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DOJ Filing Signals Possible Legal Jeopardy For Trump Lawyers; Pakistani Envoy Calls for Compensation for Climate Changes; Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi Facing Three More Years in Jail; China Puts 21 Million People on Lockdown in Chengdu. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 02, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

JEFFREY JACOBOVITZ, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Have the intent to deceive anybody. This is what we were told.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But in its filing this week, the Justice Department said that during that June meeting at Mar-a-Lago Trump's lawyers did not let justice officials search boxes in a storage room there. A key question is whether Donald Trump directed his lawyers to mislead investigators.

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: If Donald Trump is the one made the representations to Ms. Bobb, she's now a witness against him. So, she now has to obviously get off of the case, can no longer represent him. And she, if this goes forward with a criminal case, would certainly be called in order to testify about what the former president told her.

TODD (voice-over): A recent complaint filed by Evan Corcoran and other Trump lawyers says the former president and his team provided, quote, complete cooperation.

TODD: CNN has reached out multiple times to Christina Bobb and Evan Corcoran for comment. We haven't heard back. Donald Trump has any wrongdoing in the Mar-a-Lago investigation calling it the weaponization of the justice system.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Now more than 40 million people are under heat alerts across the Western U.S. The prolonged and dangerous heatwave is already setting new records. Temperatures reached 112 degrees in Burbank, California Wednesday prompting the governor to issue a state of emergency. And officials are urging residents to cut back on their energy use for the third day in a row to avoid straining the electrical grid. Both Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada will see highs of near 110 degrees into next week. Let's bring in CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam. And Derek, a really uncomfortable week ahead for many there. DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and you know, and we're not

seeing any relief in sight really and unfortunately, it's coinciding with a lot of people's outdoor plans this holiday being the extended holiday weekend, Labor Day weekend, right through mandate. And that's actually when we expect the bulk of this heat to really peak, Sunday into Monday. That's when we will see the highest of temperatures. So, 45 million people under heat alerts as we speak. So, that number just getting updated as the course of the morning wears on. And you can see many of those include some of the major metropolitans of the West Coast, including Los Angeles.

And just get a load of some of the record high temperatures that were set yesterday. Just incredible to see the triple digit heat that has been registered here as daily high temperatures. And then to take it one step further, we've had some all-time monthly record high temperatures that were set underneath this impressive extensive and long standing heat dome that continues to bake the Western U.S. Here is the temperatures in Sacramento today 106. You should be 91 today. so, we're running 15 to 20 degrees Celsius above where we should be this time of year. More of the same for Bakersfield as well as Palm Springs. Salt Lake City yesterday reached a high of 102. This is an all-time monthly high for them for the month of September.

So, remember, yesterday was the meteorological start to fall, it felt nothing like fall out there. It felt more like the dead of summer, the dog days of summer. And we have the potential to break more heat today with records -- 145 plus records forecast through the middle of this workweek -- or next workweek I should say.

Above average temperatures really spreading eastward across the plains and into the Midwest.

Here is a quick update on tropical storm Danielle, basically, fish food across the northern Atlantic but still noteworthy because we do anticipate the storm to become the first Atlantic hurricane of the season of 2022. Right now, it's still a tropical storm, but we're waiting for that 5:00 a.m. Eastern standard time update to come from the National Hurricane Center and it's potentially going to upgrade that to a hurricane. We do see with the official forecast that this will become a hurricane in at least the next 24 hours as it churns across the open waters of the north Atlantic -- not threatening any land mass. So, Christina, that is really the good news here. We're going to monitor this storm though because it has been a slow start to the hurricane season to say the least.

MACFARLANE: Yes, fingers crossed it stays that way and doesn't make landfall. Derek, thank you so much there.

Well, in Pakistan, floodwaters have wiped away entire villages, with the World Health Organization saying 6.4 million people are now in dire need of humanitarian aid. The W.H.O. has given Pakistan its most severe emergency rating and is releasing $10 million to treat the injured, bring in supplies and prevent the spread of diseases. And relief is reaching some flood victims. In the Punjab, residents were lining up for food and other vital supplies -- you can see here. And Pakistan's representative to the U.N. made it clear he holds rich

countries responsible for policies that over generations have led to the mass flooding. And in an interview with the China global television network on Wednesday, Munir Akram called for compensation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:35:00]

MUNIR AKRAM, PAKISTAN'S PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO U.N.: The industrial countries have been emitting carbon for the last 200 years. And they are the ones who have the historical responsibility for the global warming that is taking place. It is not the developing countries which hardly emit small amounts of carbon but are suffering from the impact of actions taken over 150 years by the industrial countries. So, there should be a mechanism for compensation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Millions of people are being impacted by a devastating floods in Pakistan. And if you want to help, you can go to CNN.com/impact.

Well meanwhile, parts of Asia are getting hit from heavy rainfall from typhoon Hinnamnor. It's not expected to make direct landfall in Taiwan or the northern Philippines, but it could impact the southern islands of Japan and the Korean Peninsula as it moves slowly north. It no longer has super Typhoon status but is still a powerful storm.

And Brazil has reached another terrible milestone, wildfires in the Amazon Rainforest have surged to levels not seen since 2010. More than 30,000 fires were recorded in August. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has suggested the increase in fires is the result of natural events and indigenous communities. Experts disagree telling CNN the fires are more often than not manmade.

Well, a short time ago, a Myanmar court sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to another three years behind bars after convicting her of electoral fraud. That's according to a source familiar with these proceedings who says this latest sentence includes hard labor. Suu Kyi who is 77, was already in prison for other alleged offenses and this brings her total sentencing now to 20 years. She's being held in solitary confinement near the capital. Well, CNN's Paula Hancocks is tracking this live for us from Seoul. And as we been saying, Paula, there are now a string of charges against her, perhaps though this is the first time it has included hard labor?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christina, it was certainly the first time that we've heard the sentencing of hard labor. Doesn't necessarily mean that it's the first time, it's happened at least since the coup. It did happen in one of her convictions back in 2009. But it was later commuted. So, at this point there really is this drip feed of sentencing which has been happening over recent months. There are at last count at least 20 offenses that she has been charged for with the military courts. And at this point we are continually seeing the amount of years that she is sentenced to spend behind bars increase. As you say, this three years today brings the total so far to 20 years.

Now, Aung San Suu Kyi is 77 years old. If she is expected to stay behind bars for those sentences, then clearly, she will be spending the rest of her life behind bars. And this is what we're hearing from many of her supporters, and also many human rights groups, that will is exactly what the military wants. They would like Aung San Suu Kyi -- who incidentally is still extremely popular within Myanmar itself. They would like her to stay hind bars.

They want to have -- they have said -- what they call fair and free elections in the coming year, which most know that they cannot be considering that they staged a bloody coup in February of last year. Unsettling and taking over from the democratically elected government. But they don't want to have to run against her again.

So, this is what we're hearing from her supporters. These charges are all trumped up and we've heard Suu Kyi quoted as saying that some of the charges are absurd as well. And so, what we're looking at now is things like electoral fraud, which was today's violation of state secret laws, incitement, corruption and of course these cases are being heard behind closed doors.

There is a gag order on her lawyers. We are hearing from sources familiar with what is going on, it is certainly being kept quiet for the most part by the military junta trying to keep her behind bars. But of course, she is just one prisoner, the most famous prisoner. There are still thousands of other political prisoners that are still either have been charged or awaiting their day in court.

MACFARLANE: Yes, Paula Hancocks, I know this is a develop story this morning. You'll keep across it for us. Thank you very much.

Now high school students clashed with riot police in Santiago, Chile Thursday for a march for better conditions at public secondary schools. Police used water cannons to disperse the protesters and some responded by throwing Molotov cocktail.

[04:40:02]

The students are demanding improvements including free transportation, comprehensive sex education and guaranteed internships in technical high schools.

Updated COVID-19 boosters are on the way after the CDC director issued her stamp of approval. We'll get the details on that next.

And millions of people in lockdown as China enforces its zero COVID policy. We'll have a live report on that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: The director of the CDC signed off on Pfizer's and Moderna's updated COVID-19 boosters on Thursday. This comes after CDC vaccine advisers voted to recommend the updated boosters earlier this week. It's the first time updated COVID vaccines have received Emergency Use Authorization in the United States. Here's CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta with what comes next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we can tell you is that as soon as the FDA gave that Emergency Use Authorization for these new shots, they began shipping to many pharmacies and health care providers around the country. So, this weekend over the next several days, certainly these shots should be increasingly available for people. Just like they have been in the past. They should be free, you should be able to make appointments, get them from your doctors, pharmacies, et cetera.

Now a big question also comes up as to how long should you wait in between shots? When should you get this shot? That kind of depends a little bit on when you received your last shot. So just broadly speaking, if you sort of look at the benefits of getting these shots versus not getting any shots at all, you've seen this data before. But for people over the age of 50, people who are unvaccinated compared to those who have had two or more shots have 14 times the risk of dying. And people who are vaccinated with one booster had three times the risk of dying as compared to those who had two boosters.

[04:45:03]

So that gives you some idea of the importance, first of all, of these shots.

Now, how long do these shots last is sort of the second part of the question that helps you answer then when you should get a shot. What we can tell you, you look at these graph and they're kind of busy graphs, but what we know is that the effectiveness of these vaccines do wane over time. So, after five months they're about 33 percent as effective as they were when you first got the shot. So that could give you some insights as well as to when you might best actually benefit or get the shot.

Part of the reason that they're acting now on this, and again the vote was 13-1, so it was pretty clear that they wanted to go ahead and release these booster shots now, was because if they waited until November, what they found was that the forecast, the modeling suggested that there could be 130,000 or so more hospitalizations if they waited that long and 10,000 more deaths. So, this is a bivalent vaccine meaning part of it protects against the original strain, COVID strain that we started talking about in the spring of 2020. But it also protects against the new variants such as BA.5 and BA.4. So again, over the next several days, these shots should be increasingly available.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Sanjay Gupta there. And the CDC says about 80 percent of children in the U.S. have had COVID-19 at some point. That's a major jump from the end of last year when just 45 percent of kids are said to have had the virus. The information was based on the presence of antibodies in blood samples collected through June. In all 50 states at least half of the children were estimated to have had COVID. Rates were lowest in Vermont and Hawaii with Idaho and Mississippi coming in with the highest numbers.

And 21 million people in one city in China are now under lockdown as Beijing enforces its hardline zero COVID policy. All residents in the mega-city of Chengdu have been ordered to stay at home except for mandatory testing. On Friday the city reported 150 new local COVID cases, a third were asymptomatic. As of Friday, local health authorities say the city has reported more than 900 local transmissions of COVID-19 since August 25.

Well, for more details, let's bring in our Kristie Lu Stout who's live for us in Hong Kong. And Kristie, yet another Chinese mega-city here in lockdown this year with reportedly only some six hours warning.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christina, that's right, which led to scenes of panic buying which went viral on Chinese social media yesterday. And today you have 21 million people in this Chinese mega- city confined to their homes. This is the largest city wide lockdown since the Shanghai lockdown which ended in June. And the apparent trigger for the Chengdu lockdown, well, on Wednesday the city reported 156 new local cases of COVID-19. Today they reported 150 -- 1-5-0 -- new local cases of the virus.

And yet 21 million people in Chengdu now have to go through the mandatory COVID-19 testing. They have been advised to stay at home, only to go out for that mandatory COVID test. Only one person per household is allowed to go out each day to fetch groceries. Businesses have been closed. Only essential services are open like supermarkets as well as pharmacies and hospitals.

And Chengdu is not the only major Chinese city that is seeing this ramping up of anti-pandemic measures. For example, you ae Shenzhen, that is the massive high tech capital of China in the south. It's home to the world's largest electronics market. That market is closed because of COVID-19 measures and the zero COVID policy. In Dalian, this major port city in the northeast of China, there are 3 million residents are now under lockdown as we speak at this moment. You know, is just weeks, a couple months ago when the lockdown in Shanghai ended and that did a lot of damage to both lives and livelihoods.

But even as the economic toll of this policy continues to rise, Beijing, the Chinese government, they still hold tight to this punishing zero COVID policy. And what is happening in Chengdu right now is only underscoring that. Back to you.

MACFARLANE: Yes, and no idea of course of how long is going to last. Kristie Lu Stout there live for us in Hong Kong, thank you.

All right, coming up, it's likely to be the end of the road for the Williams sisters doubles career. The latest on Venus and Serena at the U.S. Open when we return.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MACFARLANE: Welcome back. Serena Williams has likely played her last

ever doubles match with her sister Venus. The pair lost in the first round of the U.S. Open Thursday night to the team from the Czech Republic. Venus and Serena have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles in their career together. Serena has a third round singles match today against Ajila Tomljanovic from Australian. She hinted just a few weeks ago that she might be nearing retirement. Let's hope she can get through the next round.

And now to the men's competition. World number three, Rafael Nadal, is moving on to the third round after knocking out Fabio Fognini of Italy. The Spaniard survived a freak injury when he accidentally hit himself in his face with his own racquet. Now that has to be a first. Nadal ran to the sidelines so medics could treat his bloody nose. The 36-year-old goes on to face Richard Gasquet of France on Saturday.

Now fingers crossed for NASA's plans to try again on Saturday to get the Artemis 1 rocket off the launch pad. Monday's launch was scrubbed due to a variety of technical issues. NASA says those problems have now been addressed. Here is the mission manager.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE SARAFIN, ARTEMIS 1 MISSION MANAGER: There is no guarantee that we're going to get off on the 3rd, but we're going to show up and we are going to try and we're going to give it our best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:55:00]

MACFARLANE: The unmanned spacecraft is seen as an early scouting mission to the moon ahead of eventual man's landings. NASA says putting astronauts back on the moon for an extended period will be critical training for future missions to Mars.

Well, the brand new James Webb Space Telescope has captured it first direct image of exoplanet from far from our solar system. Now exoplanets have been observed before but the web's infrared capabilities are providing the clearest picture yet. You can see it here. This one described as a gas giant many times larger than Jupiter and it's about 385 light years from earth. Beautiful.

OK, before we go, an iconic movie weapon from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away has sold at auction for more than $1 million.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MOVIE CLIP FROM STAR WARS A NEW HOPE)

HARRISON FORD, AS HAN SOLO: Yes, I bet you have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Rock island's auction company says the blaster pistol was originally used by Harrison Ford's character Han Solo in the 1977 film Star Wars A New Hope. The prop gun was the only one left that had been used by the actor during filming and promotions. It was only expected to face half a million dollars or so at most. But a toy version was sold in the 1970s and used by millions of kids around the world. I really wish I had one of those.

That does it for this edition here of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina Macfarlane in London. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans is up next.

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