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CNN International: Post-Tropical Cyclone Hilary Lashing U.S. Southwest; North Korea's Rivals Kick Off Joint Military Drills; Denmark & Netherlands to Send F-16 Jets to Ukraine; Electric Scooters Gaining Popularity in India. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 21, 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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MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, welcome to CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, tropical storm Hilary is the first to hit California since 1997 is unleashed record breaking rainfall putting 25 million people under flood warnings will be live on the ground view.

Then Russia calls Denmark's pledge to transfer F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, a quote escalation in the conflict. But how much of a game changer will these jets be in battle. And India has some of the worst air pollution in the world but the electric vehicle industry could soon have a wide ranging impact on the country's environment and its economy.

Right now post tropical cyclone Hilary is barreling through the U.S. southwest after unleashing catastrophic flooding, and record shattering rainfall in parts of southern California. The City of Palm Springs alone saw half a year's worth of rain in just six hours according to the National Weather Center.

Forecasters warned the threat of more destruction isn't over yet. In the coming hours historic amounts of rainfall are expected to cause life threatening flooding, as well as landslides and mudslides in some areas of the Southwest. Flood watches are also an effective day for more than 25 million people from Southern California to Northern Idaho.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is tracking the storm east of Los Angeles, in Cathedral City, California, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Max, yes, we are right next to a town called Palm Springs, which people may be familiar with. And we have been out here for hours. We were out here when the storm hit. And I can tell you I've never seen water take over roads as quickly as it did outside.

And what you're seeing throughout this area is not just that water but also, look at this mud. And I'm going to step out the way here so you can see. We were just talking to some police officers here. And they were saying that these cars are stuck in mud, they rescued some people but other people they have not been able to get to their vehicles.

It is so thick when you look at this, but in fact cars keep coming down this road here and trying to drive down here and then they realize how thick this mud is. Let me show you. And I'm going to hold on to this pole here because I was going to step down here, look at that.

That is just all mud to get down there. That is how thick this is. And this is how come cars are becoming trapped out here. We have seen debris flows, mud flow so much so at one point, communications for emergency services were down. We also have seen people getting rescued we were with a car earlier that was stranded in water.

And they were there for four or five hours before a tow truck could get to them simply because there has been such a huge need for services throughout the night and then often to the distance. You can also see in some points here, it's still dark here. But there are interstate 10 which is a massive thoroughfare that drives from California.

It will take you all the way to the East Coast of the United States. And it is blocked off because of also mud flows and debris flows here just in a massive amount of water. Basically what you would see in a year falling in just a day or so here in this area in the desert and it is not built to actually handle all of that water.

And that is why you're seeing this much of an impact. And while we're also seeing that schools are still closed today, just because people aren't going to be able to get around once the sun comes up and I can tell you that as I'm out here with this very thick, thick mud, Max.

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FOSTER: Stay safe stuff it's going to be extraordinary sight for people to wake up to there in Palm Springs thank you. Just let's turn to CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam in Atlanta, I mean, is the worst over Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, look, the storm is winding down across Southern California but the flood threat still exists. That what Stephanie was showing there. It's so true. It's so dangerous mudslides and landslides because they can travel at such great speeds.

They pick up everything literally in their past from boulders to trees, sometimes houses, vehicles we saw refrigerator floating down a road in some of our earlier video footage, just incredible amount of force behind it often flowing faster than people can run so to outrun a mud flow nearly virtually impossible.

This is the remnants of Hilary it's called a post tropical cyclone, which means it's losing its tropical characteristics. All you need to know is it's produced a lot of rain and impressive rainfall totals. Look at this over a half a foot for many locations. We are approaching 268 millimeters.

This is really roughly a 24 to 48 hour period that is a lot of rain in an area that's typically dry this time of year. So it doesn't have the opportunity to absorb that type of precipitation into the soil. And unfortunately we get the mudslides because a lot of that rain falls in the higher elevations comes off the mountains and brings the debris along with it down to the valleys in the communities below.

Here's a look at the watches. This extends all the way from Idaho, Oregon all the way to the border of Mexico and the United States. We have flash flood warnings in place. It was just canceled for the Los Angeles area. The good news is as we zoom into the radar here, the rain starting to slowly abate for LAX and the greater surrounding Los Angeles metropolitan area.

But the reason we were so concerned about this area is because of the mountain ranges that line in Southern California. When you get that amount of rain and the high elevations we get the potential burn scars adding to the problems here. And all of its, funneled, down to the canyons and allows for that rapid rise in the in the creeks and the river beds at the valleys below.

Look at these rainfall totals that have been accumulated here just really impressive. So where do we go from here? Well, this is the radar over the western U.S. you can see precipitation falling from Phoenix to Salt Lake all the way to Billings, Montana. This is a large storm system.

It's getting sheared apart, basically rained out. However, we still have another 12 to 24 hours to go adding more misery to the pain. It's already being felt from the leftovers. How, what was trouble storm Hilary, Max?

FOSTER: OK Derek in Atlanta, thank you. Ukraine says heavy fighting continues in the Eastern part of the country and caused a situation particularly difficult near the Northeastern City of Kupiansk. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, addressed the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen earlier and thanked lawmakers after Denmark.

And Netherland is announced they will supply Kyiv with F-16 fighter jets. Ukrainian President called the decision historic but Russia warned it will only escalate the conflict. Clare Sebastian is looking at this. We're going to talk a bit later about whether or not this will be a game changer, which is quite worrying hearing from Russia, they see it as an escalation too.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean Russia makes these threats with every new weapons system that comes into play. And even before it has, I think like Russia is obviously already the aggressor in this -- . So it's a little hard to identify any retaliation from the sort of general course of aggression.

But certainly, there have been concerns in the West about the F-16 is just how involved the processes of training involving NATO countries, the sort of maintenance and technical elements of this that would strengthen Russia's argument that it is somehow also fighting the West in this war.

And that it could lead to some kind of retaliation and that I think, is still there. But obviously we've now crossed this Rubicon, Netherlands and Denmark have both firmly committed now to supplying these planes. And the training is according to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, already underway.

But I think this also speaks to the moment in the conflict that we're in that it's very important for President Zelenskyy to get out there to speak to these countries, which are providing aid to try to combat the kind of fatigue that we've seen creeping into some discourse in the West. Take a listen to what he said to the Danish Parliament a few hours ago.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: Thank you for your help. All the help provided to Ukraine. Thank you for Harpoons, Russians afraid. Thank you for Caesars, Leopards and Bradleys, drones. Yes, they afraid drones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So you got two things there, right? You've got the thank yous that he has to show that there have been questions as we know about sort of gratitude and things like that in western circles. But also, I think a veiled reference or perhaps not so veiled to what we've seen this morning.

But also very regularly over the past few weeks is Russia accusing Ukraine of launching drone attacks on his territory this morning too in the Moscow region averted and now we're hearing more in the border region of Belgrade and in Kaluga region just to the southwest of Moscow.

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This appears to be now part of the picture of this war part of the Ukrainian strategy.

FOSTER: OK, Clare, thank you. Just in to CNN a British nurse who was found guilty of murdering seven babies has been given a sentence of life in prison. She won't be released no early release provisions due to the gravity of this crime. Lucy Letby did not enter the dock to face the families at Manchester Crown Court.

According to the police investigation that they use a variety of methods to target the victims, including injecting the babies with air and poisoning them with insulin. All eyes on the Korean peninsula after North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un reportedly oversaw naval tests of strategic cruise missiles.

This comes as South Korea and the U.S. kick off their annual military drills which Pyongyang denounces as a rehearsal for war. Let's go live to South Korea where CNN's Paula Hancocks is standing by for us in Seoul. We know what to expect, don't we this is a quite routine exercises, but there's also a routine reaction from the North.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly Max, and that's potentially what we saw today. There was no date on when exactly that cruise missile test and launch took place in North Korea. But the fact that they decided to announce it with photos of the North Korean leader the same day that the U.S.-South Korean military drill start may not be a coincidence.

There is always often messaging in the timing from North Korea. They are angered by these drills. They have consistently said they think that they are a dress rehearsal for an invasion something that the U.S. and South Korea deny. But those drills have started between the U.S. and South Korea.

They'll go on until the end of the month so most experts and officials believe that we could see more of this kind of reaction. In fact, just last week, the Intelligence Agency here in South Korea said that they believed there could be an ICBM launch and intercontinental ballistic missile launch because they have seen movement of vehicles around the missile production facilities and other issues related to an ICBM launch.

So that is something they are watching very closely, but it would not be unusual or unexpected for North Korea to carry out something like that. We also heard on Sunday from the South Korean police that there have been attempts to hack some of these military drills back in February we understand from the police.

They believe that North Korea was behind it Kim Suki the group that they believe carried out an attempt to target Korean employees of some of the domestic companies involved in these drills. They said they didn't manage to get through no malicious codes were put through though because of a security system.

And they said once again, there was an attempt back in July, so just last month at targeting these military exercises. So there is an assumption once again that North Korea is trying to sabotage this. But certainly we have been seeing over years North Korea reacting to these drills.

There is no reason to believe why this would be any different now. And as I say the NIS saying there could be a launch this imminent.

FOSTER: OK, Paula in Seoul, thank you. U.S. President Joe Biden traveling to Hawaii in a few hours to get firsthand looks really at the damage from the deadly wildfires on Maui. Mr. Biden will assign a senior emergency official to oversee long term recovery efforts during his visit.

The search to find and identify victims of the wildfires has been painstaking and slow. On June 14 people have died in the worst wildfires in a century, hundreds are still missing. White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond joins us now with more on the visit and Jeremy, some criticism in Hawaii about the White House response.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there has been and there has also been criticism from Republicans who seize on the fact that the President Biden when nearly five days without commenting on this situation as the devastation in Hawaii and the death toll there was rising last week.

The President has of course since commented on this but today, Max, will really be the President's first opportunity to display that signature empathy that he is known for. But that was lacking last week as he was spending time at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home.

Today though the President will be meeting with survivors, with first responders he will tour the damage both from above like getting a helicopter tour of some of the damage across the island of Maui. And then he will go on the ground in Lahaina which has been one of the hardest hit areas on that island.

And the President will get a chance to see that damage for himself firsthand. Later in the day, the President will also deliver remarks during which you will announce as you just mentioned that FEMA Administrator for the region Bob Fenton, he will be named the Chief Disaster Official for the area.

That's meant to signal the U.S. governments, the federal governments long term commitment to the recovery there. The President of course has already offered significant federal resources there are more than 1000 federal officials on the ground including military personnel from the Coast Guards from the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers.

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And what we will also see is the President sitting down privately with survivors of this families of victims of these fires, and also, of course, first responders and local officials. And again, this will all unfold over the course of today as the President takes a look at what have been the deadliest wildfires in more than 100 years in U.S. history, Max.

FOSTER: And Jeremy in the White House, thank you. Still to come, Ukraine's plea for fighter jets is finally being answered. What does that mean for the country's defense strategy?

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FOSTER: We have freedom give us wings to protect it. This belief and the President of Ukraine made back in February have finally been answered. As we mentioned after a quick trip to the Netherlands, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Denmark on a thank you trip, the two countries have agreed to transfer F-16 combat planes to help Kyiv's war efforts.

Though it will be a pretty gradual process or so are the F-16 jets a game changer in the Ukraine war. Joining me now, Nick Paton Walsh, our Chief International Security Correspondent, he's in Zaporizhzhia. Thanks for joining us, Nick. I mean, will this change the war fundamentally?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It'll do nothing for months. And so essentially, the war may have already taken a turn against Ukraine's favor in the coming months, when the F-16s finally arrived. So this is again, an example of the West realizing they probably need to do something like supply the F-16 is having seen the slowness of the counter offensive because of Russian air superiority.

We've now had a flurry of announcements from different positions across Europe now with U.S. backing, but essentially the key point in all of this is they won't arrive until the end of the year at the very earliest. That is if we have an expedited timetable some of the original notions about, how long you should train on F-16?

Last over two years, and some of this has now been compressed to six months, possibly four to five months and the first supply of F-16s from the Danish may six possibly arrive towards the end of the year. And then we may be seeing five more possibly more after that.

It's unclear the precise timetable of delivery, but six F-16s by the end of this year, even if they do arrive at that pace, even if they're joined by similar contributions from other European allies will come when winter is already in place here. And the summer counter offensive push that Ukraine has been financed the tune of tens of billions of dollars to try and undertake.

They won't benefit from that level of air superiority won't change necessarily the immediate calculus in the skies because the Russians can fight back with their jets. But it would have given had it been in evidence right now Ukraine more of a chance in those very difficult moments of fighting in the well-fortified Russian positions.

That said it does show the last 48 hours that NATO is able to respond quickly, if it feels pressure from Ukraine. Remember we saw their statement 48 hours ago and it is not a coincidence now that the visits to Denmark and Netherlands have had much more prominent statements about F-16s perhaps that maybe would have seen beforehand.

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But still it's going to take time, Max, and it's time that Ukraine doesn't have in time that Ukrainian civilians don't have air raid sirens on persistently because of the threat of Russian jets that can come close enough to big cities to drop bombs and then flee, because Ukraine's airpower at the moment is limited, Max.

FOSTER: What do you make of the Russian response saying this is an escalation? I mean, it's predictable to some extent, but there'll be some sympathy for that, wouldn't there be the fact that NATO countries are supporting Ukraine at this level?

WALSH: Well, I mean, you know, what level of escalation is an escalation where Russia actually feels is going to escalate back? And what can Russia indeed do to escalate short of the background threat of nuclear force, which is constantly something Russian officials float to the surface at certain moments.

But isn't part of their response necessarily, to here. I think one of the big takeaways from the war so far has been that even though at the start, perhaps many Western powers thought that the supply of armor, shoulder launched missiles against tanks, all sorts of things, I think that might possibly create them too close to provoking Russia into something graver, that hasn't happened.

And they appear to have been able to pump tens of billions of dollars in without any major Russian response towards NATO. We're taught that a technical problem with F-16s, Max, which will be hard for NATO to overcome. They require an awful lot of servicing maintenance.

And that's complex in itself. That probably can be done in Ukraine, if you train Ukrainian technicians fast enough. At some point, though, if they're going to have the turnaround and present in the sky, so they need to make a real difference. They may need some sort of Western assistance, technically does that mean the jets go to NATO countries?

Do they get service there? Do they get serviced in Ukraine by Western contractors? All questions I'm purely speculating about now. We don't know what the precise policy is. But the fact that these are airborne things does potentially run the risk of Russia feeling that NATO was somehow closer to the combat lines.

And they were before if NATO gets more involved in their servicing. That's why there's been such reticence, but it's important to point out Russia is always talking about what it will do in response to escalation but we've seen how little juicy does seem to have militarily here in Ukraine let alone taking on the largest force in military history something like NATO, Max.

FOSTER: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you for joining us, our Chief International Security Correspondent. Still ahead India, on the road to monumental change and its transport industry what's driving this electronic revolution, details when we return.

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FOSTER: Can you be green reduce your carbon footprint and still make a profit while India is trying to do just that with the help of electronic scooters. The two wheeler vehicles are selling like hotcakes as well as helping India move away from fossil fuels, as Ivan Watson found out.

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IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even on a good day, the traffic in New Delhi can be pretty overwhelming. But here in the capital of the world's most populous country, dramatic changes in the air and on busy streets. Seemingly overnight, iconic Indian vehicles like the humble rickshaw have suddenly gone electric.

WATSON: India is in the midst of a revolution, a transition towards adopting electric vehicles.

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This transformation is being led by small vehicles, scooters, motorcycles and vehicles like this.

WATSON (voice-over): Two wheeled vehicles vastly out number cars on India's roads. With more than 15 million units sold last year. Experts say this country is home to one of the biggest two wheeled vehicle market in the world.

TARUN MEHTA, CEO & CO-FOUNDER OF ATHER ENERGY: In Indian context, the largest use of petrol is two wheelers in India. The largest emissions are two wheelers in India.

WATSON (voice-over): Tarun Mehta is the CEO of Ather Energy. He and Swapnil Jain launched this startup in 2013. At this factory outside Bangalore they manufacture electric scooters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One scooter was out every 90 seconds.

WATSON: This is just one of at least 10 companies producing two wheeled electric vehicles in India today. The management here says they're not selling any of their scooters overseas for export yet, because they just don't need to.

WATSON (voice-over): Ather says it sales have skyrocketed from just 200 scooters a month in 2020 to more than 15,000 a month today. Electric scooters can cost 30 percent more than traditional gas powered scooters says a Ather Energy and yet it looks like Indian consumers are flocking to this new technology.

BRAJESH CHHIBBER, PARTNER OF MCKINSEY & COMPANY: We predict that the total two wheeler markets by the year 2030 would be around 25 million units. And out of that close to 60 to 70 percent of units sold would be electric.

WATSON (voice-over): India is home to many of the world's most polluted cities. But experts agree that the mass electrification of India's vehicles could be a game changer for the environment.

ANUMITA ROYCHOWDHURY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CENTRE FOR SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT: If we can marry the two combined, the EV transition and de-carbonization of electricity, that is really a win-win and we are going to have enormous environmental and health benefits.

WATSON (voice-over): India is on the road to monumental change in its transport industry. A process that will hopefully take pressure off of our planet's embattled climate. Ivan Watson, CNN, New Delhi.

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FOSTER: Thanks for joining me here on CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster in London, "World Sport" with Coy Wire, up next.

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