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CNN International: White House Calls On All Sides To Resume Gaza Ceasefire Talks; Sources: Ceasefire Talks Not Expected To Stop Iran Retaliation; Zelenskyy: "Only Fair To Destroy Russian Terrorists". Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired August 13, 2024 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
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RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN HOST: Good morning or good evening, depending on where you're watching. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York.
Ahead on CNN Newsroom, as the Middle East braces for a response from Iran, diplomatic efforts intensified to try to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, as negotiations are set to resume. We are live in Israel and Lebanon for the very latest. Plus, a little policy and a lot of insults, Donald Trump dishing out attacks during a two-hour interview with Elon Musk. We'll get into it. And a key inflation report is out, and it's colder than expected, and clearly, the U.S. markets like it. We will look at what this means for the stock market and your pocketbook.
Well, we want to begin with Israel on high alert, bracing for what the U.S. warns could be a quote, "significant set of retaliatory attacks by Iran and its proxies". A major strike has not happened yet, but a short time ago, a loud explosion did rattle Tel Aviv. The military wing of Hamas saying that it fired two rockets in response to Israel's killing of civilians in Gaza. Israel says that one rocket fell into the sea, the other failed to cross into Israeli territory. The IDF says that it is prepared for any scenario.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (Interpreted): We are in a period of vigilance and preparation at a time when the threats from Tehran and Beirut could materialize. In recent days, we have been devoting our time to both strengthening the defense and creating offensive alternatives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Now, the U.S. and its allies are hoping that a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks this week can diffuse the regional crisis. But, two diplomatic sources tell CNN that the last ditch effort is not expected to stop Iran from retaliating over the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Hamas wants mediators to compel Israel to accept a U.S.-backed ceasefire deal that's already on the table. The White House calling on all sides to resume talks before there is no turning back. Listen.
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VOICE OF JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SPOKESPERSON: We've seen the public statements that they put out there. We believe everybody needs to show up on Thursday and see if we can't wrap this thing up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: We have team coverage for you. We have Jeremy Diamond standing by in Haifa, and Ben Wedeman in Beirut.
Jeremy, let me start with you. How does Iran's potential response impact these ceasefire talks?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is no question that a retaliatory strike by Iran coming before those talks on Thursday has the enormous potential to upend the potential progress that could be made at the negotiating table on Thursday. It could even take those negotiations off the calendar altogether, or at least postpone those talks. But, all of that depends, of course, on the timing of an Iranian strike, as well as the scale and scope of such an attack. Will Iran go for something that will be symbolic but ultimately have very little real impact on the ground, or could this be a significant Iranian strike, more significant than what we saw in April, and one that could potentially result in civilian casualties? Either scenario is going to provide a very different timeline of what happens next.
And so, that is what this region is currently bracing for. That's why we have seen diplomatic efforts over the course of the last few days, in particular from a number of European heads of states speaking directly with the Iranian Prime Minister, urging him to de-escalate, urging him not to deliver a significant retaliation before these ceasefire talks happen on Thursday. But, so far, the Iranians appear uninclined to heed those warnings. We heard earlier today from the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry saying that Iran is "firm and resolute". That's a quote in defending its sovereignty and doesn't need permission from anyone to carry out any kind of retaliatory action.
So, the Iranians seem very much inclined to carry out that retaliation. U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources indicating in recent days that an attack could be imminent, but we still don't know the exact timing, and again, that will be critical to seeing what happens next.
SOLOMON: And Jeremy, as you outline, I mean, the next few days, obviously, especially delicate, especially fragile. What do we know about who plans to be in attendance for these talks?
DIAMOND: Well, as of now, the latest indications we're getting from the region are that both Israel and Hamas will actually be in attendance at these talks. Now, that doesn't mean that they will be in the same room together. [11:05:00]
These talks throughout have been mediated primarily by the Egyptians and the Qataris, who were passing messages between the Israeli delegation, which is typically led by the head of Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad director David Barnea. On Hamas' side, these will be the first talks that now happen with Yahya Sinwar officially in charge as the head of Hamas' political bureau, in addition to being Hamas' leader in Gaza. His representative on the ground is expected to be Khalil al-Hayya. He is the deputy leader of Hamas. These will be what are typically known as proximity talks, meaning that Israeli and Hamas representatives will likely be in the same building, but not in the same room, which will still allow for the rapid passing of messages from one room to the other.
But then, of course, what will need to happen, at least on Hamas' side, is that those messages will then need to be delivered to Sinwar, who is believed to be in tunnels underneath Gaza, and sometimes that can take hours, sometimes it can take days for the messages to be relayed to him and for him to relay his position back to the negotiating table. So, even in a best case scenario, there is no expectation that there will be any kind of a ceasefire agreement on Thursday.
But, there is, of course, the possibility of progress. We have heard in recent days that Sinwar is eager to broker a ceasefire deal. The Israeli Prime Minister's allies have been saying that he is also inclined to try and reach a deal, regardless of the consequences it may have with his right-wing governing coalition. But, of course, that depends on which deal, which version of this proposal you're actually talking about. And for now, we know that there are still significant divisions between Israel and Hamas over this deal. Rahel.
SOLOMON: OK. Jeremy Diamond live for us there in Haifa. Jeremy, thank you.
Let's now get to Ben Wedeman in Beirut. Ben, obviously, multiple fronts to this conflict. What were you learning about possible retaliation from Hezbollah?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rahel, actually, we're not learning anything, because the real sources of information, as opposed to sort of the sources that are having a spin fest, suggesting that the attack from Hezbollah and Iran is imminent, or with 24 to 48 hours, they simply don't know. I think intelligence gathered by satellite and whatnot might indicate preparations. But, in terms of sort of zero hour, nobody really has an idea except the very top leadership of Hezbollah and in Iran.
And we heard multiple times from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that the wait is part of the punishment. That's the phrase he used several times in the sense that watching the Israelis on pins and needles, waiting for this attack, presumed attack from Hezbollah and Iran is part of the warfare, the psychological warfare. He was open about that. And therefore, when is this going to take place? Nobody really has a clear idea. There were suggestions that it would coincide with the Jewish holy day of Tisha B'Av, which marks the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem. That seems to have passed. Now, they're talking about holding off on an attack in anticipation of perhaps the slim possibility of progress at these 15th of August talks. But, even that is just a supposition, not based upon any actual real fact.
So, I hate to say it, Rahel, we're just going to have to wait and see.
SOLOMON: Well, and as you lay out there, apparently, the wait is part of the punishment. Ben Wedeman live for us. Ben, thank you.
All right. We are now learning just how far Ukrainian forces say that they have pushed into Russia, 1,000 square kilometers. That's how much Russian territory Ukraine says that its forces now control, one week into a surprise cross-border incursion, and these advances have sparked a large wave of evacuations. These images from Russia's Defense Ministry are set to show military hardware being sent to the Kursk region. That's where the Ukrainian incursion is happening. Around 180,000 people are being told to evacuate their homes from the border regions, and an estimated 121,000 have already left. That's according to the acting head of the Kursk region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin promising to, quote, "kick the enemy out", but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy not backing down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (Interpreted): It is only fair to destroy Russian terrorists where they are, where they launch their strikes from, Russian military airfields, Russian logistics. We see how useful this can be for bringing peace closer. Russia must be forced into peace if Putin wants to continue waging a war so badly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: All right. Let's bring in CNN's Fred Pleitgen, who is tracking the story. He joins us live from Berlin. Fred, Kremlin vowing a strong response. What could that look like?
[11:10:00]
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Ukrainians do expect that there will be a strong response at some point in time. In fact, there are some in Ukraine who believe that a response probably should have already happened on the part of the Russia. They are expecting one to already have happened from the Russians. One of the things that we've heard from Ukrainian officials, Rahel, is that they expect some sort of massive, gargantuan missile, drone and rocket strike, possibly by the Ukrainians. One Ukrainian official saying that they believe this would be a very tough task for Ukraine's air defenses, but they do believe that their Ukraine -- that their air defenses will be up to that task. They believe the Russians could possibly target government buildings, even more so than they have in the past.
Of course, one of the things that we do know is that the Ukrainians have been receiving additional munitions for a lot of their air defense systems, especially from the U.S., but also from other European allies as well. So, they do believe that they could withstand such an onslaught, but that it would certainly be difficult for them. At the same time, you also do have the Russians, and this is something that they've shown in some of the videos that the Russians have published, bringing in more forces into that Kursk region, obviously trying to hold up Ukraine's advances, but at the same time also, of course, in the longer term, wanting to push the Ukrainians out of that territory.
That is something that Vladimir Putin has told his generals in a meeting yesterday, is absolutely necessary for them to do right now, though, and we mentioned some of that in the run-up to this report. It seems as though the Ukrainians are still very much advancing, and there is an additional region now close to the city, or closer to the city, of course, in the Kursk region, where the Russians have now also urged people to evacuate from that area. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Fred, it was really interesting to hear Zelenskyy in that small clip there. He seemed to sort of indicate or suggest. I mean, is it possible that Ukraine's action could force Russia to the negotiating table?
PLEITGEN: Well, I think that's something that the Ukrainians might be hoping for. But, it also seems as though, on the face of it, that they are still pretty far away from doing that. Both sides are. I mean, you have the Ukrainians on the one hand stating that they want to win back all of their territory, including Crimea. The Russians, for their part, and this especially coming from Vladimir Putin, vowing that all of Russia's aims of what they still call their special military operation will be met, which, of course, essentially would amount to a Ukrainian de-arming to a surrender and ceding a lot of territory on the part of Ukraine as well.
However, the talk of possible negotiations has certainly been getting a lot louder recently. It was indeed very interesting, you're absolutely right, to hear the Ukrainian President say that he believes that the Russians need to be forced to negotiate if Vladimir Putin does not want to. Of course, this coming less than 24 hours after Vladimir Putin himself had said that he believes that the reason why the Ukrainians are conducting this incursion into Russian territory is because they want to improve their position, as he put it, at the negotiating table.
So, it seems as though that prospect might be one that seems to be more real than it was before. But, at the same time, you do still have both sides saying that they want the maximum. They want their things that they want to be fulfilled. The Ukrainians saying they want all of their territory back, including Crimea. The Russians saying that they want a lot of Ukrainian territory, and they want Ukraine to disarm and never be part of NATO.
SOLOMON: Really interesting, really important context. Fred Pleitgen live for us there in Berlin. Fred, thank you.
Well, coming up, in the race for the White House, the battleground state of Pennsylvania could prove crucial. Coming up next, we'll hear from voters. They're torn over who they will support come November. Plus, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need smart people and we need people that have an ability to lead and she doesn't have that ability.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Donald Trump sits down for a conversation with Elon Musk on X, but it didn't go exactly according to plan. We'll tell you what marred the former President's return to that social media platform, just in a few minutes.
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[11:15:00]
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Donald Trump had billed his conversation with Elon Musk as the interview of the century. But, it wound up being held up by lengthy technical glitches, and when it did begin, more than 40 minutes late, Trump repeated a slew of familiar falsehoods and renewed his attack on his opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF TRUMP: They're doing it right now while this third-rate, phony candidate -- don't forget, I beat -- I beat Biden. He failed in the debate miserably. We cannot have a Democrat. We cannot have her. She is incompetent. She is as bad as Biden. No tax on tips? And all of a sudden, she is making a speech and saying, there will be no tax on tips. I said that months ago. All of a sudden, for politics, she says, you know, she comes out what I said, which I think is terrible. And I think it's also hitting them very hard. These people are fake. Kamala wouldn't have this conversation. She can't because she is not smart. You know, she is not a smart person, by the way.
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SOLOMON: Musk, meantime, suggested, without offering any evidence, that a cyberattack by Trump's enemies was responsible for the technical glitches.
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VOICE OF ELON MUSK, CHAIRMAN, X: As this massive attack illustrates, there is a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say.
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SOLOMON: All right. Let's bring in CNN Media Analyst Sara Fischer, who joins us now. Sara, always good to see you. So, as we just heard there, Musk said that the delay was caused by a cyberattack, a DDoS attack. What is that, and how do we know if that's what happened, or if it was a technical issue?
SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST, & SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS: Yes. So, a DDoS attack means distributed denial-of-service. Essentially, someone tries to overwhelm your systems by flooding them with traffic. And so, in this case, it could have been a DDoS attack, but it also very well could have just been that a ton of people wanted to tune in for this interview. Now, we just have to take Musk's word for it, of course, although there has been some third-party reporting from inside the company to suggest that it wasn't an attack and that people were just flooding the system.
Overall, though, Rahel, X sees this is a huge win. About 15 minutes ago, I just got off the phone with X CEO Linda Yaccarino. She was touting this as one of the most popular live spaces that they've ever had, saying that this is something that should be huge draw for advertisers. She said that they still are holding out hope that Kamala Harris will also join a space like this. I think that's probably unlikely.
SOLOMON: Yeah. I want to read for you a moment what she said, her campaign, at least, put out a statement saying, "Trump's entire campaign is in service of people like Elon Musk and himself, self- obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024." So, as you said, unclear whether she will actually participate. But, talk to us a little bit more about -- your said Twitter CEO said that it was a success. They had millions of people watching. Was it a success for Trump? Did we learn anything new?
FISCHER: Oh, we've learned a lot of new things. First of all, he wants Elon Musk to join his cabinet. He talked about how he feels about union workers and strikes. He commended Elon Musk for firing people. That type of language comes out big time on the campaign trail, especially in the Rust Belt, when you're dealing with big union states. So, it was actually pretty newsy and interesting conversation.
I think for Trump, what's interesting is that his own platform, Truth Social, is taking a nosedive on the public markets today, because investors are looking at him participating in this conversation on X and wondering, why aren't you doing this on your own platform? You'll recall, they rolled out their own livestreaming Truth+ just last week. And so, this could be detrimental for his business ventures, which, as you know, that matters to Trump, because he has got a lot of legal bills to pay, and the success of these ventures determines whether or not he can pull money out to pay those bills.
[11:20:00]
But, overall, I think this was a big cultural moment. Clearly, millions of people were paying attention and tuning in. And it will be interesting to see if Elon Musk continues to do these types of livestreams despite the glitches. SOLOMON: Yeah, because we should point out that DeSantis, if I remember correctly, when he tried to announce his throwing his name into the ring, there were also technical glitches.
Let me ask, in terms of viewership, a lot of eyeballs, a lot of reach, right, for Trump. But, how much of this conversation was actually policy-driven versus insults in the airing of grievances? In fact, I want to play for you one of the policy sort of point he did make about his opponent. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF TRUMP: She was the border czar, and you people can't allow them to get away with their disinformation campaign. Now she is trying to say that she wasn't really involved, and the whole thing is horrible. She was totally in charge. He could have shut the border down without him. He didn't know what he was doing anyways. He wouldn't have even --
VOCIE OF MUSK: Yeah.
VOICE OF TRUMP: --known what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: So, Sara, I wonder, for those who did not have two hours to listen to this conversation last night, how much of this conversation was an airing of grievances, sort of familiar things we have heard versus, I mean, policy-driven attacks on his opponent, who he is running against?
FISCHER: I'd say it was about 50:50. The challenge is that he wasn't pushed very hard by Musk. If you get Donald Trump in a debate that's moderated by journalists, or in a sit down town hall or an interview, you get his best policy positions or sometimes lack thereof, because he is forced to answer tough questions. This was not that type of conversation.
But, what I will say, Rahel, is that he seemed very energetic. He seemed very personable, especially alongside Elon Musk, who is an ally now and a friend. This felt like a very bromance type of conversation. And while the news media, you and I might look at that and say it didn't come out with a lot of substantive policy answers, the average everyday American might have come away thinking, oh, that was kind of fun, and that kind of matters in a campaign.
SOLOMON: And it kind of matters, I would argue, to Twitter as well, because as you said, in your conversation with Linda Yaccarino, that this is good for advertisers. Sara, any sense, on sort of where that stands for Twitter? I mean, have they stabilized in that way in terms of advertising dollars?
FISCHER: No. So, they're expecting around $2 billion in ad revenue this year, Rahel. And you'll recall, the last year that Twitter was publicly traded full year in 2021, they had about $4.5 billion of ad revenue. So, the business is still slipping. Last week, Linda and X sued a bunch of advertisers and a big advertising trade buddy, arguing on antitrust grounds that they were colluding to go against X. There was actually a pretty big win for them. The big ad trade group that they were targeting decided to disband. Linda told me that they expect that lawsuit to continue forward, that they're still going to be moving.
But, in addition to taking some of these legal grounds, they're also really trying to push on the technical and the product side. That's why this big spaces event matters, because they can go to market and say, we can create events where there is a lot of eyeballs. Same thing too with the Olympics. The challenge, though, is the delay, like, if they had a 45-minute glitch, that also goes against that product pitch. And so, we'll see how advertisers respond.
SOLOMON: Yeah. I mean, sort of a tough challenge to say, look, we can host these major events if you're also having glitches, at the very least, every time you host these major events.
FISCHER: Yes. And just to be honest, this happens a lot. I remember when it was CBS All Access, before it was Paramount Plus, they had some big glitches at the kickoff when they aired the Super Bowl, right, 100 million people trying to watch at the same time. YouTube has done this when they tried to have live events. Like, this is the challenge with streaming. You don't get some of the consistency that you get with cable and broadcast. But, I do think a 40-minute delay is egregious,
SOLOMON: Yeah. If I remember correctly, Netflix's Love is Blind had a similar glitch. I don't know, Sara, if you watched the Love is Blind reunion, but it was a whole thing on the internet, and they had their challenges as well.
Sara Fischer, always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you. Thank you.
FISCHER: Thank you.
SOLOMON: All right. Vice President Harris is hoping to give her campaign still more momentum next week. She will become the Democrats' official nominee at the party's convention in Chicago. The schedule for the week is coming together. According to NBC News, Harris is expected to speak on Thursday, and President Biden, Hillary and Bill Clinton, and former President Obama will also address the party. Chicago will be the biggest opportunity yet for the Harris-Walz ticket to define their platform before a national audience and make the contrast between Harris and Donald Trump, a contrast that back at the 2020 convention sounded like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges. I know a predator when I see one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: All right. Now, since she rose to the top of the Democratic ticket, Kamala Harris has been largely campaigning in battleground states, reintroducing herself to voters.
[11:25:00]
CNN's John King went to Pennsylvania for the latest installment of his series "All Over The Map", and he spoke with voters in the all- important Philadelphia suburbs about where they stand.
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JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bucks County, Pennsylvania, discovered bridge a local treasure. Michael Pesce often stops along the trail here to fish and to think, not a great time to be a Reagan Republican. Pesce supported Nikki Haley but won't vote for Donald Trump ever, and he sees Kamala Harris as more liberal than he would like.
MICHAEL PESCE, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: I have doubts about her. She is going to be tied to the Biden record regardless of what she says or what she does.
KING: Does it impact your calculation for what you do?
PESCE: No. it doesn't change anything at all. I'm still not going to vote for Trump, regardless. So, I'm not excited about voting for Kamala Harris, but it's better than the alternative.
KING (voice-over): Every vote counts, though, enthusiastic or not. Big margins in the suburbs that surround Philadelphia are critical for Democrats. Bucks is more a blue collar and of late the most competitive of the collar counties.
KING: If I were here the day after the debate and I asked you, you think Biden could win Pennsylvania? You would have said --
PESCE: No way. There would have been no way.
KING: Do you think Harris can win Pennsylvania?
PESCE: I think she can. I think she can. I think the energy she has brought to the campaign, the fact that she is a woman, and women's rights are going to be a big deal here in Pennsylvania. And I think that's kind of where Pennsylvania will go.
KING (voice-over): Berks County is more rural and more Trumpy, just outside the suburban collar, but margins matter everywhere in the battlegrounds. Joan London is an attorney for local government.
JOAN LONDON, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: Bloom farm zoning permit status. We had a meeting this morning, a very productive meeting.
KING (voice-over): London cast a primary vote for Haley, then switched her registration to independent. She worries about Trump's coarse tone and what she sees as angry populism, a new worry since our last visit in May, Trump running mate, J.D. Vance, no cats, but married and childless. Now even more proud she left the GOP. LONDON: I've led a very full life that way, and to say I don't have a stake in the future of the country, I had some difficulty with that. And all I could think of Senator Vance, are you going to tell Ann Coulter or Condoleezza Rice or Elizabeth Dole, they are miserable cat ladies? I don't think so.
KING (voice-over): London plans to write in a conservative, but she leaves the Harris window open just a crack.
LONDON: If Donald Trump or J.D. Vance really says something so outrageously offensive, that could drive me to vote for Vice President Harris, but it's highly unlikely. She just doesn't -- she doesn't represent my values, my beliefs about policy.
KING (voice-over): Media is in Delaware County. Cynthia Sabatini knows a lot about the change here.
CYNTHIA SABATINI, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: My street was rock-ribbed Republican. Now you have to shake a stick to find a Republican.
KING (voice-over): Sabatini is also never Trump.
SABATINI: And I watched his campaign rallies. It's all about him. It's not about the country.
KING (voice-over): This is now the third campaign in which these never Trump voters hold significant sway. In 2016, Sabatini wrote in a Republican Senator, Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania. In 2020, she voted for Biden.
KING: Was that hard?
SABATINI: No, because I don't want to see Trump elected after the chaos of the prior four years,
KING (voice-over): Sabatini says she has read things that worry her about Harris, about immigration policy and about being tough on her staff, probably another write in this November, but the 2016 result still stinks.
SABATINI: I'm trying to keep an open mind about Harris if the rap on her, as I read, is correct.
KING (voice-over): Bala Cynwyd is in Montgomery County.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it was very Republican --
KING: And it's not anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- when I was growing up, and it is Democrat now.
KING (voice-over): Carol Carty is an attorney, a registered Republican. She is angry that Trump constantly attacks courts and judges and election results.
CAROL CARTY, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: I am now turning on 80 songs to go back to the 80s. In my lifetime, the Republican Party has changed with Donald Trump.
KING (voice-over): Clinton 2016, Biden 2020, a never Trumper, she thought, but inflation and immigration soured her on Biden, and then she watched the June debate.
CARTY: When Biden was on the ticket, I was going to vote for Trump, but now it's a harder call, just because I am not a fan of Donald Trump.
KING (voice-over): Nor now of Senator Vance.
CARTY: I am not a cat lady. I was a childless dog lady because I didn't meet the right person until I was over 40-years-old. So, I could very well be one of those childless women, and I found the comment insensitive and narrow-minded.
KING (voice-over): This is near Carty's summer home on Maryland's eastern shore. She says the conversations back home among her Philly suburban mom friends are crystal clear.
CARTY: Definitely I have more friends saying that they're leaning towards Harris.
KING (voice-over): But, she still has reservations and hopes a Harris- Trump debate helps.
CARTY: Tell me what you did exactly at your last job, and what are your goals for this job, if get the job, and that's what I want to hear from Kamala Harris.
[11:30:00]
KING (voice-over): Scoring the campaign just like a job interview in the suburbs that usually decide who gets hired.
John King, CNN, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Our thanks to John King there.
President Joe Biden and the First Lady will be setting off shortly to New Orleans, Louisiana, for an event to promote their Cancer Moonshot effort. It's the administration's mission to improve the prevention and treatment of cancer, with the goal of reducing the death rate by at least 50 percent by 2047. All of this is personal for the Bidens, after they lost their son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015. He was just 46-years-old.
Well, still to come for us, firefighters battle a fire near Athens, as the blaze claims its first life. We're going to have a live report on the ground. Plus, the Caribbean bracing for Tropical Storm Ernesto. Heavy rain, high winds, storm surge, all a concern. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SOLOMON: Welcome back. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I am Rahel
Solomon live in New York.
A fast-moving wildfire has been contained by firefighters outside the Greek capital of Athens. It started on Sunday in the Attica region and was fueled by hot, dry and windy weather. But, conditions today are said to be, quote, "improving". Several European countries are helping battle the flames, alongside more than 700 firefighters and 35 water- bombing aircraft. Homes, businesses and cars have all been destroyed, and at least one person has been killed.
Let's bring in CNN Correspondent Eleni Giokos. She is near Athens and joins us with the latest. Eleni, give us a sense of what the latest is where you are.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So, I mean, what we are seeing is the aftermath of this raging wildfire that residents and people here have described as a furnace. You can see a lot of fire trucks still sort of around the area, trying to put out various hot spots that still pose a threat. You can see, it's not very windy today, which is really good. One of the reasons that this wildfire spread across 40-kilometer radius is because it was 47 knots per hour over a 24-hour period. And some people were just describing, when they blinked from a fire raging on a hill, suddenly it was in front of them. That's the speed of the fire, Rahel.
This is the place, this is the business where that woman was killed. A 65-year-old woman was killed. We've been speaking to so many of her co-workers that were describing how she was planning to go back to her home country at the end of the year, back to her daughters. She had worked here for 20 years.
[11:35:00]
It's an events company. And when we came back to speak to you, Rahel, we now see this rose that's been left here by someone. One of the firefighters was saying that one of her co-workers left this here to commemorate her life, because it's just an absolutely tragic story.
I want to describe a couple of things. It's not only about the way the place smells and the things that we can barely breathe and the things that we see, but it's also the feeling, the emotion today. There is a lot of trauma. People are just extremely anxious, and it really just permeates the air as much as the smoke and the blackness of it all. It feels like I am in a fireplace.
I want you to take a listen to what one Mayor from Kifisia, another area that wasn't impacted, but was at very close proximity that was at risk had to tell us a little earlier today. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VASILEIOS XPYOLYTAS, MAYOR OF KIFISIA: At some point, the fire was faster than the cars and the trucks, and we are trying to cut the fire and it was on the mountain. There were no roads to stop the truck and try to fight the actual fire. So, we'll have similar things in the future. All the universities, all the major studies have said that in the next years, next 30 years, everything under 300 meters will be devastated up to Larisa, which is something --
GIOKOS: Yeah.
XPYOLYTAS: -- in the middle of Kifisia (ph). I'm an environmentalist outside the world. So, I know what I'm saying now. So, in the next year, we have -- we will have many incidents like this one, and we must find solutions in the way of evacuating and in being first at the time of the start of the fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: And Rahel, as people are trying to figure out what to do next, I mean, one family says their home has been destroyed and they've got no way to go. People also thinking about the year ahead and the year after that, because this is a yearly phenomenon. This is climate change. This is prolonged heatwaves hitting Athens and various parts of Greece, resulting in incredible and devastating destruction.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Well said, Eleni. I mean, it's just -- it's the here and now, but it's also what comes behind it, next month --
GIOKOS: Yeah.
SOLOMON: -- next year and so forth. Eleni Giokos live for us there. Thank you.
And some parts of the Caribbean are preparing, meantime, for heavy rainfall, strong winds and storm surge. This is all thanks to Tropical Storm Ernesto. The National Hurricane Center says that it is moving through the Leeward Islands right now. It's expected to move toward Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands by Tuesday evening.
For the latest, let's bring in meteorologist Derek Van Dam. He joins us from the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta with a look at what's the latest here. Hey Derek.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. So, we just got this 11:00 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center. And analyzing the satellite imagery you just popped up on the screen a moment ago, you can start to see that kind of a counterclockwise rotation in the cloud cover. So, that's an indicator to the meteorologists, the people at the National Hurricane Center who study this, the storm is getting its act together as it approaches and moves through the Leeward Islands. Again, we've got Puerto Rico here, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, which, by the way, with this 11:00 a.m. update, they have just included this in a hurricane watch, because there is the distinct possibility that the storm becomes a hurricane before actually crossing over these islands, or just thereafter.
So, this is something we're going to monitor very closely. This is the latest radar, kind of a regional look. There is that counterclockwise spin. It just moved through Guadalupe. But, I'm going to zoom in a little bit closer, because I want you to start to see that little feature there. It's almost like it's starting to form an eye. So, that is another indicator that this storm is becoming a bit more vertically stacked, and we could see some strengthening here quickly in the next 24 hours before it moves offshore from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and into the open waters the Atlantic.
One thing is for sure. It will bring a lot of rainfall to this area, localized flooding rains. Of course, a lot of people want to know, where will this system go from here? Well, we do have a trough that will keep it off the East Coast of the U.S. But, one thing is for sure. All of our computer models coming into an agreement that Bermuda will feel some sort of impacts from this system as we head into the weekend, and whether or not that's a strong Category 2 or greater is still to be determined. There is a lot of warm water, hot there, above average rain, excuse me, water temperatures.
But, in terms of the forecast wind gust, if we time it out, you can see Saturday midday. If this does come true, this is just one forecast model, but that Eastern quadrant of a hurricane, that, of course, is where we have some of the strongest winds, some of the worst weather of a hurricane. And this particular model shows Bermuda putting it on the eastern side of that so that, of course, that could be quite impactful for that island going forward, something we will monitor.
But, in the meantime, Rahel, Puerto Rico, U.S. and British Virgin Islands are there in for a tough next 24 hours.
SOLOMON: OK. Hate to hear it, but we appreciate the update. Derek Van Dam, thank you.
[11:40:00]
And as people in North Korea, meantime, try to recover from weeks of heavy rain and flooding, state media is casting Kim Jong Un not just as the country's leader, but as the country's savior, But, with the regime shrouded in secrecy and Kim rejecting any foreign assistance, the question is, how much devastation has been hidden from the eyes of the world?
CNN's Will Ripley reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On his emerald green bulletproof train loaded with supplies from the capital Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is portrayed as a hero on state TV, traveling to areas devastated by flooding. Record rains left entire towns and villages under water just miles from the Chinese border in the northwest of the country. State media reports thousands of evacuations, but no deaths, a claim impossible to verify with no foreign aid organizations allowed in.
Kim delivering a defiant speech from the rail car carrying his armor limousine, declaring with confidence, North Korea is fully self- reliant, rejecting all offers of international aid, even from allies China and Russia, at least for now. Some fear Kim's deepening military partnership with fellow strong man, Vladimir Putin, could be giving his economy and confidence a boost. Russia effectively vetoed United Nations' sanctions monitoring earlier this year, opening the door for illicit trade, the U.S. says, perhaps emboldening Kim to shut the door on international aid and diplomacy.
LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: We are prepared to have an open dialog with the North Koreans without preconditions. We want to pursue diplomacy.
RIPLEY (voice-over): U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas- Greenfield, visited the Korean demilitarized zone this spring, telling out front at the time, any top level meeting like former President Trump's summits with Kim would require lots of legwork.
THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Before any meeting like that could happen, we have to have engagements at other levels.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Trump signaling he'd be willing to engage directly with Kim if re-elected.
TRUMP: I got along very well, North Korea Kim Jong Un. I get along with him. He'd like to see me back too. I think he misses me.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Vice President Kamala Harris taking a decidedly unfriendly stance during her visit to the DMZ in 2022.
HARRIS: In the north, we see a brutal dictatorship, rampant human rights violations and an unlawful weapons program that threatens peace and stability.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Kim blasted South Korean media for speculating about massive flooding casualties, calling it a smear campaign from a dirty rubbish country. North Korea even tried sending another round of trash balloons following South Korea's offer of humanitarian aid. South Korean media reports shifting winds blew all but 10 of them back.
South Korea's Unification Ministry accuses Kim of trying to shift focus away from the devastating flood damage, visible even in these carefully edited state TV images. This is what North Korea wants the world to see. Kim visiting flood survivors living in tents under the sweltering summer heat, as many wonder what state media is not showing how many people may be suffering for the sake of self-reliance,
Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: All right. Still ahead for us, the Producer Price Index, or wholesale inflation for July, is out in the U.S. What's it telling us about the state of the economy, as the Dow is up more than 200 points? We'll have a live report. Plus, the outlook for the year ahead from one of America's biggest retailers. We'll tell you why Home Depot is sounding a warning. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLOMON: Welcome back. Some potentially good news for you as consumers today. The rise in prices paid by wholesalers slowed in July. Last month's Producer Price Index, or PPI, was up 2.2 percent from a year earlier. Compare that to a 2.7 percent rise in June on an annual basis. And if price pressures on businesses are easing, well, that could mean lower inflation for consumers as well.
Joining us now to explain is CNN's Paula Newton. Paula, good to see you, as always. Talk us through some of the key takeaways from this report and why investors seem to like what it says.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They do like what it says, and I'll get to that in a moment. So, Rahel, this is the two hands again on the steering wheel. Last week, the U.S. economy, when we had that unemployment rising to 4.3 percent, fewer jobs created than expected, that stock market swerved and a lot of Americans were wondering what kind of confidence they could have in their own economy. This gives them a little bit of confidence back. So, you were just showing the trend line there, 2.2 percent year-over year. That is in line with what most would expect in a healthy economy that isn't careening with inflation.
I will look, though, if you go month-over-month, it was -- expected was 0.2 percent, and then you see there, it actually came in at 0.1 percent. A reminder again, Rahel, that this is producer prices, right? It's a wholesale price. All eyes and good indicator leading into tomorrow, which is the Consumer Price Index.
And when we talk about inflation, look, everyone remembers about old days, post-pandemic, where we were dealing with consumer prices sky high, right, nearing well above 10 percent there for a little while. We have now come back down to where the Federal Reserve wants to see it, inflation in or around two percent. This is despite the scare, as I said, we were having last week, given the jobs market. This definitely puts the Fed on track to lower interest rates likely in September. The question now, Rahel, is, how many more rate cuts can Americans expect, and what kind of a jump start will it give to the economy? That's what's on everyone's mind.
As you can see, the market is doing really well. We'll lean into the Dow there, really kind of hopping on these numbers, understanding that there is nothing to worry about. But, look, look at the S&P and the NASDAQ, really leaning into these numbers. And I'll have to say, Rahel, the market is pretty much making up all -- for all the damage that occurred last Monday when they got that unexpectedly bad jobs number.
SOLOMON: So, what you're saying, Paula, is that if we have been avoiding our 401(k), looking at it, or avoiding our retirement account, our portfolio, now is a good time to look at it again.
Paula, before I let you go, give us a sense of what we might expect tomorrow. As you pointed out, we get the July CPI. Any sense of what we can expect there? NEWTON: I mean, look, it's supposed to -- when we have this kind of indicator from the wholesale prices, right, it gives us the indication that we are likely to see a very good inflation number, getting very close to that two percent inflation target. I hate to be the bear of bad news, though. What the market doesn't want to see, Rahel, is the fact that we're actually seeing inflation much lower than that, right, because that's going to be a signal to some that the economy is slowing. What most people are worried about right now is that those high interest rates have slowed the economy too much, and that we're scratching way too close to no growth. And that's not an issue so far.
But again, just like your 401(k), don't look at it too often. And even in numbers like this, they can really make your head spin, because you can come up with theories for almost any number. Again, the trend line is what's important, not just one data point.
SOLOMON: The trend is your friend. Paula Newton, good to see you, my friend. Thank you.
All right. A CEO shake-up to tell you about today. Starbucks says that Chipotle CEO, Brian Niccol, on the right, who you see here, is taking over effective September 9. The current Starbucks chief, on the left there, Laxman Narasimhan is stepping down immediately. He has only been in the job for a little over a year, but Starbucks has struggled under his leadership. Latest figures show that sales at its existing stores dropped three percent.
Weak sales also an issue at Home Depot.
[11:50:00]
The home improvement giant saying that American shoppers are feeling nervous, and that's expected to drive sales down at Home Depot as much as four percent this year. Now, consider that is a lot worse than its previous forecast for a one percent drop in sales. It still says that the long-term outlook for the home improvement market is strong, despite this news, actually. It's interesting to see, shares are actually up about a percent.
Let's bring in now business reporter Nathaniel Meyersohn to give us a sense more about why Home Depot seems to be struggling. Nathaniel.
NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: So, Rahel, Home Depot is struggling, because if you think back earlier to the pandemic, everybody was investing in remodeling their homes, sprucing up their homes when they were stuck at home early in the pandemic. But now, they've already gotten those home improvement projects done with. So, they're not spending as much. They don't need to remodel the kitchen or remodel the bedroom. And so, that's impacting Home Depot. We see them expecting sales to decline. And this is -- Home Depot is very much a bellwether of the U.S. economy and of the housing market. So, it is a warning sign about kind of the health of consumers and where they're spending.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Also hard to miss that. I mean, just in general, mortgage rates have been so high, and so the home -- the whole real estate market in general, you could say, has been a bit frozen. How else Home Depot -- how else are people changing their spending based on what they said, Nathaniel?
MEYERSOHN: So, Home Depot seeing customers take on fewer big home renovation projects, smaller projects, and this is kind of what we're seeing from retailers and grocery stores and restaurants across the board. McDonald's said that customers are pulling back. You mentioned Starbucks. Their sales were down last quarter. Airbnb says that people are traveling a little bit less. Disney warned last week that its theme park business was slowing down. So, we really see customers being more careful about how they're spending, what they're spending on, and looking for value.
SOLOMON: Really interesting. Well, let's stick with Starbucks. I mean, this announcement, I mean, at least to me, and I don't cover the company closely, but seem to be quite surprising to the industry. I mean, what more are we learning about this shake-up and the new CEO of Starbucks? What do we know?
MEYERSOHN: This was a major move, Rahel. I mean, I think it took a lot of us off guard, including the market. You look at the stock price, Starbucks is up 20 percent today. Chipotle is down about 15 percent. So, that just shows how eager the market is for Brian Niccol to take over at Starbucks. And look, Starbucks has really, really struggled. Its identity has really changed over the past several years. You think about how you used to go into Starbucks. You would sit down. Grab a coffee. Maybe stay for a little while. Now, everybody is ordering on their phones. They're frustrated with the higher prices. Sometimes it takes too long for Starbucks to fulfill the orders.
So, a lot of challenges for Starbucks right now, and they're turning to Niccol, who really is kind of known as a turnaround expert. He took over Chipotle when they had all these E. coli issues, food safety issues. And Chipotle has been kind of a stock darling, Rahel, and it really trades like a tech stock, and that's why you see this big move in the market today for Starbucks. So, people are very excited and eager for Brian Niccol to take over at Starbucks. But, I think it also really shows just how much difficulty Starbucks has had recently and at a tumultuous time.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It's interesting. I heard one of the board members of Starbucks this morning say on one of the financial media networks that Niccol has a proven track record of having been there, having done that, and as you said, turning companies around. We'll see if he can pull it off with Starbucks, and we'll see if those lattes become a little bit more affordable for some of us.
Nathaniel Meyersohn, thank you.
All right. And one more thing, it's never too early to celebrate, speaking of coffee, pumpkin spice. We will check out what's on the menu for some U.S. retailers in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLOMON: All right. Before we go, one more thing. U.S. retailers are releasing their fall-themed lineups. Yes, we are already talking about fall a bit early this year. And of course, pumpkin spice is back in the spotlight. Starting September 1st, IHOP will launch pumpkin spice pancakes and cold foam cold brew. This week also, Krispy Kreme rolling out the orange carpet for pumpkin spice cake donuts and lattes. All right. It's here before you know. It follows you.
We know your time this money. So, thank you for spending some time with me today. I'm Rahel Solomon in New York. Stick with CNN. One World is coming up next.
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