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CNN International: Idalia Near Hurricane Strength as It Heads Toward Florida; Commerce Secretary Raimondo Holds Talks in Beijing; Study; Dozens of Young Athletes Died with Signs of CTE; Supporters Mourn for Wagner Boss Yevgeny Prigozhin. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired August 29, 2023 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca nobler.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max foster. Just joining us. Let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour.

A trial date is set in the January 6th election interference investigation. The DC judge assigned March the 4th as the date ruling against Donald Trump's proposed dates. It falls just a day before Super Tuesday. It could work against the former president.

And tropical Storm Idalia is heading towards Florida's west coast, with millions under mandatory evacuation.

NOBILO: CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis joins us again with the latest on the storm. Karen, unfortunately Florida does get hit by tropical storms and hurricanes fairly frequently, but it's very important of course, that people take this very seriously and are not remotely complacent about evacuating.

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Exactly, because they have been impacted by so many tropical systems. Ian last year just tore up southwestern Florida, in particular Santa Belle Island that is still recovering nearly a year later. I was just there and you can see just the volume of destruction from that.

But what I have noticed from this particular set of images on our loop here, is that this is looking a little more unified. This is giving me some indication that perhaps as it goes and gets exposed more to open water and less interaction with Cuba and through the Yucatan straight, that we may actually see ourselves see some fairly quick development here.

Now Tuesday is the day that we anticipate that this finally gets bumped up to hurricane intensity. I say finally because it's been sitting down here just off the coast of Yucatan and Cuba for quite some time. But now the trend is on. It moves into that very warm water of the Gulf of Mexico. Some of these water temperatures are around 30 degrees Celsius, or about 86 degrees Fahrenheit, up to around 35 degrees Celsius. But look at this. In the very warm coastal waters of the Big Bend of

Florida, computer models pretty much are sticking together that that's going to be kind of the trend for this as we go into Wednesday. When do we anticipate the landfall? Meaning the eye moves over land. Probably right around late morning, early afternoon on Wednesday. But you should have your plans in place.

[04:35:00]

Top of the hour, we'll get another update from the National Hurricane Center. Back to you guys.

FOSTER: OK, Karen, thank you so much.

Now a look at U.S. futures as we await key economic data this week. Today it's U.S. home prices for June and July figures on job openings, hires and layoffs. Then on Thursday, it's the Feds preferred inflation gauge. We'll get July data on U.S. household income and spending. Markets see an overwhelming chance the Fed will hold rates steady as its September meeting approaches, according to one analysis tool. This is how the futures are looking currently.

Now on a mission to boost business and tourism ties, the U.S. Commerce Secretary has met with China's vice premier in the Great Hall of the People.

NOBILO: It comes on the second day of Gina Raimondo's visit to Beijing. She says the two world powers have already reached an agreement on export controls that will reduce misunderstandings about U.S. National Security policies.

FOSTER: CNN's Stephen Jiang joins us from Beijing. There does seem to be some quite good progress here.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Max, what they agreed on is actually a new mechanism, a new platform that would allow U.S. officials to explain their export control decisions to their Chinese counterparts. And as you know, that is very much pointing to the contradictory nature of Raimondo's mission doing this visit.

Because on one hand, obviously, she's here to stabilize this economic relationship. Trying to promote U.S. business interests. But on the other hand, her own agency, the Commerce Department, has been issuing a growing number of export controls targeting China, especially in terms of semiconductors and advanced computing. That of course, has greatly angered the Beijing leadership, including President Xi Jinping himself.

So what Ramondo has been trying to tell Chinese officials is these export controls. Out of national security considerations account for only 1 percent of Americans export to China, so there's still a lot of room for cooperation for growth. But that kind of arguments may not be very convincing to Chinese officials, who simply don't see much difference between de-risking as she and other officials have been saying and decoupling. Now the good thing is she's trying to focus on the positive, as you

said. She met with the tourism minister, obviously in a bid to revive the once booming industry of outbound travel from China to the U.S.

And ironically, the one thing that's been helping her mission is the Chinese economy itself facing a lot of problems. The post COVID rebound not doing nearly as well as officials has hoped for. And that, of course, has actually given officials from both sides more wiggle room to work together to stabilize this economic relationship -- Max Bianca.

FOSTER: OK, Steven in Beijing. Thank you so much.

New research from Boston University has discovered dozens of cases of CG brain damage in athletes who died before turning 30.

NOBILO: This is the largest ever study of the neurodegenerative disease in young people and CNN's Meg Tirrell has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and it's a brain disorder that's thought to be caused by repetitive injuries to the head. And it can cause a symptoms like memory problems, issues with confusion and impulse control, things like that.

Now this study is unique. Because it was done in so many people who were so young, people under the age of 30. It was a study of 152 donated brains from athletes. The ages ranged from 13 to 29 in this study. 63 of the people in this study whose brains were included were diagnosed with CTE. 95 percent of those were in the mild stages of the disease or stages one and two.

Now 45 men included in those 63 played amateur sports, so not even at the professional level. And notably, the study also found CTE in a woman who had played soccer at the collegiate level. There haven't been that many cases of CTE found in women, so that's a really notable finding. The youngest person in whom CTE was identified in this study was 17. So this is really remarkable for just the number of young people included in this study. And just to see how early this really can start to develop.

And now the kinds of sports that were looked at here included U.S. football, which is the sport that we most frequently here connected with CTE, but also included other sports including ice hockey, soccer, wrestling and rugby. So a number of these different sports even played at the amateur level, were associated with findings of CTE in these people's brains and even at the amateur level.

Overall, though, they did note that CTE was more likely in people who are older, who had played U.S. football, had a longer duration of play, that was more likely to have a CTE finding, and people who had played at a more elite level. So that really jives with what's known about CTE.

[04:40:00]

But this study really does add that troubling layer to it that it can happen in young people and people playing at the amateur level, not even at the professional level -- Max and Bianca.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Yale University has agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging that the Ivy League school discriminated against students with mental health challenges. The suit was brought by current Yale students and a nonprofit named for an undergraduate who died by suicide in 2021. The plaintiffs accused Yale of forcing students who are having mental health issues to withdraw from the school. In the settlement agreement, Yale agreed to modify various university policies regarding mental health, including allowing students to go to school part time whilst they recover.

Now, what started as abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, night sweats turned into a 16-month medical ordeal for a 64-year-old woman in New South Wales, Australia.

NOBILO: The cause of those symptoms turned out to be an 8-centimeter round worm living in her brain.

FOSTER: This specific one.

NOBILO: The parasite is found in carpet pythons and has never been known to infect a human before. Doctors believe that the infection likely came from Python feces, and they've never seen a case like this before.

And Max, you sent that to the team this morning made us all feel very nauseous at breakfast.

FOSTER: I did. It's a bit of a shocker. I mean, we should say she's fine.

NOBILO: Thank goodness.

FOSTER: A bit sort of lucked out for sure. She collected grasses from around the lake where they had Python, so they think that's how it all happened. But actually a great medical work by the team at the university.

NOBILO: Absolutely.

Coming up, it's been nearly a week since the plane carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin plummeted from the sky, killing all 10 people on board. CNN visited the crash site and what we found there was odd. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Hawaiian Electric Company is denying that it's responsible for the fire that devastated an area there earlier this month.

[04:45:00] The company says falling power lines appear to have caused an early morning fire on August the 8th but had been deenergized by the time a second afternoon fire started.

NOBILO: The county of Maui is suing the company the afternoon fire ultimately grew into the inferno that killed at least 115 people and damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 structures.

Tragedy off the coast of Greece after two boats carrying migrants capsized on Monday. Many of them were rescued, but four children and one woman died in separate incidents.

FOSTER: Greece is one of the European Union's main entry points for people fleeing poverty and conflict in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. According to the UN's refugee agency, more than 15,000 migrants have arrived in Greece just this year.

Russia's Defence Ministry says it intercepted 2 U.S. drones near the Crimean Peninsula. Two fighter jets were deployed to stop what the ministry called a possible violation of the state border.

NOBILO: Russia said in response to its actions that the drones left the area. A Pentagon spokesperson said the U.S. will continue to fly routine missions over the Black Sea, as permitted by international law.

FOSTER: Ukraine says it has broken through the first line of Russian defenses in the Zaporizhia region, liberating a village and making further gains on the southern front. And according to military officials, the counteroffensive is going according to plan despite its slow pace. Military officials say every day they're pushing closer to a strategic transport hub Russian control. And though the village of Robotyne is a small gain, it's actually much larger than its presence on the map.

NOBILO: Meanwhile, Russian promilitary blog accusing Moscow of neglecting its forces on the frontlines. Russian troops in Kherson say they're desperate for ammunition, food and artillery support.

And inside Russia, we're seeing outpourings of grief for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Mercenary Group who was killed in a plane crash nearly a week ago.

NOBILO: This comes as the Kremlin tries to tamp down on Wagner's influence in the country and on foreign battlefields, including Ukraine. Matthew Chance gives us a view from inside Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Don't expect to see these scenes on Russian state television. When it comes to the Wagner leader who challenged the Kremlin, then died in a plane crash, there's a virtual media blackout on public grief.

And Wagner supporters like Dmitri (ph) in Moscow are simply not being heard. Yevgeny Prigozhin's death, he says, just confirms that there are fewer and fewer of us who really think about our country, our history, and our goals. Prigozhin really showed everyone how it should be done, he adds.

Wagner did a great job, says Maria, and they are heroes of our country. But of course, everyone makes mistakes, she explains.

CHANCE: But in Russia, some mistakes can be fatal. The Kremlin is slammed as absolute lies. Allegations Prigozhin was killed for leading this aborted military uprising in June. But the fact is his plane plunged to the ground two months after to the day has fueled suspicions. Many doubt the official investigation would ever reveal state involvement.

Already, there are concerns of how quickly and carelessly evidence has been dragged from the crash scene.

When CNN visited Monday morning, it had already been flattened and cleared, just a small memorial to mark the spot.

But the memory of the Wagner leader may not be so easily erased.

All of us are angry at what happened, says this former military officer, now running for political office in the Russian far east. We all considered Prigozhin our primary commander in the special military operation, he told crowds of mourners.

The Kremlin may not like it, but even in death, Russia's mercenary leader continues to strike a chord.

Matthew Chance, CNN Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: American Airlines has been hit with a record fine for keeping passengers stuck on planes. The U.S. Transportation Department slapped the carrier with more than $4 million in penalties. We're told excessive delays of more than 40 flights impacted more than 5,800 of the airline's passengers from 2018 to 2021. During the longest of the delays, passengers sat on a plane in Texas for over 6 hours. And according to federal rules, passengers can only be held on a domestic flight for three hours.

[04:50:00]

FOSTER: Still ahead, a scary moment for one of the leading hitters in Major League Baseball as fans run onto the field right in the middle of the game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: The U.S. Open is in full swing in New York.

FOSTER: You wish to get there. NOBILO: Yes. I'm with the best of them. With six seed Coco Gough among the top stars in action on Monday. The American teen struggled out of the gate but came back to win in three sets. Former World #1 Caroline Wozniacki hasn't played again -- a Grand Slam event in more than three years, but she had no trouble in her straight sets, first round victory.

And on the men's side, Novak Djokovic will reclaim his world number one ranking after a decisive first round win over Frenchman Alexander Mueller. Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were among the spectators for that.

FOSTER: Living the life. One of the best in -- players in baseball is accounting his blessings after an unwelcoming counter with some fans. One spectator ran onto the field in Denver and hugged the Atlanta Braves Ronald Acuna Jr. on Monday Night.

[04:55:00]

Security guards managed to separate the fan, but then another ran onto the field and made contact with Acuna, knocking him over this time. And the Braves outfielder wasn't hurt but said he was a little scared, pretty distracted as well. Acuna finished the game with four hits, including a home run.

NOBILO: And the stories in the spotlight this hour, U.S. Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is stepping back from a rap battle with Eminem as well he probably should.

EMINEM, RAPPER: He's chokin', how? Everybody's jokin' now The clock's run out, time's up, over, blaow Snap back to reality, ope, there goes gravity

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Ramaswamy performed a rendition of the Eminem hit "Lose Yourself" at the Iowa State Fair earlier this month.

FOSTER: In case you didn't recognize it.

Now, the real slim shady says he no longer wants Ramaswamy using his music. The 38-year-old Republican as the song at a campaign event, and his spokesperson says he just got on the stage and cut loose in Iowa. But now the Ramaswami campaign says it plans to comply with Eminem's request.

What will they go for next, do you think?

NOBILO: $0.50.

FOSTER: $0.50 coming at you.

NOBILO: Oh, I'm going to lose it now. Continue.

FOSTER: Stay calm, this is an Amazon story. It's all about how you buy stuff. Amazon is raising its free shipping threshold for some customers. and earlier, non prime members qualify for free shipping if they had an order totaling at least $25.00, but now that minimum has been raised to $35.

NOBILO: The threshold testing has been carried out for regions based on ZIP codes, and Amazon says it hopes that shifting goal posts for free shipping could drive more consumers to pay the roughly $140 annual fee to join its prime service.

And "The New York Times" has -- well, you'll remember, found instant success with Wordle, and now it might have a new hip puzzle on its hands. Connections joined the newspapers portfolio of games this week.

FOSTER: They do have pretty good record with these things, don't they? Connections is a word association game that presents players with 16 words and challenges them to group them together in four different topics. Players will have four chances to solve the puzzle before losing.

NOBILO: Have you ever played Wordle?

FOSTER: No.

NOBILO: I'd beat you like --

FOSTER: Yes, you would.

NOBILO: -- decisively every single day.

FOSTER: Yes, you would.

NOBILO: Thanks for joining us. We'll see you tomorrow.

FOSTER: We will.

END