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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

United Airlines Takes Precaution in Ebola Case; ISIS Takes Iraqi City of Hit; Hong Kong's Chief Won't Step Down

Aired October 03, 2014 - 05:30   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour this Friday. John Berman has the morning off.

We have breaking news for you this morning: the freelance NBC News cameraman who was diagnosed with Ebola on Wednesday has now been named. He is 33-year-old Ashoka Mukpo. NBC hired him just a day earlier as a second cameraman for the network's medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman. The network is now flying Mukpo, Snyderman, and the whole crew back to the U.S. for quarantine and treatment.

NBC News president Deborah Turness released a statement saying, "We are also taking all possible measures to protect our employees and the general public. The rest of the crew including Dr. Nancy are being closely monitored and show no symptoms or warning signs. However, in an abundance of caution we will fly them back on a private charter flight and then they will place themselves under quarantine in the United States for 21 days, which is at the most conservative end of the spectrum of medical guidance."

In Dallas, health authorities working furiously to prevent an outbreak there. Casting a much wider net this morning. As the number of people they think may have had contact with the first patient diagnosed with the virus in the U.S. swells from just a dozen to about 100. Officials now trying to track all those contacts to check on their health.

Meanwhile, the four people Thomas Eric Duncan was staying with have been ordered by authorities to stay inside that apartment after they violated a voluntary quarantine. Duncan's girlfriend Louise spoke to Anderson Cooper about the instructions she's received from the CDC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUISE, THOMAS DUNCAN'S GIRLFRIEND: Stay home. I need to stay home and monitor my temp. They take my temperature. When they're going to be monitoring all of us. My son should stay home, my nephew, everyone of us should stay home for 21 days. And we should not come outside. If we have to come outside right on the porch but not get down the stairs.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: What did you think when you heard that?

LOUISE: Scary. I was -- I'm scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Inside the apartment, conditions are bleak. Louise says no one brought food on Thursday to the four people who are now barred from leaving it -- leaving that apartment to get it themselves until health officials sent some late in the day. Then there's the soiled clothes and the linens left behind by Duncan. Louise has sealed them in a plastic bag. Authorities scrambling to find a company to disinfect the apartment.

Here is Dallas County's top elected official.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE CLAY JENKINS, DALLAS COUNTY: We have some hygiene issues that we are addressing in that apartment. This is a fluid situation. We have a contractor. There are protocols that have to be followed to clean and to take care of the things that need to be taken care of in there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: It's important to note that no one besides the original patient has shown any signs of Ebola infection. Duncan himself, he is still in serious condition in a Dallas hospital.

Officials in Liberia are now saying that Duncan lied on the exit questionnaire he filled out at the airport when he wrote that he'd had no contact with anyone infected with Ebola. Officials say they will prosecute him for that lie when he returns to Liberia. But Duncan's half brother says he thinks Duncan did not know that a pregnant woman he helped was infected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILFRED SMALLWOOD, EBOLA PATIENT'S HALF BROTHER: According to the story, this women -- this pregnant woman was walking and was falling off. And then he ran to help her. So she can't drop and hurt herself. Nobody knew about Ebola because Ebola I think is in the system. It's not on the body. So I think you run to help the person. That's all, I think all we heard. He didn't know the woman, according to the story.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Dallas Independent School District trying to cope with Ebola fears this morning. Custodians dressed in white Hazmat suits cleaning Lowell Elementary School Wednesday night. One of the four different schools attended by five children who had contacts with Thomas Eric Duncan. The school district says those five children now being homeschooled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUPERINTENDENT MIKE MILES, DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT: We're also enrolled the five students into the home-bound program so that they will get curriculum support and technology support to continue their education.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: United Airlines also taking precautions to address the scare. The airline is reaching out to the nearly 400 passengers who are on the flight with the Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan and they're referring them to the CDC. Duncan traveled on two United flights. One from Brussels to Washington, D.C., then on to Dallas/Fort Worth.

CNN's Rene Marsh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Dulles Airport was the second stop for this Ebola patient traveling from Liberia. We do know that United Airlines, one of the carriers he flew on, they are now voluntarily contacting all of the people who were onboard this man's flight.

There were two United Airlines flights involved here. The airline tells us that both of those planes are thoroughly cleaned. They were thoroughly cleaned with heavy duty disinfectant. We also know that both planes remain in service.

Now there is a third carrier, Brussels Airlines. That carrier brought him from Liberia to Belgium. They say they will continue to fly that route because it's their humanitarian duty as they are carrying medicine, supplies and health care workers to the region -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Rene Marsh, thanks for that.

President Obama promising Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings all the support his city needs to deal with this. He's offering the resources of the Centers for Disease Control to prevent the virus from spreading. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is sending 1400 troops to Liberia this month. A total of 3,000 American soldiers will be stationed to West Africa this fall to fight an outbreak there that has killed well over 3,000 people.

Kurdish fighters claiming a victory in Iraq this morning retaking the town of Rabia on the Syrian border on Thursday with help from coalition airstrikes. Meanwhile, Australia committing special forces troops to advise and assist the Iraqi army in the fight against ISIS. As Australian aircraft now set to join in coalition airstrikes.

CNN's Ben Wedeman live in Baghdad with the latest on the war to stop ISIS this morning.

Good morning, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Well, those are positive developments up on the border between Syria and Iraq, with the Kurdish forces retaking that town of Rabia, which is on the border. And it was previously used by ISIS as sort of an open checkpoint where people were passing back and forth, but they were basically levying taxes on everybody who was traveling through that checkpoint. So that is no more.

Kurdish forces are fully in control of that town. The situation in this part of Iraq, near the capital, not so positive. You have the town of Hit, which has a population of about 70,000, about 100 miles to the northwest of here. That was taken yesterday by ISIS. Using their usual methods. Suicide car bombs, suicide truck bombs, essentially sowing terror among the police and soldiers in that town.

We understand that the black banner of ISIS is now flying over government buildings in Hit. The government forces and allied Sunni militias are on the eastern edge of the town, hoping for reinforcements to retake that city.

Now elsewhere in Iraq in the Diyala Province, which is east of Baghdad, the Iraqi army was able to take a few small villages. However, they yet to -- they have yet to approach the major concentrations of ISIS forces in that area. So a very mixed picture on the ground here in Iraq -- Christine.

ROMANS: A mixed picture in Iraq. Thanks for that, Ben Wedeman.

President Obama will not be appointing a new Secret Service director now until December after a series of high-profile security lapses forced Julia Pierson to resign this week. The White House and officials at Homeland Security say they will -- they will wait for a panel of experts to complete a review of the agency before a candidate is chosen.

Until then, Joseph Clancy takes over as interim director of the Secret Service. He headed up the agency's Presidential Protection Division before leaving the Secret Service in 2011.

More than 80 million JPMorgan accounts have been hacked. So that dwarfs the previous estimates for the massive bank hack earlier this summer. Really big one here. This represents about half of American households, folks. It was disclosed on Securities filing Thursday. The bank says the hackers stole contact information for 76 million households and seven million small businesses.

Its names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, account information like account numbers, passwords and Social Security info, not breached, the bank says, but customers should still be very careful. There is cash, a lot of cash in selling e-mail addresses and other personal information to scammers.

These are just further details of the hack in June that infiltrated seven of the country's largest banks. JPMorgan Chase says so far it hasn't seen any fraud based on this. But this year the company implementing $250 million in cyber security spending to try to fight what is a daily and persistent attempt by hackers to break into the banking system.

Turning to markets now. Stock markets around the world mostly higher. In the U.S., futures are up ahead of the release of the jobs report at 8:30 Eastern Time. We'll bring that to you live on "New Day."

Severe storms pummeling the Midwest, downing trees, flooding streets, canceling hundreds of flights and this is not over. Indra Petersons is tracking what you need to know for your day and your weekend next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Forty-three minutes past the hour. Look at that severe storms beating up a path of destruction across the Midwest and south to Texas. These storms with winds gusts of up to a 90 miles an hour causing widespread damage.

This is in Dallas/Fort Worth. More than 100,000 people lost power, though. The wind, powerful wind causing a brick wall to collapse on to parked cars at the historic Fort Worth stockyard. They'll have to clean it up (INAUDIBLE) there.

Meanwhile, people in the town of Frankfort, Kansas, picking up the pieces after a storm that uprooted trees and severely damage many homes and buildings. The local sheriff is asking people to avoid traveling to Frankfort. They got streets covered with downed trees and power lines. Thankfully no injuries have been reported.

And stormy weather in Chicago. This is a nightmare for travelers. They've had Chicago travel nightmares for a week now and it continues. Heavy rain forcing airlines to cancel 850 flights at both O'Hare and Midway. Officials expect these delays and cancellations, no surprise, it's going to spill into today and it's going to create a major catch- up scenario for airlines throughout the weekend.

Indra Petersons has an EARLY START on your forecast.

They have had trouble in Chicago all week.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's not even winter time yet but of course we know we had the delays from last week and then we had the severe weather that was there yesterday. And today that line of severe storms is still out there. I should say it's the cold front. You're noticing the thunderstorms out there, but no severe weather threat is out there. That doesn't mean you're not going to talking about heavy rain and still some strong winds out there.

You can actually see them where you see the most effects today is going to be around the Ohio Valley. That's where we'll see the heaviest rain.; but anywhere from the upper Midwest to kind of down all the way down the southeast, you're still going to be talking about that threat for showers.

By tomorrow, still talking about those showers, but it looks like the enhanced amounts will be out towards the northeast. But remember it is a cold front. So cold air is spilling in. And talk about a change. Yes, the upper Midwest could be talking about their first real snow flurries of the season. OK, if that's not you, just keep in mind, it doesn't mean there's cold air at play here. Look at the temperature differences. We're talking about 20s already current temperatures out towards Wyoming. But Dallas, not too bad, about 63. Either way, look at the cold pool

of air. This guy is making its way east. So will start affecting many of you. Look at the temperatures now going below normal behind the cold front. So this is that cold front that continues off to the northeast by the weekend. So look at this temperature drop. We're talking about Chicago highs, yes, highs into the 40s by just tomorrow into the northeast, will go down to the low 60s. But that is like 20 to 25 degree temperature difference from just last weekend.

Those morning lows, that's where you're going to feel the real chill. If you get up early like we do, you're going to feel it. You're going to be seeing some 30s and 40s.

ROMANS: Insult to injury. You get up early and it's cold.

PETERSONS: And you just shiver. Just miserable.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: Well, on that happy note, Indra Petersons.

PETERSONS: Totally.

ROMANS: Thank you.

PETERSONS: Yes.

ROMANS: Our meteorologist from L.A.

PETERSONS: Right.

ROMANS: Who's lamenting the fall in the northeast. Thank you, Indra.

Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY." Chris Cuomo joins us now.

Hey, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: Christine, it is good to see you. I believe that collectively we must breathe in, we must breathe out.

ROMANS: Yes.

CUOMO: Realize we'd made it to Friday. There is a lot of fear in the air. So much so that we're not even really talking about the war right now because there is such acute fear at home about what's going on with Ebola. So we're going to take that on.

There are developments to talk to you about. The case in Hawaii. Does that patient have Ebola or mot? We're going to follow-up on that.

And then what's being done in Texas right now? Yes, the hospital had a problem down there, it's blaming it on software. We're going to really unpack that this morning and test what's being said and what should be done. Because remember, if you don't own what went wrong, you will not do it better the next time. And that's the consideration here.

More news on Ebola is that an NBC freelance cameraman who's covering the outbreak or was in Liberia has been diagnosed. You're looking at him there. It's a reminder that there's a lot of media and people down there putting themselves at risk to help all those who are ill.

We're going to speak with the chief for Centers for Disease Control. OK. This is the man, Dr. Frieden, who's really at the center of what we're doing here in the U.S. to help contain this virus. What's going on with the NBC cameraman and the people who are down there with him? What's going on with the Texas man? How are they going to do better going forward, OK?

And we want to talk to you about another enormous cyber security breach as well. 83, 8-3 million JPMorgan Chase accounts compromised. What did they get? What do you need to know? How did they do it? Is there going to be ever any way to stop this stuff?

Christine Romans, as I bring it back to you, of course, we'll take it from you at the top of the hour.

ROMANS: Yes.

CUOMO: I must say, you look great alone.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: I believe that on a regular basis, there is something, I can't put my finger on it, what distracts from you generally. I don't know what it is.

ROMANS: John Berman.

CUOMO: But I just want to tell you what he said to me this morning.

ROMANS: What did he say?

CUOMO: Just to tell you of what you have to deal with. He looks at me right before I go on with you, Christine, and he says, quick, you have lipstick on your teeth. And I, like the true vanilla gorilla that I am, take something and wipe my teeth. Buying in to what was only done to undermine me.

ROMANS: His humor is so subversive and I always wonder, you know, what is he thinking that he's not saying? That's what's probably really funny, right, Berman?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Sometimes.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: Sometimes.

CUOMO: I don't know what bothers me more. How cute he is? How much smarter he is than I am or that he makes me laugh at myself, at my own expense? ROMANS: My producers are freaking out.

Chris Cuomo and John Berman, we're going to talk to you in just a minute. Thanks, guys.

CUOMO: Happy Friday.

ROMANS: Happy Friday to you, too.

Let's get back to news, shall we?

Hong Kong's leader refusing to resign. But the city is having new dialogue with protesters. Could a compromise be on the way? We are live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Turning now to the pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's chief executive saying his government is open to talking with the activists, but he made it clear he has no intention of quitting.

Our Will Ripley is in Hong Kong, in the thick of it for us.

Good morning, Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Christine, yes. Things are really -- the tensions are escalating here. I want show you what's unfolding right before us here. The police came and tried to take down this barricade because they wanted to get supplies, food and water into the officers there. They actually took some of these barricades and put them over there. Protesters then came back, tied these ties and put the barricades back in place.

There are also clashes happening around the city right now in the Mongkok neighborhood. The working class area of Hong Kong, where protesters who are against the occupy movement have been shouting and pushing protesters who are here in support of the movement. So the crowds are diminishing, but the tensions are rising and the city is saying, Christine, that there is a new element to the protests.

In addition to the peaceful students, there are also people who they believe are looking to cause conflict, to provoke the police, to take this even further. But I have to point out, a lot of the students are pushing back against that small faction, telling them that they are here to keep the peace. They're trying not to see the situation escalate but it certainly is becoming more and more unstable by the hour. This as that meeting is scheduled to happen between the chief executive's deputy and the students.

We'll see what comes of that and we'll keep following it -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Yes, you will. Thank you so much, Will Ripley for us this morning in Hong Kong.

Fifty-three minutes past the hour. Payday loans online. New reasons not to do it. An EARLY START on your money next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Let's get an EARLY START on your money this Friday morning.

Stock futures higher after a pretty wild market swing yesterday before it finished essentially where it began. Attention today on the jobs report that comes at 8:30 Eastern. We'll have that live for you on "NEW DAY." Analysts expect a rebound in hiring after a weak number in August. Economists predict 215,000 jobs created in September. That will be better than the 142,000 in August. The jobless rate likely stayed unchanged at 6.1 percent.

We'll know for sure at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

All right. Payday loans have never had a good reputation. And you know what? Online that reputation is even worse. Payday loans are small loans with super high fees. And a new study by Pew Charitable Trust found that online lenders are more likely to use abusive tactics and put customers into debt. They also charge higher fees for borrowing.

Look at this. Rates are as high as 700 percent. That's versus the already way too high of 300 percent for in-store loans. Online lenders only make up about a third of the market, but guess what, they're subject to nine out of 10 complaints given to the Better Business Bureau.

Fifty-eight minutes past the hour, "NEW DAY" starts right now.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, another American infected with Ebola. This time, a freelance cameraman working in Liberia will now fly back to the U.S. for treatment. This as officials try to track down as many as 100 people now who may have been affected by the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. And new questions, as well. Did that man lie to get into the U.S.?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Stepping up the fight. The United States now sending hundreds of more troops to fight Ebola in West Africa with fears growing here in the U.S. Why isn't there more help and why aren't other nations sending in reinforcements?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, another huge security breach and it could be the biggest in history. The accounts of 76 million households, seven million small businesses compromised in a cyber attack. So should you be worried?

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY starts right now.