Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Powerful 7.7 Magnitude Earthquake Hits off Coast of Indonesia; Man Found Alive Four Days after Massive Colombian Earthquake; Tropical Storm Lala Could Hit Hawaii as a Hurricane Saturday; Trump Dismisses Concerns about U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln; Embattled British Professor Found Dead; Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" Lands in China. Aired 3- 3:30a ET

Aired August 15, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello from Hong Kong. I'm Will Ripley.

Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, a massive earthquake unleashing a wave of devastation in Indonesia. Rescuers are digging through the rubble and desperately searching for survivors.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he will declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory. And now Iran is responding.

And "The Odyssey" is now playing on hundreds of IMAX screens across China.

But how is the blockbuster being received by moviegoers there?

(MUSIC PLAYING)

RIPLEY: We're getting new information at this hour on the number of dead in that massive earthquake that jolted south central Indonesia, striking just off the coast. The country's disaster mitigation agency now says at least 14 people are dead. And earlier, Reuters was reporting at least 20 were killed.

These numbers do tend to fluctuate after disasters of this scale, as various emergency services report on their work.

We're also still waiting for word on the number of injuries and the number of missing. Now this 7.7 magnitude quake hit near the island of Flores, which is home to about 2 million people. Authorities lifted the tsunami warning that was issued just after the quake after about three hours. It was a very small tsunami, we're told.

So now the focus is on finding people who might be buried inside these collapsed buildings across this area. CNN's Gage Goulding live in Hong Kong. He's been following this earthquake since really minutes after it happened.

You've been reporting, Gage, on dozens of aftershocks, some quite strong.

How is that complicating the search and rescue right now?

GAGE GOULDING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, there's so many factors. These things are not easy, Will. You know that very well. And you kind of hit it right there. It's hard to not get caught up in the death count number.

But you really have to kind of step aside from that because, you know, hour by hour, things are changing dramatically in these areas. There's a lot of different chefs in the kitchen, if you will, working and getting information out as quick as possible, which is great.

But like you said, you know, now we're at that number of 14. And the aftershocks, yes, that that is another added complication. And if you're not familiar with this region, it's mountainous, it's coastal.

So now you have the -- add in landslides and so on and so forth. So you know, there's two things. One, they have to get to the people that are trapped in the rubble. And second, they need to actually get to them when they're in the rubble.

So trying to traverse the area, one of our team members on the ground there, we're understanding that it's very difficult to get around the downed rock and, you know, so on and so forth.

But some new numbers that we just got, 14 confirmed dead. That's according to the government agency there. There are another 13 injured. And, of course, they made a very clear note that these are all provisional numbers.

Another number that they provided was a total of 74 homes were damaged, 54 of those with severe damage. As you can see some of the video that we're showing you here, just shows catastrophic building collapse. There's a hospital there that we have video of, that shows parts of the wall that was damaged.

In total we understand that there's five different health care facilities and one school that were all damaged in this earthquake here. And the aftershocks subsequently that came, 37 of those, by the way, Will, ranging in magnitude up to 6.2 magnitude.

So there was a significant number of aftershocks, according to information that was provided to CNN.

And one part here that I want to highlight to you is that there was one of those injuries was a priest suffered a broken leg after jumping from a second floor of a building. This is according to an interview with the Associated Press.

So you know, a lot of these folks, they live in this area known as the Ring of Fire, because it's prone for earthquakes. They know what to do when it happens. They know they need to, one, get out of buildings and, two, they need to get to higher ground because you said there was a tsunami warning issued. Water rose about one meter, just over three feet in the area. No other

countries were impacted. But these folks, they know what they do. They've been through this before. But one woman telling CNN that this is the longest and strongest earthquake that she's ever experienced there on Flores Island, Will.

RIPLEY: Yes. It must have been terrifying. And you look at the damage to those buildings.

I'm curious, though, have they been able to reach all the areas that are hardest hit?

Because this is quite mountainous, quite remote, where this quake struck.

GOULDING: You know, that's a good question.

[03:05:00]

And it sounds like a lot of the information that's coming back to the central agencies is kind of like a hub and spoke, right. So it sounds like a lot of the other, you know, regional police departments or substations are trying to reach those areas and come back.

But the video that has been shared with the CNN NEWSROOM, even shows like here, you can see they're working on cutting through rubble here to get to a victim, that person there.

But there's other instances where video has come back into the NEWSROOM, Will, that just shows, you know, the road closed by a massive landslide and then, a little bit later, you can see videos of the bulldozers clearing the landslide.

So I don't believe that they've reached every single one of those areas. And, you know, you have to keep in mind this 48-hour golden window, as they call it. And that's the goal for search and rescue crews to reach everybody that could be potentially trapped in the rubble.

You have 48 hours to do it for the odds of survival. After that, they go significantly down, Will.

RIPLEY: Yes. That earthquake striking very early in the morning. A lot of people asleep in their homes, they now have about four hours or less really of daylight remaining before it turns nightfall. And then that complicates everything.

So Gage, I know you're still going to stay on top of this. Appreciate that live report from Hong Kong. Thank you.

It's been five days now since a 7.4 magnitude quake hit Colombia. And today, that country's president vowed to rebuild the nation's western region. Rescue teams found a man alive in the rubble of a collapsed hotel on Friday.

That is sparking hope that, despite that crucial 48-hour window expiring, that maybe somewhere in all of that destruction, somebody could still be buried alive. That's certainly the hope of family members, who have been desperately asking for rescuers to dig and to find and to do what they can.

As of Friday, officials say 287 people have died. Nearly 400 more remain missing and thousands are injured.

Turning now to those wildfires in Europe that have been forcing Spanish emergency crews to remove relics from a historic monastery. The remains of the first three kings of Aragon were removed from the San Juan de la Pena monastery in northeastern Spain.

The fire started on Monday but it got much more intense on Thursday. That was after high temperatures combined with strong winds and, like a blowtorch, just fueling those flames, firefighters have been working tirelessly to save the monastery.

And the good news as of Friday morning is that it does remain safe and untouched by the fires. Unfortunately, many other parts of Europe have not been so lucky. The record high temperatures and the ongoing extreme drought are feeding wildfires across a good portion of the continent right now.

So let's go to CNN's Stefano Pozzebon, who joins us now live from Rome.

You've been covering these fires.

I'm curious, where is the most immediate danger right now?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this moment, Will, the most immediate danger seems to be in northern Greece and in Croatia, in the Balkan Peninsula, just east of where we are in Italy.

However, what is really making this summer stand apart from other summers, of course, we've also reported on record breaking wildfires across the continent, it's just these two things.

Number one is how widespread this issue is. We're talking about Greece and Croatia from the east. But also, like you said, Spain and Germany, they're battling wildfires, even in Britain and northern France, Belgium. It's really an issue that is hitting the vast majority of the European countries at the same time.

That is, of course, is causing a strain on the resources because we have seen teams of firefighters traveling from one country to another in previous crises in the past years.

The second issue that is really causing concern is that some of these wildfires are hitting regions that are not prone historically to wildfires. Like I was saying, like one of them, one of the most hit regions in France is Brittany, which is on the northwest of the country by the Atlantic coast.

It is a region that historically has been associated with rain and bad weather or even Brittany itself. We have seen two rails to trains being derailed in the last couple of days because of the record breaking temperatures and British wildfires.

Firefighters have also been battling the wildfires in England, which, of course, is not a country that you associated with -- normally with droughts or sunny weather, to be honest, frankly.

So one of the issues that is really causing concerns for the climate scientists that are studying the patterns of these wildfires is just how the new normality is to see record breaking wildfires hitting regions that are not prepared to battle in these issues.

RIPLEY: Well, Stefano, the pictures that are rolling as you're talking are just, you know, imagine it would be terrifying for anybody who's there, whose home is in the potential path of this. And then, of course, all --

(CROSSTALK)

RIPLEY: -- yes. And all of this happening at the height of the European summer travel season. So you have all these tourists that are complicating the situation as well. A lot for you to cover there. Appreciate the update. We'll be checking back in with you as well. Thank you.

Hawaii is preparing for a rare potential hurricane strike this weekend.

[03:10:02]

Tropical storm Lala, now a tropical storm but expected to strengthen into a hurricane, moving closer and closer to the island chain. People have been stocking up at stores as the system picks up strength over warm waters.

As I said, Lala expected to hit hurricane status before reaching the big island in the coming hours, bringing more than 60 centimeters of rain and a storm surge of nearly a meter. Hurricanes have occasionally rarely made landfall on the Hawaiian islands. I'm talking really only a handful of times since record keeping began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM FANENE, HAWAII RESIDENT: I feel like this is the calm before the storm, it's -- it changes so quickly. And all we can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: So Hawaii, we're going to keep monitoring the situation there but we're turning now to the Strait of Hormuz, where we're getting reports of a new attack on a vessel there.

British maritime group says an unknown projectile hit a bulk carrier on Friday. The crew is reported safe. This is happening after U.S. president Donald Trump dropped a bombshell about his plans for the Strait of Hormuz. He said on Friday that he will declare the waterway a U.S. territory.

He didn't explain how. And Iran was quick to respond, saying the strait cannot be seized with a tweet or an aircraft carrier or a campaign speech.

Trump is also dismissing concerns about conditions on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, which is deployed in the region near Iran. It's been in action now for more than 250 consecutive days and there are reports of horrid living conditions and worsening mental health among its crew.

Reporters asked president Trump about that and here was his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Family members of U.S. service members are concerned about the conditions on for the U.S.S. Lincoln --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, no. That ship is moving. No. They're not. That ship is moving right now or very shortly and it's being replaced with another very similar ship.

QUESTION: Has the deployment gone on too long?

Are you working --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: No. No. No. Not nearly long enough. Thank you, everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: CNN has tried following up with the White House about president Trump's statement. Here's CNN's Kevin Liptak.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: After president Trump dismissed some of the concerns about the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln on Friday, I asked the White House whether they wanted to add any context or clarification to what the president said.

And they replied that they were going to let the president's words stand on their own, which is kind of remarkable. And it was clear, as the president was answering these questions, that he was frustrated by them. He kind of snapped at the first question.

And after his last answer, that he thought that the deployment of the Lincoln did not last long enough, he very abruptly turned and walked back toward Air Force One, which isn't his normal mode. He usually answers more than one question in these gaggles.

And the backdrop, of course, to all of this is the growing concerns that you hear inside the administration, that just how long this conflict with Iran has lasted. These historic deployments of these aircraft carriers only underscored

to the American public that the president's initial projection, that the war would last only six weeks, has been wildly wrong.

And it's not the only example we're seeing of the war's length of an intensity, raising some questions about the American military's ability to carry it out much longer.

You also hear concerns about the stockpile of munitions and the worry that you hear from military officials is that, the longer these deployments last, the greater the toll that they will take on both the people aboard but also the ships themselves. You know, the gears start to wear out. Replacement parts are hard to come by.

And even in a statement on Friday from the Navy Secretary, Hung Cao, that was intended in some ways to diminish some of the reporting about the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, he also acknowledged that there had been a small number of mental health cases.

That some of the meal plans had to be adjusted and that, at points, calls home had been limited because of operational security. And all of this, I think, contributes to the reason you hear some American officials now start to talk privately about the need to find some off- ramp to this conflict.

That's something that, for example, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, has been talking about privately with other officials inside the administration. But there really isn't much indication that president Trump is looking to take that off-ramp at the moment.

He said at an event in New York on Friday that he planned to soon declare that the Strait of Hormuz was territory of the United States.

You also heard Pete Hegseth say this week that the U.S. was prepared to enforce the blockade of Iranian ports, quote, "indefinitely."

Of course, all of that would require sustained American military presence in the region, which would be quite a shift for a president who once promised never to enter a forever war.

[03:15:00]

Kevin Liptak, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: Israel's defense minister says it's the police and not the army who should be responsible for law enforcement in parts of the occupied West Bank. The proposed move would be a step toward what some see as Israel's creeping annexation of the territory.

And CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports it comes as Israeli settlers press a days-long standoff at several Palestinian homes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we've stayed in touch with the families inside those three homes that have been besieged by Israeli settlers for the last six days now. And I can tell you that these Israeli settlers are continuing to be in the area around those homes.

Today, once again, they tried several times to erect and actually did erect that tent in front of those homes, including one that is owned by an American citizen. The Israeli military quickly came around and dismantled the tent once again and told the settlers to leave the area.

But this has become a game of cat and mouse, effectively, between these Israeli settlers and the Israeli military in this area. And the real question is what happens once the Israeli soldiers, the additional reinforcements that have been deployed to this area, leave?

Because as of now, we have no expectation that a large group of Israeli soldiers are going to remain in Qusra beyond this weekend. And the question becomes what happens when these settlers, who have shown no intention of slowing down so far, when they continue to come back to the area.

And so, the issue really does not seem resolved, despite the Israeli Prime Minister's office suggesting yesterday that it has been.

In addition to that, we have these statements by the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz saying that he has told the Israeli military to prepare to hand over control of these types of law enforcement issues over Israelis to the Israel police.

The Israeli defense minister's statement critically did not distinguish between areas under Israeli and Palestinian control, which more broadly could raise concerns about an effort to try and extend Israeli civilian law across the West Bank, which would effectively be a move toward annexation.

But the reality here is that no one in Israel really expects these statements by the Israeli defense minister to become a reality. But what it does reflect is the notion that he is trying to, you know, put aside the Israeli military's role in this situation.

He said today the army's role is to combat Palestinian terrorism and not to chase hilltop youth, a term that is used for these violent settlers who've been carrying out these actions in Qusra.

And effectively what it means is that he wants the Israeli military, which is responsible for carrying out for enforcing the law in these areas and then it would hand over these settlers if they detained them to the Israeli police, he is basically sending a message that he doesn't believe it's their responsibility.

But currently it is the Israeli military's responsibility. And what we've seen so far in Qusra and in other areas of the West Bank is that the Israeli military has failed to carry out that responsibility and it is leading, it seems, to the continuation and the escalation of this phenomenon of settler violence in the West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: Jeremy Diamond reporting there.

We're following a tragic ending for a former professor once seen as a bright light in Britain's academic world. And there are unsettling circumstances around his death -- next.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:20:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

RIPLEY: Police say the death of a former Cambridge professor accused of plagiarism is unexpected but not suspicious. Paramedics found Jason Arday unresponsive in London on Friday. He was pronounced dead on the scene. His body was sent to the coroner.

The sociologist had been in the middle of a growing controversy surrounding his career and accomplishments. He was celebrated as the youngest-ever Black professor at Cambridge University but a one-time philosophy researcher and the British press relentlessly questioned his qualifications.

And earlier this month, Arday resigned over allegations of plagiarism. This week, Cambridge said it was investigating Arday, along with Durham and Glasgow Universities.

The suspect in the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO is facing a potential life sentence after pleading guilty on Friday. Luigi Mangione was caught on video gunning down CEO Brian Thompson during an investor conference in New York. That was in December of 2024.

On Friday, Mangione admitted that he shot Thompson and he pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges resulting in death. Now his attorneys are moving to dismiss separate state charges, which include second degree murder.

They say putting Mangione on a state trial would constitute double jeopardy. That's a legal rule that generally prevents the government from prosecuting someone twice for the same crime after acquittal or conviction.

It's one of the biggest summer blockbusters in the U.S.

But will Christopher Nolan's version of "The Odyssey" translate into big ticket sales in China?

The splashy new film debuted across China on Friday on hundreds of IMAX screens. CNN's Mike Valerio took his very own odyssey to the multiplex in Beijing to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Is China the biggest test yet for "The Odyssey" ?

VALERIO (from captions): Why do you want to see "The Odyssey" ?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's already trendy and the reviews are positive. The prerelease promotion was done very well, so I'm very interested in it.

VALERIO: The blockbuster just opened in China, sailing into a market where Hollywood has been struggling to get Chinese audiences into theaters.

Domestic movies now dominate China's box office, a growing trend. Only one or two Hollywood movies will crack the annual top 10 highest grossing list but Christopher Nolan may be different.

MR. HE, BEIJING MOVIEGOER (through translator): I really look forward to seeing how the Director Nolan is going to tell this story.

BRENT LANG, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, INDIE WIRE: Christopher Nolan is now a brand unto himself. People really go out just because Christopher Nolan's name is above the title.

VALERIO (voice-over): And Nolan's films have already made similar box office journeys in China before.

[03:25:03]

"Oppenheimer" made about $60 million here. "Interstellar" and "Inception" were hits, too. On Chinese social media influencers are summarizing Homer's epic poem and key characters to tell those scrolling what they need to know before watching "The Odyssey."

It's playing on hundreds of iMax screens across China and people on their socials are talking about which iMax theaters in their cities offer the best experiences.

Nolan, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron all came to Beijing for a splashy premiere and Nolan's interview with Chinese podcaster Jong Chul went viral, racking up tens of millions of views.

JONG CHUL, CHINESE PODCASTER: Are you a bard for a civilization at dusk?

VALERIO (voice-over): But does all that buzz actually translate into Chinese moviegoers buying tickets?

LANG: The local product has gotten so much better in China and so much more popular that they've gotten a little out of the habit of going to Hollywood films.

VALERIO: "The Odyssey" could help show if Chinese audiences are ready for another Nolan epic and if that could help lead them back to Hollywood -- Mike Valerio, CNN, Beijing. (END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: After months of searching, Brazilian police have recovered eight stolen works by French painter Henri Matisse. The paintings and documents were taken last December from the largest library in Sao Paulo.

Police say the prints, valued at nearly $200,000, were found in a downtown apartment in the city. Five other pieces by a Brazilian artist, Candido Portinari, that were stolen at the same time, remain missing. Police believe they may have been sold.

Archeologists in Turkiye are excavating a new site they believe may be homes dating back some 12,000 years. It comes from the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Gobekli Tepe, in the country's southeast.

Scientists say soil samples taken from inside the site will give them a better idea of how the spaces were used. But they believe the site was an inhabited settlement and not just a place of worship, as they previously thought.

Thanks for watching. I'm Will Ripley, live in Hong Kong. "The Link (ph)" is next. And there's more CNN NEWSROOM coming up at the top of the hour.