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Putin Addresses Russian Economy and Sanction at Forum; IAEA Calls for Safety Zoe Around Zaporizhzhia Plant; Uvalde Students Return to School Months After Shooting; Tennessee Police Identify Body of Missing Teacher; Taiwan Holds Military Exercises Amid Tension with China. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 07, 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]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: We'll have much more on both these stories on CNN's "EARLY START."

Just hours ago, Vladimir Putin spoke at the country's Eastern Economic Forum. In his address the Russian president called out the West for what he believes is short sighted security and economic policies and play down Moscow's own economic problems in the country's role in obstructing Ukrainian grain exports. CNN's Clare Sebastian joins me now. This is a blame game, isn't it, in basic terms?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is something in terms of the economy we've heard multiple times from President Putin. He is now obviously stepping up his rhetoric, saying that the West is now in crisis of its own making. That the inflation rates that we are seeing as a result of sanctions, the competitiveness of European enterprises is declining.

He talked about how the dominance of the dollar is declining, and of the usefulness of other Western currencies. He is obviously pivoting to Asia. He has to, because the European embargo on energy comes into force in December, and Russia needs new customers. But the one thing that we haven't heard before, Max, that we heard him this time, is that he was very critical of the way the U.N. brokered grain deal is being executed. He said that most the grain that's being shipped out of these Ukrainian ports is not going to the countries that need it most, it's not going to developing countries. Have a listen to what he is accusing Europe of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Just like many European countries over the past decades have acted like colonial powers, they are continuing to act like that today. Once again, they have deceived developing countries and are continuing to deceive. It's clear that with this approach, the scale of the world's food problems will only grow. Unfortunately, which is capable of leading to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. It might be worth restricting the export of grain and other food via this route. I will definitely discuss this with Turkish leader Erdogan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So, that's pretty ominous. Max, even though this is perhaps the only diplomatic achievement to come out of this war. Putin is set to meet with Erdogan in September, September 15th or 16th at a summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. So, we'll see what comes out of that. But it is ominous. And I will say that he's basing those accusations on a data point that he cited, which is that 3 percent of grain being exported from Ukraine is going to developing countries. We have looked at the data, that is wildly lower than the estimates we are coming up with that are going to developing countries.

FOSTER: OK, Clare, thank you.

And meanwhile, the UN's nuclear watchdog group has released a damning new report on the situation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency says immediate changes are needed to prevent a nuclear emergency in Ukraine. Here's what the agency's director general had to say about current threats to the facility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAFAEL GROSSI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: The mere fact that there is a continuity of attacks and shelling, deliberate or not, wittingly or unwittingly, people are hitting a nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. So, I must say that the danger continues. Nuclear safety is indispensable. Nuclear security is indispensable. We are playing with fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's Melissa Bell is in Kyiv with the very latest. The great difficulty is they are playing the each other, the two sides, aren't they, for these attacks, if they are attacked, on the plant.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And the shelling has continued, Max, so much so that yesterday it was the entire town of Enerhodar, where the plant was based, that was left -- according to its mayor -- without electricity and without water. So, the shelling continuing, each side blaming the other.

And now the IAEA calling essentially for that demilitarized zone, calling it a nuclear safety and protection zone. But nonetheless, essentially calling for it to be turned into a safe zone, really, along the lines of what the Ukrainians have been calling for. This is what President Zelenskyy had to say last night after the IAEA report published that report, Max.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): In any case, there is a feeling that modern international organizations need a much broader mandate for their actions. I believe that the world not only deserves but needs the representatives of the IAEA to force Russia to demilitarize the territory of the nuclear power plant and return full control to Ukraine. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: Now, that is looking unlikely. Of course, this power plant, remember, is on the left bank of the Dnipro River, part of those lands that have been conquered by Russia and have been in the hands of Russian forces now since the month of March. And just after that report was published and ahead of the U.N. Security Council meeting last night, Max, the Russian ambassador to the U.N. very clear about the fact that they would not be allowing that sort of demilitarize on to be created. Because as he said, the Ukrainians would come straight back in.

[04:35:00]

So, we're also hearing from Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, this morning saying that Russia is looking for clarification's from the IAEA about exactly what it's asking for.

But that requirement, that request, that demand that it be turned into a safe zone, a secure -- security protection zone, looking at this stage, extremely unlikely for that to happen. Still, the IAEA inspectors remain there in very difficult circumstances. That was another part of the report published yesterday by the IAEA, suggesting that what is needed as well in the plant was greater protection for the workers who needed to be able to go about their job in peace and safety. For the time being though, little concrete progress made -- Max.

FOSTER: Melissa Bell, live in Kyiv, thank you.

Seattle public schools are canceling the first day of classes which are supposed to start it today. That's because more than 6,000 members of the teachers union are going on strike. One official says free sack lunches will be available for all students, and after school athletics are still expected to happen. The teachers union president says 95 percent of members who voted opted to go on strike.

Now, it's been nearly four months since the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which took the lives of 19 students and two teachers. The investigation into the delayed police response is still ongoing. And the Department of Public Safety announced on Tuesday that two officers were suspended with pay. The department's director says his office's response was an abject failure. One shared by all officers on campus that day.

Some parents feel the same way. Worsening anxiety of a new school year. To ease those nerves, the Uvalde School District brought in comfort dogs to welcome students back to classes.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz spoke with families about their first day back.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hugs, high fives and therapy dogs greeted students in Uvalde today. The kids greeted today with anxious smiles. PROKUPECZ: You doing all right? How you holding up?

AJ MARTINEZ, INJURED AT ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: I'm good.

PROKUPECZ: You're smiling. You happy? Happy go back to school? Nervous?

MARTINEZ: Yes, I'm nervous because I'm not used to the school.

PROKUPECZ: This is new school, right?

MARTINEZ: Yes.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): AJ Martinez was in room 112 at Robb watching a movie to celebrate the end of the school year, when a gunman entered his classroom, killing 19 of his classmates and two of his teachers. He dove under backpacks trying to hide but was shot through his upper leg. As he enters fifth grade, his limp has all but disappeared.

PROKUPECZ: Just trying to get back to normal life, right?

MARTINEZ: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: And this is a good first step.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Deciding what to wear for the first day at his new school, AJ chose a shirt with a photo of the friends and the teachers he lost. His wounds may slowly heal, but the emotional toll will be harder to overcome.

PROKUPECZ: You alright?

KASSANDRA CHAVEZ, MOTHER OF STUDENT WOUNDED IN SHOOTING: This, like I said, scared, worried for my kids, and all the teachers and the students that are coming back. That's all I'm worried about.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): It's a difficult day for AJ's mom, Kassandra Chavez. When we sat down this summer, she shared her advice to her son.

CHAVEZ: He tells, mom, I just, I hate the shooter. I hate that he killed my friends and my two teachers, mom. And he's like, I will never see him again. And I said, I know, babe but you know, you have to be strong, because that's what they would want you to do.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): As they filed into their classrooms, Uvalde students were met by a heavy law enforcement presence led by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Some schools in the district have new visible security measures like eight-foot fencing and cameras.

At AJ's school, the fencing hasn't been completed in time for the first day. Back in the drop off line at Flores Elementary, Zeke Wyndham sits in the back of his dad's pickup truck, ready to bravely face his fears.

PROKUPECZ: How do you feel about coming back to school? ZEKE WYNDHAM, STUDENT: I'm really nervous. I'm so scared and shock after what happened at my old school. And I'm still scared and nervous.

PROKUPECZ: You were at Robb?

WYNDHAM: Ah hmm.

PROKUPECZ: What grade are you in now?

WYNDHAM: Fifth.

PROKUPECZ: Fifth grade. Were you in the fourth grade class that when the shooting happened or are you in a different room?

WYNDHAM: I was down the hall.

PROKUPECZ: Where you could hear.

WYNDHAM: I can still hear the gunshots. It was very terrifying and traumatizing for me.

PROKUPECZ: And still is.

WYNDHAM: Ah hmm.

PROKUPECZ: And coming back to school.

WYNDHAM: It's scary.

PROKUPECZ: Signs that the investigation is still very much ongoing, the Texas Department of Public Safety revealing that five of their officers are now under formal investigation, and that two of those officers have been suspended, with pay. We don't know why the Department of Public Safety took this step. They have not revealed any of that information.

[04:40:00]

But certainly, there are indications that these investigations are still very much ongoing.

Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Still ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, the search for a young schoolteacher has ended in Tennessee. But it's not the outcome anybody was hoping for.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: The man suspected of killing a Tennessee kindergarten teacher will be arraigned today on first degree murder charges. Police found the body of 34-year-old Eliza Fletcher on Monday, three days after she went missing. CNN's Gary Tuchman has our report. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CERELYN DAVIS, CHIEF, MEMPHIS POLICE: Today is a very sad day in the city of Memphis.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis confirming the worst that Eliza Fletcher was dead. Her body found behind an abandoned duplex. This man Cleotha Abston has been charged with murdering her. He was arraigned on the initial kidnapping charges. He'd been arrested over the weekend and charged with the kidnapping.

Surveillance images showing Eliza Fletcher being attacked by a man while she was jogging near the University of Memphis campus. He forced her into his SUV and then drove away. That man, say police, is Abston. And according to authorities, he wasn't talking to them about what happened to the 34-year-old wife and mother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're charged with especially aggravated kidnapping.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): But with today's identification of her body, the prosecutor informed the judge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some additional file, charges were filed this morning for murder, premeditated murder and murder in the perpetration of a kidnapping.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): The judge said another arraignment for the murder charges on Wednesday. Abston was wearing a mask but appeared to show no emotion.

Less than a day earlier, a South Memphis neighborhood is virtually shut down with crime tape, as scores of police conducted an intense hours long search.

[04:45:00]

The location where her body was found about one half mile away from where a witness told authorities she saw the accused murderer cleaning his car after Eliza Fletcher was kidnapped and acting oddly.

DAVIS: We work together to identify various locations. And that was our search concentration. And we were -- we're just blessed that we were able to identify this location and our officers were successful in finding her.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): The surveillance camera on a building at the university provided key evidence because it clearly showed a vehicle that had damage to it and a partial license plate. And with those images, U.S. Marshals found what they say is the same vehicle at the suspects residence. An affidavit also declares Abston left a pair of his sandals at the crime scene. Authorities were able to obtain DNA from those sandals that matched Abston.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you swear or affirm -- TUCHMAN (voice-over): At least one reason he was in the DNA database, he had been found guilty in 2000 of another kidnapping in Memphis, with a victim who escaped. Abston served about 20 years behind bars. He was released a little less than two years ago.

STEVE MULROY, SHELBY COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Any kind of violence, of course, is unacceptable, but repeat violent offenders particularly deserve a strong response and that's what they'll get from this district attorney's office.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Eliza Fletcher was a mother of two small boys, a junior kindergarten teacher at a private school in Memphis, a member of a prominent and philanthropic Memphis family. Some of her family members were in a court, they quietly watched and listened witnessing the man charged with murdering their loved one. The DA who says there is no reason to believe this was anything but a random attack since he's been in touch with the family throughout this horrible ordeal.

MULROY: To lose someone so young and so vital is a tragedy in and of itself, but to have it happened in this way with a senseless act of violence, it's unimaginable.

TUCHMAN: We learned quite a bit more about how Eliza's body was found based on affidavit we received. Obviously, we knew authorities wanted to look at that particular neighborhood, because that's where the car was being washed. But they were able to narrow down that neighborhood by a great deal because of the help of a FBI cellular analysis team. And what that team literally did was analyze cellular data on Friday. And based on that, four officers went to one particular abandoned home. They start walking towards the rear, they saw tire tracks through the tall grass. One of those four officers then went in the back, saw a couple of steps. And when he got to those couple of steps, next to the steps, he saw Eliza's body just lying on the ground.

This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, in Memphis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: New details have emerged about the remaining suspect in a deadly mass stabbing in Canada's Saskatchewan Province. This, as the man hunt for the alleged killer enters its fourth day. Myles Sanderson has been assessed by a psychologist as a moderate risk of violence and has a prior criminal history.

But earlier this year, corrections officials granted him a presumptive release, saying they did not believe he would be a risk to the public. He is now on the run for alleged role in a mass stabbing which killed ten and wounded 18.

Still ahead, caught on NASA's web, the latest photographs of deep space gives scientists a better understanding of the universe. That story and more, after the break.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: NASA's Webb telescope has captured a new type of spider. Pictures were released of the Tarantula Nebula more than 160,000 light years away from us on earth. While the spider doesn't lay eggs, it is home to some of the largest and hottest stars known to astronomers. These pictures have shown researchers tens of thousands of stars they've never seen before previously hidden in cosmic dust.

Now, two days of military exercises are underway right now in Taiwan. This comes amid simmering tensions with the top China. Weeks after Beijing held its own military drills near the self-ruled island. Will Ripley is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm here in southern Taiwan where the army is holding live fire drills amid rising tensions with China. It's one thing to read about the $1.1 million in weapon that the United States, Biden administration just announced will be sold to Taiwan. The six such arm sale under the Biden administration, five of them just this year. It is another thing though to actually be out here and to feel, you know, the ground shutter from these massive explosions when you're looking at the tanks and the armored vehicles in the combat helicopters. And you're seeing the mortar fire basically decimating the hill behind me.

It really does give you an indication of just how horrifying it would be if war were to actually break out on the self-governing democracy. An island of almost 24 million people that has had its own military, its own government for more than 70 years. But continues to be claimed by Beijing's Communist rulers as Chinese territory. Even, though they never controlled this island.

The Taiwanese military says that they will defend their homeland. They say that they do not accept the unilateral takeover by China. And that's why they're conducting military training like this. These live fire drills on a regular basis. They happen throughout the year.

CAPTAIN KUO JIA-MING, 54TH ARMORED BRIGADE: In this environment, we must prepare the work, and the simulator battlefield. Make our soldiers get used to it.

RIPLEY: But it's especially important to focus on them right now, given what has been happening over the last month or so, after the U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made a controversial visit to Taipei followed by other high-profile U.S. lawmakers. You had China conducting the largest scale military drills, encircling this island that we've seen. It was truly unprecedented.

China almost simulating a blockade of Taiwan. Which would be a precursor to an actual war. You also have incidents escalating on the outline islands of Taiwan, including the islands of Kinmen, where Chinese drones have been spotted in the air. Flying over and photographing sensitive, restrictive military outposts. The officials who are on command here say that this is part of the islands ongoing effort to get ready for a possible war with mainland China -- Will Ripley, CNN, Taiwan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:55:00]

FOSTER: Coco Gauff run at the U.S. Open is over after the quarter finals lost to France's Caroline Garcia. The 12th seeded Gauff is -- or was seeking to be the youngest American to reach the U.S. Open semifinal since Serena Williams back in 1999. Despite her loss, this was Gauff's best U.S. Open singles performance. She'll make her debut at the top 10 single ranking after the U.S. Open.

Now tennis's reigning bad boy is back at it again. Australian player Nick Kyrgios is making headlines after an outburst the U.S. Open. Kyrgios smashed two of his rackets, moments after he lost a quarterfinal match to Russia's Karen Khachanov. This isn't the first time Kyrgios has lost his temper, of course. After a loss in March, he threw a racket after a defeat at Indian Wells. He later apologized after the racket nearly hit a ball boy.

Later today, Apple is set to reveal the newest batch of iPhone, hoping the bars will give it stock a much needed boost. Shares of Apple are down more than 10 percent since the start of the year. And while the stock closed down on Tuesday, it's seen some recent momentum. Investors appear optimistic that the new iPhone 14 lineup could lead to a solid jump in profits.

Popstar Justin Bieber announced on Tuesday that he's taking a break from touring again. This is the second time he's taken a break since suffering partial paralysis of his face caused by Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. He posted on Twitter that the exhaustion overtook me, and I realized that I need to make my health the priority right now. And he added that, I am going to be OK, but I need time to rest and get better. We wish him.

Thank you for joining here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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