Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

CNN International: 100+ People in New York Searching for 9- Year-Old Girl; 75,000 U.S. Healthcare Workers Could Strike Wednesday; Turkey: One Dead, Two Injured in PKK Attack; 13 Dead in Spain's Deadliest Nightclub fire in Decades; France Vows to Take Action as Bedbugs Sweep Paris. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 02, 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]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Consequently, I strongly urge my Republican friends in Congress not to wait. Don't waste time, as you did all summer. Pass the year long budget agreement, honor the deal we made a few months ago.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: One big question for President Biden is whether he'll be able to secure additional aid for Ukraine. The president asked for about $24 billion in funding for the war-torn country. But that was dropped from this deal that was struck over the weekend as there was opposition amongst some hardline Republicans in the House.

The president is urging lawmakers to stop playing games and get this aid passed. The president and House Democratic leadership have suggested that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will be putting forward a separate vote on Ukraine aid in the coming weeks. But so far McCarthy's office has not detailed any plan for when or how to do that. Leaving many questions and the fate of that Ukraine aid up in the air.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: The new chair the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee says he'll block the release of military aid for Egypt. Senator Ben Cardin has also threatened to withhold future arms sales if he if the country doesn't improve human rights.

NOBILO: He said, quote:

The government of Egypt's record on a range of critical human rights issues, good governance and the rule of law must improve if our bilateral relationship is to be sustained.

The announcement comes after the committee's previous chairman Bob Menendez was indicted on corruption charges over claims, he accepted bribes to help Egypt obtain military aid. More than 100 people, including police and firefighters, are searching for a nine-year-old girl who went missing in New York. Charlotte Sena went missing during a camping trip with her family on Saturday after going on a bike ride with her friends, according to officials. New York's governor has vowed to make sure she gets home safely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): Right now, there's over 100 personnel deployed and 75 law enforcement on the ground, the two drones, an airboat, search teams, six underwater rescue teams, another boat that has sonar. We are leaving no stone, no branch, no table, no cabin unturned, untouched, unexamined, and our search to find Charlotte.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: An Amber Alert was issued on Sunday. Police are asking for anyone with information to call them. Charlotte was last seen wearing an orange tie-dye shirt, dark blue pants, black shoes and a grey bicycle helmet.

FOSTER: Workers in multiple U.S. industries have been staging walkouts this year, and the public image of disorganize -- or of organized labor doesn't seem to be suffering for it. A Gallup poll from August shows a little more than 2/3 of Americans approve of labor unions. That's down slightly from a year ago, but it's still higher than Gallup's long-term average of 62 percent approval.

NOBILO: And more than 40 percent of those surveyed say they want unions to gain more power. That's up from a record low of 25 percent in the 2009 survey following the great recession.

FOSTER: Meanwhile, 75,000 healthcare workers could walk off the job in the U.S. on Wednesday. It'll be the largest healthcare strike in the nation's history. The walk out against Kaiser Permanente is supposed to last three days, and Kaiser says it's already putting contingency plans in place if the strike happens. CNN's Camila Bernal takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When I talked to a Union worker, she told me that her biggest concern is the shortage of workers. Having to do the job of multiple people. She said, look, even if you're short staffed on custodians, they may not be able to clean a room, and that means that whoever's at the hospital is going to have to wait longer to be able to have a room. So she says, it's not only waiting times at the hospitals, but also waiting times to get an appointment. It may take months to schedule an appointment to see your doctor. And she says all of this is in part because of the shortage of workers. Here's how she described it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not OK to have to do the job of two or three people at a time. So now you can imagine how hard it is and the toll that it takes on us, healthcare workers. Especially with our lives, our families. It's not easy having to deal with that kind of stress at work and then still having to bring it home to our families.

BERNAL: And in addition to the shortage of workers and staff, the coalition of eight unions is asking for raises across the board. They also want job protections against outsourcing. They're also wanting updates to retiree medical benefits and advance notice for workers that are returning to the office.

And this strike, if it happens, would begin on Wednesday having huge impacts across the nation, on the West Coast, including here in California and on the East Coast in places like Virginia and Washington, DC.

Now Kaiser says they are at the table.

[04:35:00]

They are negotiating and will continue to do so. In a statement they said that they're actually continuing to do this but have already agreed on a number of issues. They also say they have a plan in place if there is a strike on Wednesday and have said that both hospitals and emergency rooms will remain open.

The worker that I spoke to told me that yes, they are worried about what's going to happen on Wednesday. But she says that they are fighting for their patients.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: We're learning more about a deadly crash in Illinois involving a semi-truck, which led to thousands of gallons of ammonia spilling onto the highway.

NOBILO: Five people lost their lives and hundreds were evacuated from their homes. The National Transportation Safety Board says the incident appears to have started when another vehicle tried to pass the semi-truck.

FOSTER: Meanwhile, the 500 residents evacuated were allowed to return to their homes on Saturday. No word yet on whether any charges will be filed.

Summer is hanging on well into autumn in parts of the U.S. as dozens of places are expected to see record-breaking heat to begin the first week of October, would you believe.

NOBILO: In the upper Midwest, places like Minneapolis, St. Paul broke their record for the warmest October day, hitting 92 on Sunday. Record highs were also set in the Dakotas, Missouri and Iowa.

FOSTER: Higher than normal temperatures will continue in the central U.S. today before shifting to the North East on Tuesday and the record heat should give way to cooler temperatures though by midweek.

NOBILO: Still ahead for you today, fighting between Turkey and Kurdish militants is intensifying. We'll have the latest on Turkey's response after a bombing near the country's interior ministry.

FOSTER: And we'll go live to Spain to get the latest on a deadly fire that ripped through a nightclub on Sunday, killing at least 13 people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:40:00]

FOSTER: Turkey says it has destroyed 20 targets in northern Iraq belonging to the PKK, just hours after the Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for a bombing outside the Turkish Interior Ministry in Ankara. The ministry says two attackers killed a civilian and stole his vehicle.

FOSTER: Two police officers were able to stop the attackers, but they were injured in the process. PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and Europe, and it's been waging an insurgency against Ankara for four decades. For more now, CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us. And Salma, remind us for our international viewers about the motive at play here.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, that's very complicated to answer, but you are talking about a four-decade long insurgency that's been carried out by this Kurdish militant group. It's important to know that Kurds make up the largest minority in Turkey. I think it's around 15 to 20 percent, but they do not have their own homeland. Now there are semi-autonomous regions in northern Iraq. There's a semi- autonomous region in Syria.

But they continue again, this Kurdish militant group, the PKK, to carry out these attacks against Turkey, which have been very deadly in recent years. The latest, of course, is this one Sunday that happened outside the Interior Ministry, broad daylight hours. We're talking 9:30 in the morning. Two assailants detonating an explosive, killing a civilian, stealing a car. I mean, a clear message to lawmakers in Ankara and the capital because they were returning from their summer. They were -- this was the first session. President Erdogan was set to speak just hours later.

And in that statement, President Erdogan again vowed that this would not backtrack Turkey's fight against terrorism domestically and internationally. He said in his state. And called it the last flutters of terrorism.

Just hours later, Turkey carried out these air strikes in northern Iraq on 20 targets, as you mentioned, including warehouses, caves, weapons depots. They say -- Turkey's defense ministry says it neutralized many terrorists without providing a death toll specifically.

But again, as we mentioned in the beginning here, this is not over. It's not a simple tip for tat and it's done. This is an on-going insurgency that Turkey continues to fight. And important to note, that it's not only Turkey that designates the PKK as a terrorist group. It is also the U.S. It is also the EU. And Turkey justified its attacks in northern Iraq within the context of United Nations charters. NOBILO: Salma, thank you so much.

To Spain now, where at least thirteen people have died in the country's deadliest nightclub fire in decades.

FOSTER: Now the cause of the blaze, which broke out early on Sunday in the southeastern city of Murcia, is not yet known. But officials fear the death toll could rise as search operations continue within that building.

Our journalist Al Goodman joins me live from Madrid. I mean, a horrible situation. We haven't got a full sense of it yet, have we?

AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: Hi, Max. A police official tells CNN that other nationalities, not just Spaniards, were victims in this tragedy. Now the mayor of Murcia, which is Spain's seventh largest city, promised the full weight of the law against the people who are responsible for this. There are 13 bodies that have been recovered. Here's what the mayor had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSE BALLESTA, MURCIA, SPAIN MAYOR (through translator): Thirteen bodies have been found. All of them are now at the Institute of Legal Medicine for autopsies. Of these 13, three have been identified through fingerprints and the rest cannot be identified through this test and will have to be identified through DNA tests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOODMAN: Two other people are still reported missing, according to the city, but that's down from late Sunday, when there were five people missing. Three were found overnight. Now this nightclub area is in an industrial and commercial area on the outskirts of downtown. Police say it attracts a wide range of people, Max, from 18-year-olds to 50- year-olds. Depending on what kind of music is being played.

The three discotheques involved in the fire, the bodies were found and the worst damage was at one of them on the end of this sort of rectangular building. Police don't know, they say, whether the fire started there and moved -- and moved out to the other two or started in the middle and burned out each way. They do know it started on the second floor and burned up to the roof, which collapsed.

A police official saying it would have been worse had it not started at 6:00 in the morning local time, when a lot of people had already gone home. If it had started in the middle of the night when the crowds were at their peak and on the first floor. The victims' families are being taken care of by psychologists at a nearby Sports Center. The father of one of them told Spanish media on the scene that his daughter sent a phone message, a voice message saying she was trapped in the fire. She didn't know if she was going to get out alive, Max. It's the worst fire at nightclubs.

FOSTER: You know, I was just checking, I mean, it's because the roof collapsed. It's been so hard to, you know, -- to you know, it's very hard for the firemen and women to deal with it. But also, it's now so hard in terms of recovery because the roof collapsed.

[04:45:00]

GOODMAN: Absolutely, and it is the worst fire since 1990, when 43 people died in a nightclub fire in another city. The very worst one was back in the 1980s here in Madrid, when 81 people died. Spanish officials, Max, are really trying to crack down and get a handle on this and keep this from -- prevent this from happening again -- Max.

FOSTER: Al Goodman in Madrid. Thank you so much for bringing us that.

NOBILO: At least 38 people were injured in a fire at a police facility in Egypt. Early this morning, flames broke out at the Ismailia Security Directorate, about 78 miles northeast of Cairo. Officials say at least two dozen people were taken to hospital for suffocation.

FOSTER: There were also two cases of burns. The case of the fire is now though under control, the course, not immediately known.

NOBILO: And workers from the United Nations have arrived in Nagorno Karabakh to help refugees as they leave the region for Armenia. Azerbaijan reclaimed control of the breakaway region, leaving Karabakh Armenians two choices. Stay and accept Azerbaijani citizenship or leave. Here's what some of the refugees are saying about why they chose the second option.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We hear that they raped somebody's daughter in law's daughter and it is stuff like this and this nests in your mind and you just can't imagine living there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): How can we live with Turks when we remember how we have lost our heroes, our boys? I left so many things there, but I'm not concerned about it. If there's a choice between leaving things behind and staying, I choose leaving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: More than 100,000 refugees have fled to Armenia amid the crisis, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. The UN says at least 31 percent of the refugees are children and nearly 20 percent are elderly. Many citizens have lost hope of returning after the president of the region dissolved state institutions.

NOBILO: From the White House to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, birthday wishes flowed in for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter this weekend. We'll share some of them with you when we come back.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: France is battling A bedbug outbreak that's sweeping through Paris. The pests have been spotted at places like movie theatres and on public transportation. And it comes as the French capital is preparing to host next year's Summer Olympics. CNN's Melissa Bell reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A nasty commute and not just for the passengers you can see. French officials say that bedbugs have infested Paris's transport networks and the wider city. The race is now on to exterminate the bugs with less than a year to go until the Olympics.

From metros to high-speed trains, videos have shown them taking over some cinemas and even Charles de Gaulle Airport, which is making for an itchy situation, as France prepares to host the rest of the world next summer. French officials are preparing to take measures to contain the scourge, with transport operators gathering this week to try to find ways of getting rid of the pests.

But that's not enough for some, who say the thought of sitting on a bus or a train next to the uninvited seatmates makes their skin crawl.

LAURA MMADI, TRAIN PASSENGER (through translator): That really traumatized me. I'll keep my luggage closed to prevent them from getting to my home. Also, I'm not from here, so once I get home, I'll have to wash all my clothes.

LUC VILLETTE, TRAIN PASSENGER (through translator): I mean, the fact that we can actually see them means there are a lot of them. And in addition, they're being seen in the day when they usually come out at night, so there is a big problem somewhere.

BELL (voice-over): Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire says that no one is safe from the problem, because the bugs can be picked up anywhere.

A recent government report estimated that about one in 10 French households had had bedbug infestations between 2017 and last year. There's some fumigation companies say business is higher than usual and more urgent.

SACHA KRIEF, PEST CONTROL STORE MANAGER (through translator): We've had customers calling us up crying, desperate for a solution. And it's very, very costly when you have to throw away all of your bedding, when you have to undergo works in your apartment. And so, you get into a sort of a paranoia.

BELL (voice-over): And whilst bedbugs may be a growing nuisance in Paris, health experts say that they're not considered dangerous, causing merely itching and rashes. And their numbers are increasing, not just in the French capital but around the world, as people travel more, and the bugs become more resistant to pesticides.

An irritating problem, but not one, say French officials, that should pose a threat to the upcoming Olympics. Their plan, to stop the bedbugs biting as soon as they can.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: That's the story people are going to remember for today.

NOBILO: I became progressively itchy throughout all of that. I need to scour myself.

So despite the European team's commanding lead heading into Sunday's final round, the Americans gave them a scare at the Ryder Cup in Rome. But in the end, the European team prevailed. Tommy Fleetwood clinched it for the Europeans after beating Ricky Fowler in the singles match. Europe hasn't lost on home soil since 1993 and has won eight of the last 11 Ryder Cups. The next Rider Cup moves to Bethpage Black Course on Long Island, New York, two years from now.

FOSTER: Where they'll have the home advantage.

NOBILO: They will indeed, yes.

FOSTER: It's another history making day for decorated gymnast Simone Biles whilst competing at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship on Sunday. She became the first woman to land the Yushchenko double pike vault during an international competition. The high difficulty skill is historically done by men and will likely now be named the Biles 2, in honor of the 19-time world champion making it her fifth named element.

NOBILO: You're always doing Yushchenko double pike vault whenever you have a spare minute.

FOSTER: Well, I've watched the video and you can't really understand it, but it's so quick and sort of need to see it in slow mode -- it's insane.

NOBILO: And some stories in the spotlight this hour for you. Birthday wishes have been pouring in from all around the world for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on his 99th birthday.

[04:55:02]

FOSTER: The White House had this massive card on its front lawn and President Joe Biden praised Mr. Carter for his integrity, character and determination in a birthday message.

Now it's football like you've never seen it before. The NFL, Disney and ESPN presented an alternate telecast on Sunday's game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Jacksonville Jaguars in an animated Toy Story universe. The action took place in real time, but in Andy's room from the movies.

NOBILO: The players and announcers were all animated versions of themselves. That's really cool.

FOSTER: It's amazing.

NOBILO: Other movie characters like Woody and Buzz Lightyear also made an appearance. As for the game, the Jaguars defeated the Falcons 23 to 7. And Max Foster you were at this very game --

FOSTER: I was --

NOBILO: -- in the real world.

FOSTER: -- and I'll tell you something you might not know. because I was supporting the Falcons because of the Atlanta CNN connection. And I was with a friend who also supported that team. But actually I was absolute minority. More than 90 percent of them were sort of supporting Jacksonville. And what I didn't quite realize is that it's effectively a home game for Jacksonville which had this relationship with Wembley. And they keep -- they've had so many games there, so they have all these supporters as well.

NOBILO: There you go. That's a ticket for you.

Taylor Swift may not be cheer captain, but that didn't stop her from cheering on the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. The superstar who's rumored to be dating tight end Travis Kelsey attended the team's away game against the New York Jets. Swift brought along some of her famous friends, including Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Sophie Turner.

FOSTER: Fans are certainly enchanted by her. Just see what I did her. Just the anticipation of Swift being at the game increased ticket and jersey sales and she might just bring the team luck as well. The Chiefs beat the Jets 23 to 20. I think this should be a regular Monday slot.

Thanks for joining us here on The NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.

NOBILO: I'm Bianca Nobilo. "EARLY START" is next right here on CNN.

[05:00:00]