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Gaza Ceasefire Talks Continue in Egypt; Israel and Hezbollah Exchange Attacks; Russia's Deadly Air Attack on Ukraine; Boeing Starliner Crew Stuck in Space Until 2025; Dr. Fauci Recovers from West Nile Virus; Preventing Mosquito Bites. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired August 26, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: -- really interesting was that even as we saw this very intense exchange of fire yesterday, the parties still met in Cairo to try and push forward these ceasefire negotiations. And that was the best signal to the various participants in these talks, that those talks would still continue despite what we saw yesterday.

However, we don't know that these sides are actually making any real concrete progress towards achieving a deal. A U.S. official claim that there was progress over the weekend, but still no deal in sight as the senior officials who traveled to Cairo yesterday left leaving their technical lower-level working negotiating teams to continue to try and carry the work forward this week.

Those talks are indeed still continuing in Cairo to try and achieve a deal. We know that there are still major sticking points, though. The identities of the Palestinian prisoners who would be released, for example, that's something that's being negotiated right now. But also, of course, that critical issue of Israeli troops being present along the Philadelphi Corridor during the first phase of this ceasefire agreement, that remains a key point of contention between these two sides.

Hamas yesterday continuing to insist that they want to see a deal based on the framework that they agreed to in July, based on the proposal that President Biden put forward back in May with no additional demands that the Israelis have since made. But then, the two sides appear to still be talking at least through the mediators, but just very, very hard to tell whether or not this is all actually going to lead to a deal or not. Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. All right. Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much. Let's bring in CNN military analyst Retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Cedric Leighton, thanks as always for being with us. Good to see you again. What about this exchange that we saw between Israel and Hezbollah over the weekend? What did you make of that?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST AND U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): So, there's several factors that are really interesting, Jim. One of them is the fact that the Israelis used over a hundred aircraft to actually do their preemptive strikes. And it was a very complex air operation that did this. They had F-35s as basically their fifth generation most advanced jet. And they were using those.

They used aerial refueling capabilities and they had a lot of really good precise intelligence, and they meshed all of that together to, in essence, conduct a very preemptive action, which appears to have been quite successful on the Hezbollah side of things. They consider this a success because they were able to fire off a bunch of rockets and missiles. But when it really comes to the -- what we would call the battle damage assessment, it's pretty clear that they really didn't strike any targets of note in Israel. And there were certainly no casualties that we know of at this point.

ACOSTA: Yes. And the U.S. is ordering two aircraft strike groups to remain in the region. What does that tell us?

LEIGHTON: So, what that tells us is that the U.S. is concerned that this could get out of hand. And the reason that we have these carrier strike groups in the Middle East is to make sure that if Israel is threatened again, we could potentially respond or if Iran decides to attack Israel directly, like they did back in April, then what you would see is a U.S. response to help the Israelis defend themselves.

And if U.S. forces were attacked somehow, then those forces that are in the carrier strike groups could be used in conjunction with the air forces that are already in the region to respond to that as -- in that case.

ACOSTA: And I do want to pivot to Russia's attack overnight in Ukraine. President Zelenskyy says Russia launched more than 100 missiles, 100 drones on more than a dozen regions. Obviously, the Russians are not happy about the Ukrainians moving into Russian territory. Russia apparently targeted civilian infrastructure, including power grids. Four people were -- are killed, we're told. What's going on? I mean, what do you make of this? I mean, you have to wonder, are we seeing the beginning of a major escalation?

LEIGHTON: It's a potential. It definitely is a potential, because what the Russians are thinking about is how do we get the Ukrainians out of Kursk?

ACOSTA: Right.

LEIGHTON: Or, here's the other part of it, could we drag the Ukrainians in further and kind of do a repeat of what happened to Napoleon or what happened to Hitler -- the century before that. So, what the Ukrainians are probably smart enough not to go that far into Russia -- on the other hand, what the Ukrainians are trying to do is they're trying to get a bargaining chip.

And the territory that they've captured, as well as the soldiers that they've captured, have become a bargaining chip for Ukraine, and then they have already exchanged some prisoners, 115 each side in the last prisoner exchange. So, that does make a difference for both sides in this case. ACOSTA: Yes, and Ukraine has been expecting a response from the Russians in a major -- the Kursk region when this has been, I mean, a huge tactical success thus far.

[10:35:00]

LEIGHTON: Thus far, yes it has. And, you know, keep in mind, another part of this is the civil governance part of this. Ukraine has established a civil military government for the Kursk region. And that is pretty remarkable because that means that they want to stay there, and they're going to use this as a bargaining chip for as long as --

ACOSTA: I mean, it echoes of what the Russians have done in Ukraine.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely.

ACOSTA: Yes.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely. And yet, the difference is this, the Ukrainians are pretty smart when it comes to relationships with the civilian population and every Russian that we've had so far talk about this, every Russian in the Kursk occupied areas has had positive things to say about the Ukrainian military. So, that becomes a very interesting counterpoint to the negative information that we get from the Russians when they go in and conduct massacres like they did at Bucha at the beginning of this part of the war or what they're doing in the Donetsk region.

ACOSTA: Yes, certainly not the same on the other side of the court.

LEIGHTON: Not at all.

ACOSTA: All right. Colonel Leighton, good to see you as always. Thanks so much. Really appreciate it. Coming up, stuck in space at least until 2025. Oh, my goodness. Why it could take another six months to get two American astronauts back home. We'll get to this in just a moment. Stay with us.

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[10:40:00]

ACOSTA: All right. Some more bad news for the crew of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. Their eight-day mission to the International Space Station has now turned into an eight-month ordeal. NASA announced that astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will have to stay up there until at least February of 2025. They've been aboard the ISS since June as Boeing engineers looked into issues with the Starliner during launch. After a formal safety review, NASA determined the duo will hitch a ride on a SpaceX Dragon craft next year.

Joining me now to talk about this retired NASA Astronaut Leroy Chiao and CNN Aerospace Analyst Miles O'Brien. Guys, great to see both of you.

You know, Leroy, you know, we sometimes complain about delays at the gate at the airport, you know, 30 minutes, an hour, hour and a half. That's nothing compared to this.

LEROY CHIAO, RETIRED NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, that's true. This is more like the airplanes going to circle for another six months, right?

ACOSTA: Yes.

CHIAO: Yes. Butch and Suni, though, they are consummate professionals. They certainly weren't expecting this when they launched, but they both flown long duration mission, they know how to operate on the space station, and they're going to be fine. And you know, the bottom line, too, is astronauts like to be in space. And even though this is going to impact their personal plans, you know, it's never bad for an astronaut to be in space.

ACOSTA: Yes, Miles, but how did it come to this? I mean, you know, it must be embarrassing for Boeing that these astronauts are going to be coming home on a SpaceX spacecraft. I mean, that is just unbelievable.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Yes, no one wants to be involved in a Gilligan's Island plot, which is what we've got here. It's a seven-day cruise that extended quite a bit. Yes, for Boeing, this is a big black eye, what they have in the case of Starliner, by any objective measure, is a lemon of a spacecraft.

And you've got thrusters which cannot be relied upon, thrusters which are absolutely essential for the safe return of that capsule. You want to make sure it doesn't come in too hot, or for that matter, skip off the atmosphere of the Earth and never make it home.

So, those thrusters have to fire, and there's no way to predict that they will at this point. And so, this was the only rational decision.

ACOSTA: And, Leroy, why is it taking so long, if you can help us understand that, and what's it going to be like?

CHIAO: Well, sure. You know, part of the problem is it took a long time to troubleshoot the Starliner, to try to recreate the situation on the ground to understand it and figure out how to mitigate those risks. Finally, at the end of the day, the NASA engineers were not comfortable with it, which is why this decision was taken.

And so, now it's a matter of well, you know, you can't just produce another spacecraft quickly. So, what's the most expeditious thing to do? We'll take two crew members off of the four member crew that's going to launch next month, and we'll roll in Butch and Suni to do their duties that they would have been doing aboard the station for the six-month mission, and then we'll bring those four home in February, and that's why the timetable has moved the way it has.

So, they're essentially going to take the place of two of the crew members who are going to launch on Crew 9, SpaceX Crew 9.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, and, Miles, that goes to my next question, which is the ISS equipped for this, you know, to, to deal with two astronauts who weren't going to be there for this amount of time? I mean, I suppose if they're replacing other astronauts on a temporary basis that there's the answer to your question. But I mean, this -- wow. I mean, I can't imagine what's going through their minds.

O'BRIEN: Well, Leroy has some personal experience in this. He was on a mission where they were basically running out of food. So, you should ask him about that.

ACOSTA: Yes.

O'BRIEN: But in this case, these astronauts were told to leave their suitcases behind to make way for a spare part for the International Space Station, the urine recycling system. So, they went up there without a change of clothes.

ACOSTA: Oh, my gosh.

O'BRIEN: Now, since then some cargo missions have arrived. And besides, as Leroy will attest, there's lots of stores. Basically, they're good for four months times four crew members at any given moment. However, Leroy, tell them about what it was like on that diet you had to do.

ACOSTA: Yes, I was going to say, Leroy, what was that like?

CHIAO: Well, yes, actually, when we got on board for Expedition 10, we didn't realize until about a month in or so or a couple months in that our buddies on Expedition nine had gotten into our food. And so, suddenly we had a food shortage.

[10:45:00]

We rationed food for about five weeks, I think, and we had about 1,200 calories of real food. We had plenty of calories because they left us all the candy bars and the desserts, which is good if you're a kid, I guess. But it was sure nice to see that resupply ship arrived.

But as Miles said, there should be plenty of stores on board. Yes, they didn't have much of a change of clothes, but the station has a good supply of just like the blue -- regular blue T-shirts that you don't really see because we put on the nicer shirts when the cameras are on, but they should at least be able to, you know, wear the blue T-shirts around and have a store of clean supplies like that.

ACOSTA: Yes, you can't exactly go to the front desk for an extra toothbrush, I guess, when you're in one of these situations. And it makes me wonder, do they have the ability to wash your clothes up there? I mean, I guess -- forgive me for asking a silly question, Miles, how does that work? I mean --

O'BRIEN: Well, no showers. As Leroy will tell you, you do a lot of wiping down. And the clothes are essentially disposable. There's no washing machine. So, those go out with the --

ACOSTA: No dry cleaner.

O'BRIEN: -- outbound supply ships. Yes, no dry cleaner at all. No.

ACOSTA: Man, oh, man. Leroy, I mean, this is -- you know, this is why we call them astronauts. They are just absolute heroes, everything that they go through. And hats off to these astronauts. They're going to have some stories to tell when they get home, I guess.

CHIAO: Oh, absolutely. You know, you go up, like you said, expecting to stay up there for eight days or so. And you know, I know that they had plans for after coming back and those are all been put on hold. But as I said, it's -- you know, it's OK because these folks like being up there, they like being up on the ISS. And it's an opportunity that they didn't have before. So, you know, you can look at it, you know, glass half full or half empty.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. All right. Very good. Leroy, Miles, we'll focus on the half full. It's a Monday. We need to do that. All right. Thanks to both of you very much. We appreciate it. Get those guys some extra jammies while we're at it. All right. Thanks so much.

In the meantime, new this morning, the captain of a luxury super yacht that sank last week off the coast of Sicily is under investigation for manslaughter and negligence. The yacht sank during a violent storm, leaving seven people dead. Officials are questioning whether anyone warned passengers of the imminent danger. The 51-year-old captain is not in custody, but he cannot leave Italy, we are told, while the investigation is underway.

Coming up, mosquito bites are itchy and annoying, but they can also lead to serious problems. More on the potential threats to your health and how to protect yourself, coming up.

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[10:50:00]

ACOSTA: Dr. Anthony Fauci is now recovering at home after a case of the West Nile virus sent him to the hospital. His spokesperson says the longtime public health official should make a full recovery. CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard joins us now. You know, this just surprised all of us over the weekend that Dr. Fauci was recovering from this. Of course, we wish him well. But how common is this for West Nile virus to send somebody to the hospital like this?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Well, Jim, West all virus itself is actually the most common mosquito-borne disease here in the United States, and symptoms can become severe, especially for older adults. And what we're seeing right now around August and September, this is the time of year where we tend to see high levels of this kind of viral activity.

Symptoms can include fever, headache, body aches. Dr Fauci said in some reports that he felt so fatigued while he was hospitalized. And we also know that while there is no specific antiviral treatment or vaccine for West Nile virus, we know that symptoms can be alleviated with rest, fluids, and pain medications. So, that's kind of the situation we're seeing so far.

But so far this year, Jim, there've been more than 200 cases in 33 states. So, this is something health officials are watching closely. ACOSTA: OK. Yes. So, it is more common than you think. You've got to wear that bug spray. And, Jacqueline, another mosquito-borne disease is causing the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts to close some parks and fields due to a heightened risk of the illness. What can you tell us about that?

HOWARD: That's right. This illness is called Eastern Equine Encephalitis. EEE. And it's actually rare. We see about 11 human cases in the U.S. each year. But in Plymouth, Massachusetts, they are seeing a heightened risk. Symptoms for EEE include fever, chills, body aches, sometimes neurologic disease or inflammation of the brain can occur in some cases. But, Jim, most people actually don't develop symptoms, but this is something that health officials keep a close eye on.

And I will say, when you think about EEE, West Nile virus, I mean, these illnesses are just good reminders for us to do the best we can to avoid mosquito bites since that's how these illnesses spread. So, like you said, Jim, wear that repellent, loose fitting clothing. And if you do have a mosquito bite and a few days later you develop a fever or any symptoms, definitely talk to your doctor just to stay on top of things.

ACOSTA: Yes. All right. Good reminder. Jacqueline Howard, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Overnight, some sad news report. One of the nation's largest local news radio stations aired its final broadcast. WCBS, a New York mainstay for nearly six decades is shutting down as radio stations continue to struggle in the digital age. This is what listeners heard when WCBS signed off for the last time.

[10:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WAYNE CABOT, WCBS 880 NEWSRADIO: So, as we leave the news ecosystem after 57 years of all-news and 100 years of service on New York radio, we implore you to find that next trusted source. Use it. Support it. In word and deed. It is the most patriotic thing you can do and the most satisfying. To paraphrase a CBS news legend, good night and good luck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And of course, those were the famed words quoted from Edward R. Murrow. The station is now WHSQ and hosts ESPN New York Sports Talk Radio. As a former CBS-er myself, my work aired on WCBS. Very sorry to see them go. Godspeed to all the employees there. Appreciate all their fine work.

Coming up, the growing debate surrounding the next presidential debate with both sides arguing about the rules. Will it even happen? We'll talk about that in just a few moments. Stay with us.

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