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Florida's Big Bend Braces for Debby; Harris' Running Mate Still Unclear Before Her Reveal; Protests Erupted in the U.K. Following a Knife Attack; Global Markets are in the Red Following the U.S. Economic Slowdown; Team USA's Noah Lyles Topped 100m in a Photo Finish; Protests in Bangladesh Now Violent as 91 People Killed in Sunday's Clashes. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 05, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States, around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, the Gulf Coast of Florida bracing for landfall from what's now a category one hurricane, the latest on Debby's path and preparations across the Southeast US.

We still don't know who Kamala Harris' running mate is on the US Democratic ticket. And if she has it her way, we may not find out until Tuesday night.

Plus, US markets are opening in just a few hours from now after a brutal close to last week. But international markets are already giving cause for more concern.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us. We begin here in the U.S., where Debby has now strengthened into a category one hurricane as the storm moves towards Florida's Big Bend region. It's expected to further intensify before making landfall in the coming hours. The National Hurricane Center says the storm now has winds near 80 miles per hour or 128 kilometers per hour. Debby is expected to bring historic amounts of rainfall and storm surge to parts of the southeast.

Parts of Florida are already experiencing heavy rain and flooding. The National Weather Service says a flash flood warning has been issued for more than two million people across several Florida counties. And officials are warning residents to stay away from floodwaters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN GUTHRIE, DIRECTOR, FLORIDA DIVISION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: We will continue to emphasize the important -- this next important point, which is it's never safe to walk or drive through flooded roadways. Not only can it cause accidental drowning, but floodwaters are gross. And unsafe and can contain many hazards. So please, please make sure that you are not messing around in those floodwaters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Hundreds of flights have been canceled or delayed across Florida, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina have all declared a state of emergency as the storm approaches. CNN's Rafael Romo is tracking developments and has more details from here in Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Cities across the southeast, specifically in Florida, here in Georgia and also in South Carolina, are getting ready for the impact of this storm. Governor Brian Kemp here in Georgia declared a state of emergency Saturday because the state is expected to get potentially historic rainfall, according to the National Weather Service.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has done the same in his state. Charleston is expecting up to 18 inches of rain, which could cause life-threatening floodwaters and flash flooding.

In Florida, several coastal counties from St. Petersburg and Tampa all the way to Panama City and Panama City Beach are under either mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders, especially those people who live in coastal or low lying areas.

We earlier heard from National Hurricane Director Michael Brennan, who said the threat is that this system may practically become a stationary one, bringing torrential rains to three different states.

MICHAEL BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, NOAA'S NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: The biggest threat, most widespread threat is going to be the heavy rainfall and the potential for considerable flooding, flash and urban flooding across portions of Florida and into the coastal southeastern United States from today all the way through Thursday. And there will be the possibility of river flooding in many locations as well as that heavy rainfall falls and drains into river basins.

ROMO: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis earlier said that he's activated both the Florida National and state guards to be ready for rescue and humanitarian assistance. The Florida National Guard alone is standing by with 3,000 service members who will be ready to assist the state emergency response team.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): It could get up to 85, 90, 95 mile an hour sustained wind. That is absolutely possible, particularly in parts of the state like here in Tallahassee. There's going to be a lot of trees that are going to fall down. You're going to have debris. You are going to have power interruptions. So just prepare for that. If you're in the path of the storm, assume that that's going to happen.

ROMO: And something else the governor wanted to make clear for Floridians is that there likely will be power outages because the storm may intensify before making landfall in South Carolina and here in Georgia.

[03:05:05]

The National Hurricane Center is predicting 10 to 20 inches of rainfall through Friday morning.

Rafael Romo, CNN Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: It's perhaps the most consequential decision of her political career so far. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will soon decide who will join her on the Democratic ticket as her running mate. And the clock is ticking.

Harris is expected to appear with her choice at a Philadelphia rally on Tuesday when they will kick off a campaign blitz across multiple battleground states throughout the week. But a source familiar with the search says Harris is hoping to keep her selection under wraps as close to the rally as possible.

Sources say Harris interviewed at least three top V.P. contenders on Sunday. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. There has been a renewed interest in Walz, according to those close to the Harris campaign.

Well, meanwhile, new polling shows the race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is tight. Using an average of four recent national polls, a fresh CNN poll of polls shows there is no clear leader between the two candidates. Trump is holding on to 49 percent support, while Harris is at 47 percent.

CNN's Eva McKend was outside the vice president's residence on Sunday, and here she is with more on the Harris campaign veepstakes.

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EVA MCKEND, CNN U.S. NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: As the time nears when Vice President Harris will make her announcement, we know that she is primarily looking for a governing partner and someone who can help her deliver these key battleground states.

Having one-on-one conversations with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. We believe that we spotted Governor Shapiro's motorcade. We saw a motorcade with Pennsylvania tags similar to the motorcade that surrounded the governor when he left Pennsylvania early Sunday.

Eric Holder also spotted. He, of course, is the former Obama-era attorney general, and he is responsible for overseeing a team of attorneys that are vetting these finalists, giving presentations to the vice president about her options.

This all comes as a new CBS poll reveals that Harris and the former president are in a statistical tie with her at 50 percent and Trump at 49 percent. And that really illustrates how dramatically this contest has changed with this Democratic shakeup of their ticket.

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign launching Republicans for Harris, that is what they describe as a campaign within a campaign, basically where they will deploy a Republican surrogates, high profile Republicans to try to convince other Republicans to support Vice President Harris. They believe that they have an opening with never-Trumpers and conservatives in key battleground states like Georgia that just do not have an appetite for supporting the former president.

Eva McKend, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well, joining me now from Los Angeles is Caroline Heldman. She is a professor of critical theory and social justice. She's also a Democratic strategist. Good to have you with us.

CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST AND PROF. OF CRITICAL THEORY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: Always good to join you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So in just two weeks, we have seen Vice President Kamala Harris tighten the race between her and rival Donald Trump, ruffling his feathers and resetting the race. So where do you see her momentum going from here, given the latest poll numbers?

HELDMAN: Well, I think she will try to boost her momentum, obviously, with her V.P. pick, and then August 19th, the Democratic National Convention will give a natural boost as it does. It tends to be kind of like a sugar high. It's a short boost. But her real challenge is going to be keeping that big momentum up through Labor Day, you know, past -- past that into the final push of the election.

It's such a truncated calendar for a presidential race. We've never been here before. So let's see whether or not she can keep that up.

I'm imagining that this will be such an intensely watched race that both candidates will actually have a lot of momentum heading into November and we'll see maybe some record-breaking turnout for the modern political era.

CHURCH: Right. And of course, as you touched on Kamala Harris just one day away from announcing who her running mate will be, who would be the smartest choice politically from those who've been vetted and are ready to go?

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HELDMAN: Well, she talked to six candidates this weekend, according to inside reports. I think the top two contenders are probably the swing state governors, right? Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania and Mark Kelly from Arizona. Mark Kelly, I think the only drawback would be that he's a senator from a swing state and he's up for reelection in two years. So it might actually shift the balance of power in the Senate if that's a tough race.

But this is a man who looks like he's out of central casting for such a position, his military record, obviously being married to Gabby Giffords and also the fact that he was an astronaut. This is a man, though, that knows immigration. He's on a board in a border state. So that makes him particularly attractive.

Josh Shapiro is just really good on the stump going after MAGA, as he did as attorney general in Pennsylvania. The question is whether or not he'll face anti-Semitism, maybe even from the sliver of the left in his party and maybe from independent voters.

CHURCH: And Trump is now saying he won't debate Harris on ABC, as was previously agreed to when Joe Biden was running. Trump now says he'll only debate Harris on Fox. Is this his way of killing off the debate and does it signal he's actually running scared and doesn't want to risk debating Harris at all?

HELDMAN: Rosemary, it does feel like he's running a bit scared, right? He keeps shifting his plans. He's committed and then he's not committed to a debate. I actually don't think Fox News is going to go easy on either of these candidates. I've been impressed with the way in which all of these debates in the past few election cycles have been held, regardless of who the media agency is conducting them.

I hope that we will see a debate. But I think the fact that Trump is going back-and-forth on this does signal that he's definitely up against a candidate he did not prepare for.

CHURCH: So how many paths to victory do you see for Kamala Harris right now and can she maintain this momentum and perhaps build on it, which would be the plan?

HELDMAN: It's so unprecedented, Rosemary, it is hard to predict, but I will say $310 million haul in two weeks, the last two weeks of July and the fact that two-thirds of those donations are coming from new donors.

I mean, we're just seeing an energy around the Democratic Party that we haven't seen in a long time. And what's fascinating is it parallels the energy in the Republican side. I mean, Trump, Trump rallies are a good time. I mean, xenophobic, racist, sexist. They're a good time, though, for his supporters. They go there, they laugh, they you know, they're tailgating.

The Democratic Party is finally having this after nine years of not having that. If you recall, the 2020 election was about voting against Trump much more than it was about voting for Biden. So it's been nearly a decade and the Democrats now have a candidate that they're super excited about.

Let's see how long this lasts. But Kamala Harris now has many paths to victory. She's actually opened up the Sunbelt states again that Biden had his crew had taken off the table. So we're looking at these seven key swing states, which will get the lion's share of the focus between now and November.

CHURCH: Caroline Heldman, many thanks for joining us. I Appreciate it.

HELDMAN: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Israel's military says it struck multiple Hezbollah targets in Lebanon overnight amid fears of a wider war breaking out in the Middle East. It comes hours after Hezbollah said a, quote, "squad of attack drones struck a military target in northern Israel, although Israel says many of them were intercepted and the damage was minimal."

Iran and Hezbollah have vowed revenge against Israel, blaming it for assassinating the political leader of Hamas in Tehran last week and killing Hezbollah's most senior military commander in Beirut. U.S. President Joe Biden will convene his national security team in the coming hours after a call with the king of Jordan. The White House says the U.S. and Israel are preparing for every possibility and the Pentagon has sent additional military assets to the Middle East.

Palestinian officials in Gaza say Israel did not give prior warning to civilians before launching missile strikes on two schools, arguing the death toll would have otherwise been lower. At least 30 people were killed in those strikes Sunday. Civil defense officials say most of the dead are women and children.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military is calling on residents to leave several neighborhoods in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The IDF says Hamas is launching rockets toward Israel from there and that it will, quote, "soon act forcefully to stop them."

CNN's Nada Bashir joins us now live from London. Good morning to you, Nada. So what is the latest on Israel bracing for retaliation from Iran and Hezbollah and how will Israel likely respond after a deal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release looks more out of reach than ever?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Rosemary, we heard yesterday from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Israel is determined to stand against Iran on every front, in his words, in every arena. But we have been hearing those repeated warnings and threats from the Iranian regime.

[03:15:07]

We've heard from the Revolutionary Guard Corps vowing, in their words, blood vengeance. And just yesterday from the acting foreign minister saying that Israel had crossed a big red line in assassinating Hamas' political chief Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil last week. Now, of course, Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the assassination of Haniyeh. But the finger of blame when it comes to Iran and, of course, others in the region, including Hamas, is pointed squarely at Israel.

And we've been hearing those repeated threats. Questions, of course, are mounting as to when we might see a response from Iran, what that response could look like. We may perhaps see a direct retaliation, as we saw in April, the Iranian regime targeting Israeli territory with drones and missiles or perhaps will this be a more complex, coordinated attack along with Iran's regional proxies, namely, of course, Hezbollah in Lebanon. As you mentioned, we continue to see the crossfire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah along Lebanon's southern border. But again, this reaction, this response is expected to be far broader in scope. And there are fears that this could drag the region into a broader regional conflict.

Some are questioning whether perhaps Iran will seek to re-establish, reaffirm deterrence against Israel without provoking an all-out war directly against Israel. But, of course, it depends on the scope and the scale. And as we've been hearing from Israeli officials, including the Israeli defense ministry yesterday, saying that Israel is already reviewing its options as to how to, in their words, exact a price against Iran if, indeed, they choose to attack and target Israeli territory. Take a listen to this message from the Israeli prime minister yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The state of Israel is in a multi-arena war against Iran's axis of evil. We are striking hard at any of its arms. We're prepared for any scenario, both on the defense and the offense. I tell our enemies again, we will react and exact a heavy price for any act of hostility towards us from any arena.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Of course, this is a huge matter of concern for members of the international community. President Joe Biden in the U.S. is expected to convene his national security team in the Situation Room later today. He is also expected to hold calls with King Abdullah of Jordan, a key figure, of course, in communications with the Palestinian Authority. And just yesterday, Jordan's foreign minister was holding talks in Tehran, again, focusing on the regional security situation. So this is certainly a point of concern.

And we know that the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been holding talks with his G7 counterparts as well as others in the region, not only focused on trying to de-escalate these tensions, but also to bring some focus back to those ceasefire negotiations, which at this point feel as though they are stalling, not only stalling, but perhaps dead in the water following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. Rosemary.

CHURCH: Nada Bashir with that live report from London. Many thanks.

And still to come. North Korea's latest veiled threat includes hundreds of missile launches. That's ahead.

But first, in the U.K., protests escalate as rioters attack hotels, housing asylum seekers. The latest on the violence sparked by a deadly knife attack, up next.

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[03:20:00]

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In the U.K., violent protests fueled by far-right groups intensified Sunday. Rioters in northern England vandalized and set fire to two Holiday Inn hotels that are being used to house asylum seekers. The violence erupted after three young girls were killed in a stabbing attack last week. The far-right has seized on the attack to spread disinformation and to mobilize anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant protests.

Journalist Elliott Gotkin has more now from London.

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ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Things do seem to have taken on a bit of a life of their own. We saw protests across cities in the U.K. on Saturday.

And it was expected that there would be some more today on Sunday. But they really have degenerated into perhaps even more violence than we saw a day earlier. This is in Tamworth this evening. This is just outside Birmingham, the U.K.'s second city, where, as you say, the mob there tried to and succeeded in setting fire to a Holiday Inn Extra, which has been housing asylum seekers, people that have come to this country to try to get refugee status.

And I suppose the timing is perhaps a little embarrassing for the local member of Parliament, who's from Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party, when just last week she said in Parliament that the local people in Tamworth wanted their Holiday Inn back. They didn't want it to continue housing asylum seekers. And some of those people perhaps may have taken those words and taken matters into their own hands. And this just came a few hours after a mob also managed to set fire to a Holiday Inn Extra in Rotherham in the north of England, where also the fire was put out.

Officers there with riot shields seemingly pinned against the wall of the hotel there as the rioters threw projectiles at them. They smashed their way into the hotel. They took out furniture and started hurling that at the officers as well. At least 10 officers have been injured. There have been something like 150 arrests after yesterday's violence. No doubt there have been many more today.

And there's even reports that the government is going to have to draft in extra lawyers and have courts working kind of overnight to process the large number of people that are going to have to go through the legal system now after being caught on camera and being found to be in breach of the law.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: North Korea claims to be moving 250 new tactical ballistic missile launchers to military positions near the South Korean border.

[03:25:04] State media published photographs reporting to show vehicle-based missile launchers and dozens of large military trucks. They were revealed in a huge ceremony in Pyongyang Sunday night. It's unclear if any of the vehicles are loaded with functioning missiles.

Japan's stock market takes a tumble as a global sell-off intensifies. Amid growing worries, the U.S. economy is losing steam. A preview of what could be a very rough week for the markets. That's next.

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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. Let's check today's top stories.

Parts of the southeast U.S. are bracing for Debby, which has now strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane. It's expected to make landfall in Florida in the coming hours. Debby is already bringing gusty winds and life-threatening flooding to the state. It's also forecast to unleash historic amounts of rainfall in Georgia and South Carolina.

A growing number of countries are urging their citizens to leave Lebanon with concerns of a wider war breaking out between Israel and Hezbollah. The Lebanese militant group, as well as Iran, are vowing to punish Israel after the assassinations of two senior figures from Hezbollah and Hamas. U.S. President Joe Biden will convene his national security team today to discuss the situation.

And U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will soon choose her running mate. But time is running out.

[03:30:00]

Harris and her new choice are expected to kick off a swing state campaign blitz with a Pennsylvania rally on Tuesday.

Well growing fears of a U.S. economic slowdown are sending global markets into a tailspin right out of the gate today. U.S. futures have been taking a beating for hours following a dismal close to the trading week on Friday. That troubling finish was prompted by a disappointing U.S. jobs report and the ensuing sell-off has been spreading around world markets ever since. Japan's stock market posted its worst ever one-day point loss and markets in Europe have now opened with losses.

Marc Stewart joins me now from Beijing. Good to see you again Marc. So a rough start for markets in Asia. What do those numbers look like and what is ahead?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very rough Rosemary. Let me start with the numbers. In particular, Japan. The stock market there saw its biggest point loss on record. Biggest ever loss. A decline of 12.4 percent. But sadly, Japan is not alone. We're also seeing very steep losses in South Korea, in Taiwan. Lots of markets in Asia are in the red. As you mentioned, markets in the U.S. closed downward on Friday with a lack of optimistic economic news. And now we're seeing it spread to this part of the world. In particular, in Japan, there's been a lot of concern about interest rates. That these interest rates are going to remain high. That we will see continued hikes.

And that did not sit well with traders for the last few days. And now we have all this anxiety in the United States creating really this global concern. In fact, if we look at the markets in Europe, there are indications that it will be another turbulent day as the sun moves around the world, so to speak.

In addition to the concerns about the interest rate hikes here in Japan, there are just some global concerns right now, including the tension in the Middle East. Will there be retaliation by Iran toward Israel? Those geopolitical issues obviously create some concern among traders who, quite frankly, want to sell out, get out of the market.

We're also seeing some concerns with U.S. companies. It was just last week that we saw Intel announce that it's going to be laying off workers. Amazon, which is another big name in American business, gave forward guidance, as they say, in the industry. They looked ahead and felt that the growth that they will see in the past will not necessarily be happening at that fast of a pace.

So there's a lot of reasons for people to feel discouraged, and it seems to be traveling around the globe.

In fact, at CNN, we have what's known as the Fear and Greed Index. And what we do is look at all of these different factors, seven different factors that go into stock trading. And right now, that index is at a 27 in the fear category, and it's hovering over extreme fear.

So what people are seeing in the markets is also being reflected in this index. Rosemary, I would say buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy few hours, especially as markets in Europe and the United States begin to open.

CHURCH: All right, our thanks to Marc Stewart joining us live from Beijing. I Appreciate it.

Justin Wolfers is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He joins me now from Truro in Massachusetts. Great to have you with us.

JUSTIN WOLFERS, PRO. OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: A pleasure to be here, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So ahead of Monday, trading stocks are down in response to Friday's job market numbers, taking some investors by surprise. How concerned should we be right now? Because some people are very worried.

WOLFERS: Yes, so let me explain to your viewers what happened. We have big numbers come out all the time about the U.S. economy, and one of the biggest is the employment report that came out last Friday. It was a little bit disappointing, a little bit worse than we thought

it would be.

But investors and Wall Street seems to have absolutely freaked out. It's all of a sudden they're suggesting that, you know, we're headed for a recession, run for the hills, things are terrible, they're selling off stocks, they're reorganizing the bond market.

But really not much has happened. So in terms of, you know, the actual economy, the stuff we buy, the people who have jobs, today's economy looks remarkably like the one that you probably woke up to on Friday morning as well.

CHURCH: Interesting, because of course, unemployment at 4.3 percent is actually low historically, and job growth is strong, although perhaps not as strong as it has been. So why are so many investors panicking? What is behind this panic?

[03:34:57]

WOLFERS: So what's happening here is, what's happening to the economy is things were going absolutely gangbusters, and that's because you can't forget that this is an economy that has been recovering from the COVID pandemic. It was the deepest recession in any of our lifetimes, and the most rapid. And so what happened is, you know, things were terrible in 2020, we all remember that.

Then things bounced back remarkably quickly. And because we're in such a deep hole, we had a long way to bounce. And that's been the story of the extraordinary economy of the past few years. And the good news is, we're now at the point where the economy's getting to boring.

So it's no longer the extraordinary bounce back, it's now just the boring, this is what an economy looks like. It grows at a reasonable rate, wages grow at a reasonable rate, inflation is reasonably low. All sorts of things are dull, but there's none of the excitement of the past few years. And we just have to, I think, keep our eye on the ball and think about what should a normal economy look like? And the answer is a lot like what we've got right now.

CHURCH: The Federal Reserve decided last week not to lower interest rates. Should they have made a small interest rate cut at that time? Did they wait too long perhaps?

WOLFERS: Well, one answer is the Fed made a decision on Tuesday and the bad news data came out on Friday. And so if they'd seen the future a little more perfectly, maybe they should have done things a little bit differently.

Look, what the Fed's going to do is it is going to cut interest rates and it's almost certainly going to do so in September. And it may cut them a few more times this year.

This is part of that same dynamic. When inflation got out of hand, it raised interest rates. But remember, I said, the economy is getting back to normal. And so for interest rates, getting back to normal means no longer at rates above 5 percent. Let's get rates down a little, maybe to 3.5 percent for the official rate. And so that's where the Fed's going. It's going back to normal. It didn't do it last month, probably wishes it did, but it'll almost certainly do it over the next few months.

CHURCH: Okay, so if we see an interest rate cut in September, how much would you expect the Fed to cut it by?

WOLFERS: There's a lot of debate in financial markets about whether the Fed will cut by half a percentage point, effectively taking last month's cut and this month's cut and putting them together or just by a quarter of a percentage point.

Look, one answer for your viewers is if the Fed is right or wrong by, you know, a quarter of a percentage point here or there, or if it takes a month longer, we might wish it was a little bit more perfect, but it's still not too far from what's right.

CHURCH: And when that cut happens, how long does it take for it to trickle down to your average citizen?

WOLFERS: There's a bunch of ways in which it trickles down to your viewers' lives. The first is when will the rate on my credit card go down? When will the rate on my mortgage go down if it's an adjustable rate mortgage? And the answer there is within a couple of weeks. So you'll see a little bit of relief coming pretty soon.

The other way this affects your life is a lower interest rate will stimulate the economy a little or slow it less. And so you'll see a little bit more spending in the economy maybe over 6, 12, 18 months from now.

And the final way is it affects inflation and that effect takes even longer still. And no matter what the Fed does, I think the overall trend we're seeing right now is inflation's on the way back down to normal. And in fact, it's most of the way there. And if you go to the store this week, you'll notice the prices are remarkably similar to what they were last week.

CHURCH: I feel more relaxed already. Justin Wolfers, thank you so much for talking with us. I Appreciate it.

WOLFERS: Great pleasure, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Still to come, a major shuffle in the Olympic medal chart. We will show you who's on top as the competition continues.

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[03:40:00]

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CHURCH: The competition continues on day 10 of the Paris Games. There are 20 gold medals up for grabs today. Here's a look at how the medal count sits right now. Team USA is tied with China for the most gold medals with 19 each. The Americans also have a comfortable lead in total medal count, 71 overall to China's 45 in second place.

So let's go live to Paris. CNN's Saskya Vandoorne and Amanda Davis are standing by with the very latest. Great to see you both. So Amanda, let's go to you first. Take us through all the Olympic highlights that we need to know about.

AMANDA DAVIS, CNN WORLD SPORT: Good morning, Rosemary. Only one place to start today. And of course, that is the 100 meters, the men's 100 meters. America, I told you I got this. That was the message from Noah Lyles. A real shot to those who had been doubting him, but blimey, it was close, wasn't it? Five-thousandths of a second. He hadn't been the fastest man this year in the 100 meters. He hadn't been the fastest man on the day. He said he had a conversation with his therapist ahead of the final. Whatever they said to each other, it worked.

Noah Lyles adding Olympic gold to his world titles, edging Kashane Thompson of Jamaica, becoming the first American to win the men's 100 meters in 20 years.

And interestingly, he's back on track already in the next couple of hours this morning for his better of the events, that's the 200 meters. There was a massive gold in the pool for Team USA and Bobby Fink successfully defending his 1500 meters gold and doing it in style with a new world record, breaking a world record that has been 12 years in the standing.

Without this, Team USA would have been the first time since 1900 they hadn't won an individual gold in the pool. There'd been a lot of chat about that. Fink said he was using that as motivation and becomes the first American man to defend his title over this, essentially swimming's equivalent of the marathon distance since the 1970s.

And another gold for Team USA yesterday in the golf. There's a lot of criticism of golf and tennis. Should those sports be here at the Olympic Games? But the emotion we saw on display yesterday from Scottie Scheffler and Novak Djokovic shows just what it means to these individuals, despite everything else they've won in their careers. It's been quite a few months for Scottie Scheffler, becoming a dad for the first time. That arrest ahead of the PGA Championship, it all poured out on the 18th after that one-shot victory over Tommy Fleetwood.

[03:45:03]

And the same can be said of Novak Djokovic, finally getting his hands on the Olympic gold he's wanted for so long, completing his golden slam as it's known, having won all the tennis grand slams and adding the Olympic gold as the cherry on the top of the cake, Rosemary.

CHURCH: A lot going on. And Saskya, what's going on with the triathlon and of course the quality of the Seine River?

SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN SR. PRODUCER: Yes, Rosemary. Well, the mixed triathlon just wrapped just down here, down the river Seine. And we know that Germany came first, Great Britain came second and the U.S. came third. But it's important to note that two athletes did not compete today after they fell ill following the individual triathlon just last week. So there are a lot of questions about the quality of the Seine River today.

Now, we know that Belgium dropped out just yesterday after one of its athletes, Claire Michel, fell ill following her swim in the Seine last week. Now, crucially, we do not know what her illness is and we do not know if it is linked to her swim in the Seine. But the Belgium Olympic Committee did release this statement with some pretty sharp words, Rosemary.

So they said they hoped that lessons will be learned for future triathlon competitions at the Olympic Games, such as guaranteeing training days, competition days and the competition format. Now, meanwhile, Switzerland had to change up its lineup as well after one of its athletes got a gastrointestinal infection. But again, we don't know if that infection is indeed linked to his swim in the Seine last week.

Now, you know, organizers have kept stressing that they are testing the Seine every day and they say that it was safe for the athletes to get in it last week and indeed today. Rosemary.

CHURCH: Saskya Vandoorne and Amanda Davis, joining us from Paris. Many thanks.

Well, some more history about to happen in Paris. The first ever medal win for the Refugee Olympic Team. Boxer Cindy Ngamba has secured at least the bronze medal in the women's middleweight competition after winning the quarterfinal. She's originally from Cameroon, but moved to the U.K. as a child. The boxer says she risks going to prison if she were to return to Cameroon after coming out as gay, since homosexuality is illegal there. Her U.K. citizenship isn't finalized either. So for now, she's making history for all refugee athletes competing at the Games.

Still to come, Nigerians defy their president's call to end mass protests over economic hardships. We will head to Lagos for the latest.

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[03:50:00]

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CHURCH: Sunday was the deadliest day yet in the ongoing protests in Bangladesh, with Reuters reporting at least 91 people killed in clashes between protesters and police. What started as a student demonstration against hiring quotas for civil service jobs has grown into a wider protest with tens of thousands of people calling for the prime minister's resignation. The government has cut off internet service and imposed an indefinite nationwide curfew.

CNN's Hanako Montgomery has more.

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HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dhaka is a battleground. That's how one witness described chaotic scenes in the Bangladeshi capital, as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets, some wielding sticks and knives, demanding the resignation of the country's prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

UNKNOWN: Yes, I want her step down. Sheikh Hasina.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Dozens of people were killed on Sunday alone in a resurgence of protests that have spread nationwide, with violent clashes erupting between demonstrators, police and ruling party supporters.

Rallies that began last month over quotas for civil service jobs have escalated into widespread fury, with protesters demanding Hasina and her ministers be held accountable for the rising death toll.

NASHID ISLAM, COORDINATOR, STUDENTS AGAINST DISCRIMINATION (through translator): She must resign, and must face trial. And only Sheikh Hasina, her whole cabinet in the government, must resign. This regime in the fascist rule must be abolished.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Protests began in July, led by students angry over hiring rules that would reserve more than half of civil servant positions, which are highly prioritized for select applicants. Students said it's a discriminatory system that would cut down on job opportunities in a workforce where an estimated 18 million young people are unemployed.

In the clashes that followed, at least 150 people were killed, thousands injured and about 10,000 arrested. A military-enforced curfew and a mobile and internet blackout attempted to suppress protests, as well as a ruling by the country's Supreme Court to reduce the quotas. But public anger has only intensified, with protests returning in recent days.

ZUHAINA AMIN, PROTESTER (through translator): It wasn't possible to stay at home anymore. Everyone is on the street. Many people who are younger than me are no longer with us. They've been killed. They've been killed just because they came to the street, just like us. So how is it possible for me not to come here?

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): A new indefinite curfew is in place, and internet access is once again cut off. Hasina blames her political rivals for the unrest, saying the main opposition party and other adversaries have infiltrated the student movement.

The human rights groups have accused authorities of using excessive force to stifle dissent and curtail civil liberties in the past. And in a troubling sign, Hasina also warned anyone engaging in what she calls sabotage will be treated as a criminal in one of the biggest tests yet to her rule in 15 straight years in power.

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[03:55:01]

CHURCH: Nigeria's president is calling for an end to nationwide protests that have rocked the West African nation. President Bola Tinubu delivered remarks Sunday for the first time since the demonstration started last week over government policies and the rising cost of living. The police say at least seven people have been killed in the protests so far, and hundreds of others have been arrested.

The European Union has joined the growing international chorus questioning the results of Venezuela's presidential election. The E.U. announcing Sunday that Nicolas Maduro, quote, "cannot be recognized as the winner until the National Electoral Council, which is closely aligned with the authoritarian leader, publishes official voting records."

Multiple world leaders have also refused to recognize President Maduro's claim of victory, urging the government to respect the will of the Venezuelan people and to seek a peaceful resolution with the opposition party. Venezuelan opposition leader and former political prisoner Leopoldo Lopez told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that massive fraud is being imposed on the country.

I want to thank you so much for spending part of your day with me. I'm Rosemary Church. "CNN Newsroom" continues next with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane in London.

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