhin's hometown of St. Petersburg. A growing pop-up memorial sits outside the Wagner Group headquarters.

Where CNN senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance, was able to get a closer look at some of the tributes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: People are streaming through laying sort of flowers like this, putting photographs of Prigozhin.

There's one there that says, in Russian, it says, "In this hell, he was the best." And so people talking about him, of course, very much in the past tense.

Over here, if we look, Wagner, arm patches, Wagner chevrons here that have been put all over the place.

You're seeing a lot of people, family members of people who are in Wagner, Wagner soldiers themselves coming here to pay their respects.

This woman here, I don't know whether she speaks English.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

She's not -- doesn't want to speak to us. It's not -- it's a quite solemn situation.

There's another photograph of Prigozhin over there.

This is very interesting because somebody here, look, has put this really heavy, really heavy sledgehammer here with Wagner written on it.

The sledgehammer, of course, a potent symbol of the extreme violence that Wagner represented. And it's -- it was a sledgehammer like that that someone they regarded as a traitor was brutally executed with on camera.

And it really kind of like bolstered this reputation that Wagner had as being this completely ruthless organization that did whatever it felt it had to, to fight for Russia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And CNN Pentagon correspondent, Oren Liebermann, is with us now with more on what U.S. officials believe may have caused the crash and why they say Prigozhin is most likely deceased.

Oren, what can you share with us?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, they're being very careful here, that is U.S. officials and the Pentagon, with what they can say and how they can attribute it. Which is to say how they know some of these crucial bits of information.

It was just yesterday that Pentagon press secretary, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, said they believe that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner co- founder, was, in fact, on this plane that crashed, and is likely dead at this point.

Now we have seen the U.K. say effectively the same thing, it's highly likely that Prigozhin is now dead.

But there is a bit of a hedge there, even as you see everybody appearing to converge toward the same conclusion that Prigozhin was dead.

The question is, how do they know this? This is what I pressed Ryder on yesterday. Still not a lot of information beyond a variety of sources.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. PAT RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: I'm not going to go into the specifics of how we gather information, other than, again, our initial assessment based on a variety of factors is that he was likely killed.

LIEBERMANN: But not just based on Russian statements, I would imagine?

RYDER: Based on a variety of factors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: In terms of what brought the plane down, that, too, remains a question. This is based on early indications and assessments.

It was not at this point a surface-to-air missile or air-to-air missile launched from a Russian military aircraft that officials say brought down Prigozhin's private plane, an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft.

The question then, what did bring this plane down? And that's where the investigation continues, looking at a number of different possibilities, Brianna, including perhaps an explosion or explosive device on board.

And perhaps something going wrong in the plane itself because of the erratic ups and downs, climbs and descents in the last minute or so of the flight.

KEILAR: Oren Liebermann, thank you so much for that report for us from the Pentagon.

Jim?

SCIUTTO: Now to some of the other headlines we are watching this hour.

Heineken has finally announced its departure from Russia. The Dutch beer company says it sold its business in the country for a symbolic single dollar and will take a $323 million loss from the deal.

When Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a slew of multinational companies left Russia or at least announced plans to do so.

But over the past 18 months, the Kremlin has made it increasingly difficult and expensive for Western firms to try to sell their assets in Russia.

The professional wrestling world is mourning the loss of former WWE Champion Bray Wyatt. World Wrestling Entertainment says the 36 died unexpectedly on Thursday. No cause of death or location has been released.

[13:44:59]

Wyatt won the WWE championship in 2017, wrestled as multiple characters during his career, including as leader of the Wyatt Family Group and as a nightmarish masked alter ego called The Fiend.

Wyatt's real name was Windham Rotunda, the son of WWE Hall of Fame wrestler, Mike Rotunda.

And the oppressive heat continues to hold its grip on a large portion of the U.S. Today, around 100 million people are under heat alerts as dangerous heat remains across the south and Mississippi Valley.

Temperatures today should top well over 100 degrees in cities such as Dallas. Records could fall across Texas. The heatwave will shift this weekend bringing record-breaking heat to Florida and the Carolinas.

Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, so school is back. That means the return of germs spreading in the classroom and into your home.

And already, we've seen an uptick in Covid cases this summer, along with flu and other respiratory illnesses, that are well represented in my house, and that schools are grappling with. A difficult start to the school season because of.

So in eastern Kentucky, two school districts actually canceled in- person classes this week after more students and staff got sick. One of the districts reporting an 82 percent decrease in attendance last Friday.

But relief could be coming soon.

We have CNN medical correspondent, Meg Tirrell, joining us on this story.

Meg, when exactly will the vaccine updates be available? MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So it's coming pretty soon. We

understand that CDC's outside advisers are scheduled to meet on September 12th to talk about recommending the Covid vaccines for the fall.

That always happens after the FDA has signed off on these. So that's expected to happen around the same time.

And then once the CDC director accepts the recommendation, these will start to become available. So we're talking about perhaps that week around September 12th, by the end of that week, when they started going out to their pharmacies.

The updated vaccines target a single strain of one of the more recent circulating variants call XBB.1.5.

The currently dominant circulating variant is called EG5. It represents about 20 percent of cases in the U.S. At least that's the estimate as of a couple weeks ago.

And it's not expected to be particularly different in terms of protection from the XBB.1.5-targeted vaccines. The companies have done some testing and they say this provides good protection.

And, Brianna, we are in a little bit of a Covid uptick right now. Wastewater monitoring is higher, suggesting higher case levels. And hospitalizations and deaths are both about 21 percent higher in the most recent week of data from the CDC. So there is a lot of Covid going around.

KEILAR: What else is floating around?

TIRRELL: There are other respiratory viruses going around right now. Some of the more common cold viruses, like rhino viruses, are pretty common, as well.

And we are about to get into RSV and flu season. You should be on the lookout for those things.

In terms of Covid, this BA.2.86 is this emerging variant that has authorities on alert because it has a lot of mutation that's folks worry about.

As of now, only 10 cases have been found worldwide. There's no evidence yet that it causes more severe disease. And tests and medications like Paxlovid should work against it.

But the concern is, because it's so highly mutated, it could evade our existing immunities from infection or vaccines and cause more infections. We're waiting to see more data on that.

KEILAR: All right. We'll keep an eye out for more data there.

Meg Tirrell, thank you so much for monitoring this for us.

Jim? SCIUTTO: Ahead, refusing to resign. The defiant Spanish soccer boss

says he will fight to the end as he faces criticism for placing an unwanted kiss on a star player of the winning Spanish women's World Cup team. Now the team is issuing an ultimatum.

[13:48:49]

And rate hikes are still on the table as the Fed says the war on inflation might not be over yet. We'll look at the economy's complicated picture after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:53:39]

SCIUTTO: Now to a controversy rocking the world of soccer. Spain's women's national team now says they will not play again until the president of Spanish football is gone.

The controversy began in the moments just after Spain's World Cup victory when he planted an unwanted kiss on the lips of a star player.

The team's ultimatum comes hours after Luis Rubiales refused to step down, declaring himself the victim of, quote, "an unjust campaign."

CNN's Patrick Snell has the latest.

Patrick, this ultimatum from the women's team sounds like something hard to overcome.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN ANCHOR, "WORLD SPORT": It absolutely is, Jim. You're absolutely right. I think that word "chaotic" is appropriate here.

Just imagine winning your first-ever women's World Cup, and the fallout changing seemingly, not just day by day, Jim, but hour by hour. These are the latest developments.

And you just mentioned that new line at the very, very top, literally within the last few minutes that a number of members of the Spanish victorious women's national team -- that just triumphed. They won that final over the English Lionesses Sunday in Sydney, Australia.

[13:54:56]

They won't now play any matches for their country until the head of the federation in Spain, Luis Rubiales, has been removed from his post in the aftermath of this tawdry and just so unsavory scandal that we keep reporting on.

Earlier Friday -- I will actually get back to that. Because this is actually over 50 players now in total, Jim, we're now learning, signing a joint agreement.

It's going to be fascinating to see how this all unfolds. World Cup winners now saying they won't play for their country. Now earlier, on Friday, Victor Francos, he's Spain's secretary of

state for sport, holding a mic at a press conference saying now that Rubiales will be suspended while starting the process as they try to attempt to remove him.

Listen now to Francos (sic).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUIS RUBIALES, SPAINISH SOCCER FEDERATION PRESIDENT (through translation): I believe we're in a position to call this the "me too" of Spanish football and that this is a change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNELL: Listen, this is a story, Jim, we're following very closely, indeed.

I will say that Rubiales, just really quickly, to put a bow on this thing, said he will be fighting to the end, calling what happened to him "unjust campaigns," as he put it. He also used the words "fake feminism" as well.

We'll stay across it all for you.

SCIUTTO: It will be hard to see how he can stay if they won't go on the field, right, in protest.

Patrick Snell, thanks very much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Donald Trump is capitalizing on his surrender at the Fulton County jail, turning his mugshot into money for his presidential campaign. But his legal trouble is just beginning.

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)