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Republicans To Gather For Midterm Convention This Week; Former Cuban President Raul Castro Reappears At A Military Event; CNN On The Ground In Tibet After Massive Flash Floods; Trump Issues Executive Order in Effort to Strip Protections From Mexican Gray Wolves; W.H.O.: Ebola Outbreak Is Outpacing Efforts To Contain It. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 07, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:31:12]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York and we are less than two months away from election day and campaigning is kicking into high gear right now. In just a few days, a special midterm edition of the Republican National Convention is set to take place in the state of Texas.

Speakers will include President Trump himself and other top party leadership, as well as elected officials and others who are hoping to be elected into a seat of Congress where the president has touted the convention as just what the party needs to reenergize voters ahead of the midterms.

But they'll need some full party support to keep their majority in Congress and continue pursuing the president's agenda. Organizers are making clear that the event is all about the president and putting the spotlight on him.

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JOE GRUTERS, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION CHAIRMAN: It's going to be a Trumpapalooza. It's going to be an amazing opportunity for us to basically go out there and tell the American people all the great things this president has done and all the great things that we're going to continue to do over the final two years of his administration.

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SANDOVAL: Well, not everyone thinks that in the party thinks that Trumpapalooza is a good idea. Some fear that it may promote the presidents more than candidates actually on ballots across the country. And other critics have noted the extravagant budget as well as other major events that are happening at the same time, such as the start of the NFL season and of course, the September 11th commemorations.

Former Cuban President Raul Castro, brother of revolutionary leader Fidel, is dispelling rumors of his death. The 95-year-old making this public appearance on Sunday, Saturday during a ceremony for the security agency that protects top political leaders in Cuba. Castro was accompanied by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and other members of the armed forces.

The appearance came after several reports that Castro was in poor health. Cubans have been forced to come up with several new ways to adapt to an ever worsening energy crisis on the island, which was sparked by the U.S. imposed oil blockade. But could any of this have been avoided?

CNN's Juan Carlos Lopez takes a closer look at the collapse of Cuba's nuclear ambitions.

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JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Blackouts aren't new to Cuba. They've been a part of life since at least the 1980s, although not at the scale of the current crisis triggered by the Trump administration's ban on the sale of oil to the Cuban government.

In 1982, Fidel Castro made a bo (ph) move. The nuclear plant at Juragua would be the first step of a plant to wean the island off oil with the help of the Soviet Union, which would build and finance the project.

Driving down the coast, we spot the concrete giant. Long abandoned, it was once expected to provide at least 15 percent of the island's electricity needs.

LOPEZ: Now that was back at the end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s. It wasn't the best moment for this type of project so close to the United States. A project that took too long, cost too much, and at the end ended up just being what it is today, just ruins.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Cuban premier Fidel Castro in Russia for a visit with Big Brother.

LOPEZ (voice-over): That's because Havana bet everything on being in the Soviet Union's sphere of influence during the Cold War and on Moscow's assistance for ambitious projects like the Juragua power plant, which sat under 200 miles from the Florida Keys and sent Washington into a tailspin over national security, even though the Turkey Point nuclear plant in Homestead, Florida had been operating 200 miles from Havana since 1972.

[04:35:10]

NICHOLAS BURNS, THEN-U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: We've had long standing concerns about the quality of the plant's construction and about Cuba's ability to operate it safely.

LOPEZ (voice-over): Fears of an accident stemmed largely from the world's worst nuclear disaster, in Chernobyl in 1986. But the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that same year to Congress that even though they had reservations about the project, Juragua resembled Western nuclear plants and was not considered a threat.

In the end, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Havana came up dry and this now eerie monolith was left unfinished.

This is Ciudad Nuclear, built to house the plant's workers. That's where I meet Luis Vargas, an electrician who was involved in the project.

What do you feel when you see the structure? I asked him. I don't know, Luis says. I feel a deep sorrow inside because many things were ruined. It's a shame that it ended up this way because unfortunately, millions were invested and we weren't able to finish it.

Francisco Perez, who also worked at the plant, remembers when Fidel Castro came to tell them it was over. He told us the truth, Francisco tells me. He explained the situation, the problem they faced, and that they had to shut the plant down.

Juragua was the first of three nuclear plants that would help Cuba overcome a monumental challenge the island faces to this day, a growing demand for electricity and a lack of capacity to produce it. This fading sign in Russian and in Spanish reads, may the atom be a worker and not a soldier. In Juragua, it was neither. Juan Carlos Lopez, CNN, Juragua, Cuba.

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SANDOVAL: It's nearly two weeks now since catastrophic flash floods swept through the Nepal-China border region, killing more than 1,300 people. And more than 5,000 others are still missing at this hour. CNN's Simone McCarthy saw firsthand some of the devastation in the border area as part of a rare trip. It was organized by the Chinese government. But we want to clarify that CNN still has full editorial control over the coverage in this report.

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SIMONE MCCARTHY, CNN SENIOR CHINA REPORTER: So we're walking into the main hard hit port area now. I mean, even just some of the ground here is incredibly unstable. It's like it feels like it's almost hollow underneath. You can see there's quite large rocks here.

There's also excellent excavation going on behind us. A number of workers are actively in the midst of some of the response and repairs here. We've been told as well as we were walking over that. There are the risk of loose rocks.

I'm standing in the location that was once a five story border checkpoint. This used to be a bustling hub of transit between Nepal and China with travelers, travel agents, people involved in trade coming over that border, moving through what was once a huge building here. This is the spot where a huge wall of water washed over a five story building.

In video that was captured on surveillance footage on August 26 when devastating floods and landslide hit the China Nepal border. I'm standing now in the area where that building was. This is Gyirong Port in Tibet where CNN is part of a small group of foreign reporters who've been given access to this site. The first time that foreign media have been allowed entry. And now to see what the impact of that was here, where there's just, I mean, you would never know that there had been anything here at all. There's actually a sign which is indicating that this was a foundation. You can still see some rebar, but that's really the only thing that remains.

There have been no survivors found in this location. And right now the rescue teams are just contending with this heavy, heavy mud. The road that we took to get in here was actually layered in some places with five feet of mud. It took the better part of a week for emergency workers to be able to enter via road.

One of the other things that we can notice is that the floodwaters actually reach so high up onto the mountain. You can see some of the greenery has actually been scraped away there as a result of just how high those floodwaters came as they barreled through this area. We asked one of the responders how long he thought the operations would continue and he wasn't able to give an answer.

They've put up a Chinese flag to memorialize west what was here, but there's just absolutely nothing left.

[04:40:00]

This area has also been a focal point for families who are desperate for information about what happened to loved ones that they believe were at this border crossing at the time when that landslide and flooding hit this area. They're still waiting for answers. The government has yet to publish publicly a list of who was at the border crossing at the time. Families are really desperate for more information about what happened here, and looking around, you can see that there's no answers immediately visible. Simone McCarthy, CNN, Gyirong Port.

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SANDOVAL: An explosion at a church in central Mexico has killed at least 10 people and injured more than 60. The blast happened in the church atrium as worshippers were gathering for evening mass. Authorities say that the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, but the fireworks were being prepared for display at the time.

One witness describes the moment the celebrations turned to panic, saying the event turned into chaos as people trampled over one another trying to escape. And there's so much more on the way here on CNN Newsroom, including another controversial executive order from the White House, this time targeting these wolves and their federal protections as an endangered spirit species. We'll get some expert insights into the possible implications of that order.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANDOVAL: President Trump moving to potentially roll back federal protections for wolves, part of a broader push to support American ranchers and beef production. He signed an executive order on Friday that gives the Interior Secretary 90 days to determine whether gray wolves and Mexican wolves should be removed from the endangered species list.

The administration says that the rollback would give ranchers more latitude to kill wolves that threaten their livestock.

[04:45:05]

For more on this, we're joined now by Michael Robinson. He's a senior conservation associate at the Center for Biological Diversity and he's also the author of Predatory the Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the West. Michael, it's a pleasure to see you. Thank you for taking the time.

MICHAEL ROBINSON, SENIOR CONSERVATION ASSOCIATE, CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: Thank you for your interest in the plight of the gray wolf and the Mexican gray wolf.

SANDOVAL: So as you know, President Trump's order is really just the latest attempt from Washington to remove federal protections for gray wolves. The argument is that as a species, the gray wolves have recovered enough to allow them to be delisted as an endangered species.

Do you expect this latest effort to eventually be successful?

ROBINSON: It's not going to be successful. Just like the previous efforts have not been successful. Over and over again, courts of law have found that taking gray wolves off of the endangered species list before they fully recovered is just flatly a violation of the law. We're prepared to go to court again for the gray wolf and also for the more imperiled Mexican gray wolf, which is also covered by this order.

SANDOVAL: Michael, where do efforts to bring back this species stand?

ROBINSON: Gray wolves were reintroduced into the northern Rocky Mountains in 1995, and they've slowly grown since and they've expanded their distribution. And then just the last couple of years, we've had a reintroduction to Colorado as well. Mexican gray wolves, a smaller, more imperiled subspecies, were reintroduced in 1998 to the southwestern United States. And there's just about 317 of them at last count, and low genetic diversity.

This order to begin the process to potentially take the wolves off of the endangered species list does not take into effect immediately. Wolves are still protected now, but we're very worried about the onslaught to come and we're prepared to go to court to fight it.

SANDOVAL: And so is the concern, in your view that, you know, if, for example, ranchers or anybody else would be allowed to kill these endangered species, that they -- that could potentially reverse what is decades of progress that's been made by putting them on the list as an endangered species?

ROBINSON: Yes. There's a scant few thousand gray wolves throughout the United States, including just three hundred and seventeen Mexican gray wolves. They're very vulnerable. They were exterminated once hundred years ago.

It could happen again. And the livestock industry, the public lands livestock industry that gets so much public assistance and dominates the public lands just doesn't want to share. They're not willing to have a balance on the public lands. That's what the wolves bring. And it's important to save them. It's also important to save their entire ecosystems that they're such critical members of.

SANDOVAL: We have seen some support for President Trump's recent order, including from his fellow Republican from Congressman Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin. He essentially argues that residents can responsibly manage their wolf population. He writes in part, the gray wolf has recovered and the impacts are being felt across rural communities. In Wisconsin, farmers are dealing with livestock depredations, families are losing pets, and wolves are showing up closer to homes.

Of course, Tiffany not only running for governor, but his state is home to a recovering gray wolf population.

In your view, Michael, I mean, is there a balance that can be struck that would allow ranchers the opportunity to defend their herds or their livestock, even with lethal means, while at the same time guaranteeing the survival of this species?

ROBINSON: The sad fact is that even now, while the wolves are protected, there's loopholes that allow excessive killing of wolves, often in circumstances that are entirely unjustified. And the federal government has been opening the floodgates for killing wolves even as is. And if they succeed, which they won't, but if they were to succeed in removing gray wolves and Mexican gray wolves from the endangered species list, there'd be no stopping the killers at all.

The livestock industry would just would go after them, and I believe they would go after them until they get the very last one. And that was their aim 100 years ago. And I have no doubt they would try and do it again.

SANDOVAL: Of course, the Department of Interior now beginning that review should last about three months, we're told, so we'll certainly follow it. We know you'll be watching it closely as well. It's an important conversation to have with the future of this species at stake. Michael Robinson, a pleasure. Thank you for your time.

ROBINSON: Thank you, Polo. I appreciate it.

[04:50:02]

SANDOVAL: And there's still much more ahead here on CNN Newsroom. An Ebola outbreak in Africa outpacing health officials' efforts to contain it. After the break, the unexpected tool that they're now using to try to stay ahead of the spread. Stay with us.

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SANDOVAL: The World Health Organization is warning that the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Africa is now outpacing efforts to contain it. Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo are now turning to new tools to try to help them track the spread of the deadly virus. Here's CNN's Jacqueline Howard with more.

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JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER (voice-over): More than 3,000 people have now died from the fast spreading Ebola outbreak, according to health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and they've confirmed over 6,000 cases. The world Health Organization warns the outbreak is outpacing the response.

DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, W.H.O. DIRECTOR-GENERAL: The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is already the second largest on record and the fastest moving that we have ever seen.

HOWARD (voice-over): W.H.O. also says the majority of deaths are happening in small communities rather than in official treatment centers, leading to unsafe burials and unknown chains of transmission that continue to spread.

[04:55:10]

Health officials in the region are turning to a never before used method in an Ebola response, tracking mobile phone data to map population movements and predict where cases may emerge. In an interview with Reuters, Swedish nonprofit Flowminder said it is using anonymized cellular records provided by the DRC's largest operator to identify virus hotspots and track travel from those regions.

GHEBREYESUS: Until every chain is found and broken, the epidemic will continue and will continue to pose a threat to DRC, its neighbors and the region as a whole.

HOWARD (voice-over): This outbreak is caused by the Bundi Bujo Ebola strain, which has no approved vaccine or treatment. But the government is testing Ervebo, an approved vaccine for a different strain of Ebola in the hopes that it could provide some protection.

SALATIEL WAYLEE, HEAD OF VACCINATION IN KISANGANI: We believe the Ervobo vaccine can also help protect against other variants because it provides cross immunity.

HOWARD (voice-over): School has resumed in some of the affected provinces and teachers say they are teaching students about how to stay healthy and encouraging anyone to get vaccine if one becomes available.

DESIRE BUYANA, PRESIDENT, RISK COMMNICATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT (CREC) (through translator): If there's a vaccine today, the teachers, the children, all will be engaged to mobilize the parents, mobilize the health system so that everyone is vaccinated in order to slow down the spread of this disease.

HOWARD (voice-over): Jacqueline Howard, CNN.

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SANDOVAL: Thank you so much for watching. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Our live coverage continues with CNN Headline Express in a moment.

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