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Tsunami Waves Hit U.S. Shores After Massive Quake Off Russian Coast; Maxwell Offers To Testify Before Congress, But Lists Demands; New Photo Released In Arkansas Double Homicide. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 30, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:31:30]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So officials now say the worst part is over as tsunami warnings are starting to be downgraded after a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Russia. Tens of millions of people though impacted.

In Japan, at one point, nearly two million people across 22 prefectures were told to evacuate as waves reached Japan's northern and eastern coastlines. Overnight waves reached more than four feet high in some areas.

CNN's Marc Stewart is standing by live from Beijing for us. Marc, there are still some warnings still in place in your part of the world.

MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Kate. As we come on there are still tsunami warnings in place for northeastern Japan along that northeastern coast not too far from where this earthquake erupted causing this flood of warnings.

We have a number of images that we've been watching throughout the day here in Asia that show just how seriously this is being taken. At one point -- you can see there -- there are people climbing to the roof of a fire station -- a proactive move to stay safe once these warnings and in some places evacuation orders were issued. In other parts of Japan we saw just a series of waves crashing along the coast.

I can tell you as someone who was reporting from Japan for CNN during most of 2023, this is something that Japan takes very seriously and has a very proactive approach when it comes to earthquakes and tsunamis.

We all remember back in 2011 that massive earthquake that hit Japan causing a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Since that time it's almost been a moment of reckoning. Japan has taken so many proactive steps. So that is perhaps why we are seeing such an aggressive response from Japan.

As far as though where this earthquake is centered -- the epicenter -- off the Far East coast of Russia, when this happened a surgery was actually taking place in an operating room. You see there the doctors are trying to hold the patient there. Trying to hold the medical equipment. They, themselves, are trying to stay steady -- yet another reflection of just how violent this earthquake was.

In other parts of Russia we are seeing damage, including a kindergarten that had some damage to its exterior.

When this all happened, at least here in my part of Asia, it was well into the breakfast hour, so people were out and about doing their daily routines.

Kate, the scope of this earthquake is extremely noteworthy. Not only is it causing concern in Japan but to the south of where I am in some of the French islands in the Pacific Ocean, in addition to the United States. We're seeing concern all the way north in British Columbia, as well as in Latin America. Yet another indication that this earthquake was a strong one, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely, Marc. Thank you so much for your reporting as always. I really appreciate it.

Let's talk more about this -- this threat and how big this earthquake really was. Joining us right now is Jeffrey Park. He's a seismologist and professor of earth and planetary sciences at Yale University. Thank you so much for waking up to help us out with this.

Talk to me first about just how big this earthquake was and its location. How it's just sparked such widespread tsunami concerns.

[07:35:05]

JEFFREY PARK, SEISMOLOGIST, YALE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR (via Webex by Cisco): Yes. This is the largest earthquake we've had in over a decade worldwide. And so -- and it's among the top 10 earthquakes that have been measured by humans in the last century and a half. And so it's quite a large earthquake.

It's -- the shaking that's occurring in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, the city that it's closest to, is -- we've seen on video is great but not -- we haven't seen too much explicit damage to buildings there. That's because most of the rupture is offshore. Now, when you say it's offshore that doesn't mean it's small. The first reconstructions by seismologists of the rupture process of this earthquake suggests that the rupture extended offshore in an area about the size of the state of Connecticut where I live.

BOLDUAN: That's some really important perspective to try to help people understand really how big -- you know, why the impact and -- is so vast.

Why do -- when it comes to the tsunami warnings that have followed and what we've seen in the past, why do the alerts last what seems like so long after the earthquake before authorities feel comfortable enough to give the all-clear?

PARK: Well, what happens is that close by the earthquake and on the coastline of Kamchatka, the tsunami was probably quite enormous and damaging. But the coastline itself is very sparsely populated. The main city in Kamchatka is -- about 150,000 people -- is actually in a -- in a harbor that's somewhat protected from that.

But when the wave that set up there -- again, this earthquake basically moves the sea floor upward by roughly a meter or a few feet -- something like that -- and that leads to a bulge of water that starts traveling across the ocean. And it takes a while for it to get to another coastline. Traveling, it's going to reach Japan first. The Kuril Islands before that. And then Hawaii later, and then the U.S. West Coast a considerable distance away although the wave itself -- the tsunami wave is moving at a very rapid pace.

BOLDUAN: What people always fear when they hear of a tsunami threat is a 100-foot wave just destroying everything in its path, of course.

What decides the difference between a tsunami of that size and something much smaller -- much smaller wave height --

PARK: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- size that it appears most people are experiencing on the coast here with us?

PARK: OK. So that's -- it -- some -- a lot of that is proximity. If you're very close to the fault zone itself then -- as you would be along the coastline of Kamchatka itself, then the tsunami will be extremely large.

As it travels across the ocean it may be as -- it may be about a meter of height, but that meter of height actually contains energy all the way from the bottom of the ocean to the surface unlike an ordinary wave -- wind-driven wave. And so when that energy actually reaches the shoreline and then has to start concentrating into the shore zone, then you get an extreme amplification of that -- of that to a much larger size.

In the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 2004 that one-meter wave traveled across the Bay of Bengal and devastated India and Sri Lanka. And so -- with much larger waves.

So it's kind of luck of geometry in that -- in that sense because you would get these waves that would travel an hour or so but then be concentrated with all that energy in the -- in the water column getting focused into the shore zone.

BOLDUAN: Which is, of course, the luck of the geometry --

PARK: Where --

BOLDUAN: -- is why people take it so seriously. And it's better to be concerned on the front end and get to higher ground and safety and then wait for these -- wait for these alerts and threats to dissipate and be downgraded.

Professor, thanks so much for coming in. I really appreciate it -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, I was in Banda Aceh in Indonesia after that tsunami. I've never seen destruction like that. People need to heed these warnings.

This morning we're standing by to hear from the House Oversight Committee after Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors -- after she and her attorney are putting all kinds of conditions on possible testimony to that committee, including immunity. The committee's initial reaction, no, but we're expecting to hear more.

Let's get right to CNN's Katelyn Polantz in Washington. And Katelyn, I have to say hearing from Maxwell's attorney -- they sound like they think they're in the driver's seat here.

[07:40:00]

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: They certainly are approaching this as a negotiation where they have a fair amount of leverage.

So Ghislaine Maxwell, John -- she is willing to talk. That's what her attorney is saying. But is Congress actually wanting to hear from her given the demands that her attorneys are laying out, according to a letter obtained by our own Kaitlan Collins yesterday.

The conditions -- her attorney said in response to this congressional subpoena, she was going to take the fifth, but if they want to actually hear from her -- what she has to say -- she wants a grant of formal immunity. She also wants the House Oversight Committee's questions in advance. In addition to that she is asking for a delay for whenever she would come to talk to Congress because she also, in her criminal conviction, is asking for help from the Supreme Court. She wants that resolved. That could be months from now.

Her attorney also wrote in this letter in response to the House Oversight Committee subpoena, "Compounding these concerns are public comments from members of Congress that appear to have prejudged Ms. Maxwell's credibility without even listening to what she has to say or evaluating the extensive documentation that corroborates it."

There is also at the end of this letter a suggestion that is President Donald Trump were to remove all of her legal risks with clemency -- that's a pardon -- then she would be willing to talk very openly with Congress. It's all on the table.

Trump responded yesterday that nobody has approached him with it. Right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it.

So now we see what else happens. Ghislaine Maxwell -- still unclear exactly what she would have to offer if she talked, and she is still serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison in Florida.

BERMAN: Yeah. The non-answer from the president an answer in itself when he refuses to rule out granting a pardon or commutation for Ghislaine Maxwell.

Katelyn Polantz in Washington watching this for us. Thank you very much. With us now a former campaign manager for Marco Rubio's presidential campaign and partner for Firehouse Strategies, Terry Sullivan. And Democratic strategist and president of New Heights Communications, Christy Setzer.

And I actually want to do something a little different than people have been doing in the weeks that people have really been focused anew on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. I want to focus on the victims for a second here.

Because last night I spoke with Randee Kogan who is a trauma therapist who has spoken to these victims for decades now. And she's very concerned about some of the language being used, particularly what she heard from the president yesterday in regards to Virginia Giuffre who worked at the spa at Mar-a-Lago. President Trump said of Jeffrey Epstein, "He stole her." And this trauma therapist was concerned about that language -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDELL KOGAN, TRAUMA THERAPIST TO EPSTEIN VICTIMS: That's exactly the kind of language I'm talking about. It dehumanizes these women. They have been trying to heal for 18 years and every time they're on the road to recovery something new comes out in the news. Something new -- a meme in social media. A skit on a TV show or a standup comedian bringing up Epstein. It's everywhere.

So when they hear the fact that they're not being humanized even by the president, it -- they feel defeated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You know, Christy, for all the interest in this, this month, but even before, what are the victims getting from this? What is justice for them?

CHRISTY SETZER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER SPOKESPERSON, AL GORE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, PRESIDENT, NEW HEIGHTS COMMUNICATIONS (via Webex by Cisco): Right. It's certainly not giving Ghislaine Maxwell immunity for her role in this child sex trafficking ring.

Look, this was already -- has already gone to trial. She's been convicted. She's serving time in prison. It's very clear what Maxwell's role is right now. It is for her to do what she can to say that Donald Trump didn't play nearly as much of a role as you're thinking in all of this. That his -- that his relationship with Epstein wasn't as close as it probably looks from all the evidence around us.

And meanwhile, they are being used as a football, right? Their stories have been lost in all of this -- the fact of what actually happened to them.

Now look, like, is it possible that if Maxwell goes in front of Congress and is forced to testify that we'll also hear a little more about what was done to them? I suppose it's possible. But again, we know what her role is. It is to exculpate Donald Trump from any sort of criminality in this, and that's a real shame.

BERMAN: Terry, I want you to comment on this and the idea of what is justice for the victims and who really is speaking for them right now.

TERRY SULLIVAN, FORMER CAMPAIGN MANAGER, MARCO RUBIO PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, PARTNER, FIREHOUSE STRATEGIES: John, like, first, I'm glad we're talking about the victims because it is so important. It's -- this has become a political football, which is at the end of the day this guy and, frankly, this woman are monsters. They're convicted of not only just sex trafficking, which is horrific, but of children.

[07:45:00]

And I just, you know -- so my heart breaks for every one of these victims as a father of a -- a single father of a girl. It's just horrific.

And so -- and it's been made a political football now. Pedophilia and sex trafficking isn't a partisan issue.

But at the same time we should not believe a darn thing that Ghislaine Maxwell says. I mean, like, why do we think she's going to start telling the truth now? She's going to say whatever she needs to try to get herself off the hook.

And that being said, it's tough to balance what the victims need and getting justice. And if we can stop -- it might be very difficult for these victims but if we can stop one more pedophile or one more sex trafficker, you know, it cuts both ways. So it's a very challenging thing to thread that needle of protecting the feelings of those victims but also protecting potential future victims.

BERMAN: And I do think there are people -- I think -- on both sides of the aisle who are seeking that same goal that you're talking about there, Terry.

I want to ask from a communications perspective about how the president has handled this the last few days. To you Christy, because the president has said oh, it's a non-story -- really expressively says he kind of wants it to go away. Then yet, introduces a new timeline and new explanation in this long sort of meandering comment on the plane.

So what do you think about that?

SETZER: Um, it is hilarious that they want this story to go away because everything that they are doing actually prolongs the story. I mean, a Republican Party -- Donald Trump and his administration have a full court press right now on, in theory, trying to kill the story but actually prolonging it.

You have Speaker Mike Johnson actually shutting down the House early and sending everybody home just so that people can't talk about Epstein -- or at least he hopes that by the time they get back from August recess that they will no longer be talking about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and Donald Trump's role in it. You have Pam Bondi who spent months hiring 1,000 attorneys to comb the

Epstein file flagging any mention of Donald Trump in it. That sure doesn't seem innocent to me.

And then you have Donald Trump himself freaking out about even the slightest intimation that he's close to Epstein. For example, with this Wall Street Journal story about the birthday letter that he sent to Epstein, right?

So all of these actions are the actions of people who look extremely guilty.

And then finally, you have yesterday these comments about he stole her, which as you mentioned, is incredibly dehumanizing language and makes it seem as though perhaps Donald Trump also believes these girls are things to be owned rather than sentient beings who get to have agency and decide things for themselves.

So all of it is incredibly concerning.

And I will say one last thing which is that it's pretty rare that the American public agrees 90 percent on something, but that's about the percentage of Americans -- 90 percent -- that say release all the Epstein files. See what's there. We deserve the truth.

BERMAN: Terry, the other way to look at that -- and I was wondering this when I was watching the video of him on the plane going on and on about it -- is if he's determined that he doesn't have political risk here -- there's nothing to indicate he's got any legal kind of sensitivity here at all -- but that he's just decided this isn't hurting him politically so I'll talk about it.

SULLIVAN: Yeah. I don't know that they've thought that far ahead. They definitely have mismanaged this from a -- just a purely crisis management standpoint. But the flipside of that is it's so difficult to prove a negative if he -- if he didn't do anything inappropriate or wrong. You're trying to prove a negative. It's like the old -- the old saying "Senator, tell me when you stopped beating your wife when you never did in the first place."

And so he's got to try to prove that. And yes, he's digging a deeper hole for himself being clumsy, but that's often what happens when -- in a situation like this. When you've got nothing to hide you do a poor job of explaining it.

BERMAN: Terry Sullivan, Christy Setzer, appreciate you both being here this morning. Thanks very much.

So no all-clear yet from the threat of a tsunami in Hawaii and California. And new concerns about secondary waves that could be coming.

And a dating app designed to keep women safe is now facing a major privacy scare. Tens of thousands of selfies meant for verification exposed in a security breach.

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[07:54:00]

BOLDUAN: This morning state police have released a new photograph of a person of interest, they say, in the double murder of an Arkansas couple. That photo you can see behind me -- police say that the man seen in it is wanted for questioning in the killings of Clinton and Cristen Brink. Officials previously had released the sketch you're seeing on the screen now saying that he may have been driving a black four-door sedan -- possibly a Mazda. And they're now asking local residents to check their home or game security footage for any activity with that vehicle matching that vehicle description.

The couple was found dead Saturday at a popular hiking trail. The couple was hiking with their two young daughters when they were killed. The girls were unharmed.

This morning jury deliberations will resume in the murder trial of the Colorado dentist accused of fatally poisoning his wife through her protein shakes. Over the two-week trial prosecutors called 48 witnesses and they sought to prove that James Craig poisoned his wife Angela, saying in their closing arguments "He is not an innocent victim, and he cannot be trusted."

[07:55:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MAURO, PROSECUTOR: This guy is not trustworthy or credible. He spent 10 days killing Angela Craig and he could have stopped on day one or day two or day 10. He kept going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The defense team called no witnesses to the stand and suggested Angela Craig may have committed suicide. And this is -- and also trying to make the argument in closing -- in their closing that this is nothing more than a case of "broken people."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA MOSES, ATTORNEY FOR JAMES CRAIG: There is so much that's just missing, and you can't speculate about what's going on in those missing minutes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Deliberations resume in just a few hours -- John.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning your favorite laundry detergent and toilet paper about to cost you more. Procter & Gamble is warning that it's going to hike prices next month in part because of the president's tariffs.

Let's get right to CNN's Matt Egan for the latest on this. What are you learning, sir? MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, good morning, John.

Look, we know the president's tariffs are designed to boost American manufacturing and yet here we have another American company warning that these tariffs -- they are not helping. They are hurting.

So this warning comes from Procter & Gamble, the company behind Tide detergent, Charmin toilet paper, Dawn soap. They're saying that tariffs will cost the company $1 billion this fiscal year alone. That is up sharply from the estimate from the company just a few months ago. And that is in large part why Procter & Gamble says that they're hiking prices starting next month on about a quarter of its products.

Now, the problem here for Procter & Gamble is they need ingredients and materials that are just not available in America, so they've got to import it. Normally, that's no problem but we've obviously left the world of normal quite a while ago. The Trump administration -- they are lifting tariffs not a little bit but dramatically to the highest levels that we've seen in the United States since the 1930s back when FDR was in the White House.

Procter & Gamble says they are trying to absorb some of this hit by changing their supply chain, by improving their productivity, but they said they've got to pass along some of the costs from tariffs to all of us as consumers.

And they're joining a long and growing list of companies that say they've either already hiked prices, or they plan to because of tariffs. That list includes Nike, Best Buy. Automakers like Subaru and Ford. Toy companies like Mattel and Hasbro. Walmart and just today, Adidas -- saying that tariffs are going to cost their company more than $200 million in the second half of this year. Adidas saying that they will likely have to increase U.S. prices, and Adidas also noted that they just don't even know yet exactly where tariffs are going to settle out.

And so look, I do think that all of these price hike warnings explain why economist Greg Daco -- he told me the other day -- he said, "Look, nobody ever wins trade wars." He said everyone loses -- John.

BERMAN: All right, interesting development there. We'll see when consumers start to feel it or say they do.

Thanks very much, Matt -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, Matt's comment "we left the world of normal a while ago" is quite applicable to so many things.

An online security breach is renewing concerns over app privacy now. The app called "Tea Dating Advice" -- it's an app for women to share anonymous reviews of men that they date. The company behind the app confirmed a breach on Friday, explaining that thousands of photos and other private information could have been compromised in this hack.

CNN's Clare Duffy is tracking this one for us. Clare, what are you learning about this breach? What did -- could they access that they were not supposed to?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Well, yeah. So this app had really surged in popularity in recent weeks. It was getting a ton of attention. It was at the top of the App Store. And the platform says it now has more than 4 1/2 million users.

And it is this sort of virtual whisper network for women -- but, of course, men who are posted there have raised privacy concerns.

And now both the men posted there, and the women users are at risk of having their privacy breached because the app confirmed that 72,000 images were accessed in this hack. Some DMs were accessed and that includes 13,000 images that were used for user verification. So when you sign up for this platform women have to submit either a selfie or a photo of their I.D. to prove that they're women. Those are among the photos that were accessed.

Now the platform says that now that sign-up process -- those images are automatically deleted but the users who were affected signed up before February 2024 when the platform had a different process. So potentially, a lot of sensitive information.

And cybersecurity experts say these photos of people's faces can be used to train AI systems to --

BOLDUAN: Right.

DUFFY: -- to impersonate them.

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