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Hurricane Milton Upgrades To Category 5 As Florida Braces; Hezbollah Supports Ceasefire Efforts In Lebanon; Harris Embarks On Media Interview Blitz As Polls Show Her Tied With Trump; New Book Claims Trump Spoke Seven Times To Putin Since Leaving White House; Forecasters Warn of Life-threatening Storm Surge, Flooding; 14 States Sue TikTok Over Alleged Harm to Kids' Mental Health; Concern Over Reading Books; Exploding iPhone Rumors Spread on Chinese Social Media. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 09, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Paula Newton. Ahead right here on CNN Newsroom, bracing for catastrophe. Major evacuations are underway as Florida braces for hurricane Milton, but despite all the warnings, some residents are staying behind.
Now for the first time, a top Hezbollah official is supporting a ceasefire with Israel as the IDF expands its ground operations in southern Lebanon, plus college students are struggling to read books. We'll discuss why technology isn't the only thing getting in between them and a novel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with Paula Newton.
NEWTON: So right now, Florida's heavily populated Western Gulf Coast is bracing for a direct hit from one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes to ever form. Now, in the latest update, just over an hour ago, Milton had weakened slightly, but is still a rare Category 5 strength. Landfall is expected late Wednesday or very early Thursday, potentially as a category three. Milton is still forecast to double in size, meaning the destruction will be far more widespread.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A local emergency currently exists quickly securing your home or business. And safely evacuate the area.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: As you can hear there, officials have done all they can to warn residents in the path of the storm to head to safer areas. As of Tuesday, nearly 20 million people in Florida were under hurricane or tropical storm warnings. That covers almost the entire population of the state, and of course, now millions are under either mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders, and many this is good news, have taken that to heart.
The interstates packed with traffic for a second straight day now, and many gas stations have been running out of fuel, a major concern with Milton and all the debris that's already been left behind by hurricane Helene, which hit just two weeks ago.
Many fear that debris could become dangerous projectiles when Milton's powerful winds come ashore. One Florida lawmaker says the damage will be catastrophic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHY CASTOR, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: This will be the biggest catastrophe in the state of Florida ever, because it's a double whammy on the heels of Helene. Helene was a surge without much rain, without much wind, but Milton is a monster. We're going to have flash flooding. We're going to have roofs ripped off, and the National Hurricane Center says many of the areas will be uninhabitable after this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: But even with all the warnings, the size and intensity of this storm and all the damage they've already faced from Helene, some residents are still staying put, as CNN Randi Kaye reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIMOTHY DUDLEY, DIRECTOR, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: This may be the worst storm that we've seen in 100 years to hit West Central Florida.
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The West Coast of Florida has barely cleaned up from Hurricane Helene, as this monster hurricane takes its aim at Florida.
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Most important message today for all those who may be listening to this in the impacted areas, listen to the local authorities.
KAYE (voice-over): A major hurricane hasn't made a direct hit on the Tampa Bay area since October of 1921.
JANE CASTOR, TAMPA, FLORIDA MAYOR: Helene was a wake up call. This is literally catastrophic, and I can say without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die.
KAYE (voice-over): A very real sense of urgency to leave before it's too late.
SHERIFF CHAD CHRONISTER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Don't gamble with your life or the lives of your loved ones. The time to get out is now.
KAYE (voice-over): This area could see storm surge of up to 15 feet. BRUCE RECTOR, CLEANWATER, FLORIDA MAYOR: If you choose to stay in
evacuation area, you're going to die.
KAYE (voice-over): Milton so massive, it's moved even this veteran Florida meteorologist to tears.
JOHN MORALES, WTVJ METEOROLOGIST: Just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped -- it has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours.
KAYE (voice-over): Roads are clogged as residents heed the warnings to evacuate. The search for gasoline getting more difficult as some gas stations here are starting to run out of fuel, and for those who are staying a rush on water and plywood as residents make last ditch efforts to board up businesses and homes.
KT Curran and her husband Chris have lived on Siesta Key, an island off Sarasota for the last 25 years, she evacuated for Helene, but her husband stayed behind to ride out the storm.
KT CURRAN, SARASOTA, FLORIDA RESIDENT: That night, he got no power. He had no phone, and we lost touch with him, and we found out the next day, there was a five foot surge of water in the house, and he was all night in the pitch dark in five foot of water.
[01:05:00]
And he sat there for hours on the top of a neighbor's high house, until the water went down a little, and then went back in the house and laid on a wet bed until light came up.
KAYE (voice-over): They lost all of their belongings, and the house now has to be gutted due to mold in the walls. Now staring down hurricane Milton, the couple has still decided to stay this time in a friend's condo on the ninth floor of a building in downtown Sarasota, which has windows built to withstand a category five hurricane.
CURRAN: Now, as this hurricane is barreling down directly on our community, it feels like maybe Helene was just a rehearsal for what's to come.
KAYE (voice-over): Looking out the window of the condo where she'll ride out Milton, she wonders if they've made a mistake staying put.
CURRAN: They're talking possible 15 foot storm surge. None of us in 100 years have seen anything like this. It is shocking.
KAYE: And while many of the residents have evacuated from Sarasota, this is what's left behind their belongings in the street left behind by Helene just a couple of weeks ago. You have a refrigerator, a dresser, a china cabinet, couches. We see this all around the neighborhood, on the streets as we drive around.
So this is a real concern, that many of this could become projectiles, whether or not Sarasota gets a direct hit or not, or certainly this could be taken in the flood waters. So certainly a big concern for the people here. Randi Kaye, CNN, Sarasota, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Joining me now is Denis Phillips. He is chief meteorologist with our Tampa affiliate, WFTS. Listen, Denis, we're leaning on you here for Tampa, this could be the worst storm in a century. What are you seeing, and how would you describe what the city is facing over the next few hours and days?
DENIS PHILLIPS, CHIEF METEOROLOGIST, WFTS: I mean, you're at the last major hurricane, Paula, to hit this area, 1921 so folks here aren't really used to it, and there has been, I don't want to say a sense of panic, but certainly got their attention. We had mass evacuation orders. Most of Pinellas County evacuated.
And the big question is, where's the surge going to be? I mean, I think Floridians are used to hurricanes coming through, you know, but not ones that are cat five, even though this one's expected to drop down to a cat three by landfall. That still wins greater than we've seen in again, over 100 years, gas lines, the things that we've just never experienced.
Back, you know, when Irma came through and Ian, there was a lot of evacuations. But this one, you know, it just has that feel there's something about it, that it's really getting people's attention. I don't think many people are ignoring this one. They're preparing the best that they can.
NEWTON: And clearly they should not. Now, when you look at the wind, the rainfall, the storm surge, what most concerns you, especially given Tampa's infrastructure, right so much of it just right there, along the bay, nowhere to hide from the storm.
PHILLIPS: Yes, it's the surf. Absolutely. Matter of fact, I'm sure you've noted throughout the evening and in the overnight that there was a wobble in the afternoon hours, and that wobble maybe only was about 10 or 20 miles. But this track has changed. While the earlier on Tuesday, the track was right into the bay. Now the latest track is a little more to the south, between Bradenton and Sarasota. I mean, it's such a fine line. The way the surge is going to work, wherever landfall is just to the south. We're talking 10, 15, 20 miles, is where that worst surge will be, about a 10 to 15 foot surge.
So right now, with that new track and that new little wobble, the bay itself is supposed to be right on the fringe of the highest surge, and I would not be surprised if we get another wobble or two. So while worst case scenario is 10 to 15 feet. There's a lot of indicators right now saying the bay itself might escape the worst of the surge, and much of it might be Sarasota Siesta Key, you know, down to the south.
NEWTON: And we have already seen so many damage in those regions already. I mean, people are really just exhausted. They do not know what will be left. When you look at this storm and the impact it could actually have to the entire west coast of Florida, not to mention the fact that everyone in Florida will be feeling some effects from the storm. How do you think people will cope going forward in the next few days?
PHILLIPS: You know, what makes it so tough is we just got hit two weeks ago with Helene. I mean areas of Pinellas County, which is an extremely populated area, they've had surge unlike anything they've ever seen, literally in their lifetime. And there's a lot of folks that lost everything because that storm came through, and it was 100 miles offshore. They had all that damage with the storm that never got closer than 100 miles.
So imagine a storm that actually makes landfall, a stronger storm, and one that's going to bring that water back in. I mean, obviously the folks, a lot of them, don't even know what to do, because they already lost so much with the last storm. So to say there's panic, absolutely, to say that the wind is also going to be an issue because we didn't get a lot of wind with Helene 65, 70.
[01:10:02]
Floridians in general they're like, all right, I can do a 65, 70. But right now it's 165 and you're talking about something that we've never experienced before. I will tell you a lot of people did evacuate this go around. This storm really got their attention.
NEWTON: Which is great to hear from first responders. I mean, look, Denis, a lot of people, even if they're not in Tampa, will now be leaning on you to wherever they've evacuated to really get them through the storm, in terms of really trying to describe what's happened and how it hits. When it gets closer to landfall, what exactly will you be looking for?
PHILLIPS: So as it approaches we're looking for that little wobble. Most of the time, I mean, I've worked in this market 30 years, and I'll tell you, when you get storms coming in from the south like this is for whatever reason, and by the way, it's not predictable. Models aren't going to show it, but for whatever reason, you get a little wobble that kicks over to the right as a storm approaches. It might only be 10 or 15 miles. You say, Well, that's no big deal.
10 or 15 miles might be the difference from Sarasota to Siesta Key or Bradenton to Sarasota, and it makes it challenging for these folks, because it's such a close call. I mean, this is when we tell you, don't look at the middle line. Look at the whole code of uncertainty to determine whether or not you're going to evacuate or not.
And I will tell you, like my family, they evacuated from Pinellas County. They drove to Jacksonville. It's usually about a three and a half hour drive. Took them 11 hours to get there last night, because the entire roads there was everybody was on the road. So again, the good news is people are taking notice and they are evacuating. The bad news is is the traffic was insane and it was still like that tonight.
NEWTON: Yes. And better, they evacuated. Spare thought for everyone who has, you know, kids, pets and obviously, people who maybe aren't feeling that well, who had to make this, you know, this evacuation work, we're glad they did. Denis, we'll continue to check in with you, and obviously pray this storm is nowhere near as historic as it's looking like right now. Denis Phillips for us from WFTS.
PHILLIPS: Appreciate it.
NEWTON: Appreciate it.
A top Hezbollah official is saying, for the first time, the group supports a ceasefire with Israel, even without an end to the fighting in Gaza, and it comes as Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon have expanded to the west. That's despite the IDF claim that its campaign would be limited.
Israeli air strikes meantime hit Hezbollah targets in southern Beirut overnight. Lebanese state media report massive destruction, including the collapse of four residential buildings. Hezbollah is pushing back on the Israeli Prime Minister's claim of success.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: You degraded Hezbollah's capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah's replacement. And the replacement of his replacement.
Today, Hezbollah is weaker than it's been for many, many years. Now, you, the Lebanese people, you stand at a significant crossroads. It is your choice. You can now take back your country. You can return it to a path of peace and prosperity.
SHEIKH NAIM QASSEM, HEZBOLLAH DEPUTY LEADER (through translator): They are the ones who want to exterminate everyone who stands in their way, everyone who says, we have rights. They want to subject all the surrounding countries and peoples to their policies and orders. This will not happen.
I would like to reassure you our capabilities are fine, and what the enemy said about our capabilities being affected is a delusion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Iran's President is accusing Israel of ignoring the rules of war, and he's criticizing the U.S. and Europe for supporting what he calls a barbaric government. CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On the ground here in Iran, among some of the people that we've been speaking to, there is, of course, a good deal of concern, not necessarily about an Israeli strike that, of course, potentially could still happen, but about generally, the tensions that are currently going on in the Middle East and all this possibly getting out of control, and in the end, possibly even pitting the United States and Iran against one another.
At the same time you do have some pretty tough rhetoric coming from Tehran against the Israelis. The Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, he warned the Israelis not to underestimate Iran's steadfastness when it comes to the support for the Palestinians.
He also spoke about a possible Israeli strike on Iranian territory, warning the Israelis against that as well, saying that there would be a crushing blow from the Iranians coming in return. Then you have Iran's President, Masoud Pezeshkian, who also ripped into the United States and the Europeans for their support of Israel. Here's what he had to say.
MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Europe and America have placed a barbaric government here, and some people who claim to support human rights defend it. It doesn't observe any human limits. It easily bombards women, children, elderly and young people.
PLEITGEN: One of the things that you see a lot of when you travel around the country.
[01:15:00]
Here in Iran right now, as you see a lot of billboards and posters talking about support from Iran's leadership and, of course, the Iranian nation for Hezbollah. There's a lot of posters that we saw with Hezbollah flags saying underneath them, Hezbollah is alive, of course, playing on the fact that so many Hezbollah leaders have been killed in the past couple of weeks, but the Iranians still continuing to support Hezbollah.
One of the other things that, of course, is key in all of this right now is that the very unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran that conducted those missile strikes against Israeli territory about a week ago, that is the same unit that right now, no doubt, is on high alert, because it's also responsible for the air defenses here in this country. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Top U.N. officials are raising concern that Lebanon could become another Gaza. A spokesperson for the Human Rights Commissioner, says civilians are paying the ultimate price with destruction everywhere. A million people displaced, and hospitals and schools closed. He also says Israel is using the same means and methods of warfare in both conflicts.
And now, a year into the war in Gaza, the Israeli government's objective of defeating Hamas still seems far from reach. Israel is now ramping up military activity in the Enclave, announcing new operations and civilian evacuation orders the war has taken, as we've been showing you here, a staggering toll on civilians, with many of the victims being Gaza's most vulnerable, the children. CNN's Nada Bashir has more now, but a warning her report contains disturbing images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Where is the world? Look at this. This man shouts. Beside him, two young boys wounded in an Israeli strike left bleeding out on the cold tiles of the hospital floor, a scene of chaos and anguish that has played out day after day in Gaza now for an entire year.
These are all civilians, this father says, look at this child. Does he look like a fighter to you? Across the ward, this little girl is left shaking and calling out for her parents. Outside, another unbearably familiar scene, the body of a limp child being rushed into the already overrun hospital.
This little girl is three-year-old, Hanan. She was pulled from the rubble of her now destroyed home in central Gaza. Her injuries are so severe that we've had to blur part of this footage. Against all odds, doctors were able to save Hanan's life, but they had no choice but to amputate both her legs.
Hanan's one year old sister, Misk (ph) was also severely injured, like her sister and so many other children in Gaza, she too has had to undergo an amputation. Both now robbed of their ability to play like they used to, and in many ways, their innocence, too.
Mama, she calls out. Misk (ph) is too young to know that her mother, Sheama (ph), has been killed. Relatives say it's unclear whether their father, who is still in intensive care will survive. I don't know how Hanan will continue with her life without legs, without her mother, with all the pain that she has suffered, Hanan aunt says.
In the ruin of what once was Hanan and Misk (ph) home, survivors comb through bloody debris, gathering fragments of flesh and bone with their bare hands. Many were killed and injured in the blast, Muhad (ph) says. The majority of them were women and children. The whole place has been destroyed.
In just one year, more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed. Among them, over 16,000 children, according to the Palestinian health ministry, the data is staggering, and has even led the UN's chief to describe Gaza as a graveyard for children, as Israel's blockade on Gaza continues and as famine now advances across the strip, the U.N. has warned that more than 8,000 children have already been diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition.
Medical supplies are also scarce, posing a huge challenge to doctors operating under the most difficult of circumstances, with thousands of children injured and having to undergo amputations, in some cases, even without anesthesia.
The reality on the ground is hard to ignore, and yet, a year on, the people of Gaza are still begging for the world to take notice and to take action. For Gaza's children, an entire generation has already been lost to the brutality of a war they had no part in. Nada Bashir, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:22:07] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, "THE LATE SHOW" HOST: People are calling it the vibe election, everybody, the vibes were all good, but elections, I think, are one on vibes, because one of the old saws is I, they just want somebody they can have a beer with.
So would you like to have a beer with me? So I can tell people what that's like. OK. This was -- now we asked ahead of time, because I can't just be giving a drink to the Vice President. I'd say, let's ask. You asked for Miller pilot. I'm just curious.
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. PRESIDENT: OK, the last time I had beer was at a baseball game with Doug. OK. Cheers.
COLBERT: OK. So cheers. There you go. There you go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Vice President Kamala Harris there cracking open a cold one with the Late Show Host Stephen Colbert. Now, really, you have to note here, right, that what she's drinking is Miller High Life. It's made in Milwaukee, in the swing state of Wisconsin, which is part of the so called blue wall, Harris is trying to win. That's what we call product placement.
That appearance was the latest in a string of high profile Harris interviews this week. Polls show the Democratic presidential nominee is yes, still neck and neck with Donald Trump in the race for the White House. CNN's Eva McKend has a closer look now at Harris's campaign efforts to try and pull ahead.
(BEGIN VIDETAPE)
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vice President Kamala Harris in the midst of a media blitz as the Democratic presidential nominee tries to reach as many voters as possible in the coming weeks of a campaign that is exceedingly close.
HARRIS: It is Good to be with you.
MCKEND (voice-over): Among the flurry of unscripted interviews, most of them on nontraditional news shows, including an appearance on The View, where Harris was asked if she would have done anything differently than President Joe Biden.
HARRIS: There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of, and I have been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact.
MCKEND (voice-over): Harris later pointed to one way she would differ from Biden if elected.
HARRIS: I'm going to have a Republican in my cabinet. Because I don't -- I don't feel burdened by letting pride get in the way of a good idea. MCKEND (voice-over): The Trump campaign quickly seized on the Vice President's comments, saying in a statement, if you're a voter who wants to turn the page from Joe Biden's failed economy, open border and global chaos, then Kamala Harris is not the candidate for you.
With four weeks until Election Day, Harris also calling out the former president's series of falsehoods about the federal response in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
HARRIS: It's profound, and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly, callousness. This is so consistent about Donald Trump. He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level.
MCKEND (voice-over): In addition to The View, Harris also sitting Tuesday with Howard Stern and late night host Stephen Colbert, following a wide ranging interview with CBS's 60 Minutes.
[01:25:10]
This section posted online.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which foreign country do you consider to be our greatest adversary?
HARRIS: I think there's an obvious one in mind, which is Iran. Iran has American blood on their hands. OK. This attack on Israel 200 ballistic missiles. What we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power that is one of my highest priorities.
MCKEND (voice-over): Harris telling Stern the high stakes of the election is causing her to lose sleep.
HARRIS: I literally lose sleep, and have been over what is at stake in this election.
MCKEND: And Harris's media strategy not only to preach to the converted, but to speak to Americans more broadly, as she tries to remind them of some of the chaos that came to characterize the Trump presidency. She argues that he's easily manipulated by dictators and had a botched response to the pandemic. Eva McKend, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Now during her visit to the view which we saw there, Harris proposed for the very first time, broadening government Medicare benefits in order to cover in home health care, which, as we all realize, can be quite costly.
Now, the Vice President's plan is an appeal to Americans caring for both children and their elderly parents. Nearly one quarter of Americans make up this group of caregivers known as the sandwich generation, and Harris' campaign data shows it includes many of the voters who are still undecided.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle. They're taking care of their kids, and they're taking care of their aging parents, and it's just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work. We're finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income. What I am proposing is that, basically, what we will do is allow Medicare to cover in home health care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Harris's running mate, meantime, says America's process for picking presidents, quote, needs to go. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called the abolishment of the electoral college during a fundraiser, called for the abolishment of the electoral college during a fundraiser in California. He says the winner of presidential elections should be determined by a national popular vote. But acknowledged, quote, that's not the world we live in.
Now the Electoral College was written into the U.S. Constitution and would be extremely difficult to change. The framers feared voters would form factions and make uninformed decisions. So when Americans go to the polls, technically they are voting for their state's electors, who then vote for president and vice president.
Legendary journalist Bob Woodward has captured a rare look behind the scenes at the highest levels of global politics. His new book called "War" reveals conversations from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, often about or involving other world leaders.
Now, he describes previously unknown details about the relationship between former President Trump and Vladimir Putin, including a secret shipment of COVID-19 testing supplies that Trump sent to the Russian president at the height of the pandemic. Jamie Gangel has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: These are never before revealed phone calls that Woodward is reporting about between Trump and Putin, including this verbatim conversation where they discuss what you mentioned that President Trump apparently secretly sent the Russian president this scarce shipment of COVID test machines for his personal use.
So here is the exchange from the book. Putin, please don't tell anybody you sent these to me. Trump, I don't care. Fine. Putin, no, no, I don't want you to tell anybody, because people will get mad at you, not me. They don't care about me. Former President Trump today denied sending the test to Putin. President Biden, reacting to the reports that Trump had sent these according to Woodward said, quote, what the hell is wrong with this guy meeting Trump?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Thanks to Jamie Gangel there. Now, Hurricane Milton is on track to hit Florida's gulf coast as a major storm just in a matter of hours. When we return, the latest forecast and the challenges the state will likely face long after landfall.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:32:06]
PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Paula Newton.
Time is ticking for people on Florida's Gulf Coast to evacuate or be prepared for Hurricane Milton, which is due to make landfall sometime in the next 24 hours.
Traffic cams from Florida's Alligator Alley show what appears to be an endless stream of brake lights. You see them there as residents attempt to flee to safety.
Meanwhile, cities and counties in Milton's path are preparing for the worst and implementing curfews for those either choosing to stay or unable to leave.
All right. Now time to go to CNN meteorologist Chad Myers for our latest forecast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Still a major hurricane right now, still a very strong storm headed toward the West Coast of Florida and likely still will be a major hurricane at landfall.
Will still have to see what happens, how far it goes to the north or to the south depending on where this really affects Tampa or places to the south of Tampa, which would be the middle of the cone.
But you can't look at the middle of the cone, you have to look at the entirety of it because it could go left or it could go right. If you are on the right side of that cone in the right side of the eyewall landfall, that's where the real problems will be with 10 to 15 feet of storm surge. If you're on the left side, that number goes down dramatically.
Still hurricane warnings though, are in effect right now, and we'll see 74 to 110 mile-per-hour winds all the way across the state. And yes, you see those Category 3 or higher, at least close for Fort Myers all the way to about, I would say Tampa Lakeland. We'll certainly see those types of winds and you will, without a doubt lose power with that type of wind field.
There goes the wind field for all the way off the East Coast and the heavy rainfall as well, probably somewhere between 8 and 12 inches of rainfall in places that could make freshwater flooding without a doubt.
And here you see the high risk of that freshwater flooding. Only 4 percent of the days, and one of them is today. Only 4 percent of the days of the year have this rating of high. But we have 40 percent of the depths (ph) happening on those days.
Here's the storm right here. It's still a very impressive-looking storm. We'll have to see what it looks like when daylight comes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Joining me now is Eric Silagy. He is the former chairman and CEO of Florida Power and Light. And Eric, not too long ago, this storm and its aftermath would have been resting on your shoulder.
So if you're looking at this monster storm, what is Florida facing as it tries not only to keep the power on, but restore power when this storm finally does pass?
[01:34:51]
ERIC SILAGY, FORMER CEO, FLORIDA POWER AND LIGHT: Yes. Paula, this one is going to be a really challenging storm both from a standpoint of the fact that it's a monster in and of itself, Category 5 right now.
But hopefully the predictions hold and it does dissipate. But regardless, it's going to be a major impact on the state, right on the heels of a storm that hit us just a few weeks ago, Hurricane Helene and a lot of rain in weeks in between.
So we've had ground that's saturated, a lot of storm surge as it hit the western part of Florida, the west coast of Florida two weeks ago.
A tremendous amount of debris that is still piled up on the sides of the roads that unfortunately can become a projectile pretty quickly with these winds. And the predictions of again significant storm surge going forward.
NEWTON: When you were in your previous role as chairman what did the worst-case scenario look like? And does this resemble it in some ways? And again, we all hope that that does not come to fruition.
SILAGY: Yes. You know, there are a lot of events that are coming together here to make it very, very challenging and difficult. We drilled and trained as a company all year long for storms. You always hope that you never got a big one, but you always planned for it.
It's always a challenge when you have kind of 1 or 2 events, or 1, 2, 3 where these storms have a tendency to come in waves.
And ones that cut across the state or in Florida's case, ones that start in the south and move north are always very challenging because it's a very big state with a lot of population, a lot of density of people that live on the coastlines.
And it's challenging to get as many crews that you needed to come in because they all have to flow from the north, south, and from outside of Florida.
So there's a lot of -- a lot of challenges yet to plan for, and scenario-play and prepare for which we did. And I'll tell you what the industry does. Utility workers understand what's ahead. They understand what's at stake. And they have a mindset of a duty to serve.
So I'm confident that we've got the best folks with the best training ready to go. But we also shouldn't downplay the fact that the challenges in this one are going to be significant.
NEWTON: Right. To diminish it in any way. I mean, as you said, they know what's in front of them and it's a challenge perhaps that no one in Florida has dealt with so far, at least not in recent history.
I want to ask you about, are their infrastructure plans already in the works in Florida so that utilities can better adapt to these storms. We all understand that the power might be out for one or two days, but when it starts to lean into a week, two weeks, three weeks -- I mean, that really compromises lives and livelihoods.
SILAGY: Well, that's absolutely right. And Paula, look, I will say that I said often to regulators and government officials both in Washington and Tallahassee and elsewhere there's no such thing as a hurricane proof utility.
You really can't afford that, but you can do a lot to harden the system and to make it much more resilient.
And Florida is actually way ahead of the curve in this. As an example, at Florida Power and Light we focus on our transmission system starting many years ago. And as of a couple of years ago, we had removed every wood pole out of the transmission system. That's 8,000 miles. That's now all concrete, all steel.
More than half of the system that's on the distribution is underground. Hundreds of thousands of smart devices, smart grid devices were installed throughout the system. And everybody at least on the Florida Power and Light system, has a smart meter.
All that comes together to really make a difference in being able to understand who's out, why they're out, and what's needed to get them back up as quickly as possible.
But again, Mother Nature will always throw you curveballs.
NEWTON: Yes.
SILAGY: Every storm is different and you know, I learned so much in the 21 storms I was responsible for. Everyone was different. We also responded to storms all over the country to help others and we learned from those as well.
And you take those lessons learned, you apply them, and then you deal with the unexpected.
NEWTON: Right. And we will be leaning of course, on all of those preparations going forward in the coming days.
Eric Silagy, thank you so much. You've really given us a lot of insight into what they're up against.
SILAGY: My pleasure. I'm sorry it's under these circumstances, but nice speaking with you.
Now an aquarium in Tampa meantime is taking steps to make sure a colony of African penguins will stay safe during the storm.
[01:39:45]
NEWTON: On Tuesday, workers loaded the penguins -- they're adorable -- into crates and carts and transported the birds from their home on the first floor to a temporary shelter on the second floor to avoid possible storm surge.
Aquarium staff say other animals on the ground floor of the building have also been moved to temporary second floor locations.
And we certainly hope that the staff is also staying safe there.
Coming up for us, some elite U.S. colleges are cutting back on the number of books students are required to read -- read each semester. What's behind the recent trend? We'll have that after the break.
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NEWTON: New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control shows a link between social media use and mental health among teens. Now, the CDCs new Youth Risk Behavior Report surveyed 155 schools right across the country. The data reveal more than three in four high schoolers are frequently online using social media several times a day with about 30 percent tapping in more than once an hour.
The report also found that 43 percent of students are very active on social media, said they felt persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness compared to 32 percent who use it less often.
And meantime, a multi-state effort is underway to hold TikTok accountable for its impact on children. 14 U.S. states have filed lawsuits against the social media platform, accusing it of deploying addictive features to keep children watching.
CNN's Clare Duffy has our report.
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CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes. These lawsuits take aim at a wide range of TikTok's business practices and features that these attorneys general say can harm young users' mental health and well- being.
Things like the endlessly scrolling feed that they say can keep users scrolling to see what the next video is going to be. Late night notifications that can interrupt teens' sleep.
And they claim that TikTok has failed to do enough to address so- called TikTok challenges. These viral video trends where teens try to replicate videos created by other users and can sometimes be encouraged to engage in dangerous behavior like riding on the outside of a subway train. That's a stunt known as subway surfing.
And the New York complaint points out that a New York teen was killed doing this earlier this year. And that his mom found videos on his TikTok feed promoting this kind of activity.
Now, TikTok has repeatedly said that its platform is safe for children. This is not the first time that it's faced claims like this.
A spokesperson told me today that the company strongly disagrees with the claims and they pointed to new features that the platform has rolled out in the past few years. Things like a default screen time limit for teens, default privacy protections for teens under the age of 16, and parental oversight tools.
But these state attorneys general clearly think THAT those things are not enough.
Clare Duffy, CNN -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: The District of Columbia attorney general meantime is involved in the case and spoke to CNN earlier on the need to hold social media companies accountable.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN SCHWALB, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: TikTok's platform is like digital nicotine. It's an addictive and dangerous platform that is intended to have young people, teenagers spend as much possible time with their eyeballs glued to the screen.
It's an exploitive model in the sense that we know that TikTok wants young people watching TikTok because it drives ad revenue. With so many young people being put at risk every day, their mental health and well-being at risk. Some of the brain science tells us that as the brain is developing, the damage being done to young people could be permanent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Now some college students are apparently not prepared to read entire books. Professors at elite universities across the U.S. say over the past decades students are overwhelmed when assigned to read entire books.
That's according to an article in the November issue of "The Atlantic". A Princeton historians said his students arrive on campus with a narrow vocabulary and less understanding of language than they used to have.
And a Chinese literature professor at the University of Virginia finds his students shutting down when confronted with ideas they don't understand. He says, "They're less able to persist through a challenging text than they used to be."
Rose Horowitch is an assistant editor at "The Atlantic" and wrote the article, "The elite college students who can't read books". Rose to say, we're intrigued, is really underestimating how we feel about this. Because we were both alarmed and really curious about what you wrote.
Can you describe the trend that you noticed and that you've written about.
ROSE HOROWITCH, ASSISTANT EDITOR, "THE ATLANTIC": Yes. So I spoke with 33 professors, many of them at the top universities in the United States.
And over and over they were saying that they noticed a clear change in their students in the past ten years. And it wasn't a change in literacy in the way that we, you know, tend to think about it.
Their students could still read books. They're still could read sentences, they could decode paragraphs, but they struggled to, you know, focus and make their way through a book. They struggled to immerse themselves, you know, in a lengthy text and even to get through a short one.
You know, the chair of Georgetown University's English Department told him that -- told me that her students fail to focus even on a sonnet (ph).
NEWTON: Incredible when you think about that. And just to back that up with stats, I mean, you say that the high school reading stats here, in 1976 about 40 percent of high school seniors said they had read at least six books for fun in the previous year. That's compared to 11.5 who hadn't read any. 2022 and those percentages are completely flipped.
So I ask you, in researching this article, why? Because a lot of people will point to technology or social media. Is that the culprit?
HOROWITCH: Yes. So there's a lot of possible explanations and definitely smartphones and social media, you know, came up a lot in my reporting.
You know, I spoke with psychologists who are saying that they really lowered our threshold for boredom and, you know, made it harder to stick with something that wasn't immediately entertaining or engrossing.
But something that I found really interesting was that as I spoke with teachers in (INAUDIBLE) at middle and high schools, you know, they were saying that they're teaching far fewer books than they used to. And that, you know, these educational initiatives like "no child left behind" and the common core really emphasized standardized tests and informational acts. And so there's been a lot of, you know, emphasis on excerpts and, you know, mimicking the format of standardized reading-comprehension tests. And you know, that means that students just aren't being asked to read books. So when they get to college, you know, they don't know how.
NEWTON: Right. It's incredible to think about that. And there might be some viewers out there thinking right now, ok, so what. So they aren't reading "The Iliad" or "Moby Dick" but to this, the point is that, you know, according to the neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf, you point out so- called deep reading -- sustained immersion in a text stimulates a number of valuable mental habits, including critical thinking and self-reflection in ways that skimming or reading short bursts does not.
So I ask you, what do you think the fallout from all of this will be in the years to come?
HOROWITCH: I mean, I think we still will be seeing that. I mean, I know that the professors that I was speaking with, were trying to figure out how they can maybe do shorter texts and, you know, see if they could get their students immersed in those.
But you know, I think it still really remains to be seen because this is such a recent shift that they're talking about. You know, what ends up coming, you know, as you mentioned reading you know, stimulates a number of valuable mental habits.
[01:49:47]
HOROWITCH: It really helps people, you know, feel empathy and you know, get trained in that kind of sophisticated empathy for someone with a very different life and, you know, who might live in a very different time period than they do. So I think we don't know what happens yet.
NEWTON: Full confession here, I'm having a really hard time just trying to focus on novels or even on nonfiction books sometimes.
And yet we have seen this social media trend, right, that has elevated reading in books, like book talk or book clubs that you see on other social media platforms.
You know, is that also valuable? Does quality also matter? And I mean a lot of young people are reading literature that bespoke to them right? They're not stuck in literature that doesn't speak to them anymore.
HOROWITCH: Yes. And that was something that, you know, came up in my reporting. I spoke with Columbia professor who said that students used to come in saying that, you know, "Wuthering Heights" was their favorite book. And now they're saying something more like "Percy Jackson" or "Harry Potter" or sort of these other young adult books.
And so, you know, the professors that I spoke with did still see a lot of value in that. You know, you can still learn, you know, so much from reading, you know, anything. But they were also discussing how, you know, the way that we sort of transmit, you know, deep knowledge from past generations is in a lot of these books that endure.
And so figuring out a way to, you know, either pass those on or translate them into some form, you know, that people can really access now is, you know, also crucial.
NEWTON: Pass the books, I'll say it.
Rose, I've only got ten seconds. Have you read a good novel. You read a good -- have you burrowed in after reading -- after researching this article?
HOROWITCH: Yes, it definitely made me feel that I need to be reading. So yes, (INAUDIBLE) a lot of grief.
NEWTON: I'm going -- I'm going to endeavor. I'm really going to try because of this interview to get myself going as well.
Rose Horowitch for us, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
HOROWITCH: Thank you.
NEWTON: Coming up, Chinese nationalist influencers are spreading rumors on social media about so-called exploding iPhones. That's just ahead.
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NEWTON: Now most Apple iPhones are made in Chinese factories, but the brand isn't getting a lot of love from Chinese nationalist influencers lately. They're spreading rumors on social media telling people that iPhones can explode.
CNN's Will Ripley tells us what's behind the sudden burst of information.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On China's tightly-controlled social media, censors have allowed this 2011 video of an exploding iPhone to go viral, drawing misleading comparisons to the deadly attacks in Lebanon. Thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies rigged with explosives.
Chinese social media influencers are using the 13-year-old video, spreading rumors about Apple iPhones -- suggesting without evidence ordinary iPhones that haven't been tampered with can be remotely detonated making them deadly weapons.
CHRIS BODEN, YOUTUBER AND HOST @PHYSICSDUCK: You can't just make an iPhone blow up like that without putting explosives in it.
[01:54:45]
RIPLEY: We tracked down the man behind the original viral video, American YouTuber Chris Boden. He says this iPhone was hooked up to a high voltage machine.
BODEN: To make that little iPhone blow up, we had to have a power supply that was bigger than a refrigerator and weighs about half a ton.
RIPLEY: Despite efforts from some Chinese state media to debunk online rumors, fears that iPhones could explode are spreading quickly online.
"It's a very real threat", one user writes.
Another says, "If we want to protect our lives, we should use Chinese products."
Some influencers are encouraging users there's to switch to Chinese brands. Cyber nationalism in China creates fertile ground for false attacks on foreign brands like Apple.
These posts untouched by Beijing's army of online censors.
BOB BAER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: If you had one of these iPhones --
RIPLEY: Former CIA operative, Bob Baer points out, iPhones are primarily assembled in China.
BAER: -- I mean if the Chinese government were involved they can rig any of these phones.
RIPLEY: Baer says there's no evidence any phones are being weaponized.
BAER: Any phone with a chip is insecure. You can blow somebody up if you can put in a detonator and explosives.
RIPLEY: He also says there's plenty of easier ways to kill someone without getting a hold of their phone. He says it's actually impossible for a phone to spontaneously explode without adding explosives. The most it could do was the battery overheat and catch fire.
But that's not stopping a host of conspiracy theories ever since the Lebanon attacks, especially in China, where one construction company has already banned iPhones at work, saying employees could be fired if they bring an iPhone, even offering vouchers to buy a Chinese-made alternative.
Will Ripley, CNN -- Taipei.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: A NASA astronaut has captured a timelapse video of a bright green and red aurora from space. The video of the natural phenomenon was taken from the window of the Endeavor spacecraft on Monday. Matthew Dominick who took the video you see there says the aurora was quote, "amazing" due to the recent solar activity.
I want to thank you for watching. I'm Paula Newton.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with Rosemary Church. That's after a quick break.
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