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CNN International: Five Americans now Under House Arrest in Iran; Explosions in Kyiv after Ukraine Warns of Missile Attack; Western African Leaders Order Activation of Standby Force; Outrages in China over Areas Flooded to Save Bigger Cities. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 11, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, you're watching CNN "Newsroom". I'm Bianca Nobilo in London in for Max Foster today. Just ahead, for you wildfires in Hawaii claim at least 55 lives, search and rescue operations are underway in Maui County, as its unclear how many people are still missing.

Then the African Union says it supports ECOWAS's decision to activate a standby force for a possible military intervention in Niger. And a rare show of anger and frustration in China where the death toll from floods caused by Typhoon Doksuri keeps on rising. The fires burning in Hawaii have claimed at least 55 lives.

Officials on the Island of Maui warned that the death toll is expected to rise as search and rescue efforts are underway. The fires burned down nearly, all of the town of Lahaina. Just look at the widespread devastation here that you can see in these aerial pictures. Some residents tell CNN, they didn't get an early enough warning.

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COLE MILLINGTON, HAWAII RESIDENT: I probably wouldn't have been able to grab anything my house, I don't know if I would have been able to find my car keys, finding my phone, find my dog food, whatever. It pings me as I was getting into my truck. So that morning was completely useless.

We have tsunami warnings that I think should have been utilized. I think this could have been handled so much better in so many ways but so many of us residents felt like we have absolutely no way.

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NOBILO: The winds are gradually decreasing and brief showers are expected providing some much needed hope. So to discuss this, let's bring in CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam for us. Derek, tell us more about what we can expect from the weather today and what impact that might have on these search and rescue operations? DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Bianca, those images are just so difficult to see. It's hard not to have an emotional response to that stuff. But listen, regarding the winds, the good news is that it's relaxed, right? So we no longer have the erratic wind behavior causing the fire concerns like we did two days ago.

And here's to prove my point, because we have the ability with satellite imagery to see the hotspots during the height of the event. You can see Lahaina on the western side of Maui. This is the latest hotspot detection. And you can see they have completely been eradicated basically.

And now from officials Lahaina fire is that 80 percent containment wouldn't be surprised if that number goes up to 90 to 100 percent. Now, the reason for the strong winds when this event was at its peak was because we had this pressure gradient between what was hurricane Dora or still is hurricane Dora.

And this area of high pressure, they continue to move west. Here are the Islands of Hawaii, just a very interesting side note, totally unrelated, but I think it's very fascinating hurricane Dora about to cross the international dateline. And as it does, so it will be actually considered a typhoon from then forward.

The winds going forward 20 to 30 kilometers per hour out of the northeasterly direction, this has implications on what type of weather Lahaina will experience for the coming day because as these northeast trade winds come up in over the mountain ranges. They go through these processes, thermodynamic processes that actually dry the air out and actually heat up the atmosphere as well.

So we have a dry wind for the southwestern side of the Island of Maui where Lahaina is located. So any rain should actually stay away from that area. We won't rain obviously. We want precipitation to help quell any of those maybe hotspots that continue to flare up.

We still again have 80 percent containment on the fire near Lahaina as last stands. There's the rainfall forecasts really confined to the highest elevations and the eastern facing slopes. And Bianca, this is interesting to note as well as we focus in on Maui in particular.

Just in the past week, the severe drought index of the U.S. Drought Monitor is actually gone up a good 10 percent. So that coverage there just indicating how dry and brittle the conditions are on the ground, Bianca.

NOBILO: Fingers crossed for some respite Derek Van Dam, thank you so much, so always good to see you. Do stay with us because in just a few moments time we will have a live report from Maui where CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir will show us the devastation that has been wrought by the wildfires in Lahaina.

Now it's the first step in a complex deal to win the freedom of five Americans detained in Iran. Iran has released four of them from prison and places them under house arrest according to the White House.

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The fifth prisoner was already under home confinement and a source says that part of the deal calls for $6 billion in Iranian funds frozen in South Korea to be freed up. The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that he's cautiously optimistic.

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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: So more work to be done to actually bring them home. My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare.

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NOBILO: Jomana Karadsheh has done extensive reporting on Iran, and is with us now to discuss this. Jomana, how likely is it that these five prisoners will be released unable to go back to the U.S. and what would be the potential timeline for that?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, as you heard there from Secretary Blinken, as we've been hearing from U.S. officials over the past 24 hours, this is just a first step, but it's a very positive first step. As you can imagine, the suffering, the pain that the families of these prisoners, some would say hostages have been through over the past few years.

The hope is that is going to happen in the next few weeks, potentially in September, but it's not a done deal until you see them on a flight out of Iran. What we understand is going to happen in the meantime, is other parts of this agreement will be implemented.

As you mentioned, there's $6 billion of Iranian funds, these assets that have been frozen in South Korea and accounts there. Now, the Iranians will have more access to this money, but not for any sanction activities, humanitarian purposes, as we are hearing from U.S. officials. And also, there will be the release of five Iranian prisoners held by the U.S.

So we'll have to wait and see this happen. But as we're hearing from the lawyer for one of these prisoners, Siamak Namazi, who has, I mean, what he has gone through over the past few years, Bianca, is just unimaginable. There was deal after deal and he would always be left behind the longest serving American prisoner in Iranian jails.

NOBILO: And in desperation he made that call to -- on jail, such a risk.

KARADSHEH: Exactly, taking a huge risk. He said desperate times call for these desperate measures. And he made that call to President Biden urging him to get them out of there. So right now, we understand these four detainees are out of prison. One of them of course was already under house arrest.

They are in a hotel in the capital Tehran, according to Siamak's lawyer saying that they are in much better conditions than what they were of course in the notorious Evin prison, and now everyone is hoping that they will soon return home.

NOBILO: Jomana, I wish we had more time because you knew so much about this country and region but you're in London now. So hopefully we can have more of these discussions. Thank you so much. Turning now to Ukraine where explosions rocked the capital city overnight.

The Mayor of Kyiv said missile fragments hit a children's hospital. Information on casualties was still being assessed. West of the capital and official says a child was killed in a Russian missile attack. Meanwhile, a U.N. humanitarian official says she's approved by a Russian strike on Thursday on a hotel in Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine says the hotel was also the site of the Children's Day Camp. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh joins me now live in Dnipro, Ukraine. Nick, what more can you tell us about the activity on the front lines, particularly in the Kharkiv region where we're hearing that Ukraine is ordering mandatory evacuations?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's a lot happening on the front lines at the moment. I think important to point out that in the south, Ukrainians are saying there are some incremental progresses but could turn out to be more strategically significant near the town of Robotine around that, which there's been intense fighting.

We were there just a few days ago and heard ourselves they are moving forwards as our social media videos suggesting that Ukrainians may in fact be in that village a tiny place, frankly, but one that Russia has invested enormous resources and trying to hold.

At the same time Russia investing significant resources in trying to push forward to in Kupyansk that's weighted the northeast of those southern frontlines. That's the reason for the 10,000 Ukrainians being given that mandatory evacuation orders from Kupyansk. They had come home after liberation last year.

Now they feel the urge to get out because of this sheer bombardment. But you mentioned just earlier, Bianca, the attack on that Zaporizhzhia hotel, the right carts hotel down on the riverside. It's important to give some detail to this because it is just so staggering how this occurred.

Indeed, we saw ourselves that is outside in the parking lot where the missiles landed to Iskander missiles. A children's playground, a small pool for children there with swings and a slide next to it.

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Inside the hotel, full of families when we were there you could hear children laughing around the inside swimming pool that too appears to have been spared the brunt of the blast because the missiles hit the car park where the children's playground was. Now that day camp for kids ended an hour earlier.

And so essentially, that tiny time gap is what potentially saved dozens of children from being part of the tour which stands at the moment one did, and about a dozen or so injured. Remarkable frankly, no more lives were lost. But we heard just after that attacks a Russian official saying all hotels in Zaporizhzhia were essentially targets because the Russians believed that they were full of Ukrainian soldier.

We could tell that's non-sense ourselves, having been too many of them. But really this is just another more startling moment of what Ukrainian civilians endure every single day a child dead in Ivano- Frankivsk, one of four kids are missiles only being shot down.

Some suggestions amongst analysts that these higher end hypersonic Russian missiles are being used to go after key parts of Ukrainian military infrastructure possibly related to the U.K. donated Storm Shadow missiles all unclear at this point, but as we see Ukraine, very slowly moving forward on the frontlines.

We're seeing Russia taking extraordinary measures to cause as much chaos and horror and civilian life here as possible. Bianca.

NOBILO: The brutality is just unrelenting. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much for all of your phenomenal reporting over the last weeks. Now the President of the Ivory Coast says that his nation is ready to deploy troops in Niger as soon as possible. His pledge comes after the regional bloc, of West African States known as ECOWAS.

All of the activation of a standby force to Niger to restore constitutional order following last month's military coup, but details of the plan or when it might be implemented remains unclear. And the African Union Chairperson has just expressed strong support for the ECOWAS decision.

CNN's Larry Madowo joins us now live from Nairobi, in Kenya. Larry, obviously, the details are still murky about this force, but hypothetically and in terms of your knowledge of previous decisions, how might it be used to try and restore order in Niger?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So the mission here, if the ECOWAS standby force were to actually arrive in Niger would be to kick the military junta out of power. And even more importantly to free President Mohamed Bazoum, who's being held inside the presidential palace has been since July 26.

And says his food and medicine is running out and he's not been allowed any human contact. So this ECOWAS standby force is now assembling. The President of Cote d'Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara says he will send in troops between 850 and 1100. And he says that Nigeria and Benin will also contribute troops today.

CNN has reached out to both of those countries to confirm how many if they are in fact sending troops, and then we don't have a timeline as to when they will come into Niger. This will likely just embolden the military junta who maintained that they are legitimate power, and they don't want any foreign military intervention.

They've appealed to ECOWAS to remove the threat of military intervention and to relax the sanctions employed against them, then they can probably talk. So if this does go ahead, we're looking at possibly on one side, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, are ruled by military junta's against the combined ECOWAS force.

It would be disastrous for people in Niger. Right now 4.4 million people already need humanitarian assistance. The last thing they want is a war by the African Union endorsing that statement from ECOWAS, the Chair of the African Union Commission, saying he strongly supports their decision and that they need to act to save the life of President Mohamed Bazoum.

And ask him the military junta in Niger not to continue escalating the relations with the regional organization ECOWAS, Bianca.

NOBILO: Larry Madowo, thank you very much. Still to come today, CNN's Bill Weir says it looks like a bomb went off in the town of the Lahaina, Hawaii. We'll take you there for a closer look at the devastation after the break.

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NOBILO: Let's take a closer look at our top story now. Hawaii's Governor says the wildfires there will likely be the state's largest natural disaster ever. At least 55 people are reported dead on the Island of Maui. The wildfire that engulfed the town of Lahaina is now 80 percent contained.

About 30,000 people have been flown out of Maui by Thursday afternoon. Meteorologists say that the winds that have fueled the fires will decrease during the day. CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir is in Maui and joins us now live. Bill you have been in the high now you're there you can see all of this devastation. What impression is it leaving on you? What can you tell us about what you've witnessed?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Bianca, it's so, so heartbreaking because the devastation is total. This historic little charming tourist town here on the west side of Maui completely gutted by flame, the people still sort of in real time coming to grips with the five stages of grief trying to pick through the pieces.

My impressions yesterday just as we walked in there we had a few minutes before the authorities actually asked us to leave, give you a little look here's a walk and talk just a near Front Street here in Lahaina.

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WEIR (on camera): This is the historic banyan tree 150 year old majestic tree at the center of Lahaina town. It looks like it may have survived, it needs water desperately to survive right now but for the locals who are coming down and looking at the damage. This is such a sign of hope that maybe their iconic tree will have lived when so much else has gone here.

But the history can never be replaced. Right here, this is the first hotel in Hawaii, the pioneer hotel, pioneer theater. It's completely gone. Right over here was the library. It's just now a stone shell of scorched blocks. Around Front Street there fleet woods Mick Fleetwood of the band Fleetwood Mac, his place is gutted out with flames.

It's just unrecognizable. One of the most charming beloved port cities anywhere in the world is just scorched, like a bomb went off.

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WEIR: And I'm hearing again and again from people who said there was really no warning at all. Questions now Maui has a rather famous alarm system when it comes to tsunamis. Hundreds of sirens set up around the island that people say they simply didn't hear. They didn't get the kind of alerts on the phones they're used to when there's any kind of a tsunami warning.

And the flames move so fast, with those gusty winds, turning the tender brush around the hillsides just to do a blowtorch there and pitting people on the road between the mountain of fire and the Pacific Ocean. And they've yet to start looking inside any of the homes for fatalities right now. So the number of the debt is certainly starting to climb here in Maui.

NOBILO: It's so striking, Bill, to see you walking around in that devastation. We've been viewing these aerial pictures and videos, which of course are horrifying, but seeing it in human scale. Like you say it doesn't look like a bomb has gone off or the aftermath of some kind of appalling volcano or natural disaster. At what factors are making the effort to contain these fires more challenging?

WEIR: Well, thankfully, the wind has died down considerably last couple of days. The fire around Lahaina is 80 percent contained at least there's a couple others one a bit further south and then inland as well.

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They don't seem to be raging like they were earlier in the week thankfully. And it's just a matter of resources. There's no communication, the electricity is out on that side of the island. They're careful letting people in right now. So there's sort of this black hole of information, people hoping for proof of life from family members that haven't heard of it.

They don't know whether it's because the cell towers are down or something more tragic as well. But it's going to take a big effort to just even start to pick up the pieces here.

NOBILO: So heartbreaking for all of those families and so many people in that state of uncertainty and not having a clue what's happened to their loved ones. Bill Weir, thank you so much for your reporting. And if you would like information on how you can help those impacted by the Hawaii wildfires, please do go to cnn.com/impact.

There's outrage in China after some flood victims say that there was nothing natural about the disaster that destroyed their homes and their lives. Why the government intentionally let the waters into their communities, next?

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NOBILO: China says at least 29 people are dead in Hebei Province following a recent typhoon that brought heavy rain and flooding to the northern part of the country. Red protests broke out in the aftermath of that storm after the government deliberately directed floodwaters to one area to protect the bigger cities. CNN's Ivan Watson has the story.

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IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A rare moment of defiance in China, angry residents on the steps of a municipal government building in the City of Bazhou. Their sign says give me back my home the flood was caused by flood water discharge, not by heavy rainfall.

At some point man with police shields disperse the crowd. The incident took place after deadly floods caused by the heaviest rains to hit northeastern China in 140 years, a typhoon that killed dozens of people in and around the Chinese capital Beijing, forcing the evacuation of more than a million people from their homes.

WATSON (on camera): Over the last two weeks, these three provinces all saw dramatic flooding. But we're learning that some communities weren't just damaged by a natural disaster. The small City of Bazhou where the protests took place was deliberately flooded by authorities following a government disaster plan aimed at protecting bigger cities like Beijing, and Tianjin.

WATSON (voice over): At 2 a.m. on August 1, authorities activated a flood control plan releasing water from dams into flood storage and detention zones. They then had to evacuate more than 800,000 people living in those zones, which quickly flooded.

State TV showed the Communist Party Chief of Hebei Province touring the disaster area instructing subordinates to reduce flooding pressure on Beijing and vowing to resolutely be the capitals moat. In the event of a crisis, experts say countries often plan to redirect rising water, but usually towards flood zones that are unpopulated.

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ASHISH SHARMA, PROFESSOR OF HYDROLOGY AT UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES: Seems like a planning problem, somebody allowed development or over development in an area that was designated to be a flood control zone.

WATSON (voice over): Provincial governments thanked evacuees for their sacrifice adding history will record your contribution. That's called comfort to people who have seen their homes and livelihoods destroyed for the greater good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nearly all the factories in our area were seriously damaged. 99 percent of the factories have little hope of salvaging the losses.

WATSON (voice over): Under Chinese rules, people are entitled to compensation of 70 percent of the value of property submerged in flood control areas. Experts say planning for the next extreme weather disaster will only get harder.

SHARMA: I think the entire world is scrambling to get prepared for the problems climate change is unfolding onto us.

WATSON (voice over): Which seems like an almost, impossible challenge. Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.

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NOBILO: And leaving you with some cuddly cuteness a koala in Australia is predicting that her home country will knock out team France and the women's quarterfinal on Saturday. Take a look at Matilda, she goes and sits next to the Australian scarf. The Wildlife Sanctuary says Matilda is required beauty bears might keep her from watching the match though, alas.

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HEIDI PATRICK, CURRUMBIN WILDLIFE SANCTUARY WILDLIFE OFFICER: She would love to watch the game up in Brisbane. But she is a koala and she does need her 20 hours of sleep. So she's going to try her best.

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NOBILO: We'll just have to wait and see what the Matilda's prediction comes through. But in just a few moments, Andy Scholes will have today's scores on "World Sport", including who's secured a spot in the semifinals just an hour ago. Now thank you for joining me here on "CNN Newsroom". I'm Bianca Nobilo, have a wonderful weekend and to stay with CNN.

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