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CNN International: U.S. Pledges to Approve F-16s for Ukraine; Biden to Host Leader of Japan, South Korea at Camp David; Hurricane Hilary Takes Rare Track Toward California; Outrage Growing Over Maui Fire Response. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to CNN "Newsroom". I'm Bianca Nobilo in for Max Foster, who is back on Monday. Just ahead, the U.S. committee to approve the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine as soon as pilot training is complete, we'll discuss the impact on the battlefield.

Then U.S. President Joe Biden will soon host a trilateral summit with the leaders of Japan and South Korea in what is meant to be a show of force amid growing threats from North Korea and China and the countdown to the Women's World Cup final has begun. England's Lionesses are getting ready to face Spain on some.

Russia is blaming Ukraine for an attempted drone strike on Monday and a thwarted boat attack on the Black Sea. Moscow's Mayor says Russian air defense has shut down a drone overnight debris from the drone allegedly fell near the Moscow Expo Center.

And the Russian Defense Ministry says two of its patrol ships in the Black Sea repelled an attack from an unmanned Ukrainian -- late on Thursday. Meanwhile, a U.S. official says Washington will allow the transfer of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine as soon as pilot training is complete.

And Netherlands calls the pledge a major milestone and CNN's Nada Bashir is following both of those developments for us. So, Nada the F- 16s give us a sense now of the exact timeline of what we know. And also remind us why Ukraine is so desperately seeking F-16s.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, like in terms of the timeline, Bianca, it is still very much unclear. I mean, this training was supposed to begin this month. That was the expectation. Now of course, we've seen that there has been some delay to that training process. And of course, that is the crucial element here.

The supply of these F-16s by the U.S. as European partners really depends on the Ukrainian pilots being able to fully operate these very advanced U.S. made jets. Now, we've heard from the Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson he addressed this yesterday and said that it certainly won't be before the beginning of next year. That Ukraine's pilots will not be able to operate these jets over the autumn and winter months. But of course, as you mentioned, this is a big milestone, the U.S. and President Biden have said that they are ready to authorize and approve the supply of these jets to Ukraine via their European partners as soon as that training is complete.

But of course, it could take months and that is a significant blow to Ukraine's ambitions on the front line, its air defense ambitions in particular, as this counter offensive continues to grind on this was essentially a huge hope for Ukraine that this could mark a turning point for them.

This could be the boost that they need over the course of their counter offensive to really make progress on that front. There has been some debate about whether or not this really is a game changer in fact, on the front lines, but of course this is a huge priority for Ukraine President Zelenskyy has been calling for the spy F-16s since the very early stages of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. So there is some progress on that front, certainly not as quick as Ukraine would have hoped.

NOBILO: Nada, thank you. Japan says it scrambled fighter jets after Russian planes were seen over the Sea of Japan also known as the East Sea. The Russian military released this video of what it said were its ships on joint naval patrol with China in the region. Japan expressed concerns about the patrols but China says they are in line with international law and practice.

And in just a few hours, U.S. President Joe Biden will welcome the leaders of Japan and South Korea to Camp David for their first ever trilateral summit. The goal is to build a fragile truce between two of America's most strategic allies in the Indo-Pacific in an attempt to counter growing threats from China and North Korea.

This will be the first Camp David summit of the Biden presidency and follows his sideline meeting with the Japanese and South Korean leaders in Hiroshima three months ago. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins me now live at the White House. Priscilla, what message do you believe that the President wants to send from this summit? What is he hoping to achieve?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, he wants to reinforce the partnership with each of these countries but also together and what isn't significant trilateral summit. Now this of course is happening at a site of historic diplomatic negotiations that being Camp David.

And President Biden is like, as you mentioned, bringing these leaders there for the first time the first foreign leaders to come to Camp David under the Presidency of President Biden.

[08:05:00]

Now again he has worked individually to foster these relationships but now senior administration officials hope that they can forge a stronger alliance together as they work to stabilize security in the Indo-Pacific region. Now, senior administration officials have outlined what the expectation should be coming out of this summit.

And that includes, for example, annual military exercises, discussing intelligence sharing agreements, sending up a three way hotline for the three to communicate as well as formalizing this trilateral summit to happen annually. So those are the expectations going into this, of course, there will be robust and important conversations happening throughout the day among these three leaders.

But what will not happen is they will not constitute a formal alliance agreement or a collective defense agreement. Now, as you talk to experts about this, of course, it's happening against the backdrop of security concerns, but what they are looking for is any commitments that come out of this and how long they can stay in place with a turnover of a potential turnover of administrations.

The expect, the hope is that whatever is put into place today can hold under future administrations because this is not only something that these countries are coming together because of the mounting security concerns in the region but also it is if you talk to experts, personality driven.

These are three leaders who are all interested in trying to move this relationship forward. So the question is, will all of this hold moving forward after today, but there is a lot of focus on at least what the three talks about today and what they say at their joint press conference later this afternoon.

NOBILO: Priscilla, thank you so much for elucidating all of the different strands that are contributing to this meeting. Thank you so much. Let's get the regional perspective. Now CNN's Ivan Watson joins me live in Hong Kong. Ivan, some analysts have viewed this meeting as a mirror or a geopolitical response to the deepening ties between Russia, China and North Korea. How much concern is there in the region about these geopolitical plates shifting?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well they are substantial. And that is one of the things that one of the sets of shared interests you have right now between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington. It's quite an accomplishment for President Biden to be bringing these two leaders together.

It wasn't too long ago as recently as 2019, that intelligence sharing between Japan and South Korea was suspended. There's a you know decades generations of angry unhappy history between these two countries going back to Japan's colonization of South Korea.

And South Koreans believing that Japan hasn't done enough to repent for abuses committed in the past. But what we've seen over the course of this year is the Japanese and the South Korean leaders coming together meeting again and again and now in this historic meeting.

They were both longtime allies of the U.S. treaty allies of the U.S., but they do have shared interests. Of course, there is North Korea, which has its own nuclear weapons program, which fires periodically intercontinental ballistic missiles, ballistic missiles that are banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions, which are viewed as threatening for both South Korea and Japan.

And then there are increasingly that concerns about China and its activities. And its growing partnership with Russia a case in point there were Russian reconnaissance planes that flew close to Japan. It scrambled its fighter jets just today in response to that that was flying between the Korean Peninsula and Japanese islands.

And then earlier this week, as you pointed out earlier, Japan says that it detected 11 warships from China and Russia conducting a joint patrol, the Japanese Ministry of Defense, expressing grave concern about this and saying that it was clearly intended as a show of force against Japan.

These were operating to the southwest of Japan, it says for the first time ever, in concert, the Russians and the Japanese. So the Japanese Prime Minister Kishida he put out these tweets as he was headed to the U.S. and to this historic summit in Camp David saying that, "As the security environment surrounding becomes increasingly severe, it is an extremely significant for these leaders to come together."

He wants to reinforce the strategic co-operation even further as Russia and China grow closer and provide more political cover for North Korea, expect the South Koreans and the Japanese to grow closer with the U.S. and that is something that certainly Beijing does not like, Bianca.

[08:10:00]

NOBILO: Ivan Watson, live in Hong Kong, we always appreciate your perspective. Thanks for joining us. Former U.S. President Donald Trump is facing four trials which if prosecutors get their way could come at the heights of the presidential election campaign.

But he and his legal team are trying to push those dates back as you may expect. Late Thursday, they asked the judge in his federal election subversion case to start the trial in April of 2026. The Special Counsel wants the trial to begin in January and team Trump says that's just too soon. Katelyn Polantz joins us now with the details.

Katelyn, how is the decision ultimately made as to when the trial date will begin? And what factors do you think and this extraordinary case will be weighing on mines?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Bianca, it's up to the judge. That is first and foremost, it is always up to the judge what the judge says goes the judge in this case, the federal case against Donald Trump related to the 2020 election and January 6.

She has not set a date yet she is going to look at the arguments from both sides. As you mentioned, the Justice Department has asked for that trial to begin very soon, relatively soon, pretty fast calendar having jury selected in December, and then having the trial itself to start just after the New Year.

That would be the earliest date by far of any of the criminal cases that are on the calendar right now to go to trial if the justice department gets that. But Donald Trump's team in their filing last night in court to respond to that request essentially says they don't want it for another three years.

That also is a very significant asks in that it is a long time for a trial. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone asking for a trial to start three years from the time it is charged. Typically, defendants want to be able to go through a trial to have their name cleared if they are fighting the charges as quickly as possible.

But Trump's team has complaints about the amount of evidence that they say they want to go through before the trial. They say it's just too many pages of documents to read, to get ready for a trial. That would be very quick. They are also complaining about the other things that they have on their calendar.

Other hearings and these other cases related to criminal indictments in other areas in Georgia, in Florida. That federal case related to Mar-a-Lago, another January 6 case and then a case in New York. But all of this, even if Donald Trump is saying this is unfair to me to have to go to trial before April of 2026.

That is a very unlikely date that they would get on the calendar. And this judge has already indicated she wants this trial to move along. She believes that Trump speaking publicly to try and sway a jury in one way or another could factor into the need to have a trial early.

And also the Justice Department has already argued that this trial is about the election of 2020. And that there is an importance to have the public see what the result of this is before the next election. So we'll just have to see in the coming weeks what the judge sets as the date, Bianca.

NOBILO: The arguments surrounding the politics and the relevance of the election are very compelling indeed, Katelyn Polantz thank you so much. It seems now that rare climate phenomena are not so rare these days. Right now Hurricane Hilary is churning in the Pacific Ocean.

It's tracking towards Mexico's Baja California peninsula and the U.S. state of California. Hilary has strengthened to a category four storm packing winds of 225 kilometers per hour, if it makes landfall in California as a tropical storm or stronger. It would only be the third one to do so on record.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us now with a closer look at the storm. Derek, it's always such a pleasure to see you. Tell us what you know about the storm's path and where it might make landfall?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, if it makes landfall along the coast of Southern California. You got to go back to 1939 to see the last time that happened as a tropical storm. So this is putting it into some very rare air, right? This is a strong category four. Right now 230 kilometer per hour sustained winds.

It's offshore, it's south of Cabo San Lucas, this is the Baja Peninsula in western sections of Mexico. Where does it go from here? Well, we do anticipate a weakening hurricane as it moves to the north and northwest. It's going to accelerate in its forward movement in the coming days.

But look at this it's got a forecast track that takes it very near Southern California as well as the southwestern Baja Peninsula. One thing's for sure, great impacts anticipated across southwestern portions of the U.S. where those impacts unfold, time will tell right.

But right now what we do have is a high risk of flash flooding, especially for the interior of Southern California, portions of Western Utah or Western Arizona, Southern Nevada and into portions of Utah as well under this flash flood threat.

[08:15:00]

So we go back to 2022 to try and put it in some comparison here when Death Valley, California this is in Southern California received a little over 35 millimeters of rain in a 24 hour period. This flooding and mudslides occurred. Their average annual rainfall is 53 millimeters in Death Valley.

We are projecting over 75 millimeters of rain with this system coming up. So the likelihood to see a repeated pattern is high on the table here. So we're looking out for this flash flood and mudslide threat to be the greatest problem. But the storm will bring other impacts as well including wind, coastal erosion depending on the exact track does it stay off shore that would bring some major impacts to Los Angeles and San Diego.

If it moves inland, then we start to see the system get shredded apart by the topography the land and then we start to focus our attention on the interior southwest but one thing's for sure, Bianca, from the Baja Peninsula into Southern California the southwestern U.S. significant impacts from the system this weekend and into next week.

NOBILO: Derek Van Dam, thank you. The countdown is on football fans are gearing up for a big weekend. The Women's World Cup final is just days away who will come out on top in this all European match for the ages.

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NOBILO: Women's World Cup final is set for this Sunday and for the first time in a decade the U.S. won't be in it. Instead, two European teams came out on top. England landed a spot with their 3-1 win over Australia. And Spain's dramatic victory over Sweden was their ticket to the big match.

"World Sports", Andy Scholes joins us now live with a preview of a very big weekend in football. Andy, great to see you, so this is the first time since the 1960s, that England will have reached a World Cup final. Do you think the Lionesses have a good shot of bringing the title home?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Well, Bianca, yes, we could be in for quite the party in England on Sunday you know that you just mentioned they haven't had a World Cup final to watch it since 1966 when the men were in it and want it and this is the first time ever that the women are in the World Cup final.

And I mean this Lioness team on quite the run right now. You know they won their first ever Euro's title on home soil last year to add a World Cup title to that we just an incredible story for this team. Now the big question for the squad heading into the matches will their young star Lauren James star you know she was suspended for those last two matches for stomping on a Nigerian player.

And we've been speaking to James's club manager at Chelsea, Emma Hayes. We asked her if England should put James back in the lineup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMA HAYES, CHELSEA MANAGER: I think it's always an unfair question to ask someone when you're not in that environment. You know, Sarina will know her team and importantly the tactics and I'm sure Lauren will feature whether that's from the start from the bench.

You know, I tend not to interfere in those parts because I know that the decision making will below she dependent on what the game plan is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:20:00]

SCHOLES: Yes, well more from Hayes, it's coming up on "World Sports". We'll hear if she's actually interested in a U.S. job which is now open. Now it's actually Spain that is a slight favorite for the game on Sunday. It's probably thanks to how amazing their breakout star Salma Paralluelo has played.

The 19 year old a game winning goal against the Netherlands and then another big goal against Sweden Paralluelo, coming on as a sub both of those times we'll see how many minutes she gets in the final and if Spain wins at all, she was certainly be one of the players everyone is talking about in this tournament, Bianca and just 19 years old, can't even imagine playing on this big of a stage at that age.

NOBILO: Very impressive indeed. And Andy, of course, this week brought heartbreak for Australia. But do you think that the Co-host have a shot at lifting the spirits of the nation on Saturday?

SCHOLES: Yes, they even certainly could. Obviously Australia would have loved to have been playing in the final on Sunday, but they can still in their hosting duties on a positive note that Matildas taking on Sweden in that third place game. Australia is never finished, better than six.

You know, so ending their world cup with a win and a third place would certainly be pretty cool for the nation. You can guarantee they'll have another one of those sellout crowds on Pan cheering on the Matildas. And Sweden meanwhile, I mean, they would also love to cap off their world cup with a win they had an incredible tournament. I mean, they knocked out both the U.S. and Japan Former champions. In Sweden, you know, always so, good but you know kind of always the bridesmaid, not the bride. They've finished top four in five of the nine World Cups, including this one. They got silver in the past two Olympics.

So if you're going to, you know, once again, they're not going to be on top but Sweden you know, they're always in the conversation as one of the best teams in all women's football.

NOBILO: Andy Scholes, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy the games this weekend. Still to come, Maui's Emergency Chief quits abruptly a day after he defended not standing of the islands sirens and wildfires, the details ahead.

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NOBILO: Maui's Emergency Management Chief has resigned as outrage grows in the wake of the catastrophic wildfire that's killed at least 111 people. CNN's Randi Kaye reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So many of us, residents felt like we had absolutely no warning.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hawaii has one of the largest public safety outdoor siren warning systems in the world. Sirens that were silent as wildfires raged. Question is why? First it was this.

HERMAN ANDAYA, FORMER MAUI EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: It would not have saved those people under the mountain side.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you regret not sounding the sirens?

ANDAYA: I do not. The sirens as I had mentioned earlier, is used primarily for tsunamis.

KAYE (voice-over): That's what the Head of Maui's Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday before suddenly resigning a day later, but even before that press conference ended his reason had changed.

[08:25:00]

This time suggesting the sirens weren't used because people wouldn't have been able to hear the warning.

ANDAYA: It's an outdoor siren. So a lot of people were indoors, air conditioning on, whatever the case may be. They're not going to hear a siren. Plus the winds were very gusty and everything that I heard it was very loud. So they wouldn't have heard the sirens.

KAYE (voice-over): Same story with Hawaii's Governor, first, this.

JOSH GREEN, HAWAII GOVERNOR: Sirens were typically used for tsunamis or hurricanes. To my knowledge, at least I never experienced them in use for fires.

KAYE (voice-over): Then minutes later, another explanation. This time the Governor suggested at least some of the sirens were broken.

GREEN: The sirens were essentially immobilized, we believe by the extreme heat that came through somewhere broken and we're investigating that.

KAYE (voice-over): Yet that doesn't all track with the county's own webpage Mauisirens.com, which clearly states how the siren system is capable of alerting residents to multiple disasters including wildfires.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Emergency alert.

KAYE (voice-over): And we also found this explainer about the sirens uses on Hawaii's Emergency Management agencies webpage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We also use sirens for hurricanes brush fires, flooding, lava, hazmat conditions, or even a terrorist event.

KAYE (voice-over): This map also from the county's page shows where the warning sirens are located. According to this state, there are about 400 sirens statewide, including 80 on Maui, and in the historic town of Lahaina, where more than 100 people were killed in the flames.

There are five sirens that were not used to warn those in grave danger. Instead, officials say they chose to send alerts by text message to cell phones, as well as alerts on landlines, and through TV and radio.

ANDAYA: It is our practice to use the most effective means of conveying an emergency message to the public during a wild land fire.

KAYE (voice-over): While that may have worked in some cases, the wildfire moves so swiftly. It knocked out power and self-service. So how were residents supposed to receive those warnings?

MIKE CICCHINO, WILDFIRE SURVIVOR: There's no warning at all. There's not a siren, not a phone alert, nothing, not a call.

KAYE (voice-over): Randi Kaye, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Thanks for joining me. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. Have a great weekend. Andy Scholes is back for you with "World Sports", next.

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