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CNN International: Thousands of People in Maui Displaced; How Cop-Watchers are Changing Policing in the U.S.; West African Leaders Order Activation Standby Force; Fears India's Rice Export Ban Could Trigger Crisis. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired August 11, 2023 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo. And if you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour.
The UK's economy beat expectations by growing 0.2 of a percent in the second quarter. Strong household spending is being credited for the uptick in GDP.
At least 55 people have died in the wildfire that devastated the Hawaiian island of Maui. Officials expect that number to increase and don't know how many people are still missing.
The fire that tore through Lahaina is now 80 percent contained. CNN's Derek Van Dam shows us more of the damage and how authorities are responding.
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DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Tonight, fires on the island of Maui continuing to burn as new federal help is now being dispatched amid unprecedented widespread destruction.
Scenes like this becoming more common. Businesses melted. Historical sites gone. Homes reduced to ash and smoke. Hospitals are overwhelmed. Officials say hundreds of families are displaced.
MARK STEFL, LAHAINA RESIDENT, LOST HOME: Everybody in our neighborhood lost everything.
VAN DAM (voice-over): Mark Stefl's home in Lahaina is gone, as is much of the tourist destination and economic hub. Stefl making a harrowing, heartbreaking escape.
STEFL: We ran downstairs, grabbed our dogs and cats and we lost the cat and the dog because of just confusion. And the fire just engulfed our house.
VAN DAM (voice-over): Officials say winds associated with Hurricane Dora helped fuel the fires. These before and after images near Lahaina Shores Beach Resort are staggering. Same with this stretch of beach where a number of buildings are simply gone.
Today, President Joe Biden approving a disaster declaration for Hawaii, providing federal financial assistance. And the Pentagon now activating more than 100 National Guardsmen to help in the response.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Anyone who's lost a loved one whose home has been damaged or destroyed is going to get help immediately.
VAN DAM (voice-over): Assistance meant to help Maui County residents like La Phena Davis.
LA PHENA DAVIS, MAUI RESIDENT, LOST HOME: Everything that we own, you know, in all my 50 years of life is completely burned to the ground.
VAN DAM (voice-over): Today, residents and tourists alike finding refuge in a Honolulu convention center.
CHRISTINA JOHNSON, EVACUATED HOME: The gas station blew up at like three and since then we've just been trying to outrun a fire.
VAN DAM (voice-over): As firefighters work to contain the deadly blaze, residents look at the monumental task ahead.
DAVIS: It's not just a loss of our home. It's a loss of our entire community, our town that we've known it to be for generations. And it's completely devastating. We're shook to our core.
VAN DAM (voice-over): Derek Van Dam, CNN.
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NOBILO: If you would like information on how to help those impacted by the Hawaii wildfires, please do go to CNN.com/impact. There you will find a list of vetted organizations that you can check out.
The U.S. Supreme Court is blocking oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma from moving forward with its $6 billion opioid settlement saying it will hear arguments in the case this December. Until recently Purdue was controlled by the Sackler family who withdrew billions of dollars from the company before filing for bankruptcy. Under the bankruptcy agreement the Sacklers would be protected from all future lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic. The settlement between Purdue and several U.S. states was agreed upon in March after years of negotiation. Ohio's Attorney General said he's disappointed that the Supreme Court is getting involved.
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DAVID YOST, OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL: This war is fought on the ground of our streets, of our cities and our counties. And it's so important to get this money flowing. It has been since 2019.
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NOBILO: The U.S. government calls the arrangement that would protect the Sacklers an abuse of the bankruptcy system.
U.S. screen writers and Hollywood studios have agreed to meet in the coming hours to resume negotiations.
[04:35:00]
It will be the first such meeting since writers went on strike May 2 in a move that has crippled the entertainment industry. Both sides remain far apart on issues like pay and residuals. The union representing 160,000 actors is also on strike.
Meantime, the 75th Emmy Awards have been pushed back to January due to those ongoing strikes. The television awards show has historically taken place in September but organizers announced last month that it would be postponed. The ceremony is now scheduled to air Monday, January 15 which is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States.
There is a growing movement in the U.S. of ordinary citizens filming police encounters and sharing them on line. Activists say it's another way to hold law enforcement accountable. It's also causing some backlash and a string of new laws. Josh Campbell has this.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm on public sidewalk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a traffic stop. You do not belong here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm -- I'm far away.
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's become a YouTube staple, cop watching.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't touch me.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): People are recording interactions between the police and the public and then posting them online.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back again with another video.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): Where they're racking up millions of views.
WILLIAM GUDE, POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY ACTIVIST: By having the film ourselves from a different perspective allows us to document the incident, document the misconduct and then from there we can take it to the public.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): Cop Watching or First Amendment Auditing is hardly a new trend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I get your name and badge number?
CAMPBELL (voice-over): But it's grown more prevalent in recent years after a 2020 video shot by a 17-year-old bystander captured the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer using excessive force.
GUDE: If it wasn't for somebody actually filming that incident, no officer would have been held accountable. It's powerful when we can actually show the public what happened as opposed to a police narrative.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): Cop watcher say, their goal is to keep the police from overstepping and to inform people of their rights. And while they rake in views, some are also making money.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back at it once again ...
CAMPBELL (voice-over): From ads and subscriptions. But while critics say some cop watchers' film in ways that are controversial, are seen as aggressive towards law enforcement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Am I obstructing the roadway?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're in the roadway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Am I obstructing it? That's the only law.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): And could be increasing tensions between police and the public.
GUDE: I personally think I calm down the situation. When I show up cops' act differently. We all act differently when people are watching.
CAMPBELL: So you've arrived at a scene, started filming and seen a noticeable change in the posture of police?
GUDE: Every night. All the time.
CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I've reviewed a lot of videos taken by citizens regarding police conduct, and it does give you a clearer picture of what actually took place.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): Videos can be selectively edited, but when legitimate offer a different view than an officer's body camera.
RAMSEY: As long as the officers' actions are consistent with their training, with their department policy, and most of all, are constitutional, then it's not a problem at all.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): In recent years, several states have tried to pass laws, creating more physical distance between people and police. Last month a new law in Indiana went into effect ordering people to stay 25 feet back from police activity when asked. This week the ACLU sued on behalf of a citizen journalist saying that law violates his First Amendment rights. The ACLU challenged an Arizona law last year that tried to make it illegal for people to record videos within eight feet of police activity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The First Amendment allows me to do this.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): That law was put on hold.
RAMSEY: People have a right to film the police. They don't have a right to interfere with the police trying to do their jobs and make an arrest but they have every right in the world to film. That's just a fact and police officers have to adapt to it.
CAMPBELL: And even police officers who don't necessarily like being filmed have to understand that we're never going back to the days when filming wasn't as ubiquitous as today. Because nearly all of us carry around a camera in our pocket.
What was so interesting in covering this story was seeing the commonalty between both the cop watchers and a lot of people in law enforcement. Cop watchers thinks that filming policing encounters helps protect members of the public from having their rights violated. But even a lot of people in law enforcement think that filming can be beneficial because if a police officer is wrongly accused of excessive force the video may tell a different story.
Josh Campbell, CNN, Los Angeles.
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NOBILO: Tough talk coming from leaders in West Africa during a meeting to discuss how to deal with the military coup in Niger. We'll have a live report after the break.
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NOBILO: West African leaders are raising the stakes in their stance against the military junta that seized power in Niger last month. At a meeting Thursday of the Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS, leaders called for the activation and that deployment of a regional standby force to restore order.
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OMAR ALIEU TOURAY, ECOWAS COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Direct the committee of the chief of defense, to activate the ECOWAS standby force with all its elements immediately. Order the deployment of the ECOWAS standby force to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger.
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NOBILO: CNN'S Larry Madowo joins us now from Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss this. Larry, what more can you tell us about this force and would it be likely to shape the decision making of the junta in any way?
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Bianca, this standby force is supposed to be one that can be deployed rapidly to situations like these military coups which have become quite common in West Africa. This region used to be known as Africa's coup belt. But despite the main, it's not something that can be quickly assembled. They will not be an Niger tomorrow or next week. It takes some time to get together. In fact in Gambian in 2017, it took seven weeks to send ECOWAS troops into the country. So this does not mean that a military intervention in ECOWAS is eminent.
It's not likely to change the minds of the junta in Niger. If anything, it's likely to make them even more obstinate in their decision to take over power from Mohamed Bazoum who remains detained. And President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire, says he consider this a terrorist act and these men who had taken over power, did not release President Bazoum, they should get in there and get him out. He's been talking very tough. He says -- President Ouattara said Cote d'Ivoire will be contributing troops to a battalion of West African countries that are sending in this army to Niger. But they did not admit -- did not share a time line. Which means that, Bianca, the way we read this, they are still exploring diplomacy but they're not taking a military option off the table.
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NOBILO: And Larry, is there unity in terms of the approach of ECOWAS or are there divisions between different countries in terms of the best way to approach this in the restoration of democracy?
MADOWO: ECOWAS maintains that all the heads of state that met in Abuja agreed unanimously to do this standby force, to send it to Niger. But I have to point out ECOWAS is already divided between the military sides and civilian democratically led sides. So Niger has support from its neighbors, Mali, as well as Guinea, who are all head by military juntas. So they are self-preservation, sticking together against all the other 11 democratically led countries that have said, this is one coup too many and if they allow this to happen, then I guess, out of self-preservation, the other presidents feel they could be next.
NOBILO: I think that is a very important point. Larry Madowo for us in Nairobi, Kenya, thank you so much.
When India announced an export ban on non-basmati white rice last month, there were fears that it could trigger a global food crisis. The news reportedly sent some Indian expats in the U.S. into panic buying mode. But American rice producers say U.S. has enough of its own supply to go around. CNN's Vedika Sud reports from the situation in India.
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VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Dozens of panic-stricken buyers scrambling to buy Indian rice in a store in Dallas. Just a day after Indian, the largest exporter of rice impose a ban on shipments exporting non-basmati rice. The USA rice Federation says they've stored enough to go around. But New Delhi's export restrictions have triggered fears of a global food prices.
India's rice supply has been hard after heavy rains devastated large regions where the staple is grown, crippling livelihoods. Last month the Indian government said it was necessary to halt all exports of non-basmati rice to calm domestic rising prices and ensure adequate supply at home.
In a village in north India, third-generation farmer, Shapka Kumar (ph) sits by his patty field that's been submerged for over a month. It's destroyed his newly planted seedlings. Farming is Kumar's only source of income. He's taken loans to re-cultivate his land.
I've suffered huge losses, he tells me, now nothing can be grown on this land until November. Here the rice export ban is a double whammy. It's going to have an adverse impact on us, Kumar tells me, we won't get a higher rate of rice even exported. The floods were a death blow to us farmers. This ban will finish us, he says.
The southeastern nation accounts for more than 40 percent of world rice exports globally. And Delhi's rice export rice hub create uncertainty as rice stocks are piling up.
The export ban has left traders with huge amounts of stock. We now have to find new buyers in the domestic market, trader Rup Kuran (ph) tells me.
SUD: Many of the world's poorest countries depend on imports of Indian rice. Economists warn a prolonged ban could leave the world's most vulnerable people with even less to eat.
SUD (voice-over): Global food prices have soared to a near 12 year high according to the United Nations Food Agency. New Delhi's ban comes in the week after Russia's targeting of Ukrainian grain shipments driving up grain prices across the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Poor countries, food importing countries, poor people in West Africa, they are at the highest risk. It is about, does the food stay affordable, for the poorest of the poor suffer in countries around the world.
SUD (voice-over): Almost 40 percent of the people on earth rely on rice for sustenance. A shortfall in Indian rice could leave millions hungry.
Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Still ahead, the Women's World Cup quarter finals got off to a thrilling start earlier on today. The highlights and first team to get a spot in the semifinals, coming up next.
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NOBILO: A tense quarter final match in the Women's World Cup is under way right now with Sweden leading Japan 2-nil. Sweden scored in the first second minute and largely dominated the first half. Then Sweden scored a second goal on a penalty kick. But the match is not over yet. Whichever team wins goes on to face Spain in the semi finals. Spain made history earlier today as they eliminated the Netherlands in
a thrilling match that went into extra time. Final score was 2-1 and with that Spain advanced to the semifinals for the very first time.
Professional golfer Phil Mickelson denies that he considered betting on a tournament that he played in. He posted the never bet on the Ryder Cup. Adding that he enjoys as friendly wager on the course but would never undermine the integrity of the game. Mickelson also wrote that he had a gambling addiction but that he received help for it.
An upcoming book is accusing the golfer of considering making a bet of $400,000 on the 2012 Ryder Cup. The book was written by professional gambler Billy Walters, who claims that Mickelson wagered more than a billion dollars over the years. CNN could not verify his claims. Walters served five years for insider training. And he blames Mickelson for not making a statement, that Walters said could have exonerated him.
American champion golfer Collin Morikawa is pledging financial help for recovery efforts in the deadly fires that have devastated Maui. Morikawa said that he will donate $1,000 for every birdie that he makes during the PGA Tour FedEx playoffs which started on Thursday in Tennessee. Morikawa's grandparents were born in Lahaina and owned a restaurant there. He posted his pledge on Instagram along with a menu from the restaurant.
And some stories in the spotlight this hour where you.
It's three years in a row for Cristiano Ronaldo. Forbes magazine's highest-paid athlete is once again the top earner on Instagram.
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Posts like these for the LIV Golf mobile app and his CR7 cologne are bringing in big bucks. Ronaldo earned $3.23 million per post and has nearly 600 million followers. Next on the Instagram rich list is the Inter Miami star, Lionel Messi, who earns about 2.6 million for each post.
One Hollywood actor is taking his botched trip to an art exhibit in England featuring works of himself all in stride. Pedro Pascal of HBO's post-apocalyptic drama "The Last of Us," went to check out the Rhodes Gallery, in the town of Margate, which is east of London. But Pascal and two art podcasters with him quickly discovered that the gallery and the art show inside is closed on Sundays. So the trio snapped this selfie to mark the unsuccessful visit and posted the photo on social media. The gallery owners say that they are now rethinking their Sunday closing policy and plan to send a gift to Pascal.
And finally, a koala in Australia is predicting that her home country will knock out team France in the women's quarter final on Saturday. Take a look at Matilda sits next to the Australian scarf. The World Life Sanctuary says that Matida required beauty rest may keep her from watching the match though.
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HEIDI PATRICK, CURRUMBIN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY WILDLIFE OFFICE: She would love to watch the game up in Brisbane, but she is a koala and she does need her 20 hours of sleep but she's going to try her best.
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NOBILO: We'll just have to wait and see whether Matilda's prediction comes true.
And that does it here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. "EARLY START" is up next.
