Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

CNN International: Governor: Children Among the 111 Killed by Maui Wildfires; D.A. in Georgia Pushes to Start Criminal Trial on March 4, 2024; U.S. Secretary of State Speaks by Phone with Paul Whelan; CNN Finds Evidence of a Massacre in Darfur; Ukraine: 7th Attack on Ports Since Russia Ended Grain Deal. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 17, 2023 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo, live from London. Max Foster is off today. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a tragedy beyond any expectation but we are ruled by the fact that the world has tried to lift us up and help us through this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mark Meadows was not just setting up meetings, he was not arranging telephone calls, that's done by secretaries, staffers, White House operators. He's in the thick of this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well I think the U.S. government probably has a pretty good idea of what the Kremlin wants. And it's a question of whether they can make that concession.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Biance Nobilo.

NOBILO: It is Thursday, August 17th, 9:00 a.m. here in London and 10:00 p.m. in Maui. Where at were at least 111 people are confirmed dead. A little more than a week after devastating wildfires swept through the island. And the Hawaiian governor says some of the victims are children. It's not yet clear how many or if they've been identified. We're hold more than 1,000 people could still be missing. And only 38 percent of the disaster zone has not been searched. CNN's Gloria Pazmino has this report from Maui.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): The scope of the devastation here stands in stark contrast to Maui's stunning beauty.

FRANK TAYLOR, NEVADA TASK FORCE 1, SEARCH AND RESCUE IN HAWAII: It looks like it started up there and ended down there.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Frank Taylor, with FEMA's search and rescue team found Lahaina reduced to ashes, now a graveyard for everything and everyone caught in the wilds fire's path.

TAYLOR: There's nothing left. Cremation, basically. This is the absolute worst disaster I've ever seen.

PAZMINO (voice-over): More than a hundred dead. Now search teams face their grisly task of finding many more in the days to come. Using dogs trained to locate cadavers in this restricted zone.

TAYLOR: They are absolutely essential to this and they're trained just for human remains. We can walk through and do visual searches, but you send a dog in there and they'll find them. I'm very confident we'll find everybody.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Main roads are just starting to open here. FEMA is providing disaster relief and families hoping to lay the victims to rest are fighting exhaustion amid their grief.

MICHAEL RICHTER, LOST STEPFATHER IN FIRE: I just want to identify the body. The police have really helped, but I have run into a lot of people that I understand are tired. I'm tired too. I haven't slept in six days.

PAZMINO (voice-over): For some survivors, not knowing how the deadly fire started and how it was able to cause so much destruction so quickly adds to their suffering. A siren warning system that never sounded despite being tested just days before the fires raged.

GOV. JOSH GREEN (D-HI): The cell phones were immobilized, the power line were down and we had no service. But the sirens, some were broken and we're investigating that.

PAZMINO (voice-over): And some locals point to down power lines and loss of water pressure as the flames ravaged the landscape, fueled by months long drought, extreme winds and flammable grasses. But one local Hawaii reporter says he finds solace in the close-knit community of Lahaina after losing at least four members of his extended family.

JONATHAN MASAKI SHIROMA, TRAFFIC ANCHOR, HAWAII NEWS NOW: The people of Hawaii have always been rooted in the spirit of ohana, which is family. And I know how painstaking this is. I know the hurt, I know the -- just the deep void we all feel.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Gloria Pazmino, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: The U.S. president and first lady will be traveling to Hawaii on Monday to survey the damage. Republicans had criticized Joe Biden for not going sooner, and for not focusing more on the tragedy. President Biden has said that he's concerned his presence might be a distraction and slow down the crucial recovery efforts since every presidential visit requires major security and logistical planning. But the Hawaiian governor said that by next week that shouldn't be a problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREEN: We still want to get the president coming on Monday, to both mourn with us and also so that he can see the damage, see what he's going to take to rebuild Maui.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:05:00]

NOBILO: Tourists, on the other hand, are being told to stay away from Maui for the immediate future. Hawaiian actor, Jason Momoa posted this message from a local community group urging vacationers to stop traveling to Maui.

Go home, it says, people have lost everything.

Visitors to the island have dropped sharply since last weekend, but some vacationers remain. And has been deeply offensive to many residents as they cope with the fire's grim aftermath and the grief. Tourism officials say hotels in west Maui have stopped accepting bookings for the time being because those will be needed to house evacuees and emergency workers.

If you would like more information on how to help those impacted by the Hawaii wildfires, please do go to CNN.com/impact. Or you could text Hawaii to 70 70 70 to donate.

In Texas, a woman has been arrested and charged with threatening the judge presiding over Donald Trump's federal election interference case. Authorities say the woman left a voice mail threatening to kill the judge -- seen here -- if Trump isn't elected next year. It comes amid developments in the Georgia election subversion case. The district attorney who handed Trump his fourth indictment has asked a judge for a trial date of March 4th next year. That's the day before Super Tuesday, a critical date in the U.S. primary season. CNN's Paula Reid on why starting the trial that soon would be difficult.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, District Attorney Fani Willis here, just making a request, a proposal to have her trial begin the first week of March 2024. It's highly unlikely that this request is going to be granted, because six months is a very tight timeline for a RICO case. They are notoriously complicated. They tend to get drawn out. And here, she has 19 different defendants. Three of them expected or have already challenged the jurisdiction. Trying to move this case for the state to the federal level.

But we know that she's also competing for increasingly scarce space on an increasingly crowded calendar where the president has not only likely a few trials that have been scheduled but also, he has election events. Things that he would likely have to participate in as a candidate for the presidency. So it's likely part of why she wants to get this discussion going and why she is proposing such an aggressive timeline.

Paul Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: One of Trump's codefendants' is his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who is now securing a hearing date with the federal judge in less than two weeks. He wants his case moved to the federal court arguing he should have federal immunity from the state charges as a former U.S. government employee. It's likely that other defendants in the Georgia case will try the same tactic. Meadows says, he'll later submitted an argument why his charges should be dismissed altogether.

A U.S. citizen held prisoner in Russia has been told to keep hope alive. Sources tell us that message came in a phone call between Paul Whelan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday. Whelan has been in prison for more than four years and his family is becoming increasingly concerned he may not be freed anytime soon. CNN's Kylie Atwood reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Paul Whelan spoke by phone today with the Secretary of State Antony Blinken, from a Russian prison. And according to a course familiar with the call, the secretary's message to Paul Whelan was to keep the faith and that the U.S. government is doing everything in their power to try and bring Paul Whelan, who's been wrongfully detained in Russia for more than four years, home as quickly as possible.

Now we're told that this is the second time that they have had a conversation. The first time was late last year. But we don't know the logistics that went to standing up this call. You can imagine it would be quite complicated to get Paul Whelan on the phone with the Secretary of State even though he's able to make phone calls from the prison where he is. Getting him on the phone with America's top diplomat is hugely significant.

Now David Whelan, who's Paul Whelan's brother, describe the conversation to CNN as a long conversation, a frank conversation. He also said it sent a signal to Russia that the U.S. is still working, of course secure Paul Whelan's release.

And we should note that the U.S. has put an offer on the tables to secure Whelan's release. That offered to Russia was sent earlier this year, more than eight months ago, according to a senior administration official. That is a live offer. But the Russians have not substantively engaged as the U.S. continues to try and get Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, who's another American wrongfully detained in Russia, back to the United States.

Kylie Atwood, CNN, the State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:10:00] NOBILO: Russia's Ambassador to the U.S., later released a statement calling on everyone who is not involved in the issue to stay out of it. He wrote, quote:

We urge American politicians and the media to give the competent authorities of the two countries the opportunity to work calmly. Stop playing with people's fates and leave the search for the necessary resolutions to professionals.

Still to come, a CNN exclusive report on how a terrifying massacre unfolded in Sudan's West Darfur, and the heartbreaking testimonies of some of the witnesses.

Also, an apocalyptic scene in Canada where huge wildfires are burning in the northwest territory threatening a major city in their path.

Plus, a federal appeals court issues a ruling on the abortion pill, Mifepristone. The details of that decision coming up ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Turning now to a gruesome discovery in Sudan, as the civil war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, rages on. 30 mass graves with the remains of more than 1,000 people have been discovered in West Darfur according to local officials.

[04:15:04]

In a CNN exclusive, CNN's Nima Elbagir and her team, piece together video from a massacre in West Darfur in June that was one of the bloodiest in the region's history. It ended with bodies littering the street and eventually being buried in the mass graves. We want to warn, of course, you some of the images that you're about to see are graphic. And the report includes distressing descriptions of conflict.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The streets of El Geneina in Sudan's Darfur region are eerily quiet, filmed at great risk by survivors. The video shows racist graffiti defacing walls and corpses littering the streets. Seen here in their own propaganda, Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, RSF, occupied Geneina in June, after a heavy shelling campaign and fighting in their war for dominance over Sudan's army.

A CNN investigation has now uncovered some of the costs of the RSF's victory here in Geneina. Survivors, aid workers and body collectors described to CNN how, together with their allies, the RSF gunned down hundreds of civilians in and around Geneina on June 15th, in one of the most violent massacres to date in the recent history of this genocide-scarred Sudanese region.

Using satellite images, eyewitness testimony and geolocating what few videos have made it through, the telecommunications blackout cutting Darfur off from the world. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I lost eight members of my family that day during the escape from El Geneina to Chad.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): This man says he buried hundreds of victims in Darfur since April. But on that day, he couldn't even reach his slain relatives.

The RSFs troops are drawn from Darfuri Arab tribes and together with its leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemeti, are implicated in the years-long genocide in the region against African tribal groupings.

It's unsurprising then that the war between the RSF and Sudan's military for control of the country took an even more sinister turn here in Darfur, mirroring the RSFs previous tactics, forcing civilians to flee, many arriving in Geneina.

That is until June 14th, when the West Darfur governor seen here at his arrest by the RSF was executed. The RSF blamed for the killing denies responsibility.

As hundreds attempted to flee, they were harassed and threatened. Even children joined in. A lucky few made it to Chad.

SABRY MOHAMED, FORMER EL GENEINA RESIDENT AND EYEWITNESS (through translator): They were going into houses killing people. Snipers were everywhere.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Bringing with them stories of ethnic targeting.

MOHAMED (through translator): On the road out of the city, we were stopped and searched. They took our phones. Men were separated from the women so they could kill us. We ran, but they shot some of us.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Evidence shows much of the killing occurred here outside the main hospital in Geneina. Then fleeing civilians were ambushed again in Wadji Kaja. Satellite images show the river, which is usually shallow enough for cars to cross, had water running high that day. Scores struggled in the water. Some shot as they drowned. Survivors say they heard gunfire from all directions.

JAMAL KHAMISS, HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER AND EYEWITNESS (through translator): I saw 17 kids who were shot dead then thrown into the water. This was one of the most surreal scenes I've witnessed.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Even as they fled Geneina for Adre, across the border in Chad, our evidence shows men, women and children were shot as they fled.

At the MSF hospital in Chad, survivors arrived with gunshot wounds in the back, legs and buttocks. The lead doctor told CNN; all injuries consistent with being shot from the back. Over 850 people flooded the hospital in Adre between June 15th to 17th, according to MSF. More than any other period since fighting began in April.

Body collectors say, according to their count, around 1,000 people were killed on the day of June 15th, buried in dozens of mass graves. Survivors say the RSF is replicating these same tactics across the region. Even as their supporters celebrate in the aftermath of mass killings and the sweep of escalating ethnically targeted attacks.

ELBAGIR: A spokesperson for the Rapid Support Forces told CNN that they categorically deny the assertions that we've put forward in our reporting without, though, denying any of the specifics that we shared with them.

[04:20:00]

It's also important to note that the RSF have previously denied the findings of an investigation where we uncovered evidence that RSF troops had engaged in rapes. Before subsequently the leader of the RSF stating that those who had been implicated in violations were to be prosecuted.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: One month after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine, the first cargo ship to leave Odesa has now made it to Romanian waters en route to Turkey. It is a notable development as the ship was carrying food products and transited a temporary corridor for civilian vessels. It comes as Russia continues to launch drone attacks on Ukrainian ports, which are critical to the global food supply.

Russian drone strikes, in the past 24 hours, destroyed warehouses, granaries and other agricultural machinery in the port city of Reni along the Danube River. Small ports on the Danube, like this one, have become vital for Ukraine to export grain ever since Russia pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal last month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that this is the seventh Russian attack on a port since that grain deal fell apart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Each Russian strike is a blow to world food prices, a blow to social and political stability and Africa and in Asia. Basic things that provide a normal life to every society, it is food on the table and households. No other terrorist in the world, apart from Russia, has ever so openly and intentionally targeted the security of so many nations at once.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Meanwhile, Ukraine's Air Force says it is not expecting American made F-16 fighter jets to be delivered this year. CNN's Nada Bashir joins me now to discuss this. Nada, this is a familiar pattern we've seen. Ukraine asks for something, initially there is a refusal for fears of escalation. Then eventually the allies say, yes, we'll give this to you. But often so late that it means that meaningful impact isn't made on the battlefield. NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely, and as we're seeing with the

counteroffensive at this stage, they aren't making a progress that they had hoped without their international allies, including United States, would have anticipated.

And of course, this was a controversial decision from the get-go. President Biden has been vocal. Well there hasn't been a date set up for the supply of these U.S. made fighter jets. He's been clear in his endorsement of the training of Ukrainian pilots. And that seems to be the sticking point.

We heard earlier this month from sources familiar with the matter that there seems to be the holdup with the EU's plan to go ahead with training Ukrainian pilots. This was of course, planned in conjunction with EU partners with the United States. And that we heard that the U.S. waiting for this plan to be finalized before the program could go forward.

Now of course, this seems to have caused some delay. Although we have had some positive indication from the Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson, who says they are moving forward with plans to work with that training. This will happen in the near future. But of course, the fact that they can't be using these F-16s over the coming autumn and winter, the harsh winter months, of course, where this counteroffensive could face further stalling on the battlefield. This will be a huge blow to Ukraine's air defense ambitions and efforts on the counteroffensive front.

NOBILO: You're also learning, Nada, that money that the EU had earmarked for Russia will now be going to Ukraine. What was that money initially intended for? And what do we know about this diversion?

BASHIR: That's right. This central package from the European Union, it was initially marked for both Russia and Belarus. And now it will be headed to Ukraine and Moldova of course in response to the war. And now that has been the reasoning given by the European Commission at this stage. They are focusing on more local projects. Of course, we've EU funding going to Ukraine in the past few months, with regards to military aid, with regards to relief aid on the ground. And that has been a primary focus for the European Union.

But this will focus more so on internal local projects. As well as strengthening cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union. So we're talking about cross-border transport links. We're talking about developing Ukraine's health and education infrastructure, as well as that as Moldova. And so, the message being sent by the EU is in some ways symbolic as well. They are strengthening those ties, those bonds between the European Union and Ukraine, not only on the military front but clearly trying to strengthen those ties on the local level as well.

NOBILO: Nada Bashir, thank you so much.

As Republican candidates prepare for their first debate next, week, many GOP voters say that they prefer that Donald Trump not be their party's nominee. Those details, when we return. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Bianca Nobilo. If you're just joining, us let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour.

The governor of Hawaii says he believes more than 1,000 people are likely still missing in the wake of the wildfires that swept through Maui last week. This comes as the official death toll has risen to 111. We learned a short time ago that children are among the dead.

Georgia prosecutors are asking for March 4, 2024, trial date for former U.S. President, Donald, Trump and his 18 team codefendants. They're accused of being part of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

Sobering news for both Joe Biden and Donald Trump heading into next year's election season. Most American voters apparently don't want either of them to run again. The Associated Press poll found a whopping 75 percent said no to Biden compared to 69 percent for Trump. And there is something else for all the GOP frontrunner Trump to consider. The poll found a solid one third of Republicans, so just over 37 percent, want someone else besides him to be the nominee. CNN's Eva McKend has more on that from Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM SCOTT, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's 100 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many of you love Senator Scott?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER (voice-over): Everybody is the answer Senator Tim Scott in his campaign are looking for this week in Iowa.

[04:30:00]