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Nevada Faces Wildfire; IndyCars Roar Down D.C. Streets; Kushner And Jeffries Meet Privately; Voters To Head To Polls In South Carolina; Growing Outrage Over Proposed Data Centers; Ukraine Warns Of New Russian Offensive; Hawaii Braces For Another Tropical Storm; Voting For "Fat Marmot Week" Kicks Off Monday. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired August 23, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A pretty special stuff. A new episode of "Decades om Sports" airs tonight at nine o'clock right here on CNN. Thank you so much for joining me this weekend. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "CNN Newsroom" continues right now with Erica Hill.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is "CNN Breaking News."

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks for joining us here in the "CNN Newsroom." I'm Erica Hill in New York. We do begin this hour with breaking news. Authorities believe the wildfire burning through parts of Reno, Nevada was caused by human activity. At this hour, some 90,000 people are being asked to evacuate. The fast-moving Hawk Fire has exploded, now covering more than 13,000 acres. Nevada's governor declaring a state of emergency in Washoe County. Three civilians and three first responders have been injured. There's also reports of multiple power outages.

Joining us now is Reno's fire department chief, David Cochran. Chief, appreciate you taking the time to join us. So, as I noted there, we've been told this is human activity. Is there any indication at this hour that this was intentional?

CHIEF DAVID COCHRAN, CHIEF, RENO FIRE DEPARTMENT: We don't have any indication that it's intentional. We have confirmed, like you said, that it's human-caused, but the specific cause has not been identified yet.

HILL: Yes. We -- as I noted, some 13,000 acres. Ninety thousand people being asked to evacuate. When I last looked, it looked like containment was at zero percent. Is that still the case?

COCHRAN: That is the case. We have crews out working hard all around the fire today. We expect some more erratic fire behavior as the winds come up in the afternoon. But no expected containment yet.

HILL: What has this been like for you given how quickly it seems to have spread, the way it's exploding? Do you have what you need in terms of resources?

COCHRAN: Now, unfortunately, across the west, we're at what's called Preparedness Level 5, which means everything that's available has been committed. Fortunately for us, this is the top priority in the Great Basin region for resources, so we are getting the resources we're requesting. But like everywhere across the west, with these large, large fires and the amount of resources needed, it's hard to address all the needs throughout the west. But this is a priority and, as always, life safety and firefighter safety are going to be our number one priority.

HILL: Yes. Absolutely. In terms of that, we've seen that three civilians and three first responders have already been injured. Do you know if that was directly from the fire? Was that in the process of evacuations? I'm not sure how much detail you have on those.

COCHRAN: I don't have a lot of detail, although the firefighter injuries were related to the fire, of course. A couple of the civilian injuries were as well. Fortunately, to my reporting, none of them are life-threatening.

HILL: That is good news. I mean, as you noted, you are -- you are on high alert. You know, unfortunately, you are well-versed in how to deal with wildfires. Certainly, the season has been incredibly difficult across the west. Can you put into perspective, though, what you are seeing with the Hawk Fire?

COCHRAN: We're seeing some incredible erratic fire behavior, that behavior that many have never seen before. The other thing that's happening is it's extending for a longer period. We're getting that erratic fire behavior into the nighttime and into the early morning hours, which is unusual, and that's what's making this so hard to control and so hard to contain.

HILL: And, you know, for people who aren't familiar, why is that so unusual?

COCHRAN: Because typically overnight, especially in Nevada where I'm working, you'll get the temperature will drop, the winds will drop, and the fire kind of settles down. That allows us to really get after it. It's very hard to attack the fire when there's high wind, high heat in the middle of the day. But when it settles down, we can get after it. That's when we can ramp up that containment. But if the winds don't drop, the temperature doesn't drop, and you're getting that erratic fire behavior, it just makes it harder to get your arms around a fire of this size and this magnitude.

HILL: Yes. It makes a lot of sense. As I noted, 90,000 people have been asked to evacuate. Do you anticipate that that number could go even higher?

COCHRAN: It certainly could, and I don't want to qualify that because fire is its own master. So, we don't -- we predict it, but we can't control it. But we're hoping that the way the fire is expected to move today, the threat will be to less populated areas, so that evacuation number will remain steady or ideally will go down, but probably not for another day or two.

[17:04:56] HILL: Given how, to your point, how erratic this fire is, how quickly moving it is, the way it sort of exploded, have you been able to get a real sense yet of the damage that's being seen on the ground?

COCHRAN: Not yet. I always warn people, you know, especially early in an event like this, you get a lot of reports, but they're typically inaccurate, not by design. You know, it's such a fast-moving, such a dynamic situation that it's hard to get complete, accurate information. So as things settle down and we get actual boots on the ground, professionals evaluating what the damage is. We don't like to give out any specific details, but there certainly has been damage and structures lost, and we'll know more as the fire progresses.

HILL: Yes. Well, I hope that the next time we hear from you, we're able to talk about some more containment. I know this is a lot. I know you're prepared but, still, I'm really grateful for you taking the time to join us during such a difficult period, chief. Thank you.

Well, we are also following developments out of Washington, D.C. A much different story there, where we are seeing a successful, by all accounts, first Indy Grand Prix around the streets of the Capitol. So, that race just ending a short time ago. More than a hundred thousand people on hand, including the president and first lady, gathering to watch 25 Indy cars zoom around. The backdrop, of course, historic landmarks in the nation's capital. Speeds there topping 180 miles an hour.

President Trump also took a ceremonial lap. Not an Indy car, though. Probably would not be approved by the Secret Service there. He, of course, was in 'The Beast." So, you see him taking that first ceremonial lap. This was the last, the final, I should say, event of a series of Donald Trump-approved events to celebrate the nation's 250th birthday.

Brian Todd has been on race duty for the last several days and joins us now. It is amazing how quickly things behind you cleared out, Brian.

(LAUGHTER) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, that's the story really of this hour, how quickly the crowd cleared out and how quickly they've already started breaking this down. Check this out behind me. They've just removed some of the fencing and are taking that away. These concrete blocks right here, they're about one meter tall, and they each weigh about 10,000 pounds. They've started to remove those as well.

That started to -- this breakdown started to occur almost, I wouldn't say seconds after the checkered flag, but maybe just a few minutes after the checkered flag. I'll walk you over here. We're in a grandstand area right here. This area was packed not long ago. That was packed with people. But now, take a look. They are really doing the quick and hard work of getting this all broken down, and they started pretty much immediately, which was pretty impressive.

Now, the logistical operation here, Erica, just astounding. They started this operation to set all this up in late July. By the time this is wrapped up, it's going to take past the first week in September. So, all told, it's going to be about a two-month operation to set all of this up and then break it down before life and traffic return to normal here in the District of Columbia.

But we talked to so many of the, as you mentioned, roughly 100,000 people that they expected here today. We talked to so many of them, and so many of them told us they had just a great and exhilarating experience here. First, they said it was easier than they thought to get in and out of here.

We've covered a lot of these types of events. A lot of the time, there's a security or there's just kind of a long line nightmare at the security checkpoints. Everybody goes through mags and everything. Well, today, fans were telling us it was surprisingly smooth, that they got people through quickly.

There was one fan who told us that where he came in, there was one checkpoint where you just had to flash your tickets, and then they told you, get everything ready because they're going to scan your bag at this other checkpoint.

So, they kind of prepared fans as they moved through the checkpoints, and that made that a lot smoother. And fans were telling us, almost to a person, that they had a pretty good experience getting in and out of here. So, that went very, very smoothly.

You know, this was the brainchild of Penske President Bud Denker, who had the idea for this about a year ago and ran into different bureaucratic snafus in Congress and partisanship in Congress when he actually tried to make part of this track go on to the Capitol grounds. He was so frustrated that he almost scrapped the entire race altogether, he said. But he was convinced, partly by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and others, don't give up on it, just take it away from the congressional grounds, and you won't have to deal with the partisanship and bureaucracy in Congress, and we can get this done by executive order. So, President Trump signed an executive order in January.

Bud Denker then designed a different, maybe a little bit of a tighter course, which we had here. This is the 7th Street stretch here. Turn 4 is just over there. It was 1.7 miles, but it was a very short, tight course. They had to do it 147 times to get to 250 miles. Kyle Kirkwood was the winner a little over an hour ago, and it's amazing just how quickly they've started to break all this down. Erica?

[17:10:02]

HILL: Yes, it is really something. I saw -- I believe it was outgoing mayor, Muriel Bowser, who had said that, you know, the city could really lean into this. I mean, is this something people are talking about, Brian, that there could be another race in Washington, D.C.?

TODD: It's interesting that you mentioned that, Erica, with Mayor Bowser. Yes, she has said that she would love to bring this back. The problem is Mayor Bowser is serving out the remainder of her term, and she's leaving. She has decided not to run again. So, the question is, is the next mayor going to be able to work with, you know, the Penske and IndyCar people to bring this back? But Mayor Bowser does still have a lot of influence here, and she could, you know, kind of push for this to be brought back here.

I think that because of the success of this event and how smoothly it has gone, I think it will be easier to convince everyone involved to hold these more often now. Is it going to be a yearly thing? We don't know, but it really does have a chance of coming back here, I think, because of the success of this. I have to say it was surprisingly seamless from everything we saw.

HILL: Yes. It would be interesting to see what the reaction would be, too, having spent the last week in Washington, D.C. and listened to everybody talk about the traffic issues. It would be interesting to see if that might come into play, Brian. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

TODD: Right. Sure.

HILL: Still ahead this hour, the unlikely meeting between Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the president's son-in-law, Special Envoy Jared Kushner. The new details we're learning about that meetup in New York. Plus, we are live in Hawaii as the islands brace for another potentially dangerous tropical storm. And it is time to get out your brackets. No, it's not March Madness, my friends. It is "Fat Marmot Week." And if you're not playing along, you haven't been paying attention. Lucky for you, we are here to help. And this is not fat shaming a marmot. This is actually about some really important research. We will bring it all together for you right here in the "CNN Newsroom." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:00]

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HILL: There is new reporting this weekend about the president's son- in-law, Jared Kushner, and a meeting with top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries. A source telling CNN Kushner, who is a close advisor to President Trump, met the minority leader privately in New York to discuss how Democrats in the White House might work together on key issues like immigration, housing, and the cost of living. The two had developed a relationship in the first Trump administration when they worked together on federal prison reform.

CNN correspondent Julia Benbrook joins us now. So, this meeting, this was ostensibly a meetup ahead of the potential, as we understand it, for Democrats maybe retaking the House. Just how productive was the meeting?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're learning from a source familiar with the matter that President Donald Trump's son-in-law and close aide, Jared Kushner, recently met with the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries. And during this sit-down, which was first reported by "The New York Times," the two discussed potential ways for the White House and Democrats to collaborate in the future. Some of the top areas of discussion were immigration, housing, and then the overall cost of living.

Jeffries, in a statement about the overall relationship with the administration, said this in part, the American people want bold change and that's what House Democrats will deliver, adding, in every conversation that we have with the Trump administration, we will continue to make it explicitly clear that the affordability crisis is not a hoax and nothing short of transformational policy change is acceptable.

Another important thing to note, that according to a source familiar, Kushner also suggested during this meeting that Jeffries sit down with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, obviously, a key player in everything that takes place here at the White House. And the timing of this meeting, which you alluded to, is important. We are just 10 weeks out from the midterms. So, it leaves the question, could this mean that the White House is potentially preparing for a dynamic shift on Capitol Hill? Well, House Speaker Mike Johnson, for his part, he is already pushing back on that assumption. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE JOHNSON, SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I know Jared is a smart guy, and he hedges bets. But I'm telling you what, you better not bet against the House Republicans. I know Jared has interests in lots of other things going on. He's not really directly involved in the admin, at least in the day-to-day in the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: Right now, Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in both chambers. They are looking to keep that. Of course, Democrats have a different agenda moving forward. But CNN has reached out to the White House for a comment on this meeting and what it might mean.

HILL: Yes. Interesting, too, that it was Jared Kushner. As the House Speaker just pointed out there in that clip that you played, he's not directly involved in the administration or the day-to-day. And yet, Julia, we look forward to more. Thank you.

On Tuesday, President Trump's influence with voters is going to be put to the test once again, this time in South Carolina. Republicans will head to the polls there for the Senate primary runoff election. Now, Trump, of course, has put his support behind the late Senator Lindsey Graham's sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to his seat after the passing of the senator. Trump was in the state on Friday campaigning for her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The problem that we have is they say that Trump does great when he's on the ballot, but when he's not on the ballot, his people don't come and they don't vote.

[17:20:03]

So, what I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot. Just come and vote. It's so important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Republicans in South Carolina have been divided over Graham's Senate bid. So, notably, she was unable to answer a question about Taiwan and the South China Sea during a recent debate. This was earlier this week, on Tuesday. She was asked directly whether Taiwan and the South China Sea were national security issues for the United States. Her answer was that she was not that informed about national security.

Joining us now to discuss, South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick. So, Drew, look, I will say the next day, she owned it. She said, look, I am paraphrasing here, obviously, for what the senator said, but basically said I have a lot of learning to do, I'm going to work on this. Is 30 days really enough time, right, to get up to speed, to be in a place for South Carolina voters to know enough about you to elect you to six years in the Senate?

DREW MCKISSICK, CHAIRMAN, SOUTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN PARTY: Well, that's the thing. We are on a quick timetable here, quicker than we've ever been, to essentially make decision as big as we've made in the last 22 years about who should hold the Senate seat for Republicans here in South Carolina. We're doing that essentially on a, you know, four-week time frame.

And now with this runoff, it's that much more magnified. It's like watching a six-month Senate campaign on the fast forward button on your VCR just in the course of two weeks. It's incredibly fast and with that much money that you would normally see in a six-month campaign being spent in this small, concentrated period of time.

So, you know, at this point, it's tight. Don't have any idea what the result is going to be.

HILL: We won't know, of course, until the voters go to the polls. Were you surprised at all that Darline Graham, that that was her answer in the debate? This was not a niche question. This is a broad question, right, about whether this is a national security issue. Should she have been better prepared?

MCKISSICK: Well, I'm not going to speak to the individual candidates and their preparedness or what they do or don't do in debates. But I will say, though, that all these issues are being looked at by all of our voters. They're taking this very seriously, no doubt about it, again, because this is the first time we've made a choice like this in over 22 years. So, you know, the last two people that held this seat did so for 75 years, for goodness sake. So, we don't do this that often in South Carolina.

I suspect that's why we've seen a slight increase even in early voter turnout versus two weeks ago. Early voting is up, I think, about three and a half percent over what it was two weeks ago. So that speaks to continued interest. You know, the other candidates are out of the race. You only have two now. But their voters aren't out of the race. They're still there. They're up for grabs. And the candidates' job is to be the second choice of all of those other voters that are out there. That's really where we're going to see who can build a winning coalition.

HILL: You know, you talk about turnout being important. It can be especially difficult in a special election, right, to get people to the polls.

MCKISSICK: Absolutely.

HILL: But ultimately, this is incredibly important for Republicans heading into November because this is going to be at the pop top, essentially, of that ticket and could really weigh on those down ballot races.

MCKISSICK: Hundred percent. I mean, look, the top of the ticket, we've got matters and we've got a governor's race that's open this year. And so, what we do at the top of the ticket is going to affect everything all the way down to county council. We've got a great joint victory program that we run every two years here in the state. But making sure that all the candidates are plugged in and they're prepared to do the things that they need to do in terms of fundraising, in terms of messaging, in terms of organization is critical.

HILL: The president, we just had a clip from him there. You know, he was -- as I noted, he was in South Carolina on Friday to stump for Darline Graham. His message there, make this about me, pretend that I am on the ballot. The president's current approval rating is just 36 percent in the CNN poll of polls. Is that really the message that you want for South Carolina Republicans, to go into the voting booth thinking that they're -- that president is on the -- on the ballot there?

MCKISSICK: Well, of course, that's not a poll of South Carolina voters, much less Republican primary voters. That's a little bit different, obviously, as we're looking at things here. But there are a lot of other endorsements out there, too. It's not just the president. That endorsement obviously matters more than the others. But you've got the governor, you've got senators, you've got state House members, state Senate members, sheriffs are endorsing in this race.

And I suspect more than any other race we've ever seen in my lifetime here in the state. You'll see personal endorsements of people that you know matter because on such a quick time frame, people are trying to decide who they should support. They're looking to friends, neighbors, folks who are involved in the Republican Party to help them make those decisions. And I think that's going to have an outsized impact in this race.

HILL: Those are just, of course, coming for multiple candidates, not just for Darline Graham but Ralph Norman as well. The fact that the president is throwing his weight behind her, though, you mentioned it's all the endorsements that matter. The president has now lost 10 races so far in terms of his picks this cycle. Are you concerned he may be losing his touch?

[17:24:59]

MCKISSICK: Well, I mean, look, again, Donald Trump matters, I would say, here in South Carolina more than a lot of other states in terms of his opinion. But at the end of the day, everybody got to make up their own mind and vote. And, again, that's why I say I think you're going to see personal endorsements would be very important. But you also have, you know, sheriffs who are -- sometimes, they outpoll the governor's race here in South Carolina, for goodness sake. Very popular in their areas.

All these things are going to matter because, again, we're working with such a short time frame. We're being asked to make such an incredibly difficult decision, you know, unfortunately, because of Senator Graham's death. But that's where we are and that's what we're going to do.

HILL: Drew McKissick, thanks for joining us this afternoon.

MCKISSICK: Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

HILL: Still to come here, the growing outrage over data centers popping up across the country. The latest community pushing back, actually managed to get their city to cancel a massive project. We'll dig into that.

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[17:30:00]

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HILL: With the midterm elections now just around 75 days away, a surprising issue here is starting to take center stage, and it's the fight against data centers. Politicians from both parties really tapping into the grassroots backlash. We've seen a lot of 180s here on both sides, both Democrats and Republicans switching positions. Not President Trump, though.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If Republicans against the data center, that's OK with me. If I were a community, I would want the data center. It means jobs, it means income, and it means lower taxes. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Rafael Romo is taking a look at how some cities are now fighting back against the construction of data centers, including one small town in Georgia. I mean, we are really seeing such a community effort here.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And people are speaking up, Erica. Data centers have prompted a national debate that has been raging for a while, a debate that is heating up as we approach the midterm election. Here in Georgia, the city of Lovejoy, population 13,000, considered a proposal that would have included a 15 building, 403-acre data center campus that would have been located between two schools and several residential neighborhoods.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: And the type of contamination that comes from a data center.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: The proposal generated such a public outcry that city officials and the developer canceled the data center plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN WORRELL, LOVEJOY, GEORGIA RESIDENT: We don't need something like that within our community right here. Yes, it come across as a very negative thing. I think many people are against it, and I'm one of those people as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENISHA CLEMONS, LOVEJOY, GEORGIA RESIDENT: This is a place to have families grow, not data centers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TINA CORIA, FOUNDER, CONSERVE HENRY: We're not against data centers. We're against data centers in our communities. That's not what we came here for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Lovejoy mayor, Marci Fluellyn, told me that she's happy that consensus was reached on what's best for her residents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MARCI FLUELLYN, CITY OF LOVEJOY, GEORGIA: Accomplished. That's the way I feel. For the residents, they had a chance to have their voices heard, which is very important for such a subject as large as and as important as data centers.

ROMO: When you heard from your residents, what were some of the concerns that they had?

FLUELLYN: The most common concerns that the residents had were the environmental impacts, water consumption, power consumption, air and noise pollution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Erica, a recent Gallup poll showed 71 percent of Americans opposed the construction of data centers in their communities. About a dozen states have proposed data center building moratoriums. New York has recently enacted one. Four other states have taken up similar bills, but they failed to get enacted. In spite of the opposition, Shelly Palmer, a professor of advanced media at Syracuse University, says data centers are here to stay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHELLY PALMER, CEO, PALMER GROUP: The velocity of data is increasing and will always increase. There's no version of the world where there's less data tomorrow than there is today. Every time you pick up your smartphone, every time you sit down at a computer, every time you do practically anything, swipe a credit card, data centers are involved. In order to make data actionable, to turn it into something tangible and valuable, you must process it, and that happens in a data center.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: The United States had more than 5,400 data centers at the end of last year, according to Stanford University's A.I. Index report. That number, Erica, is set to nearly double because data research center Aterio found A.I. companies have announced plans for nearly 4,000 additional data centers. Now, back to you.

HILL: That is a whole lot of data centers. A whole lot of community meetings may be happening as well. Rafael, really appreciate the reporting. Thank you.

Still to come here, Ukraine warning of a new Russian offensive in the years-long war. What we know about Moscow's plans to deploy thousands of additional troops. You're in the "CNN newsroom."

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[17:35:00]

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HILL: Ukraine's president says he believes Russia will start sending 300,000 fresh troops in the coming weeks to the eastern part of Ukraine that it has been fighting to hold. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pledging to wipe out those fighters as he seeks more missile help from Europe and also the U.S. to fight back against Russian attacks. Russia for now is showing few signs it is willing to end this war diplomatically.

CNN producer Sebastian Shukla has more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: President Zelenskyy has said that Russia could be planning to mobilize some 300,000 people following parliamentary elections in mid-September with the aim of still capturing all of Ukraine's Donbass region. The Ukrainian president was speaking to reporters over the weekend and also said he thought Russia was capable of producing 1,300 ballistic missiles a year, roughly a hundred a month, a doubling from their current capabilities. In order to counter those ballistic missile attacks, President Zelenskyy is still hunting for around 300 Patriot missiles to replenish his dwindling stockpiles, but appeared to admit that no agreement seemed imminent.

[17:40:00]

Russia is exploiting this chink in Ukraine's armor and is pounding it with waves of ballistic missiles, causing catastrophic damage. Meanwhile, the fighting and the aerial attacks continue unabated from both sides. And in an apparent widening of the scope of targets to slightly softer ones, including malls and e-commerce facilities, is a potentially dangerous escalation with President Putin saying on Saturday night that Ukraine's attacks on its energy infrastructure has unleashed a Pandora's box.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): We have stepped up our attacks on Ukrainian defense industry enterprises, including those in Kyiv, and have begun to respond to the enemy actions against our civilian industrial and logistics facilities. The Kyiv regime has set out to damage our economy. What has it done? It has opened Pandora's box itself. Well, get an answer about your most sensitive economic sectors which, frankly, are already on their last legs.

SHUKLA: The president added that he saw no serious versions of a peace agreement, calling ideas exotic and unacceptable, and he seems to be showing no signs at the moment of backing down from his maximalist demands or even being open to talking.

We appear to be in a rather fraught phase of the war right now, and rhetoric and actions from both sides seem to show no signs of relenting.

Sebastian Shukla, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Just ahead here, we are tracking another tropical storm barreling straight toward Hawaii. The big island there still recovering from last week's Hurricane Lala. We've got you a live update from Hawaii just ahead. Stay with us. You're in the "CNN newsroom." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:45:00]

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HILL: Just one week after Hurricane Lala tore through parts of Hawaii, the islands are bracing for even more severe weather. Tropical storm Moke now making its closest approach to Hawaii's coast. The heavy rain expected to ramp up on the big island and also Maui this afternoon, and that is threatening to flood many of the same areas that were hit so hard just last weekend.

Mahealani Richardson from our CNN affiliates, KHNL, KGMB, is on the ground there in Ocean View, Hawaii. You're at a community hub for disaster victims who still don't have access to essential items, food, water. I mean, so many people are still reeling, as I'm seeing, full disclosure from my cousin there, in terms of what is needed. What are you seeing today, especially with this other storm approaching?

MAHEALANI RICHARDSON, REPORTER, KHNL/KGMB: Aloha, Erica. You know, you mentioned your cousin. This is about family here, ohana, and that's why people have built this makeshift community hub. You know, there's a church here on this old lava field, and it had service just this morning. People were singing, praising God, and being thankful that they're alive and still together.

You know, many parts of these areas were devastated, as you know, by Hurricane Lala. Nearly two Olympic-sized pools full of water. And then with Tropical Storm Moke, 5 to 10 inches, even 15 inches in some areas, and that is moisture that this area does not need. Now, when you look up at the sky, it is a beautiful day, but people know that the impacts of Tropical Storm Moke could be affecting the southern part of Hawaii Island, where we are at this afternoon and this evening.

Now, I wanted to bring in Maya Auld. She's with Diamend Hope Ministries. Thank you, Maya. Aloha. Tell us what's happening here even though the tropical storm impacts are on its way.

MYYA AULD, HOPE DIAMEND MINISTRIES: So, what's happening here is Hope Diamend Ministries, we got together and just -- this is Hope Diamend Ministries and YWAM, University of Nations. Our meals, we were told a thousand meals was coming today. And last night, they called us and it got canceled.

But nothing stops us. We have the faith to keep going. And we did a few phone calls. We got $2,000 donations anonymously, and that is coming in. We have a team that's out at Costco today that went shopping first thing this morning as soon as they opened up. So, they drove from Ocean View to Kona to go get provisions. They're on their way. We had a family this morning from our church. One of our -- one of our team cooked up a bunch of pans of spaghetti, so they'll have some hot meals there.

So, we have it coming. We have our team. This is our congregation here and some community members, and this is all by faith.

RICHARDSON: And Myya, I know I asked you this earlier, but with the approaching rain, you're going to have to move inside. So, you're racing to work as fast as you can --

AULD: Yes.

RICHARDSON: -- to serve these hot meals --

AULD: Yes.

RICHARDSON: -- before we feel a single drop, right?

AULD: Yes. We're praying that we're going to be covered, and it won't hit us. It's going to go right everywhere else but us, and we're going to get done what we need to get done.

RICHARDSON: Myya Auld, thank you so much, with Diamend Ministries. You know, it's really amazing to see the community spirit here. For folks who don't know, Ocean View is an hour and a half away from Kona. So, these communities are very isolated from first responders and from others. So, it is so important for them to rely on each other when disaster strikes. Back to you.

HILL: Yes. Absolutely. And that is often the silver lining we see in the most difficult moments, the way the communities come together. Mahealani, really good to have you with us this afternoon. Thank you.

[17:49:58]

Still ahead here, it is the countdown to "Fat Marmot Week." What? You didn't have it on your calendar? We are going to fix that for you. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Chances are you've heard of Fat Bear Week. It's definitely a thing these days. But what about "Fat Marmot Week?" If it's not on your calendar, you're in luck, we're catching you just in time because voting kicks off tomorrow to crown the fattest marmot in the Rocky Mountains.

[17:55:00]

All of these is part of a project at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory where researchers are studying these unique little mammals. Marmots typically fatten up for the winter, and then hibernate for several months. But this past winter, the Rocky Mountain area experienced a snow drought, which has had a devastating impact on these animals. There just wasn't enough snowpack to cover their burrows. So, as a result, scientists believe that many of the marmots may have died from the cold.

"Fat Marmot Week" is looking to help spread the word about these amazing little creatures and also raise some money for some important research, research which, like a lot of research, has been hit by federal funding cuts.

Dan Blumstein joining us now. He's the leader of the Marmot Project. It actually first launched back in 1962. So, yes, a little tongue-in- cheek here with "Fat Marmot Week," but there really is an important research component to it. I mean, what does it mean if the marmots, you know, if so many of them did die off? What does that do to the greater ecosystem here?

DAN BLUMSTEIN, PROFESSOR OF ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, UCLA: Populations of these animals go up and down. We've had bigger die- offs, but this is our second biggest die-off. Previously, we've had die-offs because there was too much snow, and they came out and they couldn't start foraging, and they were getting picked off by predators because the land was still snow-covered.

You know, marmots are part of an ecosystem. They provide information to other animals. They give alarm calls. So, if you've been hiking in the mountains or walked a dog too close to a woodchuck, you might hear alarm calls. Other species listen to those.

Where we work in the subalpine area, you know, their impact on vegetation is noticeable right next to the burrows but not farther out. But they also provide food for foxes, coyotes, badgers, things like that.

HILL: Right. I mean, it's all related, as we know, right? So, as I said, I mean, I love the idea of this. It is really fun, but there is, you know, some really important research connected to it here. What has this cut in federal funding? What has that meant for your research?

BLUMSTEIN: Well, we were having problems getting funded before the federal cuts, the current federal cuts to funding. But, you know, this research, long-term studies like this are relatively rare. At the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, people have been having 30-, 40- , 50-, 65-year studies of things.

And this is the second longest study of individually marked mammals in the world, second only to Jane Goodall's study of chimpanzees. Long- term studies give us the ability to understand how organisms, whether they're plants or animals, respond to environmental change. And in an era of, you know, environmental change, understanding that is really important. We've shown that both evolution and plasticity, individuals can be flexible within their lives, but also there are evolutionary changes.

So, the federal cuts are coming three ways. The federal cuts are hitting us directly in the sense that we don't even know how to apply for funding anymore because the sort of stuff we do, long-term research, isn't really being supported that well. The federal cuts are reducing admissions to graduate programs. Our UCLA and my department have been capping the number of graduate students. And graduate students are essential for running this sort of research. And federal cuts are also directly impacting, potentially, the ability of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory to get funding to support undergraduate education programs, which have been a vital form of support for our research program over the years.

HILL: So, now, you're calling on the marmots to do their part, essentially, right? I mean, they are pretty cute. I love the image that we keep showing of this one standing up. But look, a cute animal draws in a lot of people and it can also bring in money. I mean, you've already had -- I think you've created an only -- the team created an OnlyFans account, OnlyFans account called "OnlyMarms, with videos which led to, what, a hundred thousand dollars being raised. I mean, what do we think is going to come of that marmot week?

BLUMSTEIN: It's a little more complex than that. The OnlyFans page, the "OnlyMarms" page raised about $5,000. But the meme coin community started a meme coin and gave us the transaction. And from that, we've raised over $100,000, which will be used to support graduate students to be able to go and do this work.

It's amazing that people are so creative and supportive. Well, look, we started that because we're sort of, you know, stressed out about ongoing funding. But we figured we wouldn't really be making any money from this, but we can raise awareness and have fun in the process.

HILL: Sure.

BLUMSTEIN: We're definitely raising awareness, we're definitely having fun in the process, and educating people about hibernation, about this incredible adaptation that these and some other animals have to survive harsh winters.

HILL: We do have -- I believe we have the brackets that we can show. I mean, you know, you are kind of closely connected to this, so I'm not sure how partisan you can be in this moment. I mean, do you do a bracket? I mean, you got your money on anybody here? Who's your favorite fat marmot?

BLUMSTEIN: Well, I don't gamble. I don't gamble and I'm not going to be voting, but I certainly have my favorites. I spent much of my summer trying to photograph some of them. And I'll say that we finally have caught all of them, so we understand their weights. We're going to do a little bit of science behind this.

[17:59:58]

My students, Emily and Katie, who are making this thing happen, are amazing, and we all just laugh really hard. And, you know, the best thing about being a professor is you get to be surrounded by brilliant young minds, and these guys are both brilliant and we're having a great time doing it.

HILL: It's great. I'm really happy that we can have the discussion about it and introduce more people to "Fat Marmot Week." Dan, really appreciate it. Thank you.

BLUMSTEIN: Please vote and stay tuned for the winners. Thank you for having me.

HILL: Oh, we will definitely stay tuned for the winners. And, of course, if you would like to vote for the fattest marmot, also to support the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab, "Fat Marmot Week" is where you need to go. You'll see the website there. Good luck. May the fattest, cutest marmot win.

Another hour of "CNN Newsroom" starts right now.